Comfort Eating - Resisting the urge!

Food is around us 24/7 so it is no wonder that we continually turn to it for comfort.

There is so much choice and whether you are a sweet or savoury eater we all know what satisfies us and gives us the feel good factor if only for a short burst of time.

Firstly, to understand comfort eating we need to break down the cycle .

- Something happens in our lives good or bad that makes us desire the feel good factor - We look for something that will fulfil this and provide immediately satisfaction - We turn to food, glorious food, well it isn't hard as it is all around us and as we tend to buy food that we particularly like then it will be on hand in the cupboard - We eat consciously and in volume and get the all time high we wanted - This more often than not is followed by an all time low as we feel unnecessarily full, uncomfortable and disappointed with ourselves for being out of control - This leads to weight gain for most people , compounding this issue - We promise ourselves we will not do this again - And yes you know what's coming - the cycle starts all over again

So what can we do to stop this cycle

In itself there is nothing wrong with comfort eating, the key is to do this in a controlled way and in moderation. By controlled I mean being aware of when and why you are doing this. It is equally bad for you to comfort eat when happy as it is when sad as in both cases you are not controlling the situation and by the time you do it is too late and the damage is done.

So as already stated 'awareness is the key' to controlling comfort eating.

Being aware and taking stock before putting unnecessary food in your mouth will help to stop comfort eating. Ask yourself if you need or really want the food and question the impact that eating this will have mid to long term on your well being or weight control. Doing this will detach you from the situation that led to the urge to eat.

However, this is only one step to successfully ending comfort eating. You need to ask yourself why you have chosen food to provide you with the feel good factor and this is often embedded into us from childhood. Typically being rewarded with food, in particular sweet things when we did something good or consoled when something bad happened to us.

You then need to come up with other things that will give you this feeling. Do you know that exercise is one of the best ways of obtaining the feel good factor as it releases the happy chemical Serotonin and at the same time burns calories and helps you to lose weight.

Copyright (c) 2009 Karen Fullick

Article Source: http://www.mycontentbuilder.com

My name is Karen and for many years I have struggled with my weight - until I lost 49lbs and discovered an amazing way to effortless, permanent weight loss. Visit my site to see how I did this www.freetheslimyou.com

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