Telltale characteristics are implicated in emotional eating. You should recognize these, lest they lead you to ongoing weight gain, or being unable to enjoy a healthy lifestyle. Often an emotional eater will eat when they feel depressed, angry, or stressed. Boredom is also a cause for overeating, and can begin the cycle of emotional eating.
Other factors are at play in emotional eating as well. For example, one who eats from emotion will often times head automatically for the refrigerator after they come home, without even realizing it. You may also find that it is hard to talk about emotions openly with others. Food takes the place of talking.
If you suspect that you do have an emotional eating problem, the first thing you should do is to look at your feelings and try and discover which emotions are contributing to the problem. Monitor your behaviors and feelings when you are eating and try to be more aware at those times.
When and How
Notice when you eat and how much you eat. Eating when you are not hungry, eating too fast, or eating while ignoring something stressful, are signs of emotional eating. If you can notice when you are eating, move away from the food areas. You can go into an area until you calm down and allow your emotions to slow down.
Try breaking up patterns and habits. For example, having a quick bite when you get home from work. Recognizing your patterns is the first step to breaking them, and becoming aware is the first step to recognizing these patterns and moving away from being controlled by your emotions.
