Are You an Emotional Eater? 6 Signs of Emotional Eating By Kelly Aziz

Lots of people are emotional eaters but have no clue that they are. When we first start realizing that we have an issue with our food, there are two things that we must acknowledge: physical cravings and emotional cravings. For emotional cravings, we can observe ourselves and see which food cravings are triggered by emotion - but starting out, what do we need to look for and how do we know we really are an emotional eater?

There are very specific signs you can look for and it is quite easy to establish whether you eat for emotional reasons or not. Here are 5 signs you are an emotional eater:

1. Your hunger comes on suddenly and it feels urgent (you have to have a certain food NOW and will go out of your way to get it, even go out at 1am to the store!).
When you have true hunger/physical hunger it comes on slowly and is patient. It can wait until you are able to get food, it doesn't need to be satisfied immediately then and there. Emotional hunger on the other hand demands you feed it NOW and you usually will end up shoveling the food down like you haven't eaten in days.

2. You crave specific foods - usually junk.

3. Your hunger will coincide with an upsetting emotion.
Hunger that is connected with upsetting emotions is definitely emotional hunger. If you find you eat straight after someone has upset you or after a stressful event than it is emotional hunger more often than not.

4.You don't even realize that you are eating sometimes - eating is something very automatic.
If you are genuinely hungry you will usually be aware of it and mindful. Emotional anger on the other hand isn't mindful and is the reason why many "forget" what they have eaten that day and do not acknowledge their snacking.

5. You keep eating even when you are full.
You can satisfy your true hunger without overfilling. Emotional hunger however never really feels satisfied so you end up eating after you are full and ready to pop. We want to keep having the taste to help us the numb the feeling.

6. After you eat you often feel a sense of guilt and regret.
If you feel guilty after eating, then it is most likely emotional hunger - you know deep down that what you doing isn't to satisfy true physical hunger.For more details email:freediabetictips@gmail.com