How to Overcome Emotional Eating

Eating is a part of life.  Your body gets its nutrients from food.  Sometimes we can go overboard with our eating habits and it can result in gaining weight.  One issue with food is emotional eating. 

The problem of emotional eating may end with the scale but it begins in the mind.  Stress takes its toll on your life.  When your defenses are compromised your health takes a hit and so do your emotions. 

Everyone has good days and bad days.  How we deal with the bad ones brings emotional eating into play.  You look for comfort for your hurts.  People who turn to food for comfort find a coping mechanism that won’t judge them, hurt them or tell them “no.” To complicate the issue, eating pleasurable foods can stimulate the release of endorphins just like exercise.  So, after you eat, you feel better.

Emotional eaters use food to relieve stress.  They hide behind the food instead of seeking solutions to the problems.  This is not uncommon when the stressor is something horrible such as physical abuse or a death.

But, how do you know you are using food in this way?  The first sign is obvious.  You will gain weight if you eat too much.  In light of the weight gain, examine other areas of your life:

* Have you been under stress lately at work or at home?
* Has anything traumatic happened in the last year?
* Are you dealing with a problem but haven’t found a solution?

Answering “yes” to any of these questions could mean that you are an emotional eater.  You eat but you are not necessarily hungry at the time.  The foods that you choose are what we term “comfort foods”:

* High fat foods like French fries, fried foods
* High carb foods like macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes
* Sugary foods like ice cream, donuts, cookies, cake

There is help for emotional eaters.  The first step is recognizing that you have a problem.  You’ll experience feelings of helplessness and guilt.  The guilt is over potentially ruining your health and the helplessness lies in the fact that you don’t see a way out.

Secondly, seek counseling.  There are many types of counselors out there that can meet your need.  Emotional eating has nothing to do with dieting or changing your eating habits but gaining control over your emotions. 

A counselor might suggest things like visualization, practicing problem solving skills, relaxation techniques and family support.  Visualization helps you to see your problems in a realistic way and not blown out of proportion.  You will also learn to see food as nutrition for the body and not an emotional crutch.

Thirdly, your family can learn your triggers for stress and be on the lookout for changes in your eating habits.  They can help you be aware of the foods you are eating, assist you in making healthy food choices and exercise along with you.  Proper diet and exercise increases immunity, blood flow and positive thinking.  Yoga enhances the mind/body connection so you don’t eat when you aren’t hungry.

Finding new ways to solve your problems and deal with stress will push food out of the equation.  You’ll feel good about finding solutions which will replace the dependence on food.  

DECEMBER 21, 2012: THE MOTHER OF ALL...

I am truly honored to have you wonderful people stop by again - so much so, because this month might probably be the third last December for all of us. I would have written this post yesterday but I was still reeling from the effects of a session I had with a group of cold petrified souls in an online forum that was discussing the events of December 21, 2012. These weirdos, with nicknames like Yamantau Lodger and Dwarfgalaxy, are not the kind of company you would want to keep if you harbor grand ambitions of being around long enough to take your grandchildren to a football match.  
I take it that most of you have already heard of the Armageddon that awits us in Deember of zero twelve. The gist of the whole story revolves around a prophecy derived from a number of sources including the Mayan calender, astrology, astronomy, cosmology, geology, and a few other 'logies' a normal human would be hard pressed to understand. Don't bother to decipher the Mayan calendar, though - I gave up after ten minutes and I'm not an idiot either.
So according to the Mayan calender, and some astronomy calculations, December 21, 2012 coincides with the alignment of the center of  Milky Way galaxy, the sun, earth and other planets. We shall be shifting our position in relation to the sun; from what has been compared to the upper part of a pizza to the lower side. Underneath here we will be in a direct alignment with the center of the galaxy where there is more mass and therefore increased gravity.
Now the whole drama will happen during that shift, precisely on 21st Dec. 2012. The faceless weirdos in the forum believe that increased gravity will result in, among other things, solar disruptions and flares. The gravitational tsunami will leave the earth completely scorched by the sun. It will be of no use to burrow underground because the earth's magnetic North and South poles will suddenly be switched, an act that will exert excessive stress on the planet causing earthquakes and volcanoes - you will only be spewed out of your subterranean bunker along with magma if the crust does not collapse on you.
Surface vegetation and animals will all be destroyed unless we are rescued by a greater and more powerful force. The question however is, does man in his perpetual attempts to destroy the planet for selfish interests deserve to be rescued from the wrath of nature?
It could be another Y2K hoax, or it could be real. All I know is that if it should come to pass, I won't be among the desperate humans burrowing underground but will instead be striving to draw even closer to family and friends in bid to accomplish that which is completely unselfish - unwavering faith in God and love.
So what about you? Fast forward and let us know where you see yourself on that fateful day. The videos below might be of some help.         

THE DECEMBER CONSPIRACY

Do you sometimes see yourself in the middle of one big hoax called December? I do. I can even make several claims for it:
Claim #1. Decem in Latin means ten yet December is not the tenth but the twelfth month of the year for most of us and don't tell me there was a monthless winter period in the Roman calendar that became January and February because...how can time be monthless anyway?
Claim #2. Between World's AIDS Day on 1st Dec. to New Years Eve on 31st Dec. there are over 38 holidays in the month of December worldwide. Meaning you can be celebrating something on each day of the month, and still miss out on seven more celebrations. If that can be converted to Greeting Cards, gifts, and booze... ah, how gullible we've become.
Claim #3. Christmas. Latest I heard 'the season to be jolly' is a growing rave in Japan where there's more people who celebrate X-mass than those who have ever heard of the name Jesus Christ.
Claim #4.
Help me here. Lets make a list about the December Conspiracies throughout this month. Anythings welcome, from the outrageous to the most philosophical/scientific. No X-rated content pliz, my mum (who is a gran to most of you there) is a great fan of this blog. So let's know how you are being taken advantage of by the Makers of December....