How positive affirmations help emotional eating plus 30 affirmations to use
Emotional eating is a problem that plagues many and is an all too common way of coping with life’s problems.
The modern world offers such a wide variety of addictive foods such as sweets, chips, ice cream and others that bring euphoria, calmness, peace and comfort that many fall into the trap of mindless eating when they feel sad, depressed, bored, lonely or stressed .
This habitual reaction to certain triggering feelings leads to a vicious cycle that never solves the original problem, but actually piles more on top of it.
Many binge eaters report feeling guilt and shame for overeating and eating to the point of nausea.
Weight gain is another side effect of this unhealthy coping skill and brings with it its own variety of emotional and physical problems.
Learning positive coping skills and breaking the habit of emotional eating requires awareness, understanding and learning healthy coping skills, and one tool that helps this process is positive affirmations.
What are positive affirmations?
Positive affirmations are statements made as if something is already true or has already happened in an attempt to reprogram the mind to achieve a specific goal.
The human brain is powerful and it is what drives human behavior, so positive affirmations can be very effective in changing those behaviors that do not serve us in a positive way.
Positive affirmations and motivational statements can go a long way in helping emotional eaters break the self-destructive habit of eating to mask their feelings.
How Affirmations Help Emotional Eating
This works in two ways and the ultimate goal is to reprogram the mind and thought processes and therefore facilitate behavior change.
- First, it brings awareness of the problem to the fore. And indeed without awareness emotional eating can never be stopped as it is usually a mindless action driven by habit which for many means they may not even realize they are doing it.
- Second, repetitive affirmations can help replace habitual thought patterns around food and change perceptions about food, which can go a long way in stopping emotional eating.
For example, if I believe that donuts help me feel better when I feel sad, then I will always reach for that donut when that feeling hits me and without hesitation. But on the other hand, when I realize that the feeling of euphoria I get from that donut is a temporary fix, not a solution at all, and that after eating it I still feel sad and maybe even sadder, then I’m going to pause and kick the habit.
Affirmations can go a long way toward changing behavior, and when done consistently along with learning healthy coping skills that are usually avoided with food, can bring healing, peace, and better emotional and physical health.
30 Affirmations to Stop Emotional Eating
- I only eat when I’m physically hungry.
- Eating is for sustenance, not for anything else.
- When I’m bored, I exercise or read a book.
- When I’m sad, I call my friends and talk about my problems.
- Food is not my comfort.
- I am powerful, strong and I can handle my emotions.
- I’m into comfort food.
- I control what, when and how I eat.
- I am aware of what food I put into my body.
- I can easily say no to junk food, I am in control.
- I have the strength and power to stop emotional eating.
- I have healthy coping skills for my emotions, food is not one of them.
- I have regular meal times.
- I can face anything that comes my way.
- When I’m stressed, I exercise.
- I am developing a healthy relationship with food.
- I respect my body.
- I respect my feelings, I take care of them.
- I am not a victim of comfort food.
- Food won’t heal my feelings.
- Food is not a friend, it is food.
- I feel every day and I feel good.
- I love all the feelings, they are part of who I am.
- I love myself, I love to feel, I am alive and I live!
- I deal with my feelings every day.
- I am aware of every bite I take each day.
- I can distinguish between physical hunger and emotional hunger.
- I know the difference between healthy eating and comfort eating.
- I am responsible for my good health.
- I listen to my body and know when I’m really hungry.
#positive #affirmations #emotional #eating #affirmations