How to deal with overeating: broccoli test

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

When you think you are hungry, are you sure that you really need food at the moment, and do not want to, say, seize stress? Today we will talk about how to distinguish emotional hunger from physical hunger, as well as how to avoid emotional overeating.

One of the common reasons people are overweight is (there should be drumming) that they often confuse emotional hunger with physical hunger. In order to avoid emotional overeating, you must first learn to distinguish between these two types of hunger.

Physical hunger, as a rule, is gradual, the body begins to send you signals that it needs to be fed (rumbling in the stomach, for example). You look at food with appetite in your eyes, sometimes you are even ready to eat food that you don't really like. After you have satisfied your physical hunger, you feel full and satisfied.

Emotional hunger comes suddenly. At the same time, we do not just want to eat at least something - our body requires something specific (a chocolate bar, for example). When we are emotionally hungry, we can eat and eat without feeling full. After eating, in this case, we often feel guilty.

Why it happens?

Because what we really want is not food. Perhaps we need to relieve stress, overcome boredom or anxiety. Or maybe we're just looking for pleasure.

Always keep in mind that when you're emotionally hungry, you don't want food at all. Food is simply a substitute for what you really want.

A simple yet powerful way to determine how hungry (physical or emotional) you are experiencing is with the broccoli test.

Broccoli test

The next time you feel like you're hungry, ask yourself this simple question: "Do I want to eat broccoli right now?" If your answer is yes, then you are physically hungry. Go and eat.

If you answered no, then you are emotionally hungry. You are not hungry. You want to relieve stress, anxiety, or simply bored with food.

When we are physically hungry, any food seems attractive to us. If you don't want vegetables, well, you are not hungry.

How to deal with emotional overeating

The first and most important step is learning to distinguish emotional hunger from physical hunger. We have already passed it. Then you should turn to the issue of excess weight. It is necessary to understand that simply moving more and eating less is not always enough to lose weight.

This, undoubtedly, is necessary and important, but diet is only a way to deal with the consequence. If we do not understand the reason why we are gaining weight, then we can only delay the inevitable.

That is why diets are often useless in the long term: the pounds lost will return, and even bring "friends" with them. In this case, you do not change the way of thinking, habits and behavior. You are simply changing your diet for a short time, but this is not enough to stay at the right weight for a long time to keep your body healthy.

Let's get back to the topic of emotional overeating. So, if you feel like you're getting a binge binge, ask yourself the following questions:

What do I really want, what am I trying to replace with food?
What can I do to fix the situation?
Why haven't I done this yet?

When we mistake emotional hunger for physical hunger and begin to overeat, we choose the position of a weak person. This is exactly the message we send to ourselves: "I am powerless." We go into a kind of food trance. We turn off our minds and only eat, eat and eat. And we are focused on only one thing - the pleasure we experience when we eat.

This is why a lot of people are hooked on fast food. They eat more and more, trying to prolong the pleasure. Food becomes a drug for them.

However, as soon as we finish eating, at the same second we begin to regret that we broke off, and we feel guilty.

We do not solve the problem by substituting food for what worries us. We're just postponing the decision.

Imagine: there is a person who comes to your house every day and persistently rings the doorbell of your apartment. You may not open to him today, tomorrow, or in a week. But if this person really needs to see you, then he will achieve his goal - sooner or later you will have to meet him. The same is true in the matter of substituting food for real desires and problems.

We need to be clear about what worries us. Then the glamor will go away. And the desire to empty the refrigerator too. Get to the bottom of it, don't tell yourself, "I'm nervous." Be specific: “I'm nervous about X …” or “I'm nervous about what happened Y,” or “I'm not really hungry, I just have nothing to do.” The more accurately you can determine what exactly is bothering you, the more likely you will be able to take effective measures to combat it.