How to stop emotional eating

Many of us face a constant struggle with our eating habits and weight. If you’re one of these people you’ve probably tried countless diets to try and lose weight, but many of these are ultimately unsuccessful. In order to succeed we need to completely change the way we relate to food and learn to differentiate physical hunger from emotional hunger.

What is Emotional Hunger?

Emotional hunger is a desire for food based on the perceived comfort, happiness or relief that it gives us. This type of hunger can come on very suddenly, feels almost all-consuming and craves specific comfort foods. It’s hard to satisfy and can trigger feelings of guilt.

Physical hunger tends to build slowly and goes away after eating. It’s not so urgent and is quickly satisfied with healthy foods. Stress, boredom, anxiety, depression and even happiness can all lead to emotional eating.

In order to identify which type of hunger you’re experiencing try asking yourself whether you would eat an apple or broccoli at that moment. If so, it’s likely that you’re experiencing true physical hunger. If not, try distracting yourself with another activity and be mindful of what might trigger this “hunger”.

Some tips to deal with emotional hunger include drinking plenty of water, waiting 15 minutes before you give in to cravings, clean out comfort foods from your kitchen, avoid situations that you know trigger your over eating and try to reduce your portion sizes.

Hypnotherapy for Weight Loss

If emotional eating is taking control of your life, it is wise to seek professional help. It can be very hard to change such deeply rooted behaviours and attitudes alone. If we eat for comfort we often feel guilt afterwards, which leads to regret and low self-worth, then we seek even more comfort in food. This vicious cycle needs to be addressed at the root.

I can help you change your relationship with food, increase your confidence, reduce anxiety and give you a new found freedom. For more information please read this case study to see how my advanced hypnotherapy can aid your weight loss.

Hypnotherapy addresses the fundamental cause of your poor eating habits. It replaces the old negative thinking with healthy thoughts and behaviour which have a beneficial effect on your weight, health and self-acceptance. Rather than having to battle to lose weight, sticking to a nutritious eating plan, making healthy choices and feeling relaxed around food will become second nature with my help.

If you’d like to learn more please do contact me for more information.