Do you often feel like you want to eat something tasty when something upsets or stresses you out?
Can't resist eating sweets or fatty foods when you're sad or bored?
Do you find yourself eating a whole pack of cookies or a cake when someone has offended or made you angry?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you have a problem with emotional eating. This means that you are trying to numb your negative emotions with food rather than actually addressing them.
Emotional overeating is one of the most common causes of excess weight and obesity. It is also harmful to your physical and mental health. Not only do you gain extra pounds, but you also increase your stress, guilt, and dissatisfaction with yourself. You get into a vicious circle: the more you eat, the worse you feel, and the worse you feel, the more you eat.
How can you stop stress eating and get rid of emotional overeating?
There are ways to help you cope with this problem and establish a healthy attitude towards food and yourself. They were revealed by the famous psychologist of the clinic "Doctor Anikina" Stanislav Sambursky . He shared his secrets of fighting emotional overeating and gave five effective recommendations that will help you stop stress eating.
1. Allow yourself to feel anger.
Many people do not allow themselves to show certain emotions, especially anger. They try to be kind and peaceful with everyone, even if someone offends or deceives them.
They bottle up their anger and don't let it out to avoid socially condemned emotions. But this is not a solution to the problem, it's just a delay.
Anger doesn't just disappear on its own - it builds up and causes stress. And stress makes us want to eat something tasty to get some pleasure.
Therefore, I advise you to learn to express your anger constructively: talk about your feelings and needs, set boundaries and defend your interests, find ways to resolve conflicts without violence and aggression. This will help you relieve tension and get rid of the desire to eat away your anger.
2. Fight guilt.
Another trigger for stress eating is guilt. We often feel guilty for not living up to some standards or expectations, for not being able to please everyone, or for doing something wrong.
Feeling guilty undermines our self-esteem and self-respect. We begin to think that we are bad, unworthy of anything good, or incompetent.
To somehow console ourselves, we turn to food. But this does not help - on the contrary, we further increase our feeling of guilt when we see that we overeat and lose control over ourselves.
I recommend learning to forgive yourself for your mistakes and shortcomings, and to refuse other people's demands and pressure. You must live by your own values and rules, and not by those that others impose on you.
You must understand that you are not obliged to prove or give anything to anyone. Respect yourself and your needs.
3. Learn to say "no" without a guilty conscience.
Many people do not know how to say "no" when someone asks them for something or offers them something. They are afraid to refuse because they do not want to offend the other person, get into a conflict, or lose the favor of their colleagues.
Such people try to be good and useful to everyone, even if it is to their own detriment, sacrificing their time, energy, money or even health for the sake of others. But this does not lead to them feeling better or becoming happier.
Instead, they feel overwhelmed, tired, disappointed, or cheated. And to somehow reward themselves for their altruism or depression, they turn to food. But this again does not solve the problem, but only worsens it.
We advise you to learn to say "no" without a twinge of conscience. You must understand that you have the right to refuse what you do not like, does not suit you or is not profitable. Consider your interests and opportunities, allow yourself to live free from the opinions of strangers.
