Episode Twenty One

• Emotional eating - Any non-hungry eating, For example, when you are bored, stressed, emotional etc.
• What is emotional eating? When we have an emotion that feels uncomfortable, we want to get rid of it and we may not have the tools to do that. A lot of people resort to food as this tool, but it could also be alcohol, gambling or online shopping.
• It is not your fault! We do have an ingrained biological need to eat food and our modern society has created cheap, easy  and very accessible food options.
• Emotional eating is just a tool - Recognise that soothing your emotions with food is just a tool, it is not good or bad. But is this tool serving you?
• It is okay to have negative emotions - Hold them lightly and they will pass, If we suppress them, then we then need to use a tool (emotional eating) to help us cope.
• Stories - We quite often have stories about ourselves, which could be from our childhood, about how food comforts us in certain situations. For example, we may allow ourselves to have unhelpful foods to helps us through a difficult situation.
• Other tools we can use - Connecting with a friend, sleep, spending time in nature, practising mindfulness and exercising.

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