Tag Archives: emotional eating

Honor Your Hunger This Holiday Season

Now that it’s the holiday season and tempting treats are everywhere, it’s very, very important to pay attention and eat according to your hunger. It may sound easy, but so many of us often eat for other reasons then hunger, including emotions, societal pressure (imagine Aunt Mildred saying, “You just have to eat one of my holiday cookies!”) and external cues, but listening to your true hunger is a great strategy for combating that holiday weight gain. Read on for three tips to really tune into your hunger and stop eating once you’re full!

1. Log your hunger and fullness. You already know how beneficial food journaling can be, but don’t just track your eats — track your hunger, too! On a scale from zero to 10 with zero being starving and 10 being uncomfortably and even painfully full, jot down how hungry you are before eating and then how full you are after. Try to eat when you’re at a three or a four, and stop eating when you’re at a six or a seven. Remember it can take your body up to 20 minutes to feel full so eat slowly.

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Posted on November 21, 2025 by Jennipher

Food Addictions on the Rachael Ray Show

Tune in this Thursday, October 21 to the Rachael Ray Show to learn all about food addictions with Freaky Eater’s Dr. Mike Dow.

Imagine eating nothing but burgers for nearly 30 years. Freaky Eater’s Dr. Mike Dow takes you inside the scary world of food addictions and tells you how to stop them before it’s too late. (more…)

Posted on October 18, 2025 by heather

Putting the Past Behind You on the Path to Health

Kara Richardson Whitely’s book, Fat Woman on the Mountain: How I Lost Half Myself and Found Happiness, is available on her website, www.fatwomanonthemountain.com. Kara (@fatwmnonthemtn) lives in Summit, N.J., with her husband and daughter.

If you don’t learn to put the past behind you, it may end up on your behind.

My emotional eating began with some big things, such as my parents’ divorce and being sexually assaulted as a young girl (I put on 40 pounds that summer). Then, food became a comfort for all the little things in between a lousy grade, feeling lonely and even when I was feeling down about my increasing weight.

I wrote about this journey up the scale in my book, Fat Woman on the Mountain: How I Lost Half Myself and Found Happiness, not as a barrage of excuses, but to understand where I had been. That way, I would know where I need to go to get healthier.

In fact, one day I decided to chart out my weight, retracing my steps to see how each stage in my life added pounds. It looked like an escalating mountain range – until I decided to get healthy. (more…)

Posted on September 26, 2025 by GuestBlogger

The Causes of Emotional Eating

In times of stress, many people reach to favorite foods for comfort. I would even venture to say that every one has done it at some point. Why is this such a common coping technique?

One reason that we eat when stressed is for the physical energy. Foods with simple carbohydrates (like sweets) can provide a quick burst of energy. Physical and/or mental energy is necessary to help us confront the stressor that is causing distress. Yes, simple carbohydrates may provide a quick burst of energy, but what isn’t used is stored.

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Posted on May 19, 2026 by Brooke Randolph

Recognizing the Signs of Emotional Eating

Guest blogger Vicki L. VanArsdale is a freelance writer specializing in health and fitness. She’s a certified personal trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) and a nutrition & wellness consultant through American Fitness Professionals & Associates (AFPA). You can read more about health and fitness on Vicki’s blog.

We’ve all been there. We want to lose weight. We eat right and exercise. We follow our healthy eating plan. Then one day something causes us to go off track. Instead of having one cookie we eat the whole bag. Some kind of emotion triggered this response but instead of facing it we binge and then feel guilty. We are emotional eaters.

I once weighed 250 lbs. Another time I weighed 235 lbs. Without a doubt my extensive weight gains were tied to my emotions. I was an emotional binge eater and food was my friend. Food didn’t judge me. Food didn’t belittle me. Food made me feel good and provided comfort. It helped me forget my troubles for a while.

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Posted on April 10, 2026 by GuestBlogger

A Healthy New Life: One Mom’s Wellness Makeover

A healthy new life. Why me? Why now?

Hello Everyone! My name is Shelley and I am an emotional eater and therefore a chronic dieter. Hmm, now that’s a term that until recently I never knew, but in the last few weeks so much has “turned around” in my life…

I was raised in a large family with 5 brothers and sisters and in our house at meal time if you “took it” you “ate it.” There were also many times that I can remember having a “heated” discussion at our table and my escape was to bury my face in my plate. Hand to mouth, just eating and staying quite, hoping the conversation would not turn to “me” being the one getting the criticism of the day!

As I grew I was active, swimming and playing outside as a child and teen not having what I would call a “weight issue.” When I went to college my food intake consisted of Diet Coke and small meals, and I was pretty active; I went to a large university so I did lots of daily walking. A few years later, as a “bride” I survived on what I will call the “bride’s diet” of one meal and Diet Coke through the day so that I would look ever so thin at my wedding. (more…)

Posted on March 14, 2026 by GuestBlogger

How to Healthfully Handle Food Cravings

Ever want to eat something so badly you felt overpowered by it? If so, you’ve experienced a food craving. Wanting something is natural, but our “inner voices” sure know how to get in our way of having it. Instead of actually enjoying the taste of a food – be it fresh, cold watermelon or a piece of lovely dark chocolate, we can get caught up in that emotional feeling of satisfying a craving. There’s no freedom in this kind of eating.

Cravings in general do not have to necessarily be “bad” things. It’s all in how you respond to them. In this post, I’ll explain how to healthfully handle cravings. (more…)

Posted on September 2, 2025 by Rebecca

How to Overcome the Guilt of Overeating

I’m sure nearly everyone trying to manage their weight feels guilty when they overeat. There’s a reason they call it “stuffed.” It doesn’t feel good being bloated, especially after some time of eating reasonable portions and re-training the stomach to understand what a comfortable, full feels like.

My mom had a magnet on our refrigerator that said “a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips!” Of course, there was a picture of a pig eating a piece of coconut cream pie on it. (Lest you think I come from a family of skinny-minnies, quite the contrary. Most adult women in my family weigh in the 200-300 pound range).

As a nutrition expert who works with emotional eating, eating disorders, and weight management I honestly think that magnet should say “a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the mind.” While it doesn’t rhyme as well, I do think it is the true damage of overeating. The guilt people can carry can overwhelmingly sabotage any progress toward mindful, healthy eating. (more…)

Posted on August 13, 2025 by Rebecca

To Eat or Not to Eat: How Celebrities Deal with Stress

In times of stress, most of us fall into one of two categories: The Reach-for-the-Ben & Jerry’s category or the My-Stomach-Churns-at-the-Thought-of-Food category. So it should come as no surprise when celebs like a recently divorced Madonna and a very recently dumped Jessica Simpson reveal bodies that show the consequences of their relationship woes.

The Material Girl has clearly revolutionized women’s fashion and women’s fitness. She has shown women that the weight room is not just for men and female bodybuilders. But following the recent divorce from her husband Guy Ritchie, Madonna has been hard at work being a single mother and running around the world for her Sticky and Sweet Tour. (more…)

Posted on August 10, 2025 by heather

Is K-Fed’s Weight Gain a Sign of Emotional Eating?

First it was his ex-wife, Britney Spears is forever being pounded and hounded by the media; now Kevin Federline has the spotlight shining on him for his ever-expanding size.

Once a back-up dancer for Micheal Jackson, Justin Timberlake and Gwen Stefani, K-Fed used to sport a well-toned and fit physique. But perhaps it is the constant pressure of being mobbed by paparazzi, the agonizing battle over the custody of his two sons or his role as a full-time parent, Kevin has gained considerable weight in the past few months. (more…)

Posted on July 31, 2025 by heather

Achieving Health by Listening to My Body, Part I

Guest blogger Rob Cohn is an ACE certified personal trainer from the Los Angeles area. He has many years of personal experience with emotional eating and recovery from a binge eating disorder and is passionate about helping other people deal with their emotional eating with guidance and support. You can read more on Rob from his own personal blog.

I will never forget when I was 13, I was astonished how my uncle stayed so thin and he never finished what was on his plate. I remember saying to him, “How do you know when you are full?” He replied, “I eat until I am satisfied and then stop.” I remember thinking, “What are you talking about?” I have never understood that concept and I still don’t. I am a member of the “Clean Plate Club.” I feel like I have been out of touch with my body for a very long time, about 30 years since I was 13 when my mother passed away. (more…)

Posted on July 4, 2025 by GuestBlogger

Tag Archives: emotional eating

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