Do you ever stop and think about why you are eating? Are you really hungry every time you eat? A large portion of our eating habits are just that, habit. Often, we are not eating out of necessity; we are eating for other reasons. This is a huge contributing factor to the nation’s overweight problem.
There are a lot of reasons we eat:
Boredom — Sometimes we eat because there is nothing else to do.
Comfort — Food becomes our counselor. When we need comfort, relief from stress, or are feeling overwhelmed, food is often used. The problem is that we often end up feeling worse.
Other emotional reasons — We also eat when feeling upset, hurt, depressed, happy, lonely, sad, anxious, confused, or for a variety of other reasons.
Lack of energy — Food is often used as a “pick me up” when feeling tired. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but often the wrong foods are chosen in this situation.
Habit — We eat out of habit, such as eating at a certain time or when we are watching TV. This type of eating includes those of us who were raised to “eat everything on your plate”. We grew up eating out of habit or we feel that we have to eat all that we take. That’s not necessarily the best thing to do. If you fall into this trap, start with smaller portions and go back for seconds if you absolutely need to.
Social situations — Birthday parties, reunions, and meetings, to name a few.
Hunger — This is the reason we should be eating, when we feel physiologically hungry. Often, we eat for many other reasons. Not that it’s bad to eat when you are not hungry, but it often leads to overeating.
Do you fall into any of these categories? Each time you are eating, think about why you are eating. If you are not hungry, put the food down and find something else to do.
Next week we will look at some ways to lessen or eliminate some of these psychological eating habits.
-- Rich Hess is Executive Director and Fitness Trainer at the Middlecreek Area Community Center. You can reach Rich at richmacc@live.com or the MACC at maccrec.org
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