Something upset me today. I was very tired and a little stressed and I guess I reacted out of all proportion to what actually happened, to the point where I started to tear up a bit when I related the incident to a colleague. And on the train. Then I had a big gasping crying fit in the car on the way home and sobbed for about half an hour after I got in the door.
Usually, especially on a friday or weekend, this would lead to a serious emotional eating binge. Especially since I didn’t have my dinner ingredients in the fridge and had to go to the shops. I recognised the signs as I was leaving work. I really wanted to stop for some chips before I got on the train. The exciting thing for me about this was that I actually did recognise it, and was able to head it off. I’m not sure if I’ve ever done that before.
The thing is, there’s always going to be bad days. That is life. Naturally slim people don’t self-medicate with a party size bags of crisps when they have a bad day, they accept that they’re having a bad day, deal with their emotions and move on. But when you’ve fallen into a habit of making yourself feel better with food, you have to learn those coping strategies, practice them and re-inforce them regularly. But when you’re already feeling sad is too late to figure things out, you need to have startegies developed while you’re calm and clear headed, ready to go automatically.
A lot of things went through my head today as I argued myself out of eating my bodyweight in saturated fats. I’m quite proud of myself that I managed to apply a number of the strategies I’ve been thinking about for exactly this situation. So for what it’s worth, and bearing in mind that I’m still figuring this out myself, Here is ….
MY GUIDE TO PREVENTING EMOTIONAL EATING
Step 1 - Recognise the signs
The problem with a lot of emotional eating is that most of the time, the chocolate bar is already gone and you’re licking the wrapper before you even realise that you’re in danger. And at that point the floodgates are open and it’s really hard to stop. So it’s important to recognise the signs of emotional eating before it starts. For this to happen, you need to put some serious thought into it now, or at another time while your mind is clear and calm. A few things that you can do ahead of time to help you recognise the signs when they’re about to happen include:
- Have a plan. If you have planned what you’re going to eat for the day, anything that’s not on the list should start ringing alarm bells.
- Know your moods. Think about any binges that you’ve had lately. When did they occur? Where were you? What were you doing? How did you feel? Figure out any patterns, and write a list of situations where you know that you are vulnerable.
- Become concious of your eating. Try to make a habit of always sitting down whan you eat, preferably at a table. Focus on every bite that you eat, the texture, taste, smell, how it makes you feel. Try to eliminate mindless eating.
Today I recognised that things were going bad when I was heading towards the Red Rooster for a small chips before I got on the train. I recognised it because it wasn’t on my plan,and besides, I was on the lookout because I’d been reading about emotional eating on the Calorieking.com.au forums this week, and thinking how much that applied to me.
Step 2 - Analyse the problem
Why are you about to pig out? Use the acronym H.A.L.T - Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired. Realise that want to eat, not because you are hungry but because you feel bad, and you want the temporary mood boost from the pleasant taste to make you feel better. Again, for this to happen automatically, you need to be prepared beforehand. The next few times that you eat, run through HALT in your mind, until you’re confident you’ll remember it when it’s crunch time.
Step 3 - Turn it around
Do you know what makes you happy? Can you think of one thing? Start paying attention in your day to day life to your moods, so you can recognise when you’re happy and why. When the urge to emotional eat strikes, it’s important to have strategies in place that are personal to you and will work for you. Remember that list of situations you wrote? Go back and consider strategies for all of those that might work for you. Some strategies might include
- Reminding yourself that this feeling will pass, and so will the desire to stuff yourself. Remember that the better you get at this, the easier it will be, so work on strengthening that resistance muscle.
- Having a good cry.
- Going for a walk.
- Calling a friend or family member.
- Buying a small (non-food) treat for yourself - I like books. Today I bought “Don’t sweat the small stuff, It’s all small stuff.” I also bought a pretty bookmark with pictures of Frangipanis on it and a swishy tassel. It made me feel better. Swishy is good
- Think about your goals and progress.
- Recite any catchphrases that work for you. When you’re reading weightloss or motivational books remember to write these down and memorise them. Make a recording of your voice reciting to them and listen to it each day if you like. I like “It won’t make me happy, it will only make me heavy”.
- Take deep breaths and do any relaxation or meditation exercises that work for you.
- Write a blog post about avoiding emotional eating. That one seems to work.
Learn from failure
Maybe you didn’t recognise the signs until after you’d consumed a whole loaf of bread with a jar of peanut butter. Maybe you did, but the internal dialogue didn’t run to plan and now you feel like a solid brick anyway.
Don’t beat yourself up. This is going to take trial and error and lots of practice before it is easy and automatic. It might help to keep a notebook to keep track of when you had trouble and to write down any strategies you come up with.
Good Luck, to you and to me!
