FOOD/ EATING SPECIAL ......EMOTIONAL ATYACHAAR

EATING ...EMOTIONAL ATYACHAAR  If you’ve failed to stop your emotions from dictating what you eat, here’s how to put an end to food cravings     Emotions have an incredible power to influence our food choices — usually in the opposite direction of healthy eating. If you’re an emotionally driven eater, you might use comfort food to soothe stress. If you’re in a bad mood, you probably don’t care what you eat — or how much of it you pile on your plate. And it’s not just negative emotions that lead us to over-indulge. Many of us use food in a celebratory way, and any occasion can be a green light to binge. Food can also conjure up comforting feelings and memories. In her new book, Quit Comfort Eating, Lose Weight By Managing Your Emotions, Dr Susan Albers has come up with tools to help you take a pause and identify what you are feeling at that crucial moment when you’re deciding whether to have that junk snack with your coffee. Here are pointers that will wean you away from food dependence: BE IN THE MOMENT We all eat on autopilot sometimes — mindlessly munching our way through a monster bag of chips in front of the telly, for example. A good trick each time you’re trying to decide on a snack is to repeat the phrase “be here” to yourself, tune into how you’re feeling and then decide. Are you snacking to combat stress? Or do you feel happy and want to prolong the feeling with food? Are you actually hungry? If you do this a few times, you’ll start to recognise when you zone out and figure how to bring yourself back to the moment to make a smarter decision. BE FLEXIBLE Rigid dieters are more prone to a loss of control — and a binge — if their healthy eating plans are scuppered because they never have a Plan B. It’s vital to be able to adapt to changing circumstances, for example, if you’ve packed lunch and then your boss invites you to a restaurant. Instead of giving in to negative emotions and then having a “blow-out”, be flexible. Choose the least calorie-laden dish on the menu and make a note to adjust your portion sizes later. TAKE A ‘TIME IN’ Overeating can be an expression of anger turned inward. How is your eating affected when you are irritated? If you’re about to cook dinner, do you think “to hell with it!” and grab a cheese pizza instead of the stir-fry you had planned? Next time, acknowledge that anger and do something else to discharge it rather than make an emotional decision over food. Write down how you feel, call someone to talk it out or go for a run. RATE YOUR HUNGER We should rely on our body’s cues to tell us when to start and stop eating, like a rumbling tummy and a feeling of satisfaction. However, we often eat in response to external cues such as TV ads for fast foods. We respond to appetite — the want to eat — instead of hunger, which is the need to eat. It’s why we walk into the supermarket for milk and come out with a dozen cupcakes.     Start rating, on a scale of one to 10, your want to eat versus your need to eat before choosing a meal, a snack or even taking the next mouthful. If the want rating is higher than the need rating, then take a pause as you may be acting on an emotional urge rather than the need to refuel. DELICIOUS DANGERS Food companies use words such as “silky”, “juicy” and “mouth-watering” to evoke specific emotions. These emotive words hit us in the gut and shape our food choices. To find out how easily you’re drawn in, deconstruct the menu when you eat out. Make a note of enticing words that describe the dishes, such as “tender”, “flaky”, “sizzling”, and then delete them, stripping the description back.     For instance, “Home-style Sicilian Chicken Parmesan, a plump deep-fried chicken patty, lightly breaded and topped with a sauce of vine-ripened tomatoes and smothered in mozzarella” becomes “fried, breaded, processed chicken topped with tomato sauce and cheese”. Do you still want it or will you choose something else? It’s a great way to pause in a situation ripe for an emotion-driven decision. REFRESH YOUR ‘EMOTIONAL STATUS’ The pace of modern life can cut us off from our emotions and from true belly-rumbling hunger as well. But once we start checking our “emotional status” regularly, it’s easier to stay ahead of emotional eating. You’ll start noticing patterns in your moods. If you make the clearest decisions in the morning, then buy or pack your lunch first thing. If you’re in meltdown by the end of the day, then have an afternoon snack pre-prepared so you don’t binge before dinner. TRY A LITTLE TENDERNESS When it comes to battling body weight, it’s common to blame yourself and think “I’m fat” or “I’m stupid for eating that”. Instead of beating yourself up, replace negative statements with non-judgmental, encouraging words such as “Keep trying just for today”. We all know that reaching a healthy weight is important, but getting there is rarely straightforward. Once you accept that, it gets easier to be gentle with yourself.     – DAILY MIRROR