How to Stop Emotional Eating
One of the biggest reasons that someone would use a weight loss diary would be to find out how to stop emotional eating. Quit looking for an easy quick fix. This is something that you have to do for yourself. No one can make you stop your emotional eating. No one can lose weight for you.
The two charts below will help you to come up with a plan. These charts were taken from the book: Cinch!
By Cynthia Sass. Cynthia Sass was the coauthor of the book: Flat Belly Diet and is a contributing editor to Shape. This book has a whole chapter devoted to emotional eating. Of course this book talks about a lot more than just emotional eating. It gives recipes and meal guidance and show one how to choose healthy foods. She does a lot to simplify meal planning by dividing healthy foods into five groups:
- Produce (fruit in the breakfast and snack meals, veggies in the lunch and dinner meals.)
- Whole grain
- Lean Protein
- Plant-based fat
- SASS (slimming and satiating seasonings) vinegar, citrus juice and zest, hot peppers, tea, herbs and spices.
What does all this have to do with how to stop emotional eating? If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything. In other words, if you do not have a plan you will eat anything and anytime. Speaking of eating anytime, two of the three rules of this book deal with when to eat:
- Eat your first meal within one hour of waking up
- Eat one of each meal per day, in any order you like, spacing your meals evenly, three to five hours apart.
- Use only the foods, beverages, and seasonings listed.
You do not have to use this book, but you do have to have simple rules to help you make good quick decisions when it comes time to eat or not eat.
Start with this chart to help you control your eating:
| Food and Feeling Grid #1 | ||||
| Fear | Sadness | Anger | Joy | |
| When I'm experiencing this emotion food makes me feel (fill in the blank) | ||||
| What healthy behaviors, aside from eating, have I tried that allow me to avoid this emotion (e.g., not drinking alchol shopping, gambling,etc.)? | ||||
| What other behaviors would I like to try that may allow me to address this feeling? | ||||
To
print this chart click here: How to Stop Emotional Eating pdf
.
After a day or so use this chart:
| Food and Feeling Grid #2 | ||||
| Fear | Sadness | Anger | Joy | |
| When or how did I learn to use food to cope with this emotion? | ||||
| What problems has turning to food to cope with my feelings caused for me? | ||||
| On a scale from 0 to 10, how confident do I feel about my ability to try alternatives to eating (0 indicates no confidence; 10 maximum conficence)? | ||||
| Fear | Sadness | Anger | Joy | |
| If my confidence level is a 5 or below, what might help me feel more confident? | ||||
| To whom can I turn for support? | ||||
| What changes could make my home or workplace more supportive? | ||||
To
print this chart click here: How to Stop Emotional Eating Chart 2 pdf.
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