Emotional "Hunger"
Yesterday I discussed real physical hunger and eating when you need fuel and nourishment for your body. I suggested you ask yourself some questions before mindlessly grabbing something to eat. This applies even more so with emotional eating.
If you aren’t hungry and are compelled to eat, it's important to examine a few things. It may not even be obvious that you are wanting to eat because of an emotional response. Review the day’s events. Sometimes the busyness of a day gets in the way of what is going on with you emotionally. A feeling probably won't get adequately processed so it gets buried until a quiet time.
Has something happened that is making you anxious, sad, frustrated, angry, bored, tired, etc? Search for a situation during the day that might have bothered you in some way and scrutinize your feelings. See if you can deal with the problem before using food as a way to handle it.
When you work out your underlying feelings you will have command over "hunger."
I think that this is a great tip. So many people get stuck in the habit of eating certain things without even realizing that it's to fill a certain need and not because they're actually hungry.
When you become more mindful of not just what you're eating but WHY you're eating it, you start to discover some really interesting things about yourself. You start to pay more attention to how you're actually feeling. You start to realize how certain events in your life cause you to feel a certain way. And most importantly, you start to distinguish between PHYSICAL hunger and EMOTIONAL hunger.
In my work with people, I help them get to the root of their emotional hunger so that they can stop their pattern of emotional eating and learn a new way of relating to food and themselves. For more information on this topic, visit my website at www.HealTheHunger.com