I now have twenty four (24) persons confirm that they want to participate in my upcoming fat loss and fitness challenge.
One of the questions I ask a new person wanting to join the fat loss and fitness challenge is ‘what do you think might sabotage your getting to the goals you set for this challenge?

Ninety percent of the answers I got from the current applicants had to do with how to control emotional eating.

 When is Emotional Eating a Problem?

 A good starting point is an understanding of what emotional eating is.

 The dry feelings in the mouth, the gnawing, rumbling sensation in the stomach and the   mental images that won’t go away are all common signs of hunger. 
 So how do you differentiate

a) physical hunger – the body crying out for life sustaining nutrients from
b) emotional hunger – the void created by boredom, anger, sadness, joy, anxiety, stress etc.

The medical communities agree on the following five (5) characteristics of emotional hunger :

1. It is intense – there is an urgency to satisfy the hunger now.
2. It is specific – there is a craving for a specific food, the comfort of chocolate or ice-cream, chips or pizza.
3. It lingers – if you’re eating to satisfy an emotional need, you’re more likely to keep eating even after you realize that you are full.
4. It comes on suddenly, often in response to a trigger and
5. It leaves you feeling guilty once you have indulged.

The Real Danger of Emotional Eating

What do you reach for when eating to satisfy an emotion?
Well that depends on the emotion and the underlying feeling you are trying to create or dispel.

 Research suggests that people in happy moods tended to prefer foods such as pizza or steak sad people reached for ice cream and cookies,  bored people opened up a bag of potato chips, while angry persons tend to reach for hard crunchy foods such Doritos.

The real danger in emotional eating is when the foods a person chooses to eat to satisfy emotions are decidedly unhealthy for them and when eating becomes the only or main strategy persons use to manage emotions. Overfeeding the body will lead to excesses which increase the body’s toxic load, present health risks, provides extra calories which gets converted to fat and lead to overweight and obesity 

Three Strategies to Help you Deal with Emotional Eating:

The first step is to recognize emotional eating and learn what triggers this behavior in you. Make a list of what triggers in you an intense urge to eat a specific food and you must have this even if you are not hungry.

Then here are the three (3) strategies that help you to stick to your program to lose weight and belly fat.

Distract yourself. Make a list of things you could to do when you get the urge to eat and you’re not hungry, and carry it with you. Studies show that you can deal with this emotional trigger to eat by engaging in an alternate activity, preferably one that you enjoy. This may include  taking a walk, calling a friend, going on Facebook or entering a chat room for example,  playing cards, completing  a cleaning your room, doing laundry, or even taking a nap.

Go for mindful indulgence. When you get the uncontrollable urge to eat comfort foods that aren’t always healthy, like fattening desserts, or full house pizzas, be intentional about having a few bites. Studies shows that  “Your memory of a food peaks after about four bites, so if you only have those bites, a week later you’ll recall it as just a good experience than if you polished off the whole thing.” So if you really can’t help yourself have a few bites of of that deadly dessert, chew it slowly and visualize yourself naked in a mirror. Are you still enjoying it? Has the original emotion shifted? Ready to call it quits.

Replace then Eliminate When you do get the urge to eat when you’re not hungry find a healthy substitute to junk food. Consider tofu salmon loaf, apple cinnamon or almond raisin protein muffins, homemade trail mix etc., Comfort foods don’t have to be unhealthy.

Remember that emotional eating is something that most people do when they’re bored, happy, or sad  anxious etc., a good wellness coach can provide easy to make recipes for you to stock up on while you learn other ways to deal with your emotional issues