Managing Mood and Food

Some helpful hints from the Mayo Clinic website:

If you think you're experiencing stress, follow these tips to help you avoid the unhealthy consequences of emotional eating.

• Learn to recognize true hunger. Is your hunger physical or mental? If you ate just a few hours ago and don't have a rumbling stomach, you're probably not really hungry. Give the craving a few minutes to pass.

• Know your triggers. For the next several days, write down what you eat, how much you eat, when you eat, how you're feeling and how hungry you are. Over time, you may see patterns emerge that reveal negative eating patterns, and you'll know how to avoid them.

• Don't keep unhealthy foods around. Avoid having an abundance of starch, high-fat, high-calorie comfort foods in the house. If you feel hungry or blue, postpone the grocery store trip for a few hours so that these don't influence your decisions while buying food.

• Snack healthy. If you feel the urge to eat between meals, choose a low-fat, low-calorie food, such as fresh fruit, or unbuttered popcorn.

• Exercise regularly. Your mood is more manageable and your body can more effectively fight stress when it's fit and well rested.

• Prevent relapse. If you give in to emotional eating, forgive yourself and try to learn from it. Make a plan for how you can prevent it in the future.

• Look elsewhere for comfort. Instead of unwrapping a candy bar, take a walk, treat yourself to a movie or call a friend. Plan enjoyable events for yourself.

When I read these points from the Mayo clinic, I felt they were excellent bits of advice. When it comes to eating, we must be prepared; we must have action plans mentally in place to try and prevent excess amounts of food being ingested.

Dr. Doug