How to Stop Comfort Eating

How many times have you eaten a chocolate when you were stressed? How many times has an ice cream been a cure for your depression? How often do you grab a packet of chips to just relieve yourself of restlessness? How often have you felt like running to the nearest cake shop to bust your frustration? How many times have your food cravings won over a sad you? "So many times..." was your answer, right? Do you know what you were actually doing on all those times? You were comfort eating. Now what is it and how to avoid it, is what we are just about to find out. Be with us.

We often resort to eating when we are stressed, depressed, angry or just plain bored. We eat even when we are not exactly hungry; we eat to satisfy ourselves emotionally; we seek comfort in eating - that's comfort eating. You might have heard of stress eating. The two are similar. We eat when feel stressed. Food becomes a stress buster and we give in to our temptations to just pamper ourselves - we comfort eat. Emotional eating is another commonly used term to refer to the idea of eating for comfort. Look at the term, it's emotional eating, which means, eating is your emotional need and not physical. You are having food, not because you are hungry, but perhaps because you are angry! Play of words apart, the truth is that you eat because you want to and not because you need to; you eat because you are emotionally disturbed; you eat to make yourself comfortable - you comfort eat.

What food you choose when comfort eating depends on your likings and cravings for food. My comfort foods may not be the same as yours; it changes from one individual to another. Comfort foods help us achieve improved emotional status and create a sense of well-being. While my comfort food could be a bar of chocolate, yours could be a pizza and someone else's could be a packet of biscuits. What's generally observed is that people consume their favorite foods when comfort eating. However, in some cases of emotional eating, people eat whatever they can get hold of. Eating something (be it anything then!) becomes important to bust that stress or cure the boredom. What you are eating becomes less significant then. Well, not all of you will agree with me, as there are certain specific foods which find a place in the comfort foods list, and they are commonly consumed by people while comfort eating. Dark chocolate tops the list of comfort foods; it's said to have stress relieving properties. Desserts come next, ice creams is one of the popular choices of comfort foods. Chips, burgers, cakes, biscuits are not far below in this list of comfort food recipes. Not all of these can be called healthy comfort foods, as most of them are in fact junk foods. Yes, fast food is something almost all of us love indulging in, then be it for comfort or otherwise! It's okay to have healthy comfort foods, that too once in a while. That's because, when you comfort eat, you end up overeating and then follow various health problems; the foremost being obesity. And that brings us to find ways to overcome comfort eating. Here's how you can do that.

You'll realize you had this habit since childhood. Remember how you were promised a treat if you scored well in your exam? Remember betting on winning or losing a soccer match...and remember what the bet used to be? Haven't you treated yourself on all those occasions you were happy about something? Though that 'eating' wasn't against any emotional turmoil, it was definitely for comfort. Wasn't it also a kind of comfort eating? If you think further, you will realize you have actually comfort eaten so many times, and not only when you were happy but also when you were sad; not only to pat your own back but also to pacify yourself. We do seek comfort from eating, and many times, without even realizing it.

Although, pampering ourselves, letting our cravings win over is okay at times, it should definitely not become a habit. If comfort eating becomes a habit, it may result in several health problems. Obesity is the most obvious effect of comfort eating because comfort or stress eating most often leads you to overeating. You indulge in emotional eating, not when you are hungry, but when you are mentally upset or emotionally disturbed. What's the best way to beat comfort eating? The best way is to learn to deal with your emotions and find better ways of meeting your emotional needs than eating. It's only you who can overcome this problem and only when you are determined to do it.

Decide, Declare then Do!
You first step in overcoming emotional eating is to decide you are going to do it. Then declare it to yourself and to those around you (family and close friends who know). This step is important because when you declare, you affirm to yourself that you are going to break the bad habit. And positive affirmations always help. You can even put up notes in your room or in your cubicle which remind you to avoid comfort eating. Say to yourself, not once, say it everyday, again and again. That's a way of assuring yourself of your decision. Also resolve to stop emotional eating and decide how to do it. Make a plan, make a list of factors that make you feel like eating even when you are not hungry. See what kind of situations push you into comfort eating. Is there a particular emotional need that you satisfy through emotional eating? Ask yourself if you are in the habit of stress eating, which will mean you need to manage stress in ways other that eating. Finding answers to such questions will help you decide what you need to do. Once you know what's causing you to comfort eat, getting rid of the habit won't be difficult. And once decided and declared, it's time to act upon your decision.

Divert your Mind
This is one of the best things to do. The moment you feel like eating and if you know it's not your hunger that's making you feel so, stop yourself from reaching out to the cookie jar on your table; stop yourself from grabbing a chocolate bar; stop! Remember, you are on a mission. Instead of having food for comfort, divert your mind to other things. Choose some fun thing to do. Go for a stroll in the garden or go for a long drive; go watch your favorite movie (that's no excuse to grab a packet of popcorn though!) or TV show. Listen to some good music or sing to yourself. Visit your neighbor, call a friend, Read a good book or surf online... do anything that makes you comfortable, something that diverts your mind from food. Engage in your favorite hobby (provided it's not eating), it will keep you from comfort eating.

De-stress Yourself
Learn to deal with your emotions. Eating is not the way out, it's not a stress reliever in the real sense as it gives you only a temporary feeling of joy. If you consume food when you are stressed, one of these can happen - either you feel sleepy and get a 'can't think further' feeling (which is not a relaxing feeling at all) because blood supply is directed towards the digestive system or you experience bloating and a heavy feeling as bloodstream continues to flow towards the brain and your body fails to do justice to digestion of food. Needless to say, this is bound to make you all the more stressed. Conclusion - eating when you are stressed is not the way to de-stress, it can rather lead you to distress. So what do you do to drive the negativity away? Think positive. Think of all the good things in life, remember all the little joys. All the negative thoughts in your mind, the depression, the anger, the frustration, the loneliness, the sorrow, whatever is causing you to comfort eat, drive it away from your psyche. Banish negative thoughts from your mind. Relax your mind and body. Meditate, do yoga, hit the gym, go for a swim, go for a jog... no, I am not planning your exercise regime, I am telling you ways of relieving stress. Exercise, be it of any type, does work wonders, not just on your body, but on your mind too. It rids you of negative feelings and makes you feel happy. Another way to de-stress your mind is to manage your emotions; control your mind. Meditation is one good way of mind control. Gain the strength to feel what you want to not what you happen to!

Whether to avoid comfort eating by breaking the habit or continue deriving that temporary pleasure from eating when stressed, is for you to decide. It's up to you to either beat comfort eating once and for all or see yourself turning fatter by the day! Stopping comfort eating is basically about understanding your feelings and resorting to better ways of managing them. And don't worry if you have just realized you comfort eat. Many people do, it's just that some know, some don't. It's good you have identified that you comfort eat, it's good that you at least know you need to stop doing it and great that now you also know how! Don't you?