Home, Family, Small Business Resource
Welcome to Home and Family Resource!    The Home, Family and Small Business information Site

Emotional Eating Due to Stress

Happens all the time. Everything's going great on your diet - you're being careful - you're using your food diary - your working out...then BANG! Something happens to stress you out - the next thing you know, that piece of fudge is calling you. You eat one piece then say, "The heck with my diet for the day" and binge out! HELP! What to do the next time stress sneaks up on you. Read on!


Just when you're trying to stick to a healthy eating plan, along comes a situation or problem that puts you in a tailspin. Suddenly, you MUST have a piece of chocolate cake or that extra helping at dinner. Sound familiar?

This is known as a food craving and has nothing to do with hunger. Real hunger is biological and food craving is based on emotion. Unfortunately, there is no magic formula to stop cravings and everybody responds differently. Below are a few tips to help you deal with those sudden stress related cravings.

(1) Evaluate your emotion - Stay in touch with your emotion and be ready to deal with food cravings anytime you're upset. Everyone deals with problems and situations that will cause emotional turmoil and therefore, impulsive eating. Many times you can avoid giving in to temptation by anticipating the urge.


(2) Substitute lower calorie snacks - It's very important to establish good eating habits without resorting to impulsive snacking, but occasionally there will be situations that will trigger a craving. Instead of giving in to your favorite high calorie treat, use lower calorie snacks such as:

Ritz whole wheat crackers
Fat free chips
1 cup of low fat chili
Meal replacement shake (Slim Fast)
Low fat ice cream
Non fat / sugar free yogurt
Light microwave popcorn

The above snack may not be the most nutritious but it's better than gorging on cheesecake or half of a Sara Lee cream pie.

(3) Give In - If you have established a good track record of eating healthy and seldom (once a week) eat sweets or tempting junk food, then GIVE IN. YES ...... give in. If you have a very strong craving for a particular food, then don't eat a substitute. Rid yourself of the temptation and eat the treat. This way you satisfy the craving without eating a lot of other foods along with the food you are craving.


About the Author

Dan Burley is the author of many articles on weight loss at www.DietForum.com and is dedicated to helping others lose weight safe and sensibly.






This site was designed by Heather Diodati
E-mail

Top of page