|
Home::Health & Medical
Is
Author : Eunice Coughlin
You've done everything right this time. You're eating lots of salad, fruit, and protein; using only low fat dressings and even staying away from white flour and refined sugar.
But then…you have an argument with your spouse. You are bored, stressed, depressed and giving up. You walk by the pantry and see nothing that will satisfy the sudden urge for sugar, salt, potato chips, candy, or whatever your particular poison of choice. So you go down to the grocery store and find what you need, go home and pig out! Maybe you don't need to go to the store…maybe you've thought ahead because you knew this moment would come and you have a secret cabinet with all kinds of binge eating goodies!.
Ok, well that might be a little dramatic. But most people have found themselves following a good, healthy diet and all of a sudden, because of some emotional upheaval, they've found themselves in the middle of an overeating binge. It can really blow your whole healthy eating plan. So what's happening when you find yourself in this situation?And how can you stop emotional eating?
First of all, when you go on an emotional eating binge, strong emotions are causing you to experience stress. This is when your body goes into "fight or flight" response. You either "fight"or you "fly". All your energy is directed towards one of these responses. Cortisol is released and normally, this causes the energy exerted in fighting or flying ito be replaced with an increase in appetite. You are supposed to eat to replace the energy burned.
However, in modern-day times, we are unable to follow through with the "fight or flight" response. Everything happens as it is designed to happen, except that instead of energy being burned, it is "stuffed" and we are left with an urge to eat.
So what can you do to stop emotional eating? I have found a very helpful book, "Lose It For Life" written by Stephen Arterburn and Dr. Linda Mintle, who suggest making a list of alternate activities when you find yourself in such a situation, such as taking a walk, take three deep breaths or call a friend. One other very effective way to battle these urges is to pray. As a Christian, I find the strength I need to deal with my weakness is found in God.
Sometimes we turn to food out of loneliness or boredom. The same technique could apply. Talking to your friend or playing with your dog could be infinitely more interesting than stuffing your face with a cookie.
Copyright 2005 by Eunice Coughlin
About the Author
Eunice Coughlin is the founder of Healthy Living for Moms, which encourages healthy living habits for moms of all ages and stages. For more information about emotional eating andother healthy living topics, check out www.healthy-living-for-moms.com/emotional_eating.html. Spam emails More free articles Related articles
|
More related feeds |
Songbird Beta is Released!
We’re excited to announce that Songbird is now in public Beta! This update to Songbird includes a new default look and feel, several new features, performance gains, improvements to stability and additional playback capabilities. ...Is authoritarian capitalism a successful model?
One thing is clear: the world’s biggest financial powers are no longer the world’s large democracies. A gathering of the countries that matter for global economic coordination will no longer be a gathering of the leaders of the world’s ... Photosynth is Released and Moves to Virtual Earth
With this release any Vista or XP user running FireFox or IE can create, view, and share Synths (Mac support is planned). I suggest exploring the Synths. There are some amazing ones available like Smith Tower in Seattle (home to the ... phpMinAdmin is a powerful minimalist MySQL editor
If you've ever worked with and manipulated MySQL databases, chances are you've used phpMyAdmin to manage your databases from a Web interface. But phpMyAdmin can be a little complex; if you want a lightweight alternative, try phpMinAdmin ... WordPress, Six Apart Movable Type, Which Is Better? Who Cares…
For what it is worth, Movable Type is responsible for the popularity of WordPress. The licensing debacle of MT resulted in defectors opting for the new blogging ware called WordPress, which has since taken the leader position. ... Pay for play is fine. But not in college sports
There is nothing wrong with paying athletes to play sports. Professional sports is big business in America. The athletes, as a labor force, are rightly paid what the market will bear. That's the professional model. ... Bloo Balls Custom PC Case Mod is a Whole New Kind of Punk [Modding]
This custom case mod made for Bit-Tech is just eye-grabbingly bizarre... from the outside alone. Built by a guy called Craig, Bloo Balls was over a year in the making, which included and a whole lot of careful design, redesign and ... Analysis: FCC Comcast Order is Open Invitation to Internet Filtering
To the extent, however, that providers choose to utilize practices that are not application or content neutral, the risk to the open nature of the internet is particularly acute and the danger of network management practices being used ... Simplicity Is Not the Answer
Simplicity is not the goal. We do not wish to give up the power and flexibility of our technologies. The garage door opener may be simple, but it hardly does anything. If my cellphone only had one button it certainly would be simple, ... Is Generation Y going deaf?
Loud concerts and cranked to "11" headphones will eventually do in Gen Y's ears.
|
|
|
