You'll Start Living When You Stop Asking, 'Why Did I Eat That?'
An eDiets.com Exclusive
by Edward Abramson, Ph.D.
So, you know that you’re an emotional eater. You’ve had the experience of eating even though you’re not really hungry. You’re not even enjoying it, and afterwards you ask yourself, “Why did I eat that?” More than likely there was some kind of emotional disturbance going on that caused you to reach for the food to try to make yourself feel better.
Once you become aware of how you use food to soothe unpleasant emotions you can start to change this habit. For example, let’s say you’re a depressed eater. When you’re down-in-the-dumps, or feeling a little sad you find yourself looking for something to eat.
Once you recognize this pattern you can ask yourself, “What am I really looking for?” Is the food really going to lift your mood, or are you going to still be depressed?
After asking yourself these questions, you can talk yourself out of the need to eat. Instead of eating, substitute another activity that would lift your mood. Some people find that listening to music makes them feel better. Research demonstrates that moderate physical activity also has a mood elevating effect. You can combine the two and play your favorite CD while dancing around the living room. Or, if you’re a little depressed at work, and you’re afraid that you’ll be really down when you get home, stop and pick up a comedy video.
There are lots of ways to nurture yourself without eating. When you’re down, try to do something especially nice for yourself. It doesn’t have to be expensive, but just something that you ordinarily wouldn’t allow yourself because you “don’t have the time,” or you’d feel like it was too self-indulgent.
For example, you might take a bubble bath and allow yourself to soak in the tub while listening to your favorite relaxing music. You could buy yourself an inexpensive bouquet of flowers and take the evening off and read a trashy novel.
If you think that none of these methods would work for you, and have a long list of reasons why you can’t do them, recognize that you may be undermining your dieting by not allowing yourself the time to be good to yourself.
Dieting can be hard work. One study showed that many dieters don’t have any way of being nice to themselves except by eating. This is self-defeating. Instead, plan to make the time to nurture yourself. Learn new ways to be good to yourself. You’ll find that your mood will lift, you’ll have more energy to stick to your diet, and the urge to eat will decrease.
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