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Just as you get into the swing a new eating plan and begin to enjoy the results of this through a healthy weight loss, something can go wrong in your life and you can feel stressed and turn to food to help relieve this. The emotional eating busters below, will help you control your eating regardless of how you feel and help you stay on a calories loss diet that will lead you to a permanent weight loss and a healthier, happier life.

Learn how to determine whether what you feel is hunger or just a learned emotional response. The real physical signs of hunger can include a rumbling tummy or perhaps feeling lethargic and weak so if you have experienced emotional responses to eating across many years, you may eat before feeling truly hungry and not recognize these symptoms easily. Allow yourself to get genuinely hungry before eating so that you can become familiar with what this feels like and more accurately pin point when you should eat to provide the fuel your body needs.

Determine what sets off your emotional eating, making note of the times and causes of these occasions and look for a pattern around this to become apparent. Do you hanker after salty fatty food when the pressure is on at work instead of those calories loss lunches you know are nutricius and much better for you? Do you head for the cookie jar at the end of the day after a drive home filled with traffic jams or do you eat lashings of gravy on mashed potatoes when the kids are a nightmare after school?

Deciding on the events and the times when you are likely to resort to daily emotional eating is the key to controlling your response to the stressors in your life that lead you to out of control eating. Plan what food you will eat or what you will do the next time you feel distressed or under pressure and replace eating with other behaviours that will help relieve your stress. Taking a brisk walk or even an exercise class or eating an apple, some low fat yoghurt or other foods from your calories loss menu, getting a friend to massage your neck or even meditating are all healthier ways to manage the pressures in your life and still lose weight.

Do not buy comfort food because if it is not in the house, you will not eat it; it is just that simple. When you are feeling blue and you want something sweet or something fried as a comfort, if it is not in the house are you really going to take the time to drive to the store and buy this comfort food or go to the fast food restaurant to get something? Most people will not most of the time, so if you are craving something and you do not have it in the house you will look for a substitute rather than going out to buy whatever it is you are craving.

Seek comfort in things other than food so that if you feel miserable or pressured you head outside for a walk with your partner or some games in the park with your family or friends. It would be nice if you could just wave a wand and not have anymore unhealthy food cravings but that is not realistic so have a list of alternatives to eating a greasy hamburger and include in these relaxing with a glossy mag that you love, a long hot bath or a pedicure- whatever it is that you really enjoy. Make a list of these alternatives and be ready to act on them instead of eating.

Fill your cupboards with healthy foods because these will replace the comfort food from which you are starting to wean yourself. If you replace those high carb and high sugar foods with healthy calories loss foods you will have fewer cravings so do not keep any junk food in the house. When you feel desperately in need of something sweet, instead of filling up on chocolate or fudge, recognize the craving you are experiencing and test out better alternatives that will not set back your weight loss program like a platter of fruit or healthy food bars.

Delay any eating at least 30 minutes from when you are first aware of your craving, keeping a close and accurate check on this time. Do not cheat and start eating earlier than this and if after 30 minutes you still feel hungry, only eat half the portion of the food you planned to eat. You will often discover that after the waiting 30 minutes that your craving will have diminished or even vanished especially if you have found something else to occupy yourself.

Do something active instead of eating as this does not just use calories, to help with your calorie loss, it also causes your brain to secret endorphins and serotonin and these lift your spirits. So the next time you reach for a pizza to feel better, grab your sneakers and go for a walk, or a bike ride, or a run to help with your weight loss and to make you feel better. Even just a quick mile walk can really change your mood and when you get back you will feel as good as you would feel if you had just eaten 4 slices of pizza.