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Mindless Holiday Eating
Mindless holiday eating.
Actually, what seems like mindless holiday eating is really "mind-full." In other words, your mind is full of difficult feelings and you are trying to eat them away.
Holiday time of the year, while "fun and joyous" for some, at least some of the time, is also highly emotional and stressful for just about everyone. High expectations of relationships, disappointments, need to organize and "produce" more than ever in terms of gatherings, meals, shopping, decorating, all lead to a lot of potentialaggravation, frustration and, in the end, comforting yourself with food.
Emotional eating is behind just about anyones overeating or difficulty dieting, but at this time of year, one has a combination of emotional eating to the max and sources for comforting foods in abundance. When you feel stressed, lonely, sad, anxious, or angry, you tend to look for any means to feel better and many people turn to eating something that gives them comfort or happiness, even if it really only makes you happy for as long as you are chewing.
Thanksgiving often gets the ball rolling because people have often so overdone it that they feel like "What the heck, I've already blown my diet ,so I might as well throw in the towel for the season and start after the first of the year." This is the "defeatist." Another type feels quietly too "outside" all the celebrating. They are lonely or disappointed and eat all the celebratory foods that are in the office to try to feel part of the fun and less on the outside. For others, the holidays represent angst with family and all this "getting together" makes them crazy and they try to solve the emotional upheaval through food comfort. In fact, people will "swallow" their sadness, anger, nervousness or just about any negative feeling that they are trying to not feel or express. Of course, the problem is all you end up with on January 1st is an overweight, unhealthy, unhappy person with all these same negative feelings that haven't been looked at and, therefore, are unresolved.
Most people struggling with weight and eating are dealing with some sort of emotional issue that drives the behavior. Dealing with relatives about the issues, paring down on what you have to accomplish for the holiday in order to diminish stress, looking inside yourself for what is making you sad, angry or worried will go a lot further toward feeling better on January 1st than any cookie, cake or candy.
Watch a clip of this segment on TODAY:
Actually, what seems like mindless holiday eating is really "mind-full." In other words, your mind is full of difficult feelings and you are trying to eat them away.
Holiday time of the year, while "fun and joyous" for some, at least some of the time, is also highly emotional and stressful for just about everyone. High expectations of relationships, disappointments, need to organize and "produce" more than ever in terms of gatherings, meals, shopping, decorating, all lead to a lot of potentialaggravation, frustration and, in the end, comforting yourself with food.
Emotional eating is behind just about anyones overeating or difficulty dieting, but at this time of year, one has a combination of emotional eating to the max and sources for comforting foods in abundance. When you feel stressed, lonely, sad, anxious, or angry, you tend to look for any means to feel better and many people turn to eating something that gives them comfort or happiness, even if it really only makes you happy for as long as you are chewing.
Thanksgiving often gets the ball rolling because people have often so overdone it that they feel like "What the heck, I've already blown my diet ,so I might as well throw in the towel for the season and start after the first of the year." This is the "defeatist." Another type feels quietly too "outside" all the celebrating. They are lonely or disappointed and eat all the celebratory foods that are in the office to try to feel part of the fun and less on the outside. For others, the holidays represent angst with family and all this "getting together" makes them crazy and they try to solve the emotional upheaval through food comfort. In fact, people will "swallow" their sadness, anger, nervousness or just about any negative feeling that they are trying to not feel or express. Of course, the problem is all you end up with on January 1st is an overweight, unhealthy, unhappy person with all these same negative feelings that haven't been looked at and, therefore, are unresolved.
Most people struggling with weight and eating are dealing with some sort of emotional issue that drives the behavior. Dealing with relatives about the issues, paring down on what you have to accomplish for the holiday in order to diminish stress, looking inside yourself for what is making you sad, angry or worried will go a lot further toward feeling better on January 1st than any cookie, cake or candy.
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I always try and eat a little something like some cheese, fruit and nuts before heading out to parties. I know I will eat way too much if I am overly hungry!
It's all just there and I feel so odd standing around at the parties so I just eat and eat and eat. Ugg.
Do you think it is responsible to state on National television that ALL over weight people you see have emoitional problems? You see that is what you did on the Today Show. It is hurtful and most likely incorrect. Any time a statement contains an absoult value it has the potential to be incorrect. You just told thousands of people they have emotional problems. You also told people if they have a friend that is over weight, they are probably dealing with a person with emotional problems. You just added one more problem to the world you think you are helping.
Louise makes a good point. While over-eating can be fueled by emotions, those same emotions can fuel different compulsive behaviors in other people. We just would need to be able to see their bank accounts for evidence of their compulsive shopping, gambling, etc, their bedroom for sex addictions, or their medicine cabinet for literal self-medication. It is obvious when a person overeats. Not so obvious when the same sorts of emotions motivate people to self-medicate with other substances and activities. Making overweight people the poster children for emotional problems is inaccurate and unfair. While it is critical that we address the issue of obesity with its attendant health and psycho-social concerns, we must not scapegoat those who suffer from it by placing the albatross of emotional problems around their necks alone.
If the emotions are the cause of overeating, they are certainly buried in the unconscious and are not easily accessible without a lot of analytic work. However it is worth it to get to the root of the problem of overeating. I do not thinkg that all overeating is emotional especially with those who have low blood suger. we just cannot apply a bandaid of "attending to emotions." That is the problem with mainstream psychology.
If the emotions are the cause of overeating, they are certainly buried in the unconscious and are not easily accessible without a lot of analytic work. However it is worth it to get to the root of the problem of overeating. I do not thinkg that all overeating is emotional especially with those who have low blood suger. we just cannot apply a bandaid of "attending to emotions." That is the problem with mainstream psychology.
Why is the victim always blamed? Women need to look at cultural and political factors that cause all kinds of addictions. We are an addictive society. Looking at scrapbooks and listening to music may be nice but it will not cure the monstrous hunger we feel for political equality.
Why is Dr. Saltz sitting in a provacative pose with her legs prominently showing? Can we take her seriously?
Relax, relax, relax. Drink alot of water, exercise a liitle more, and thank the lord that you are lucky enough to live in a country wher you able to over eat rather than starve to death.
Relax, relax, relax. Drink alot of water, exercise a liitle more, and thank the lord that you are lucky enough to live in a country wher you able to over eat rather than starve to death.
not all eating is emotional-I eat because it tastes good and thats the only reason!!!
You seem to be able to take the fun out of anything. There is time for celebration always. Thanksgiving through New Years just seems to be this societies time for excess in gratification. While I am into other excesses to appease myself, the main issue here and always, is what do we do the rest of the time. Peace.
Be cautioned all, to make reference to needy people in starving, oppressed countries, to inspire gratitude one is not in the same position, is nothing short of a threat and is also repugnant. If anybody has anything to say about what atrocities still occur in such a world as this, it should be..."guess what I did to help today". Peace.
I meant to say...Be cautioned everyone; making reference to needy people in starving, oppressed countries in an effort to elicite gratitude that one is not in the same predicament, is nothing short of a threat, and is also repugnant. If anyone sees need to "say" anything concerning the human anguish and exploitative atrocities that are enabled by contemporary society, it should be..."guess what I did to help today". Peace.
I can't say that I overeat not even at festival time. With all the rushing about I am more likely to shun food because I'm worn out! I have a function inside me that says 'full' when I have taken what I need and that can mean leaving some food on the plate. I think overeating is an emotional issue but more likely to come from 'wanting everything' because you have a right to it and can have it - I'm talking of greed in the sense that you 'want' rather than need, but you don't have to be sad to experience this feeling. This obesity problem is a developed world issue and I am not sure what other contributors are saying as some issues have other political references that go beyond food!