Strategy 10 for Curbing Emotional Eating

Like strategy #8, reading labels, this strategy is a habit that I developed years ago as part of my weight loss success plan. I've been pleasantly surprised to find that it also helps me curb my emotional eating.

Strategy #10: Water

I drink a lot of water. I don't drink much else. I do enjoy coffee in the morning and herbal tea from time to time--especially in the winter, but I mostly drink water.

So that's a healthy strategy...but how does water curb emotional eating?

It doesn't...not really...well, maybe it does...let me explain.

If you drink lots of water one of the benefits is that it flushes a bunch of toxins out of your body. That's great news. That way if (when) we do eat for emotional reasons, drinking water will help minimize the negative effects that the overeating has on our body. That's really great news.

Drinking water also helps keep you feeling fuller, so you actually have less room to pack in food. How much can you put in your stomach if you are sloshing with water? Not as much...so it can cut down on the amount of emotional eating you do.

The other way that drinking water can help with emotional eating is if you tend to drink alcohol. Drinking alcohol can loosen up your inner food warden and you might find that you are eating more food and higher calorie food then you would if you didn't have the booze. So by drinking more water, even if you choose to booze, you are diluting the effects of the alcohol, which can help keep you in better control of what you eat.

So, does water help curb emotional eating? I'm going to say yes, and even if it really doesn't, it has enough other good benefits that it still deserves to be in the top 10 strategy list!