Emotional Eating

++  Many people eat when they aren't really hungry.  Are you one of those?  Or, you have the urge to eat, even when you shouldn't be hungry (because it hasn't been that long since the last meal)?   There are many triggers to this kind of over-indulging, and some of them are less obvious than others.  Here are some things to watch for, and some factors to consider about them: 

+ You eat because it's there.  It's out in plain sight where you can see it.  It smells good.  You just saw an advertisement for it.  External triggers like this are appealing, and some people find them very hard to resist.

+ You are thirsty.  You body needs something, but sends a confusing signal.  With summer coming, be watchful for this trigger in children, especially.

+ You didn't eat breakfast.  Skipping breakfast makes it harder for your body to get out of resting mode and into activity mode for the day.  In the end, this makes it much harder to control your weight.  It doesn't have to be a big, filling meal to make a difference.

+ You are tired.  Sleep-deprivation is epidemic in our society.  There are as many reasons as there are people complaining of this, but they fall into a few categories: 

•  use of TV and other lit-up screens near bedtime makes it hard to sleep (another trap that also affects children)
• other aspects of poor "sleep hygiene" that can make you too "wired" to fall asleep 
•  too much to worry about (and poor coping skills for the problems)  
•  too much to do - often, this really means poor prioritizing - most people don't really have to check email or social media 10 times a day, for example. 

The more often a person is short on sleep, the more likely that person is to become obese.  Those who average 5-6 hours/night are 50% more likely to be obese than those who get 7-9 hours, according to one study.  This is due to disruption in hormone levels. 

+ You are bored or restless.  Try keeping your hands and mind busy with something else - read, knit or pursue another hobby, call a friend, visit a shut-in, take a walk . . .

 + You are on emotional overload.  We eat to celebrate.  We eat because chewing is an activity when any activity can help us ignore feeling lonely, angry, anxious, etc., which makes us feel guilty, so we eat some more.   You feel the opposite of bored, but you can try to cope with it in the same way.

Well, I should wrap this up - all this talk about food can make a person hungry!