Your Emotional Wellness
Learn strategies on how to overcome emotional eating, stress and anxiety, impulsive eating, and compulsive eating.
Emotional Wellness
Emotional wellness impacts your state of mind and how you see yourself. Consistently “low” moods make it difficult to stay motivated and can sabotage your efforts. Socializing may decrease, irritability or fatigue may increase, and life may feel unfulfilling.
Occasionally feeling depressed and clinical depression are different. Clinical depression should be evaluated and treated by a physician.
Strengthen Your Emotional Wellness
Ways to change self-defeating behavior:
• Surround yourself with people who want you to be happy.
• Rely on your inner strength and don’t give up on your goals.
• Eat healthy. Substitute real foods for the processed foods you eat most often.
• Engage in physical activity to release “feel-good” hormones.
Stress and Anxiety
Stress and anxiety can motivate us into action or can keep us from moving forward. They can lead to weight gain and increased insulin, cortisol, and inflammation. There is no way to avoid all stressful situations, but we can learn to avoid over-reacting, choosing unhealthy food, or feeling defeated.
Overcoming Stress and Anxiety
Stress can cause you to overreact, choose unhealthy foods, and make you not want to exercise. It’s a vicious cycle, as a poor diet contributes to stress and anxiety. Ways to avoid it:
• Eat healthy foods to boost natural energy and elevate your mood.
• Exercise more to reduce cortisol.
• Prepare for stressful situations in a more positive way.
Compulsive Eating
An obsessive, emotional compulsion to eat to cope with or hide from emotions. Consequences include weight gain, depression, guilt, frustration, and poor health. Compulsive eating is characterized by:
• A lack of self-control with food.
• Consuming large amounts of food with the inability to stop.
• The urge to eat all day.
• A lack of self-control with food.
• Consuming large amounts of food with the inability to stop.
• The urge to eat all day.
Overcoming Compulsive Eating
Ways to combat compulsive eating:
• Recognize triggers so you can change your reaction.
• Follow the GOLO for Life® Plan as closely as possible.
• Engage in activities during times when you compulsively eat.
• Avoid temptation by not buying binge foods.
Impulsive Eating
Impulsive eating creates an intense, sudden urge to eat certain foods followed by immediate gratification. Unfortunately, it is often followed by regret. Impulsive eating can be triggered by feelings, cravings, or a response to certain events, and can occur throughout the day:
• Grabbing food whenever and wherever.
• Giving in to cravings, even if you aren’t hungry.
• Eating while watching TV.
• Smells, locations, or activities that trigger the urge to eat.
• Eating large portions quickly or not stopping when full.
• Grabbing food whenever and wherever.
• Giving in to cravings, even if you aren’t hungry.
• Eating while watching TV.
• Smells, locations, or activities that trigger the urge to eat.
• Eating large portions quickly or not stopping when full.
Overcoming Impulsive Eating
Keep a food journal for a few days to identify triggers. Then change your pattern of behavior by:
• Keeping only healthy food around.
• Stopping everything at mealtime and focusing on the meal.
• Having an alternate plan when triggers arise. A distraction can get you past the immediate urge by taking your mind off food.