How emotions drive weight gain

I have been thinking a lot lately about how emotions affect one's weight. I understand quite well how I let a lean 180-pound high school teenager turn into a bloated 230-pound young man. And I would be fooling myself if I pretended that my emotions didn't have something to do with the transformation.

This morning, I stepped on the scale to find out my "true weight" at this point in time. Note that I referred to it as "true weight." I didn't call it an estimate, and I didn't dock any pounds for my wallet (not that it weighs much since there's so little money in there) or shoes or anything else draped off of me.

I believe it's important to be precise about how many pounds I weigh, especially as I monitor my progress. That's why I follow the advice that my uncle Vinnie gave me. He's a professional fitness trainer and creator of SaveGasBurnFat.com. I take his pointers to heart because I know his tips are tried and true. I've seen him literally turn lives around over the last 25 or so years. He's living proof that his methods work, and so are the clients he's guided to success.

One of the many tips that he's offered that has stuck with me is the importance of monitoring my true weight. To find this, you've got to be totally naked, and you've go to weigh yourself after a night's sleep. The idea behind this is that all of the foods and liquids you took in the day before will not be much of a factor. Also, one seeking their true weight should urinate prior to stepping on the scale. After all of those steps are made, the reading on the scale will reveal one's true weight.

This morning the scale read 219 pounds. That figure is fine by me. It means that slowly but surely weight is coming off. I have been eating far less than I have in the past, and I have been paying more attention to what and when I eat. Little rewards are already popping up. My clothes are fitting a little better already. And I'm feeling well most of the time.

Along with improving my diet, I am working in some exercise. This is a vast difference from what I had been doing, which was virtually no exercise.

One tip that I picked up myself has been beneficial to me so far. I began to notice that no matter where I went between home and work, I would tend to see people walking on high school tracks. I figured a few laps around the track wouldn't hurt.

I've learned that a brisk walk doesn't have to take hours out of my day. A lot of times I find myself "killing time" while waiting to do something. Why not use that time wisely and fit in a little workout? For a novice such as myself, a walk around the track is about as grueling as it gets anyway. Just the other day, I had about an hour to kill, so I hit the track and walked until the time was through.

Walking is easy. It can be quite an enjoyable workout. I usually make it a habit to load my Ipod with podcasts in case I'm ever bored and in need of some entertainment. That hour or so where I walked the track wasn't such a drag because I had more podcasts than I could listen to at my disposal.

Just the simple decision to take a walk can be preceded by a range of thoughts and emotions. It's just like those little battles that come from the temptations of junk food. Sure, it's comforting to indulge, but there is a price to pay down the line.

Many of us learn that food can bring comfort, at least in the short-term, so we often turn to food to heal emotional problems, according to Web MD article Emotional Eating and Weight Loss.

The article lists the five main categories of emotions that trigger eating:

- Social. How often do we eat only because others around us encourage it? For me, simply living in south Louisiana adds a degree of difficulty to eating right. For those who don't know, eating heavy meals is practically a religion. It would be blasphemy to turn down someone's cooking. I'm not joking. If you turn down someone for food, don't be surprised if they stop talking to you. In many ways, it's social suicide to decline food that someone's offered to you. For many people, food is love. Their offering of food to you is sacred. If you don't take it, you must be some kind of freak.

- Emotional. I've been known to eat out of sheer boredom. Many nights I would nestle into some food just because that's what I've always done at night. It just became a habit. Sometimes eating relieved stress, tension and anxiety. The food fills a void, if only for a little while. The only problem is that it comes back to haunt you.

- Situational. A lot of times food is simply there. Well, someone went through all the trouble of making this food, so I might as well eat it. Pretty pitiful excuse, huh? Let's see, I'm at the movies, so I must have popcorn, candy and a soda. Oh, and don't forget to drown it in butter! And if you're at a baseball game, by law, you must have a hot dog. Why? As far as I know, the movie and the game will not be affected by what you're eating.

- Thoughts. Excuses, excuses, excuses. We've all heard them. I know I've made them. I often hear about dieters referring to "cheat days" where they pick a day of the week to eat whatever they want. They basically give themselves a free pass to pig out. I've always been skeptical of this. Why make a deal with yourself? Eating right should not be negotiable. Before you know it, you'll start making other deals with yourself. Things will likely unravel, and before you know you'll be right back to your old ways. I'm not a fan of "cheat days." It's not like I do the right thing every day except one. What if Saturday was the day where we could all break laws? That sure would change things.

- Physiological. Eating in response to physical cues, such as increased hunger due to skipping meals or eating to cure headaches or other pain.

I found a great tip in the Prevention article Weight Gain and Emotions: Set a timer for five minutes, then allow yourself to feel whatever you sense that you are avoiding on that particular day. If you are sad, allow yourself to cry. If you are angry, allow yourself to feel the anger in your body. When the timer rings, get up and go on with your day.

In other words, don't let your emotions seep into your eating habits. Eat for nutrition, not for a broken heart or loneliness or any other emotion.