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I am a qualified Psychologist and food lover. My passion is in understanding the psychology of weight loss, emotional eating and the links between food, mood and attitude!

Sunday, July 5, 2009

New idea on managing emotional eating

Last friday night, I was at home having a glass of wine (which is what I often do on a friday evening). As I was sitting and enjoying my glass of wine, I opened my mail and read a letter that I was expecting from an organisation that I am currently having problems with. Not surprisingly, the contents of the letter were not to my liking and I felt very annoyed. At this point, instead of sticking to my usual one glass of wine as planned, I thought "#$%@ it, I'm going to have another one". So I did.

I was reflecting on this experience this morning and I realised:

1. I had a second drink purely due to feeling angry.
2. The second glass of wine really did not make me feel any better as I was too annoyed to fully enjoy it.
3. I was allowing the organisation get the better of me.

So the idea popped into my head that next time I decide to drink/eat something I hadn't planned on, due to some event or person that has affected my emotions, I will say to myself with confidence and power that

"I choose not to eat or drink as a result of X making me feel Y".

So in the above example I could have said "I choose not to have another drink because XYZ organisation has annoyed me". I just allowed the XYZ organisation to impact on me in a negative way and that resulted in emotional eating (or emotional drinking in this case). If I actively choose not to let events or people impact on my emotions to the degree that I engage in emotional eating or drinking as a way of managing emotions, I will feel a lot more empowered and I will be able to enjoy the food and drink I consume more! That sounds great to me!

2 comments:

  1. Interesting first posts. Good luck with your blogging journey.

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  2. Thanks Stella! I like to reflect on my own experiences of emotional eating and come up with ideas of what can help me. I assume that might help others in the process. I have a lot more I want to learn and share too!

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