Many of us are stress or emotional eaters. This
means we consume foods in response to feelings
instead of hunger. While surgery will assist with
weight loss, it will not change our response and
behaviors to these emotions or feelings.
“Food is something that has emotional ties in
everything that we do,” said Southwestern Medical
Clinic counselor, Meredith Sheldon, MA, LLPC.
“If you can learn how to be aware of why you’re
eating what you’re eating, you can help
manage that behavior.”
It is important to identify stress eating when it
occurs. Use the following as a guide:
Physical hunger
- Builds gradually
- Strikes below the neck
- Occurs several hours after a meal
- Goes away when full
- Eating leads to feeling of satisfaction
- Resolved by eating
Emotional hunger
- Develops suddenly
- Strikes above the neck
- Unrelated to time - could occur even if you just ate
- Persists despite fullness
- Eating leads to guilt
- Not resolved by eating
Take back control with “mindful eating,” or
re-teaching your body hunger and fullness cues.
Here are some ways to get started:
- Taste the food (tart, sweet, spicy, etc.)
- Plan an eating schedule (7 a.m., 9:30 a.m., noon, 3 p.m., 5:30 p.m.)
- Put your fork down between bites and chew your food 20 times per bite.
- Eat in one place: the kitchen table instead of the couch in front of the T.V.
- Slow down and focus on eating—do nothing else!