It's Just Emotion Taking Me Over

So the road trip went well.  I packed good snacks and made good choices when I stopped to eat meals-including only HALF of Wendy's Baja Salad, with no tortilla strips (390 calories), and Starbucks Perfect Oatmeal with dried fruit (only added 240 calories).  Today I had planed to post about emotional eating. Since Alex is all moved to UCLA I expected to be drowning in cookie dough and empty pints of Ben and Jerry’s New York Super Fudge Chunk. It’s been three nights since I left him and I’ve had no major slips off the good nutrition wagon. I miss him a lot! Don’t get me wrong, I feel like half my heart is in Los Angeles, but for once in my life I’m not turning to food for coping.

Emotional eating is simply eating when not physically hungry. It can be trigger by stress, anger, anxiety, problems with interpersonal relationships, poor self-esteem and even boredom.  How many times have you found yourself staring into the refrigerator, not all that hungry, but still pick up something to munch on? How many stressful days have ended with a big helping of chocolate ice cream? Have you ever been in a situation where there was food around like chips or popcorn at the movies, you’re not hungry but you can’t put the popcorn down? These are all examples of emotional eating. Identifying your triggers is the first step to cutting down on emotional eating, I say cutting down because, while not the healthiest of options, sometimes I just need a little chocolate to get me through the rest of the day. The two biggest triggers for me are stress and boredom.

Once you have identified what triggers you it’s important to develop alternatives to stuffing your face with food. For me, reading has really helped curtail my eating out of pure boredom, or a nice hot bubble bath after a hard day.  Other ideas are  listen to music, go for a walk, go swimming, play cards or a board game, Call a friend, do housework,  write a letter, or do any other pleasurable or necessary activity until the urge to eat passes. Find what works for you and when your headed to the fridge or pantry ask yourself if you're really hungry?