Emotional eating is conceptualized as eating or over eating in response to distressful situations. A strong association exists between emotions and emotional eating especially when the intensity of the emotions increases as finding comfort in food is very common.

​

• Decreasing the fear of over eating or binging

• Building up a healthy relationship with food.

• Developing strategies to manage feelings in a healthy way

• Understanding which foods are emotionally comforting versus nutrient-rich foods.

• Being able to enjoy, not just stop eating because you think you should or to keep eating because you cannot stop.

• Practicing mindfulness by choosing foods you like and eating them in moderation

• Understanding the concepts of emotional versus physical hunger and fullness

• Getting the connection with physical sensations of hunger and fullness in your body.

• Building up individual meal plans using a wide variety of foods in order to maintain healthy eating patterns.

• Normalizing/ Improving eating pacing in order to be present during the meal and facilitate food satisfaction.

• Developing healthy eating environments such as family meals

 

Often times people think that emotional eating is caused by lack of self-control when they are exposed to food. However, emotional eating is only the behavior used to cope with distressful feelings as it provides the temporary relief you want to experience when life situations seem to be out of control. Learning the connection between food and feelings can help you identify healthy strategies to manage distressful situations and without using food for comfort. Please contact us and give yourself the opportunity to improve your eating habits.