By Kayla Jayne

At some point in our lives, we’ve all fallen victim to emotional eating, whether it be scarfing down that whole block of chocolate or always finding ourselves in front of the refrigerator! Your best defense is understanding what exactly emotional eating is and how to recognize it in yourself.

When we think of emotional eating, we generally picture some poor heartbroken girl sitting in front of the television crying her eyes out and digging into a tub of ice-cream. But emotional eating can come in many forms and effect us all differently.

Emotional eating isn’t just about depression and heartache, it can also be a byproduct of stress or even boredom. I actually believe that eating out of boredom is a highly under-recognized form of emotional eating!

Let’s look at these different drivers in a bit more detail:

Eating out of depression

Here’s where the term ‘comfort food’ takes on its true meaning. People may find themselves turning to food in order to find solace and understanding, but once we realize what we’ve eaten in the process, we can end up feeling even worse about ourselves.

In order to avoid this, this might sound a bit cliche but, we need to recognize what it is that is actually causing these feelings of depression and find a healthier way of dealing with it. If you can’t approach the source (or person), then find comfort in a friend or family member who is good at just listening or can relate to what you’re going through. This approach will be much healthier for you both inside and out.

Eating out of stress

If you’re working in a stressful environment or find extra stresses piled on you at home, this too can lead you to seek out the refrigerator for comfort. In this case food can be seen as the one thing in our life we have control over, and we find a sense of reliability in our favorite foods – they’re always there when we need them.

Stressful environments can also lead us to justify having that drink of scotch every night, or meeting colleagues at the local bar for a ‘bonding session’. All of these habits aren’t doing your weight loss plans any favors! If you’re feeling stressed at work, a better approach would be to look to implement some time management strategies, or if it’s really affecting your life, seek out a new job.

Life is too short to be unhappy.

Eating out of boredom

This is the secret diet killer! The lazy weekend at home can be filled with frequent trips to the kitchen, even when we’re not hungry. That’s what eating out of boredom is all about. We feel like we should be doing something, so we get up and walk around the house, only to find ourselves back in the kitchen.

When we continue to snack when we’re not hungry, what you’re taking in is just extra calories. Your body doesn’t need it for energy, so it will just store it as fat – another spare tire to try and lose!

So any time you find yourself in the kitchen, but you’re not really hungry, grab a stick of sugar-free chewing gum. It’ll feel like you’re eating, and if you’re not really hungry it’ll satisfy those boredom hunger pangs that sent you to the kitchen in the first place.

So as you can see, with a better understanding of emotional eating you’ll be able to identify how it could be effecting you and your weight loss.

There are 2 other kinds of emotional eating that you need to watch out for… register today to find out what they are and receive a number of other essential weight loss tips and tricks go to: http://secretstohealthyweightloss.com

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