Emotional eaters use food as a means of coping with a variety of issues, such as stress, low self esteem, anger, guilt, remorse, anxiety, frustration, a feeling of helplessness,  and resentment, just to name a few.

Your eating habits play a significant role in meeting and maintaining your weight loss goals.  As part of our program, we work toward getting you on the right track and then helping you stay there.

In order for you to better understand the triggers that cause emotional eating you will find various scenarios below and the types of triggers that create the emotional eating response.  This may help you better understand the motivations that trigger your emotional eating habits.

Common Emotional Eating Triggers:

• You may be experiencing social or financial troubles, have a medical condition or feel you have no social support, this reaction is probably caused by Stress.
• If you have feelings of nervousness, apprehension, worry or fear, which lead you to find comfort in food, you are probably experiencing Anxiety.
• Long periods of sadness or grief, such as the loss of a loved one, a failed relationship, or the loss of a job, that lasts 2 weeks or longer, is probably brought on by Depression.
• When your thoughts are negative, pessimistic, and you feel a low self-esteem, feelings of inadequacy, or feel physically tired most of the time, these feelings are triggered by Depression.
• You may feel a strong sense of guilt about something that has happened in the past, or a bad incident that occurred.  This brings on feelings of Guilt and Remorse.
• There may be a person in your life who brings on thoughts of anger every time you think of them or hear their name.  This trigger is Resentment.

• If you feel others are more fortunate than you are, and feel jealousy toward someone because of the things they have, or the successes they have in life, you are feeling Envy.
• Do you feel like you just don’t measure up in the areas of looks, talent, work achievement, etc.?  Is there a lack of feeling that your desires are being met?  This emotional eating trigger is Frustration.
• Are you struggling with intense sorrow like the death of a family member or loved one?  The common reaction is Grief.
• Do you eat everything you want just because you can?  Particularly high calorie foods and comfort foods such as ice cream and candy?  You’re channeling these desires into a sense of Independence.
• Is your circle of friends small?  Do you feel left out while others are having a good time?  Do you feel you’re never invited to participate?  You’re experiencing Loneliness.

Vicious Cycle

Allowing these and other triggers to control your eating behavior traps you in an endless cycle of bad habits, and causes a feeling of helplessness and inability to change.

This vicious treadmill of a cycle can cause significant weight gain to occur, which often leads to anti-social behavior, not wanting to get close to other people, and the mistaken belief that the fat you are putting on your body may offer you some form of protection from the outside world.

Emotional cycles are normal and real, and they don’t go away easily. But in order to take positive action, you must first be able to recognize them. Once you understand where the problems lie, and the types of things that trigger certain emotions, you will have taken an important step toward your recovery.