Eating to feed a feeling, and not a growling stomach, is emotional eating.
Food does more than fill your stomach, it also satisfies feelings, and when you douse those feelings with food when your stomach doesn’t growl, that’s emotional eating.
Eating emotionally is eating for reasons other than hunger. Instead of the physical symptom of hunger that initiates the intake, an emotion triggers the intake.
How to tell the difference
There are several differences between emotional hunger and physical hunger, according to the University of Texas Mental Health and Counseling Center website:
1. Emotional hunger appears suddenly; physical hunger occurs gradually.
2. When you are eating to fill a void that is not related to an empty stomach, you crave a specific food, such as pizza or ice cream, and only that food will satisfy your needs. When you eat because you are really hungry, you are open to options.
3. Feels as if emotional hunger needs to be instantly satisfied with the food you crave; physical hunger can wait.
4. Even when you are satisfied, if you are eating to satisfy an emotional need, you are more likely to keep eating. When you eat because you are hungry, you are more likely to stop eating when you are full.
5. Emotional eating can leave behind feelings of guilt; Eating when you are physically hungry does not.
The first thing you need to do to overcome emotional eating is acknowledge it.
Emotional hurts that occurred in your early childhood may be the root of your emotional eating today. However, it is not always easy to recognize those wounds in yourself. You may not have a clear memory of when, why, or what caused the negative self-belief that results in your emotional eating. You may just find that every time you talk to your mom on the phone, you need to have a bowl of ice cream afterward. Or that a disagreement with your spouse leads you to reach for the fries.
The Emotional Weight Loss ™ system calls these emotional damages “negative core drivers.” Examples of negative core drivers are: rejection, helplessness, vulnerability, feeling unlovable or flawed, or feeling emotionally deprived.
Negative core drivers and beliefs about ourselves are not accurate or reliable, they are simply false! The problem is that our nervous system does not believe it and acts accordingly, making the decisions that support those false beliefs!
The key is to reset the brain to lose weight and keep the weight off!
The Emotional Weight Loss ™ system uses QNRT, Quantum Neurological Reset Therapy, to make these changes. QNRT is a healing system that occurs from within and recognizes and restores the connection of the brain, body, and nervous system to remove blockages so that the body can heal itself.
QNRT combines unique biofeedback technology with nervous system relay therapy to neurologically reprogram the brain’s access / relay points, the places where our body’s neurological and emotional programs reside. Simply put, the QNRT process actually “rewires” the nervous system.
QNRT is non-invasive, does not require a prescription, manipulation, physical therapy, or extensive talk therapy.
