6 Ways to Handle Emotional Eating at the Holidays

Why do we eat? Well, we eat for fuel. We eat for muscle development and bone development and growth and maintenance, and many other reasons that are physiologically based.

Most of that eating is driven by hunger. You get hungry, you eat, you get full, you stop eating, and you move on with your day until your next meal. Now, a lot of us don't really eat only because we're hungry.

Sometimes we eat for comfort. Certain foods we turn to when we feel bad about ourselves, or when we're depressed, or when we're anxious. We comfort ourselves with those foods. The comfort lasts for a little while, but then once it wears off, those feelings will come back.

We also eat for avoidance. This is a case where we might want to avoid feeling anything. To avoid anger or depression, or anxiety, or anything that's uncomfortable. So we end up - through food - stuffing those feelings down inside so we don't have to deal with them. But of course, eventually we will need to deal with them.

We also eat for connection. Connection with our past remembering favorite foods from our childhood or some favorite meal that a grandparent or a family member member made for us. So we're looking for connection.

We also eat on some level because of addiction - when we crave food! Sugar is a great example, and many of us have issues with that. There's this sense of 'I gotta have it and it tastes good, and I got to have more.'.

Now, the thing with sugar is that we're wired for it. It's in our DNA to eat sugar because it's a fast carbohydrate that gives us energy quickly. But, in our modern life, it can create bigger problems.

Now, a lot of this depends on the type of food we eat. So are we eating fast food or processed food or packaged food or whole foods that we cook ourselves?

What we eat really affects our bodies and our minds and our emotions. So it's fuel. It affects how much energy we have. It affects how our skin looks. It affects how we feel, whether we feel depressed or anxious or moody, or very sad. It also affects our hormonal system and our brain - the whole shebang!

I want to talk for a minute about addiction again, and the bliss point. Now you've probably heard of the bliss point. This is what food manufacturers have created to keep us addicted to food. This is the perfect pinnacle of sugar, salt, and fat. It's what keeps us from eating just one Lay's potato chip.

When you start eating those foods that have that perfect bliss point, it's very, very difficult to stop. So the holidays are coming up and not only that, we're in the middle of a pandemic. This is adding another layer of stress and sadness and fear and anger and isolation, and many other things, plus some good things, that are taking an effect on us for this holiday.

So what can we do? The first thing we want to do is identify feelings that we're having and what is causing those feelings what's underneath them. If we're feeling anxious, for example, what's underneath that? Is it sadness? Is it depression? And once we identify, what is that feeling, what is the emotion underneath it, we can kind of step back and say, 'okay, so here's the real problem. This isn't really the answer. I eat food. So what can I do to address this issue?'

Second, we can always choose healthier options just as I was saying before. Limit, or reduce fast food, processed food, packaged food. A lot of these foods have this bliss point in them or they have preservatives and other things that just don't serve our bodies very well.

The next thing we can do is prep food ahead of time, especially snacks. So when we get bored or when we feel tired or when we just feel like getting up and walking around, sometimes we go for food, and for snack food.

A lot of times we're not even hungry. I mean, we're really not hungry, but we tend to eat snacks that aren't necessarily healthy for us. So if we prepare those ahead of time, you know, nuts, fruit, maybe some nut butter on an apple or something like that, it can take away some of the decision-making, and make it just handy right there.

The next thing is portion control. So I'm sure you've heard about this. Great big dinner plates call for a lot of food to cover it. With smaller plates, you can put a lot of stuff on there, and it's not nearly as much as on a big plate. And you'll be surprised that your mind says, 'yeah, that's enough. That's all we need.'

The other thing we can do is deal with our impulse control. Now, how do we do that? So part of it is you're feeling hungry or you're feeling anxious, or you're feeling like you need to eat something. The first thing you can do is just drink some water.

Now sometimes, when we feel hungry, we're really thirsty. So just drinking that water and getting the hydration, then that full feeling can really help reduce and kind of break the impulse. Sort of slow things down a little bit.

Now the other thing that I really encourage you to do is avoid excessive hunger. So when you let yourself go too long and you're really hungry, it's very difficult to make good decisions around food around what to eat, how much to eat all of that.

Another option is don't deprive yourself. When you are very strict with what you allow yourself to have, sometimes that can create a big backfire. So let's say for example, I like chocolate chip cookies, which I do, and I've put a moratorium on it. No more chocolate chip cookies ever.

Okay, well, that that's okay for the first little while. But now I have to turn away from them. I don't want to be around them. I don't want to smell them. I feel like that's going to trigger me. That's going make me lose control. And now you get to the holidays where there's chocolate chip cookies and there's cake and there's fudge, and there's all that other stuff. That could set up a "Yikes - I can't stand it" situation. And then suddenly you're bingeing on that food. And then you really feel horrible.

The other thing that you can do is make sure that you get enough sleep - good sleep! I'm talking about anywhere between seven and nine hours of good quality sleep. Because when you don't get enough sleep, you tend to have very very poor impulse control.

The last thing I want to talk about is learning to trust your body to tell you when you're hungry and when you're full. Now if this has never been an option for you, for various reasons, sometimes you need to start externally.

In other words, when the clock says seven o'clock in the morning, you eat breakfast. When the clock says 1130 in the morning, it's time to stop and eat lunch. When the clock says it's five o'clock or 5:30, it's time to eat dinner. Because if you can't trust your body to tell you when you're hungry, then you're either going to not eat, and then get excessively hungry, or you're just going to eat all day.

The more that you can do this, the more you will learn. Your body will learn that you're trusting it, that you're eating on a routine and that you can trust the signals that you're getting from your body. One way to help with this is to keep a food diary that can really tell you a lot about what you're eating when you're eating, and why you're eating. Put those feelings down in writing.

So that's all I have. If you would like to learn more, and to get more support for this holiday season, I invite you to join me, along with Linda Frazee, for a two-part webinar called Change it up!

The link below will get you to the landing page for the webinar. It will give you more information and you can sign up. I would love to see you there!

Have yourself a meaningful holiday season. Even in 2020!!

Take care and have a joyful, peaceful holiday!

Dr Elaine

Webinar link: www.LindaFrazee.com/changeitup

This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace the medical advice of your doctor or healthcare provider. Please consult your healthcare provider for advice about a specific medical condition.