Do you "live to eat" or "eat to live"?

There are probably two groups of people. Those who live to eat and those who eat to live.

A person's character affects even the way they eat and which group they belong to.

You may ask yourself a question: "Do I find myself eating food when I'm not even hungry?" If the answer is positive, you belong to the first group and you are simply a compulsive eater.

Compulsive eaters usually stuff themselves with food even when they are not hungry. It is probably known, that when we eatfood when we're not hungry, this is usually caused by something else which is going on in our lives. One of the first steps to identifying these causes and dealing with them is to be aware of the times when we are hungry and the times when we are not.

One well known saying is that people eat with their eyes. Colors of foods can easily attach your senses. The perfect example is the typical Christmas binge meal. You see a lot of food on the table and you crave to eat it all and it has nothing to do with hunger.

Another reason for compulsive eating is so called emotional eating.

For example, have you ever said to yourself, "I eat because

I am sad"? If you honestly sift through this statement, you might find you believe that, even though you would like to lose weight, you rather eat cookies because it hurts less than feeling sad. Emotional eating is not about lack of willpower, and it won't be solved by dieting. We eat when we are sad. We eat when we are bored, angry, frustrated, frightened. We eat because we don't know that our feelings won't destroy us and because food is everywhere, and we think that it will fix whatever is wrong.

Another salient reason why we purge ourselves with food is mind hunger.

Most of us confuse mind hunger, which has nothing to do with food, with body hunger.

Mind hunger is endless and bottomless. It can be said that we are haunted by thoughts of food. Imagine yourself sitting in a restaurant, being in the middle of a very good meal and then you see a plate of fried potatoes go by. You probably want a pud just to try.

Another group of people, those who eat to live generally find it hard to understand how the rest can eatfood if they're not hungry. They control themselves not to be obsessed by mind hunger or emotional eatig and they try to trust the wisdom of their biology.

Being hungry is like being in love: If you don't know, you're probably not. Your body lets you know in no uncertain terms when it wants food.