Emotional Eating - Feed Your Soul Not Your Stomach

Many of us have a wonderful way of trying to switching off our emotions with food don't we?

• We have a bad day, we eat chocolate.
• We feel a bit lonely, we find a friend in ice-cream.
• We are stressed out and overwhelmed, we soothe ourselves with cookies
• We are unlucky in love, we start a relationship with the contents of the kitchen.

Did it ever help?

Maybe it did - temporarily - but the damage we do by comfort eating remains for all to see - the fat on our stomach, hips and thighs.

If you want to be happy, you won't find that in a bag of popcorn or tortilla chips (no not even chocolate no matter how much they try and persuade you that it has chemicals to make you feel good).

You have find it in you by feeding your soul.

Sound a bit too deep for you?

Well, there are many practical ways to increase your happiness without resorting to raiding the fridge or pantry (and you know the ice-cream never loved you back anyway!)

The thing about happiness is that it's personal so you have to think about what YOU need...

Create a list of 50 things you can do instead of eating when you're feeling in need of a boost

Include

• people you can talk to who cheer you up
• places you can visit
• activities you can do (hobbies, sports, pastimes)
• ways you can pamper yourself

Instead of waiting until you need cheering up, why not arrange to pack your life full of as many of these as you can so that you reduce the negative in your life and are better able to cope with one or two more stressful moments that happen in everyone's life.