Emotional Eating…Is this you?

If you are following the hunger scale, and only eating when you actually feel physical hunger then you are noticing something….you reach for food way more often than you need to. When I truly started eating because I was hungry, it led me to ask myself A LOT more questions. Every time I found myself reaching for a snack I would ask, “Am I physically hungry?” If the answer was no, then I would ask, “What am I thinking about right now that is making me reach for food?”

NOT ME!

I really like food! That is why I snacked so much and ate food that may not be the best for me. I knew that many people ate for emotional reasons, but that was not me. I didn’t eat based on my emotions. I ate because I liked whatever food I was eating, and I just wanted to eat it.

Then I learned…

Once I really started focusing on the hunger scale, I made a HUGE discovery. The key was to not
only ask myself if I was physically hungry. I had to follow it up with that second question. If I wasn’t actually hungry then why was I reaching for food? I began to start analyzing what I was thinking about when I got the urge to eat.

Everything changed…

I was floored by what I realized. Almost every single time I went to eat, but wasn’t actually hungry, I was thinking about something that made me uncomfortable. It could have been an upcoming trip, a discussion I had with a family member, something I was concerned about with my kids, a disagreement with someone, work, etc. These weren’t earth shattering thoughts. They weren’t even thoughts I would have realized I was having if I didn’t force myself to recognize them before I shoved those chips in my mouth.

Shocked…

I was shocked to realize that I, in fact, was an emotional eater. And I believe we all are to some extent. We don’t even take the time to realize we have thoughts before we eat. We just get this feeling inside and we reach for food to hide it. So before we actually understand the thoughts we are having, we eat. Next time we will dive into other reasons we eat. But I challenge all of you to test this theory out. Every time you go to eat something ask yourself if you are feeling physical hunger. Comment with what you find. I think you will be as shocked as I was!

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