Have you ever noticed yourself eating too much or having cravings that are triggered by emotions like stress, anxiety, or depression? Neurofeedback training can help you stop “eating your feelings.” This technology uses your brain`s natural ability to learn to eliminate those triggers, allowing you to regain control of your life. In as little as 15 weeks, you will think, eat, and feel better, all without drugs or any other more invasive techniques.
Where Do Cravings Come From?
Emotional eating is a physiological habit that your brain has learned to deal with unhappy feelings. Whether it`s stress, anxiety, depression, or just plain boredom, eating junk food creates a physical change In your blood chemistry that makes people feel better for a while. Then, the sugar burns off, leaving you feeling hungry again and typically worse than before.
Cravings may be all in your head, but they are real and difficult to master without help. Someone who is constantly stressed out will secrete more cortisol into their bloodstream. This hormone has many effects, including sugar metabolism, and can cause an increase in your appetite. This initiates the cravings for specific foods, such as something sweet or salty. Eating these snacks, in turn, raises blood sugar and the insulin required to process it. The excess will be reabsorbed into the body as fat as the sugar is processed without being used. Over time, this pattern of overeating can cause the pounds to pack on.
How is Emotional Eating Different?
Stress eating might begin with simple visits to a co-worker’s bowl of chocolate or a pint of ice cream after a hard day at work. However, it can work itself into a habit. How do you tell emotional eating from hunger? Emotional eating triggers tend to come on suddenly, resulting in cravings for specific foods.
Hunger pangs tend to come from the stomach, whereas cravings originate more from your mind. (Gee, that Ben and Jerry’s is too hard to resist!) Emotional eaters may be less aware of the quantity of food being consumed until they are too full and uncomfortable. (Was it the whole pint?!) Eating too much can also cause rebound feelings of shame or regret for having eaten too much or lost control.
We Can Help
It really is possible to think yourself thin! By breaking the negative feedback cycle that can start emotional eating, you will regain control of your emotions, allowing you to control your eating habits better—the result- is a fitter, happier you.
Contact Dr. Ed Carlton of Carlton Neurofeedback Center in Manassas, Virginia, for your free initial consultation. Find out why so many patients have reported positive changes in their lives after a course of neurofeedback training.