As people get home confined during a pandemic, usually, you try to stockpile food items in your house. However, many people cannot handle Covid stress and thus engage in stress eating or emotional eating. What to do if you are struggling with stress eating David JC Cutler
It is evident that you undergo a lot of stress, and you resort to food as a coping strategy. First, you need to realize that you are not the only one going through these symptoms, but you have to overcome them because binge eating or emotional eating might lead to weight gain and other health issues. It is a tough time to go through now. There has not been a pandemic for ages, and you don’t know what to expect out of it. With so many people dying around you, it becomes very tough to concentrate on work or anything positive, but you have to do it yourself. As people are becoming lonely and isolated, they continue to shop for food.
The privileged section of the society has stocked their home with food items to limit going to the supermarket frequently, and when you see this stockpile of food items, you tend to grab more than you are supposed to.
Handling stress eating with David JC Cutler
Some therapists deal with eating disorders and try to give some calming advice to their patients to not overeat during the pandemic because it might not help you but rather make you obese.
Tips for handling emotional eating
There are some tools that you can use to prevent emotional eating symptoms:
Make sure you eat adequately
Just because you stay home confined, that does not mean you have to eat less. Most of the society is diet conscious, and people tend to eat less during the pandemic so that they do not gain weight. However, the sad part about these diet restrictions is that you tend to engage in binge eating or emotional eating leading to more weight gain.
Use alternative coping strategies
But do not utilize it as your only strategy to cope with stress. Instead, you can explore new tools and add them to your toolboxes. David JC Cutler suggests talking to friends, painting, baking, gardening, or any other activity that can distract your mind in helping you to concentrate on something positive.
Importance of self-compassion
Many people feel guilty after binge eating and thereby tend to be harsh to themselves by skipping meals. However, this is not the right trick to do because you will eat more later. It is OK to resort to food items more, and it does not matter even if you gain some weight; you are valuable and worthy. Therefore, please stay compassionate to yourself.
Do not feel isolated because you are not the only one facing these issues. Instead, you should stay positive and contact a dietician and therapist who can guide you to regulate your eating pattern.
Emotional eating is a state of mind where you tend to eat more than is required to handle your emotional turmoil rather than appeasing your hunger. Eating during stress is a regular activity; however, you have to curb it to not go out of control. There is nothing wrong if you feel that you resort to food when there is stress. People celebrate good times by eating, and some people use it as a tool to handle stress and emotions. It only becomes too much if you deal with it as the only coping device to handle stress.