Healthy Lunch Recipes



Emotional eating is a big issue for a lot of people. This is when people eat because they don’t want to face their feelings, so they numb out any pains with food. The more they eat the less pain, fear, stress, etc, they feel.  Eating becomes a pain killer and since it feels good they’ll eat until we cant feel anything no more.

There are situations and emotions that can trigger emotional eating:

• Emotional – We eat because we are bored, tired, tense, mad, lonely, stressed, or anxious. Food helps all these feeling go away.
• Thoughts – This can be caused when some one feels bad about themselves. When we have negative thought; negative self worth or scolding oneself for their appearance.
• Social – When we eat at parties or events there is a lot of food so we are somewhat encouraged to eat.
• Situational – When we see food commercials, news ads, or when we walk by a fast food place something triggers our mind to think we are hungry. Anything having to do with food can trigger that thought.
• Physiological – Eating because of physical cues ie. more hunger due to skipping meals, eating to cure a headache or other pains.

Identifying the triggers was the first step now you have to break the habit. Think of other things to do besides eating.

• Read a book to distract your thought of hunger.
• Take a bath to relax and just take a breather from life.
• Talk to a friend so you don’t feel lonely.
• Write a letter to yourself.

Try anything you can to distract yourself until you are not hungry any more. If distraction doesn’t work then try some relaxation exercises or meditation. If you try everything and nothing wants to work try getting help from a group or counseling. These will help you address emotional eating and teach you to cope in more effective healthier ways.

As you learn how to cope with why you emotionally eat make sure you reward yourself. Buy some clothes, go on a small vacation, get a message, do something special for yourself. By giving yourself rewards this will increase your self esteem and you will be more likely to keep doing you best.

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