Some people eat only when they are hungry and stop when they have had enough. These are the lucky ones, people who stay trim and thin without effort. For them food is simply a source of nourishment and energy.

Other people eat to satisfy inner emotional needs and they don’t stop eating when they have had enough. Are you one of these people? Do you eat even when you don’t need nourishment and energy? Do you eat to feel good, or to relieve emotional pain or discomfort? This often leads to serious weight problems, so read on.

Part of the problem is the role that food plays in your life – a role of comfort and entertainment. Culturally and instinctively we prepare and serve foods to comfort those who have experienced loss, to celebrate joy or to show friendship and love.

But the major part of this problem is the way you were raised; the things that happened to you when you were a child that concerned food. This includes the use of food or candy as a reward, the things that the grownups said about food, the withholding of food as a punishment, the lack of food in some families, and the eating habits of the adults who served as examples for you.

WHAT IS EMOTIONAL EATING?

Emotional eating is when a person turns to food as a way to deal with feelings. These feelings can be pain, or anxiety, or boredom, or jealousy, or joy, or any other feeling. Emotional eating also involves obsession with food, weight and dieting.

Emotional eaters use food to avoid dealing with feelings, or to temporarily relieve unpleasant feelings. Unfortunately their eating often leads to guilt which can only be soothed by more eating, or by restrictive dieting, excessive exercise or purging.

Emotional eaters are often obsessive about their weight and how closely they stay with their diet plan. In this case they will panic when their weight goes just above their planned maximum. They will eat only certain foods, and often have an extremely restrictive diet. This type of emotional eating can lead to serious eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia, which can be life threatening.

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU ARE AN EMOTIONAL EATER?

Do you eat when you are not hungry? Are you obsessed with food – do you think excessively about when you plan to eat, or find yourself concentrating on not eating?

Do you alternately diet and binge, and then fell guilty? This is a strong indication of emotional eating.

Do you purge excess food by throwing up or use laxatives? Do you exercise compulsively? These behaviors are bulimic and are very dangerous to your health.

If you are in the habit of eating to feel better, then you might want to find out the source of your emotional eating and do something about it. In a study of 3,500 people, women suffering from moderate depression or anxiety ate an average of 118 extra calories each day. That could cause a weight gain of 12 pounds over just 1 year.

HOW DO YOU OVERCOME EMOTIONAL EATING?

Emotional eating is caused by using food as a way to handle emotional situations. Dieting is not recommended, as it can actually create more problems. When you are unable to stay on your diet you suffer guilt feelings that can only be soothed with more food and in turn, more guilt. What is needed is an approach that deals with your basic emotional issues.

Instead of trying to focus on what you are eating, you need to learn new skills to deal with stressful emotions. This can require the help of a Personal Coach or Psychotherapist. There are also many books on the subject, as well as audio programs, self hypnosis programs, and many types of instructional materials. Basically, you need to find replacements for the comfort that food now provides. You need to put food in its rightful place and learn healthy eating habits. There is a lot of help available.

Article Source: http://www.dietarticles.info

Terry Brussel-Gibbons, PhD, is a certified Clinical Hypnotherapist with over 30 years experience. She is Director of the Success Center in Encino, California and is a success coach, keynote speaker, and author. Download her free E-book “Weight Loss Secrets”, at www.trimandthin.com

Weight loss plans would not be nearly as difficult if it were not for one thing. I do well with my healthy eating habits until the evening hours. I will be watching TV and the next thing you know I have grabbed some sort of unhealthy snack.

I read somewhere that most people usually eat about the same amount of calories during the day. When the sun goes down the person that is overweight tends to scarf those calories down. When you eat at night it tends to be a comfort for some folks. Everything slows down and you have more time to think about what types of goodies are in your pantry. It is essential to get these your late night eating habits under control if weight loss is your goal.

Below are a few tips to help you accomplish this task.

Keep yourself occupied. Most of the time you tend to eat more at night out of boredom. When the urge to eat comes upon you try to keep busy. Get off of the couch and go for a walk or call a friend on the phone. You will probably find once you get busy the hunger pains will leave as quickly as they come.

Make sure you eat enough during the day. Even if you are on a diet if you do not take enough calories in during the day you will get hungry at night. Eating enough calories each day so you are satisfied is better than cutting way back and then pigging out when you get home. Try to eat most of your calories during the daytime and then go with a light supper with something like fruit for your late night snack.

Eat supper at your table. You need to train your eating habits to think of supper as a meal. Most people like to eat while doing something else like watching TV or while you are surfing the Internet. By eating at the table you will be less distracted. This should help you not eat as much.

Eat healthy snacks. When you have to have something to eat at night try to make it something that is good for you. Try fruit instead of potato chips or yogurt when you are craving a milkshake. Whatever you decide to snack on make sure it is of reasonable size. Even healthy foods need to eaten with some restraint.

Get in the bed. When the old hunger pains hit you right before bedtime why not go on to bed. This will benefit you in two ways, you will get plenty of sleep and you will beat out your desire to eat late at night.

These tips should help you get your late night eating habits under control. You must decide what you need to do and see it through until the end. The results may surprise you.

Article Source: http://www.dietarticles.info

For more diet tips try visiting www.lose-10-pounds.com where you will find tips, advice and resources about topics such as practical healthy eating advice

1. Stop Drinking Soft Drinks

Each soft drink is 150 empty calories. Replacing just one soft drink per day with water will result in losing 16 lbs per year.

2. Keep Yourself Busy

When there is nothing to do, we reach for the food out of boredom. Staying busy with other activities will help to keep your mind off food.

3. Get Rid Of Tempting Foods

We all have foods that we can’t resist. Knowing that, it’s best to not have those foods around the house. Out of sight, out of mind.

4. Watch Your Portions

How much you eat is just as important as what you eat. If an average person starts eating just 10% less, he will lose about 20 lbs per year without changing his diet.

5. Think Of Calories In Terms Of Exercise

You have to do the whole hour of aerobics to burn off the 500 calories contained in a big piece of cheesecake. What is easier for you: exercising for 1 hour or not eating the cheesecake?

6. Take A Pause

Next time when you are about to eat something you shouldn’t, pause for a couple of seconds and ask yourself -”Is It Worth It?” If the answer is “Yes”, go ahead and indulge. If the answer is “No”, step back and congratulate yourself for taking that pause.

7. Eat Slowly

It takes our brain about 20 minutes to realize that we are full. When you eat too fast, there is not enough time for the “full” feeling to register, so you’d end up literally stuffing yourself with food.

8. Don’t Skip Meals

When you skip a meal, you get way too hungry. When you are too hungry, you won’t be able to control yourself at the next meal. As a result, you’ll end up eating more than 2 meals worth of calories.

9. Plan Your Meals

Try to plan your meals in advance. Not knowing what you are going to eat will send you right to the fast food joint.

10. Do Everyday Physical Activities

Take the stairs instead of taking the elevator. Park your car at the far end of the parking lot. All those activities add up. Walking briskly for 15 minutes per day will help you lose an extra 10 lbs per year.

Article Source: http://www.dietarticles.info

Melanie Mendelson’s website “Daily Weight Loss Tips” is updated every day with new free diet tips and ideas! Visit www.DailyWeightLossTips.com

When examining the diets of my clients, I commonly find that even of those who tell me they eat from a healthy diet actually eat from a very narrow selection of foods. Most of their food choices are also processed or heavily prepared before eating. These people also frequently complain of failed diets and of their desire to maintain a more healthy weight and to feel the benefits they expect from a healthy diet. One of the most frequently cited reasons that diets and attempts at healthy eating fail is boredom. Many people simply do not know how to meet the challenge of keeping a healthy diet interesting day after day.

With just a little bit of planning and the huge variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, meats and other healthy foods at the local grocery store, it is possible to create exciting, nutritious meals that will keep boredom at bay.

The key to the success of any plan for healthy eating is to eat what you like, but to exercise moderation when it comes to the less healthy foods. Improving your level of health and fitness does not mean saying no that piece of chocolate cake, but it does mean limiting yourself to one piece, and possibly a smaller piece than you normally eat. A key contributing factor in unwanted weight gain is lack of portion control. Restaurants provide portions which often provide the entire daily recommendation for calorie intake, but in a single meal!

A healthy diet contains all types of foods, including carbohydrates, proteins, and even fats. However, there is a significant difference in the quality of the fats in fried foods compared to the fats in a lightly cooked fish, an avocado or flax seed. Seek out quality sources of nutrition and limit your intake of processed foods. Look through some simple cookbooks with pictures. Look for a small collection of appealing dishes that use similar ingredients. This way you can economize at the grocery store by shopping for ingredients you can use for an entire week. Do not buy too far in advance and avoid buying ingredients in bulk because you will likely get tired of them before you finish using them up.

The revised USDA food pyramid contains five major food groups – grains, vegetables, fruits, milk and dairy, and meat and beans. When choosing foods from these groups, it is important to eat an appropriate amount of a wide variety of foods from every food group. Doing so will not only give you a great deal of variety and keep boredom from setting in, but it will provide the best nutritional balance as well. Seek out new food items and try them out. Perhaps you can choose a new type of bean or a fruit that is new to you. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to buy it again, but try new foods and think about how the flavors might work in simple dishes or as replacement ingredients in your favorite recipes.

When choosing foods from within the various food groups, some choices are naturally better and healthier than others. For instance, choosing skim or 2% milk instead of full fat whole milk is a good way to cut down on both extra fat and calories. Choosing poultry or lean meat is a great way to get the protein you need every day without extra fat, cholesterol and calories. You don’t even need to eat animal protein for healthy protein intake. Even champion bodybuilder, and vegetarian, Bill Pearl, manages to get all the protein he needs from vegetable sources only. You don’t have to “go vegetarian,” but you don’t have to eat an animal every day either.

Not all low fat foods are created equally. Check the label! Many low fat foods add starches and sugars which will raise insulin levels and may lead to unwanted weight gain. Remember, your body is designed to store extra sugar in the fat cells around your middle, so low fat eating isn’t necessarily going to help you loose weight if that is your goal.

Cereals and breads that carry the whole grain label are healthier than those that do not. Not all breads labeled whole wheat are entirely whole wheat. Don’t forget to check the label. Even in the world of fruits and vegetables some choices are better than others. For instance, peaches packed in heavy syrup add unnecessary sugar to the diet, while those packed in water or juice provide better nutrition. The best sources are always the unprocessed variety.

Eat seasonal foods when they are available. Berries are excellent sources of essential nutrients, and antioxidants. Eat them raw, in homemade smoothies, and as toppings for a desert. Berries can also be an excellent ingredient in entries as well. Search your cookbooks, or the Internet, for great recipes that are quick and simple. In the fall, the many varieties of gourds provide a surprisingly wide range of flavors and nutrition. They are also an excellent source of dietary fiber, which is a critical factor in the support of optimal health.

Eating well does take a bit more effort than popping a prepared meal in the microwave, but with a little bit of planning it should not require a significant time investment. You also don’t need to be a gourmet cook. Preparing your own meals is easier than you may think so give it a try and don’t be afraid to mess up a dish from time to time. The learning experience will lead to you being an even more skilled cook. The benefits include better nutrient intake, and lower intake of sodium, transfats, and preservatives. Invest a little time for a healthier you and enjoy the wide variety of tastes that real, unprocessed foods have to offer.

Article Source: http://www.dietarticles.info

Dave Saunders is a professional lecturer, and certified nutritional educator. He enjoys creating interconnections through his writings and lectures to help others create context and see new discoveries and technologies in more a practical light. You can find out more about how to maintain a healthy diet at www.glycoboy.com.

WHAT IS EMOTIONAL EATING?

Seeing food as more than just a source of energy and enjoying it simply for the satisfaction it gives is not wrong. In fact science shows that food can promote good feelings by chemical reactions caused in our brains. What IS a problem is when an individual cannot experience pain, anxiety, joy or even boredom without turning to food as means of dealing with those feelings, or they are obsessed with food, weight and dieting.

Emotional eaters turn to food as a source of distraction from dealing with feelings. However, eating these foods leads to feelings of guilt which can only be soothed with more eating, restrictive dieting, excessive exercise or purging.

Emotional eaters tend to value themselves based on their weight and how closely they’ve stuck to their ‘ideal’ diet. Because of this distorted relationship with food, foods are labeled “GOOD” and “BAD”. Emotional eating can lead to serious eating disorders and depression.

HOW DO I KNOW IF I’M AN EMOTIONAL EATER?

Do you turn to food for reasons other than hunger? Are you obsessed with thoughts of food – whether you plan to eat it or are concentrating on restricting yourself from eating it?

Do you regularly try diets and fail – leading to guilt and further over eating? Do you think about or attempt to purge excess food by throwing up or using laxatives? Do you exercise compulsively when you think you’ve eaten too much?

HOW DO I OVERCOME EMOTIONAL EATING?

Since emotional eating is caused by looking to food as a coping strategy for emotional distress dieting can actually create more problems. When the emotional eater fails to stick to a diet they suffer feelings of guilt that can only be soothed with more food and in turn, more guilt or punishment.

Instead of trying to focus on what they are eating, the emotional eater needs to learn new skills for coping with stressful emotions. Often this requires the help of a Personal Coach or Psychotherapist who deals with emotional eating. It is only by finding replacements for the comfort food provided that the individual can put food into its rightful place and learn healthy eating habits that last a lifetime.

Article Source: http://www.dietarticles.info

Find out more about weight loss at www.rapid-weight-loss.info/