Emotional Eating

I read an article about emotional eating today and it got me thinking. Why do we stress eat and feed our emotions with food? I know when I'm stressed, feeling sad or lonely I want baked goods like cakes and cookies (chocolate of course!). But why? They aren't my friend. When I'm shoving that cake into my mouth, it's not exactly giving me a hug and telling me how everything is going to be ok. The cookies aren't saying "hey, leave me be... the grapes are on the 2nd shelf in the refrigerator, eat them!". The ice cream isn't saying "hey lets go out and paint the town red tonight". Do I feel better after I've eaten the cake and cookies? No, not really. Now I have to add guilt to my stress or loneliness. Long after I've chewed the last bite, that sweet silent partner in crime is still hanging around at the back of my throat, just reminding me of what I did. So what do I do? Well, I shut it up with a big glass of milk of course. If that doesn't work, I'll chase it down with a pint of ice cream (lets face it, we weren't going to be going out on the town tonight anyway). That ought to do it!

How many of us try to smother our feelings with cakes, cookies, chips, ice cream, (insert your food drug of desire here)? What in the world do we think we're going to achieve by eating all this junk? Did it make you feel better? Maybe for just one moment while you were eating it, but then what? What are you left with, again, the guilt. You didn't solve anything. You're still going to be stressed.

What are some things we could do so that we don't smother our feelings with junk? Well, we could take a walk. What's that? It's too cold, raining, dark outside? Well, how about walking in your living room? Ya, I said it... IN YOUR LIVING ROOM. :) It doesn't matter how small your living room is. Leslie Sansone makes some DVDs called "Walk Away The Pounds". You could get one of those for around $10 (maybe even less). Have some stairs in your house? Walk up and down them. Do anything to just exert some energy. Exercise has been proven to make you feel happier. Who couldn't use a little extra happiness these days?

You don't feel like exercising and still want to eat? Well, lets see what kind of alternatives we have... Maybe you're feeling a little depressed and you're wanting something warm and creamy. Put down that mac and cheese! I can see you! LOL! Here, how about some warm and creamy oatmeal instead? Oatmeals not your thing? Hmmm, how about some soup? Are you feeling a little bit stressed and wanting something sweet? Don't go for the donuts, once you come down off of that sugar high, you aren't going to feel any better. How about a Jello Sugar Free 60 calorie pudding? No, it's ok, you pick the flavor. :) Crunching on something helps you release stress? Ok, how about some veggies? Oh now, don't give me that eeewww look. Fine, how about some popcorn? The point is, you can always find an alternative.

Think about why you're eating. Are you hungry or are you covering up something deeper like your feelings? Those feelings are still going to be there, so I say deal with them before they get the best of you. You need to have a back up plan in place for when these moments happen. I'll leave you with this saying... if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

By the way, I did good today. I didn't walk like I had hoped to, but I'll make up for it tomorrow. Also, I won in cards tonight. :) It came down to me and my mom. She was winning by 1 point and on the last hand I ended up going out first and beat her by 2 points. Victory is mine! LOL!