More and more people are noticing that they are prone to eating more when feeling down and depressed. Emotional eating, the often-unconscious practice of consuming more food when under the onslaught of certain emotions, is turning out to be a problem to obesity, cited as one of the reasons obese individuals don’t thin down despite their best intentions and also of once-thin individuals gaining weight abruptly.
To the surprise of some health-conscious individuals, even they are not exempt to the habit. This is usually because the individual was not prepared to deal with the connection between his/her emotions and the cravings he/she feels. Fortunately, there are ways on how to know if you are an emotional eater. Check out the following cases and see if any of them matches your eating habits.
More often than not, emotional eaters consume food without even realizing their actions. The mind can at times put all its focus on a single point that, unknowingly, the one slice of cake had become three. In this case, usually the individual is focusing on analyzing the emotion or finding a mental distraction powerful enough to block out the emotion. The eater continues to consume food in unmeasured numbers, with his/her mind on other matters, until food ultimately runs out or the person gets pulled back into the present reality either by external forces or by willpower.
Ironically, some emotional eaters are just the opposite. Some would rather concentrate on the food before them rather than on their thoughts and emotions, which is why they eat until they are able to forget what started the eating binge in the first place. Yet these tendencies to indulge yourself are not the only signs on how to know if you are an emotional eater.
Another tell-tale sign of emotional eating is the feeling of guilt or shame that suddenly wells up during and after food intake. Especially for both the extremely health-conscious and the obese, knowledge of having done the forbidden usually crops up after the eating binge. This could further worsen the emotional pressure experienced by the individual, and can cause desperate crash dieting when done in increasing frequency. Feelings of despair after eating could be one indicator that helps how to know you are an emotional eater.
Emotional eaters also can be seen eating alone at unusual, sparsely populated areas. Majority of the emotional eaters questioned about such behavior admit that they do not want interference from well-meaning people, preferring to sort out their feelings alone. Often, they walk out of an argument and find someplace solitary where they can find comfort in food and the distractions it offers them.
Basically, though, the test on how to know if you are an emotional eater or not is to recall the last time you craved for food at an unusual time. What transpired before that? Was eating the first reasonable solution that came to mind after the event? How did you feel after the eating binge? Did eating have the desired effect on your emotions? If you felt stressed, anxious, depressed, lonely, or angry before the craving struck, chances are you are an emotional eater.
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