Food is a source of well-being through nutritional care. However, there are times when this experience of flavor and daily happiness becomes a focus of concern for those who establish a bond of dependence on food.
The feeling of hunger can also be emotional. Thus, the temptation to indulge may occur even after having tasted a recipe. ¿Why can't i stop eating? In Psychology-Online we reflect on this question.
Index
- Why can't I stop eating? Emotional hunger
- How to stop eating for anxiety
- Anxiety about eating while on a diet: treatment
Why can't I stop eating? Emotional hunger
Emotional hunger differs from actual physical sensation in that it is conditioned by the impulse of a mood, for example, stress, anxiety, sadness or a disgust.
What is psychonutrition
As psychonutrition shows, a discipline that links two different but interconnected disciplines such as nutrition and psychology, it is positive to understand the essence of the table habits, emotional motivations and the relationship that a person establishes with food in order to establish a diagnosis of habits that should be unlearned in order to integrate others new.
Food is a fundamental need of the human being in relation to well-being as well explained the pyramid of Abraham MaslowHowever, emotional hunger reflects a different reality. When a person eats motivated by emotional hunger, he does not experience a well-being after that moment after having taken a certain food. For what reason? Because the search for that well-being happens, in the first place, to listen to that emotion and not to hide it.
The characteristic of this type of response is marked by immediacy. That is, a gradual appetite does not arise. The impulse is so intense that the person also does not enjoy the creative process of cooking a delicious dish but instead takes any food (often sweet) to quench that feeling.
How to stop eating for anxiety.
First of all, if a person feels who loses control over food it is very important that you speak with your doctor as a health specialist to determine an accurate diagnosis. Once the person is aware that anxiety causes her discomfort, he can begin to take care of himself more consciously.
1. Help from the psychonutritionist
The specialist can advise the person in establishing a healthy and balanced diet that fits your needs and lifestyle. But it can also help you lay the foundation for a new relationship with food. A freer, more conscious and healthier relationship.
2. Mindful eating
A person may be eating, physically present in a place, yet his mind is not truly appreciating that moment. This is the case when a worker eats quickly in front of the computer.
Therefore, create a ritual of well-being around the table, disconnecting the telephone and the television during that moment. Eat calmly, savor the flavors and textures of food, apply mindfulness to the table. Also take care of the aesthetics of the dishes since their visual presentation is an incentive of enjoyment. Turn the main meals of the day into spaces of calm and disconnection.
Therefore, it is also important that when you go to the supermarket to make the shopping basket, you select healthy and varied ingredients to prepare your weekly menus. Give a special role to the products of the season.
3. Reduce stress levels in your life
This is a good time to consider significant changes in your life in order to increase well-being through a restructuring the agenda. Find more moments and spaces to be in contact with nature, meet others, walk and do activities that you like.
4. Self-knowledge
By listening to the sensations of your body and your mind, you can learn to differentiate between the physical sensation of hunger and the emotional sensation. This differentiation increases your level of empowerment to respond by thinking about your objective needs instead of continuing to feed the chain of soulish appetite.
5. Take a cooking course
A course in which you discover the potential of this art seen through cooking techniques, the wide variety of healthy recipes and creative entertainment.
Anxiety about eating while on a diet: treatment.
Sometimes the feeling of anxiety arises in the particular context of a diet process which, in Sometimes, it has been initiated by self-motivation without consulting the indications of a specialist. Therefore, anyone who wants to go on a diet must personally consult with an expert who will establish a personalized action plan tailored to the needs of that person.
Diet with professional advice
It may also happen that the feeling of anxiety does not arise from hunger on a physical level but from the emotional factor of resignation to certain whims that the protagonist used to give himself (it is possible to make exceptions from time to time) or to those changes that this situation may bring about in the lifestyle. For example, you may have to make changes in your social habits if the idea of Meeting your friends for dinner tests your willpower in relation to meeting the diet. In this framework, the anxiety to eat sweet.
It is positive to see this diet process as a learning period in which to acquire new, healthier habits. In this way, you can discover that in a diet there is room for a wide and rich catalog of foods, however, the frequency with which they are taken responds to a healthy criterion.
Going on a diet with professional advice is essential to setting realistic goals throughout the action plan.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Why can't i stop eating, we recommend that you enter our category of Nutrition.
