Don’t Eat When You’re Down, Anxious

Studies show that overeating and gorging one’s self tend to occur during times when someone is feeling either depressed or anxious, although these attributes can lend themselves to some people not feeling very hungry or a big loss of appetite.  However, most of us are the opposite and turn to “comfort foods” and comfort eating the take place when we are feeling down or blue, or feeling inadequate about something.

I can think of one time in my life where depression made me not want to eat, but usually feeling that way makes me want to eat because I am searching for temporary pleasures that come from eating those tasty but bad for you comfort foods. 

I know what I’m doing at the time and ultimately I know in my subconscious that it is only a temporary pleasure and when I’m feeling overstuffed the feelings or regret and self loathing instantly set in.  If you think about it, you’re exchanging the few minutes that it takes to eat a nice meal or some good comfort food for hours of angst about how badly you ate and how you probably overstuffed yourself and it’s really not worth it.

Experts in weight loss and self control say that you should probably just avoid food when you’re feeling that way, at least for the time being (of course they know one has to eat eventually), and instead do something you enjoy that makes you happy.  Doing something you enjoy has a much longer lasting pleasure inducing factor, and it also doens’t have that “guilt hangover” that you get immediately following a garish and high calorie meal inevitably.

You can also try pigging out on a food that’s not so bad for you like maybe some carrots and ranch, or some low fat cereal – cereal can often be a great comfort food, especially the cereals that are considered junky cereals, but they aren’t so heavy and fatty that you feel like you weight a ton afterwards. 

Or maybe you could eat some chili or something that’s naturally very filling and high in fiber so you feel like you pigged out but really you got quite a bit of fiber and protein in there, and the calories are probably less than what they felt like, plus you stay full a whole lot longer.  Wendy’s chili is good for that.  It tastes somewhat indulgent, especially with a little cheddar sprinkled on it, but it’s actually low fat and high fiber.