On average, a person makes 200 decisions about food each day.
Whether to eat a bagel or oatmeal for breakfast?
Or should I eat or not eat because I’m on a diet?
Or does this yogurt contains too much sugar than the other one?
Am I eating because I’m hungry or trying to satisfy my emotions?
So what really triggers you to eat?
There are 3 types of cues that your body may respond and urge you to eat.
Physical hunger
Emotional eating
External eating
In this post, I will introduce you to the world of emotional eating.
You know, we’ve all been there. Craving for something sweet after a fight with significant other or after a long, stressful day.
In many occasions, we find ourselves shuffling into the kitchen pantry to satisfy our lonely mouth -regardless of how hungry we are.
Actually, there is a science behind why you act this way!
Craving for something sweet or high carb food is your body’s natural response to self-medicate your body against stress or unpleasant emotions.
Here’s the fact:
When you eat your chocolate chip cookies (high-carbohydrate food)
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Increased insulin secretion
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Insulin lowers the number of amino acid in the body EXCEPT for tryptophan
↓
Tryptophan gets converted into serotonin (the happy hormone)
↓
Increased mood 😄
So it’s not your fault but your body’s natural response to crave for something sweet when your boss rejected your 20 page project proposal.
But, what should I do then?
It’s my body’s natural response right?
It’s in my blood, it’s my genes that I inherited from my caveman ancestors. I can’t fight that!
Don’t worry, there’s a solution! A very powerful one.
Mindful eating has been proven to be effective for healthy weight loss among overweight and obese populations. Not only mindful eating can shed your #’s off but also it is very effective in mood control and mind function!
The first step of becoming a mindful eater is to “know thyself”
Take the Emotional Eating questionnaire to find which type of Emotional Eater you are!