Do you ever eat when you’re not hungry? I’m guessing the answer is yes; I know I have. There are lots of emotions that can lead to eating - sadness, boredom, anger, even happiness. When we feel especially emotional, chances are our eating is a reaction to the feeling. One key to getting emotional eating under control is by getting in tune with our hunger.  A hunger and fullness scale is a good tool to use to clue in to whether our eating is out of physiological need or emotional reaction. The scale is from 0 to 10, with 0 meaning you are so hungry you feel faint and can’t think straight and 10 meaning you’re so stuffed you feel sick to your stomach and could throw up. We want to live somewhere between a 2, 3, hungry but not starving, and a 5, 6, satisfied but not overly full.  Every time you’re about to reach for something to eat, ask yourself what number you are on the scale from 0-10. If you’re not a 2 or 3, do something else to busy yourself rather than eat.  Go for a walk, write an email, call a friend, hop on an exercise bike, scrapbook, read, etc. If you are truly hungry, than go ahead and eat, but keep distractions to a minimum and focus on the food. Think about the taste of the food, what it smells like, the texture, the last time you ate that same food, what memories it invokes. Becoming a mindful eater will help you greatly in your weight loss efforts because it slows down your eating. Plus, you will really enjoy your food more when you truly taste it.

Tags: emotional eating, hunger, hunger fullness scale, mindful eating, Mindless Eating