Journaling To Combat Emotional Eating

Today, I’m here to talk about one thing that I know many of you struggle with from time to time and may need help getting over.

That thing?

Emotional eating.

Emotional eating gets the best of us. Let’s face it, almost every single one of us has gone through a period of emotional eating. It happens, often without us even realizing it. One minute we’re feeling upset, stressed, anxious, angry, or some other powerful emotion, and the next minute we’re eating something. It may even seem like human nature to put food into your mouth when you are feeling some degree of emotional instability.

But does this mean it’s right? No. Sadly this is a learned trait and doesn’t really serve any purpose in your life. You aren’t getting nourishment from emotional eating (often, you do not need the energy and the foods you are eating are not exactly what you’d call nutrient dense), and what’s worse is that each time you eat for emotional reasons, it only serves to strengthen the connection in your brain that’s making you want to continue doing it.

So, what does all this mean for you?

Usually, it spells weight gain, feelings of low self-esteem and lack of control, and it may also lead to a greater risk for diseases such as diabetes and cancer, both of which are connected to being overweight.

Clearly, this is something you have to get control over.

But most people simply do not know how to stop it. They don’t have the knowledge or motivation to get past emotional eating. Instead, they keep eating and eating, stuffing those feelings with food.

One technique I strongly recommend you consider that will help you get past this emotional eating is journaling.

What you need to do is physically write down exactly what you are feeling before you turn to food and then after you turn to food.

Think long and hard about what to write. Don’t just write at a surface level here. You might be tempted to write that you’re stressed so you want a chocolate brownie. While that’s good, it’s not really getting to the bottom of anything.

What are you stressed about? And more importantly, why are you stressed? What type of feeling is that stress giving you? Do you feel empty? Scared? Do you get a hollow feeling in your stomach?

The more you can identify exactly what is going on in your body, the more powerful you’ll feel to combat it.

You need to really get to know exactly what is taking place in your body in order to be able to see the ‘big picture’. Once you do that, you stand a much better chance of going on and gaining control over your emotional eating tendencies

As you start this practice, you might find that you become very surprised by what you write down. You could also write down why you are turning to the foods you are eating.

For instance, why do you reach for pasta with cheese every time you feel sad? Is it because back when you were a young child, your parents used this meal to help cheer you up after a bad day? Perhaps every time you were sad, they cooked this for you to help brighten your day? Now you associate pasta and cheese with feeling better.

Recognizing these connections is the very first step to getting them under control. Once you understand where they are coming from, you’ll be in a much better place to manage them.

So, don’t let emotional eating get the best of you any longer. You now posses a new technique that you can use to motivate yourself and get power over this problem that nearly everyone faces at some point or another.

While emotional eating every now and then isn’t an issue, if you are eating for reasons other than hunger multiple times per week, you can bet your body is going to show the effects of this.