Not hungry but always want to eat? It may be emotional eating.
You can distinguish between emotional hunger and physical hunger from 5 aspects (see the text for details), find the causes of emotional hunger, and solve them in a targeted manner.
Practicing mindful eating is also a great way to reduce emotional urge to eat.
Not long after lunch, you started the afternoon work, the report just wrote a few times, the idea of wanting to eat snacks suddenly popped up, you ate a bag of QQ sugar, wrote for a while, you couldn't help but go out and buy a pack of small puff pastry...
You also know you're not hungry, but you just want to eat.
If you've felt this way too, you may have an emotional eating problem.
Not because you are hungry and want to eat, but because of some negative emotions that want to eat. Sometimes I can't stop eating, I can't stand it, and I feel guilty and self-blame after eating, which actually makes me even more unhappy.
Today, let's talk about how to control emotional eating.
Sad to want to eat more, more is a psychological habit
First, from a physiological point of view, emotional distress such as fear, worry, or nervousness inhibits stomach motility and promotes the release of sugar into the bloodstream, so hunger and eating are often suppressed.
Therefore, it is said that people will not be able to eat under painful emotions is a more natural reaction from a physiological point of view, which is an innate setting, and when they are sad, they want to eat more, which is more of an acquired habit. [1]
For example, starting from a young age, eating a big meal, or a high-sugar and high-oil snack, is associated with "reward" to "and happy", then when you have financial conditions, whenever you feel unhappy, you will also want to become happy through "eating".
But unfortunately, although eating at this time can temporarily divert attention, it does not solve the root cause of emotions, and the problem still exists after eating, and emotions come back. And after eating and drinking, there is also a sense of guilt and loss of control, which brings more negative emotions, but also brings a burden to the body and health, entering a vicious circle.
How to distinguish between "physical hunger" and "psychological hunger"
The first step in reducing and controlling emotional eating is to learn to distinguish between emotional "hunger" and physical "hunger."
It can be judged from several aspects:
Suddenly it came
Emotional hunger is the kind that comes all of a sudden, it hits you in an instant, it feels unstoppable, very urgent.
But in fact, physical hunger is felt slowly, the urge to eat is not so terrible, it does not need to be immediately satisfied (unless you have not eaten for a long time, unless you have not eaten for a long time), once you are attracted to other things, you may temporarily forget, and there will be "hunger and exhaustion".
Crave only specific types of food
When you're physically hungry, you'll have an appetite for almost anything, including healthy vegetables, fruits, and more.
But emotional hunger gives you a strong urge to eat junk food, drink sugary drinks, and crave specific textures, tastes, and smells.
Often leads to blind eating
For example, emotional eating makes you unconsciously eat a whole bag of potato chips, but you don't really pay attention to it or fully enjoy the taste of the potato chips themselves, but just mechanically stuff them in your mouth, and the feeling of crazy stuffing is actually not very satisfied and happy.
You won't be satisfied just because you're full
Emotional hunger does not stop because of eating enough, always want to eat more, but if it is physical hunger, full will be satisfied, the desire to continue to eat becomes very low.
It often leads to regret, guilt, or shame
Emotional hunger often leads to regret, guilt, or shame because you know inside you that you shouldn't eat. But when you're just eating to meet your body's normal caloric and nutritional needs, you're less likely to feel guilty or ashamed.
Find the trigger point
When you can discern emotional "hunger", you can pay attention to when you have this impulse.
For example, when you stayed up late the day before and didn't sleep well, you feel that you need to eat to make up for it. It may be that when there is a stressful job on your shoulders, you can't do it, and you always want to eat something to escape the difficulties temporarily.
It may be a way to suppress uncomfortable emotions, numb yourself with food, and temporarily avoid difficult emotions such as anger, fear, sadness, anxiety, loneliness, etc. that you don't want to feel.
It may also be triggered by feelings of boredom or emptiness, where you eat just to find something for yourself, forgetting for a moment the underlying sense of purposelessness and dissatisfaction with life.
But the problem is that eating doesn't solve your problems, it makes you feel worse.
You can stay away from your favorite dessert shops, don't put junk food in your offices and homes, and keep yourself away from these temptations.
Targeted solutions
interrupt
When you feel the urge to eat emotionally, immediately change some other way to divert your attention, such as standing up and walking, looking at the scenery outside the window, going outside for a walk, listening to music, singing, making a cup of tea, cleaning up the surrounding environment, hugging your pet, chatting with friends for a while, watering flowers, exercising, and so on.
Just relax
And for example, when you decide what to eat, let yourself slow down, think more, do you really want to do this? Even before moving your mouth, you can take a deep breath and at least tell yourself to eat slowly.
When you are distracted, stop and give yourself a 5-minute daze.
Don't make excuses
Don't always give yourself reasons to indulge.
You can imagine this food more, not that you only eat it once, what if you would eat it every day? If you have the knowledge of nutrition, you can predict what kind of consequences will be, and thus reject the temptation in front of you today.
You can also stay away from your favorite dessert shops, and don't put junk food in your office and home to keep yourself away from these temptations.
Locate the problem
Eating can not alleviate the emotion, or to find the source of emotions and solve it. For example, record every time you make this decision and your psychological feelings at the time.
For example, when the work encounters small difficulties and no ideas, you can consult with well-connected seniors, colleagues, etc., or search for similar cases or other people's practices to find inspiration, or you can put it first, do other work, maybe new ideas will inadvertently pop out.
When you feel empty and bored, the small things that can be done instead of eating, reading a book, doing a handicraft, completing some housework, etc. can give you a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment, and get some positive emotions.
For example, when you always don't have time to sleep, you can record where you spend your time every day like me.
Increase efficiency and allocate time wisely.
Practice a simple mindful eating
In addition, I will introduce you to a method, which is "mindful eating".
"Mindfulness" is a way of thinking that focuses on feeling the present moment. Mindful eating, on the other hand, is simply focusing on eating when eating, as opposed to mindless eating.
Studies have found that mindful eating practices can effectively help people reduce emotional eating, as well as "non-neurological" overeating, and can also help overweight people better control their diet. [2-4]
How do you focus on eating? You can ask yourself the following questions while eating and look for answers:
1 What kind of aroma does it have?
2 What is its temperature? Is it a little hot, or just right, or an ice tongue?
3 How does it feel when it comes into contact with the tongue and teeth, is it melting in the mouth? Crispy? hard? supple? dry? Juicy? Tough? ......
4 How does it sound when it is chewed, and what is the difference between it and other foods?
5 How does it taste? How many? Which is the most important? What changes as the chewing time increases? What taste remains in your mouth after swallowing?
6 If you don't cook and prepare food yourself, try to distinguish which ingredients and condiments are placed in it
7 Has my hunger dropped, did I start to feel full, and now how full am I?
In order to focus on feeling this, you also need to do:
When you eat, concentrate on eating and don't get distracted
For example, if you stuff snacks into your mouth while you work, you probably can't remember what you ate, what it tasted like, or how much you ate, and it's harder to feel the signal of fullness and eat faster and more.
Eat formally, ritually
For example, at least put food on a dinner plate, bring it to the table, sit down to eat, and focus on your plate. (Of course, if you are skilled, you can also omit this).
Eat slowly in small bites and chew a few more times
This allows you to really distinguish the taste of the food itself, and at the same time capture the signal of fullness in time, because the brain realizes that it is full, it will be delayed, and eating too fast will be missed.
You can start practicing by choosing a snack every day, and as you get used to it, you will naturally expand and slowly change the way you eat. In fact, even if some healthy foods that used to feel tasteless, when you seriously feel it, you will find their unique taste. In addition, learning to discern the signals of your own fullness can also help you better control the amount of food you eat.
Control emotional eating, what do you have your own experience, come and share it~
bibliography
[1] van Strien T, Ouwens MA. Effects of distress, alexithymia and impulsivity on eating. Eat Behav. 2007 Apr;8( 2):251-7. doi: 10.1016/j.eatbeh.2006.06.004. Epub 2006 Jun 27. PMID: 17336795.
[2] Daubenmier J, Kristeller J, Hecht FM, Maninger N, Kuwata M, Jhaveri K, Lustig RH, Kemeny M, Karan L, Epel E. Mindfulness Intervention for Stress Eating to Reduce Cortisol and Abdominal Fat among Overweight and Obese Women: An Exploratory Randomized Controlled Study. J Obes. 2011;2011:651936. doi: 10.1155/2011/651936. Epub 2011 Oct 2. PMID: 21977314; PMCID: PMC3184496.
[3] Dalen J, Smith BW, Shelley BM, Sloan AL, Leahigh L, Begay D. Pilot study: Mindful Eating and Living (MEAL): weight, eating behavior, and psychological outcomes associated with a mindfulness-based intervention for people with obesity. Complement Ther Med. 2010 Dec;18(6):260-4. doi: 10.1016/j.ctim.2010.09.008. Epub 2010 Nov 11. PMID: 21130363.
[4] Liu Xuanjian,Wang Yingru,Yang Siyu,Zhou Leshan. Foreign research progress of mindful diet[J].PLA Nursing Journal,2019,36(08):55-58.
[5]https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/8-steps-to-mindful-eating
This article is reprinted from nutritionist Gu Zhongyi (ID: yy4gz1) with permission, if you need to reprint it for the second time, please contact the original author