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Dr. Kim Mulvihill ReportingIs the anxiety over holiday shopping, gift deadlines and family sending you running to the fridge? Nothing like a dose of stress to trigger a bout of binge eating!
The Food-mood cycle is very real, and breaking that cycle is hard.
Pushing the plate away isn't enough. There's nothing like a bad day to trigger a big binge.
Stress tops the list of triggers for bad eating habits.
Katric Pane, stress eater: "Whenever I would get upset I would go for the Snickers bar - my vice would be chocolate!"
Cynthia Bulik, Psychologist: "Food is just the closet most convenient quick fix - but it doesn't work. In the long term if anything it makes things worse in the long term because it adds stress of having overeating or gained weight."
A lot of stress eaters will try cutting back on food instead of dealing with the stress and that backfires and you just want to eat more.
Nutritionists call that a negative energy balance--where you're so hungry you can't stop eating, even when your body says, "I'm full now".
A better approach is to figure out what triggers your stress, and find a better way to cope.
Tish Linberg, stress eater: "I went and got the chocolate cake out and thought, ‘I don't need this ‘and I did something a little drastic--I just flushed the whole thing down the garbage disposal!"
Tish says she now keeps a book with her at all times and reads when she's feeling stressed.
And once again I'm going to tell you that eating breakfast is crucial. If you eat breakfast you probably won't get that sinking feeling in the afternoon--the one where you feel so hungry you can't stop eating even when you're body is saying enough!
Q: What should breakfast be?
A: You need complex carbohydrates and at least one piece of fruit. Running to the car with a power bar in your hand doesn't count. That doesn't give your body a chance for the satiety signals to go from your stomach to your brain. And you don't even remember that you ate. Some people do best eating some protein for breakfast.
Q: With all the parties at this time of year how can you keep things in check? A: Go on a recon mission.
When you're eating at a buffet, party or potluck, first go to the food table without a plate and find the three or four things you want to eat most, then get a plate and take reasonable portions of those.
Otherwise you're likely to have a mountain of food on your plate.
One more reminder, give yourself 20 minutes to digest your food before going back for seconds.
