Eat Healthy — Myth or Truth?

Most people tell you that eating healthy is the truth; it is the right thing to do.

However, let’s ask the following question: What does it mean to "eat healthy?"

I am in favor of eating healthy. Good health enables me to make decisions regarding my personal welfare and well-being. But, it can be extremely frustrating when you want to eat healthy and you find yourself suffering from binge eating, ceaseless stuffing yourself with unhealthy foodstuffs —such as candies and junk food —or even uncontrolled eating of healthy food!

I know, from personal experience, when one retains a pattern of emotional eating, which is usually unwanted eating (we are talking about cases in which food is "used" as a response to emotional crises, such as anger, sadness, frustration, boredom, fatigue), it is difficult —indeed, almost impossible — to eat healthy all the time, without engaging in an ongoing battle.

The frustration can be much greater, because, on the one hand, there is a valid desire to care for oneself and one’s own health, but emotional eating patterns increase and make it impossible to sustain healthy eating for any great length of time. This is comparable to the situation where an individual is dieting, but forbids himself to eat what he really enjoys, if it's not included in the diet — and knowing that certain foodstuffs are "forbidden" only increases one's desire for said foods.

The good news is that you can free yourself of uncontrolled emotional eating — forever! And you can do so thanks to our incredible "body machine" (our body's different hormones) which knows when to eat and when to stop eating. In spite of the fact that this mechanism gets damaged in many people — the good news is that the situation is reversible! You can turn back control of your bodily mechanisms, even if they have been damaged. You can learn to recognize again the hunger-satisfaction mechanism and act according to its needs.

If we accept the fact that our hunger to eat (we are not talking about a physical hunger) represents our hunger for many other things in life, then before turning to food, I recommend the following:

Stop and check: Is my hunger physical or emotional?
If 4-6 hours haven't passed since you last ate, then you can reasonably assume you are experiencing emotional hunger (although it may truly feel like physical hunger) and ask yourself, "now, what should I do?"

To recognize that there may be perfectly good and justifiable reasons why you say "I feel like eating." When you feel emotional hunger, eating helps you feel better. Eating brings comfort, eases pain, lessens sadness, dispels boredom or fatigue and more....

Stop for a moment and check how you are feeling. If you are now feeling pain, frustration, boredom, or fatigue you may identify, even discover an ideal response to what you are missing — perhaps rest, a hug, a kind word, a specific activity, etc. Listen to your body, and you will be able to identify which part of your body is most needy for food at this moment. Ask yourself what it needs. Take a deep breath, respect your body's need and give it the attention it so deserves.

Likewise, it is important to remember, even if the reason for your emotional hunger is not clear to you at this moment (because of a long-standing habit) or you have not found the ideal response to your body's hunger call, treat yourself with sympathy and respect.