How to Lose Weight When You Are an Emotional Eater
Losing weight can be difficult enough without adding in stress, busy schedules, and emotional eating. When you combine all three of these together, it can make dropping weight more difficult than you could have possibly imagined. You may even feel at a loss for how to lose weight as a stress triggered emotional eater. Here are a few ways you can use to lose weight, get your emotional eating under control, and still maintain a happy healthy life.
Meditation
Sometimes you may be able to feel the stress building up and leading to a trigger for your emotional eating. When you feel it building up, or becoming too much to handle, try meditating. This doesn’t have to last for hours or even be in the traditional lotus position. You can meditate anywhere at anytime. For example, if you take the bus or subway home try meditating there. Just sit quietly and start to listen to the noises around you.
Begin moving those noises out of your mind until you are concentrating on one noise, like the sound of the bus engine or the air as it goes by. You can also try a form of meditation known as chanting. If you are in your car on the way to or from work and school, begin chanting a mantra over and over again. You will find that you are concentrating less on the stress and more on what you are saying to the point your nerves are calmed and the trigger for emotional eating is gone.
Journaling
Journaling can help you in several ways with your weight loss and emotional eating. One of the main benefits is the ability to see a recurring pattern of stress and what is triggering emotional eating and ultimate weight gain. As you journal, you should go back and read your entries after several hours or days. Make a note at the bottom of the journal entry stating what the trigger was for the journal entry. Be as specific as possible. After a few days, go back and look at a week or so worth of entries and note the repeat offenders. Work to avoid these issues or move them out of your life completely. You’ll notice less triggers, less emotional eating, and your weight loss journey becoming easier.
Food Replacement
If journaling and meditation are not working for you, then food replacement may be an ideal option. This does not mean you are replacing food with another activity. This refers to actually replacing your food choices. Remove all of the junk food, high calorie, and processed food from your home. Find replacements for things like ice cream and candy. When you are triggered and move to emotional eating, your food choices will be healthier and can curb the issues caused by processed foods and high sugars.
These are only three of the methods you can use to lose weight when you are an emotional eater. You can try all three in combination or one at a time to see which ones work for you. Remember, each one of these has a method and reason behind them so try to focus on the reason you are using the method rather than the method of weight loss assistance as a whole.
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