Emotional Eating

Hi everybody. Welcome to today's Boost. When was the last time you felt physical hunger? If you're not intermittent fasting, my guess is that it's been a while. Most of us have three square meals a day, and I know I used to supplement those meals with a chai tea in the morning and a bar of chocolate in the afternoon. Physical hunger is very, very different than emotional hunger. Physical hunger, you know, sometimes you'll have those awkward stomach growls or you'll feel a little bit of stomach pain. Emotional hunger comes on very quickly and it's persistent and it happens after something exciting or upsetting happens. Now, 75% of overeating is due to emotional reasons. There is a reason also why we choose for ice cream over cucumbers when we're feeling emotional. The ice cream just makes us feel better. So what do you do with this? Have you heard of the acronym halt? The H stands for hungry. If you are hungry, by all means go and eat something. But if you are angry, lonely or tired, the A L T find an activity that will match the intensity of how you're feeling. So if you're angry, go sprint around the block. If you're lonely, take a bath, go for a walk. Tired, go to bed. Emotional eating happens when eating becomes the response to the emotion instead of expressing the actual emotion. So don't eat your emotions. Don't hold your emotions in. Instead, find an activity that's going to help you move through the emotions. Take care. See you next time.