Are you eating before your stomach growls?  Do you turn to high fat, high carb foods to comfort yourself when you are down or stressed?  Do you sometimes realize you're eating only after you have consumed a few handfuls of food?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may be eating emotionally.  Emotional eating is common and can derail any weight loss plan.  You probably know if you are an emotional or "stress" eater.  Most individuals suffering from a weight problem have some level of uncontrolled emotional eating.  It makes sense, if you think about it, that we would develop a pattern of comforting ourselves with food.  Since the moment we are born, we are comforted by food through nursing or a bottle and then we proceeded to fall asleep on a full stomach!  That's fine for an infant, but unhealthy for an adult.

How do we break a cycle that has existed since birth?

It starts with creating a dialog with yourself.  Pause before you put anything other than water into your mouth and ask yourself "Why do I want to eat this?"  If the answer is anything other than, "I'm hungry" then your motives should be examined.  I am a firm believer that you can not "break" a habit, you can only replace it.  It will be up to you to find other ways to comfort yourself when you are in need.  Here are some suggestions:

• exercise
• meditate
• talk on the phone to a friend
• pray
  
• ask for support from a spouse or child
• do your favorite hobby
• exercise
  
• play a game
• use a journal
• hug your partner
• go for a drive
• clean the house
• exercise
• go for a walk

Whatever your new habit might be, make sure it is something that supports your goal.  Try a few different things until you find the solution.  Nothing is 100% but you can make a lot of progress by implementing these changes.

I remember when my husband and I quit smoking.  Every time we had a cigarette craving, we would take the dogs for a walk.  We have two Jack Russell Terriers and I remember the day that they looked at us like, "Really?  Do we have to go AGAIN?" We walked three or four times a day and we successfully quit smoking.  We now walk the dogs every single night after dinner and we consider this our special family time together.  The colder it is, the faster we walk, so it is beneficial all around.

You must be the change.

Love and Light,
Coach Kristine