Beginner's Guide to Quit Emotional Eating

Video Transcript

RACHAEL RICHARDSON: Hi. I'm Rachael Richardson and I'm a registered dietician and a licensed nutritionist. I'm from Nutrolution, Inc. and we are located in Miami, Florida. This is a beginner's guide to overcoming emotional eating. One of the most important things that you can do if you're an emotional eater is to start to key into when you're eating based on your emotions versus your hunger. So really starting to notice when you got to the fridge or when you go to your cupboard to find a snack, whether you're eating out of stress or anxiety or depression or whatever it might be, and then once you figure out that you're doing that, it's time to develop a set of new things that you can replace eating with. So I encourage that you make a list of some nurturing activities and you keep that list really nearby. Another thing that you can do is to develop mantras or affirmations that you can repeating your head to tell yourself that you eat only when you're hungry versus eating out of emotions. Now, one of the most important things on a very physical level that we do for emotional eaters is to really start to exercise more. I've had clients in the past who have told me that they used exercise as an antidepressant and days that they don't exercise are days that they actually find themselves having more food cravings and more low emotions. So if you can find exercise that you enjoy and start doing that every single day and it should probably be something vigorous. That will most likely take care of a large portion of your carvings, and that has to do with the raise of neurotransmitters that exercise provides. The five things to remember are to differentiate between true hunger and cravings, to develop a list of positive things that you can do instead of eat, to create an affirmation or mantra that is pertinent to you and will help you, to start to exercise, and to include healthier versions of your favorite foods.