EAT FOR HUNGER, NOT EMOTIONS
One barrier to healthy eating is emotional eating, that is, eating not out of hunger but as a reaction to a situation or an emotion, such as sadness, boredom, loneliness, or stress. You can break this habit. The first step is to recognize if you are prone to emotional eating and then write down what triggers you to binge. For example, you might write: «I eat ice cream whenever I get into a fight with my husband/boyfriend/partner.» Or, «I crave chocolate when I’m stressed out over work or about to get my period.»
The second step is to think about things you can do instead of eating when these triggers occur. On your list of triggers, you might set a goal that next time you get into an argument, you will go for a walk and calmly think about what you want to say to your partner later, instead of eating ice cream. When work gets stressful, maybe you can suck on a sugarless candy instead of going to the vending machine for a candy bar.
Sometimes emotional eating has a physiological component. Some researchers have identified people they call «carbohydrate cra-vers.» These people may eat normally at mealtimes, but in the late afternoon and evening they crave carbohydrate-rich snacks. Eating carbohydrates may release a chemical messenger in the brain called serotonin, which regulates appetite as well as mood. Eating carbohydrates may be a form of self-medication for these people, who report feeling more relaxed and calm after eating them. For some women, carbohydrate craving may occur premenstrually.
We will deal with emotional eating, binge eating, and depression (which can also impede weight loss) in more detail in Chapter 6. But in general, identifying what makes you eat the wrong foods is a critical part of the formula for successful weight loss.
