Emotional Eating

There is more to losing weight than just dieting. If it were then we'd all be thin. There are so many diets to choose from, but if you read my article Popular Diets 8/11/12, you will see that dieting actually has many negative effects.

In my case, I found that when I am contemplating going on a diet I end up eating more before the diet. Like if it were my "Last Supper". While on the diet I develop an obsession with food. But when I am not on a diet, I eat normally.

For emotional eaters, dieting can make things worse. Because of this and for many other reasons, which I have written about in several articles, I now refuse to go on a diet.

These are the steps I take which have helped me reduce my emotional eating even during my most challenging times and as a result I have lost weight in a natural and easy way. No fuss, no risking my health and no spending ridiculous amount of money on diets.

• The first step with emotional eating is to ask yourself if you are really hungry or are you feeling a certain way that is causing you to want to eat something when you are not hungry.
• Be more aware and mindful while eating. I now practice not eating while being distracted such as with the TV or reading something. When you are doing something else while eating, you don't pay attention when you are full and end you up eating more than you should. Plus you don't savor your food and when you are done, you have a feeling of being unsatisfied.
• Learn better ways to soothe and release your emotions. I have written many articles on just how to do that. One of the articles is called Writing to Release Negative Emotions 10/04/12. 
• Stop the negative chatter about your body. I still have some perfectionism in me and I could be somewhat critical about my weight. But I remind myself that I am doing things in a more loving way. This has helped me not to eat when I am not hungry.Before, when I felt bad about how I looked, I use to end up eating more to suppress how I felt. It's silly, but I know many other people who do this as well. You feel bad because you are overweight, but you eat to suppress the feeling which only makes things worse.

I have lost weight following the above guidelines and my relationship with food has changed tremendously. I have learned many methods to process my emotions which do not involve food. But I also realized how different my behavior was in the past when I was around food. I especially saw this when I was at a party with lots of food and I naturally stopped eating once I was full. Normally I'd overeat at parties. I use to think I did this because I just loved food. But now I know it was to soothe my anxiety and insecurities.

If you would like some more tips on losing weight the healthy way, please contact me at carbajalzulma@gmail.com