Vancouver Sun Article: Overcoming Emotional Eating

Overcoming emotional eating is the topic of my article in today's Vancouver Sun paper Here is an excerpt:

"As I watched my children enjoy their Easter chocolates with delight and guilt-free bliss, I reflected that we are all born knowing when we are hungry, when we are full and we ate until we were satisfied. As we grew up, we were told to eat our vegetables because they help us grow and not to eat cookies because they are bad for us. We may have been offered ice cream to cheer us up on a sad day. Our parents may have asked us to finish our plate, so as not to waste food. If we felt pressure to be thinner, we may have felt guilty eating our favorite treats.

All of these things distort our relationship with food and cloud our innate ability to eat until satisfied. Eventually, we may eat because we are supposed to, or we may overeat to please someone or to cope with loneliness or stress. We start to think of food as ‘good for you’ and ‘bad for you’ and we may feel guilty about enjoying our favorite foods. If we deprive ourselves of our favorite treats, we may feel overwhelmed with guilt when our willpower cracks.

Ask yourself a few questions before deciding whether to eat: 
- Am I Hungry?
- Do I want that? 
- Am I sad or upset and do I really just need to talk and de-stress? How will I feel after I eat it?

The answers are simple: 
- Eat if you are hungry, stop if you are full. 
- If you are craving a specific treat, check your emotions first. 
- Look after your stress and emotions without food.

If your craving persists, allow yourself to enjoy a treat, and don’t feel guilty. You are better off eating the treat or you may end up overeating a pile of other foods that just don’t satisfy the craving."