How To Curb Stress That Leads To Emotional Eating
Do you regularly use food to cope with stress and difficult feelings such as pain, anger, and loneliness? If this is familiar, you may be challenged with what is called emotional eating disorder. That big bowl of ice cream may feel really good for the moment but likely after the binge is over, your distress remains, now compounded by post-binge guilt and shame.
Take Heart! There Are Healthier Ways of Dealing With Stress
Here are some relaxation techniques you can use to help you get on a path to better health:
Meditation. The art of relaxing your body completely and focusing on your breath and your mind can cause the same release of feel-good hormones in your brain that occurs when you eat junk food, except it has absolutely zero negative effects. There are many types of meditation methods and it may take some time for you to learn the techniques that will help you the best. Learning meditation and practicing it daily can eliminate the impact of stressors in your life so you can finally quit eating to overcome stress.
Visualization. This is similar to meditation except that you use your mind to “see” yourself making good food choices and being thinner as a result. If you are overweight or obese because of your eating habits, you can use visualization to help you establish a thin body image of yourself that is unencumbered by the constant need to eat in order to feel relaxed.
Yoga. There are many different types of yoga you can practice. Some are specifically designed for relaxation and comfort so you feel less of an urge to eat for comfort. Others are more strenuous, involving more complex poses that, when combined with meditation and breathing, serve to relax you and improve your level of well-being.
Tai Chi. Tai chi is an ancient form of Chinese martial arts that has been found to be a great source of relaxation for many Westerners as well. Tai chi involves going through a series of martial arts type of movements done at a slow and fluid pace. The practice of Tai chi will not only relax you but it will burn calories and give you a better posture and better balance. It can be practiced by people of just about any fitness level.
Qi Gong. This is another practice even Westerners have picked up from ancient traditional Chinese medicine. It is similar to tai chi but is not as taxing. You use qi gong to enhance the flow of vital qi energy through your body to encourage balance of self, to feel better about yourself and live a healthier life without overeating.
Any of these measures, when practiced daily, can help you improve your quality of life and can replace the negative habit of emotional eating and making poor food choices. Try them and you might be surprised at how effective they can be.