Emotional eating is using food to escape or dull an emotion that you don’t want to feel. So, let’s dive in and look at how to prevent emotional eating.
As human beings, we are motivated to avoid pain and seek pleasure. We have grown to believe that feelings are painful and seeking pleasure in food will make us feel better. This may be true for the 10 minutes you are eating the food, but it is often followed by shame, guilt, disappointment, or sadness. These feelings often compound to make you feel worse about yourself and your situation.
Tackling emotional eating may seem like a big deal to you but when you start with changing something small each week it all adds up to help you achieve your weight loss goal. It takes time to change a habit – and that’s OK. It takes some self-awareness and self-compassion to acknowledge the feelings might be eating to avoid and to take the first step to create change.
What triggers emotional eating
Emotional eating can be caused by any emotion you are trying to avoid or escape. Emotions can range from, stress, anxiety, boredom to restlessness and overwhelm.
Mine used to be stress and a feeling of not-enoughness. My coping mechanism was chocolate and red wine. More recently I have noticed that restlessness and feeling resistance to cold has made me reach for another bowl of nuts to keep my mouth entertained!
I have had clients overeat because they are:
- Bored or lonely in the evening
- Feel sad or unfulfilled in their life
- Overwhelmed with work stress and family life
- Escaping feelings of not-enoughness or fear of failure
- Feeling anxious and uncertain
and a host of others.
Another situation where you may find emotional eating creeping in, is at an event where you are restless and repeatedly reaching for the nibbles or drinks to feel more comfortable at the event.
How to prevent emotional eating
Emotional eating can become a habit or a coping mechanism to escape what you perceive to be a negative emotion. You have learnt through society that you should not feel bad, and that life should be good all the time. You are intrinsically motivated to seek pleasure over experiencing an emotion that you think is going to be so uncomfortable you choose not to feel it. This all happens subconsciously.
So, to prevent long term emotional eating, you WANT to bring it into consciousness (yes, I said WANT to). Feelings can share a lot of wisdom about what is going on in your life and mind. This is a great opportunity for self-development.
Before sharing practical actions on how to prevent emotional eating I will offer that the solution often lies in dealing with the causes of your overeating. Whether it be to feel more fulfilled, create more joy in your life, reduce stress or anxiety, feel like you are enough, or simply to sharing ruminating thoughts that generate overwhelm and confusion.
For some people, using some of the simple strategies below will be useful. But if you are having repeat patterns, then seek support to help you uncover the causes of your overeating, reconnect with your emotions, manage your mind, and move through emotional eating for the long term.
15 Ways to stop emotional eating
- Do a thought download to get all the thoughts out of your head and onto paper. Are some illogical? Can you find strategies for some? Keep writing until you have emptied your brain.
- Get conscious of the times when you overeat and make a plan to change the habit. For example, after dinner when you have settled into Netflix with your bag of chocolates and glass of vino… ask yourself what else you could do instead of eating the chocolate? What would be being kind to me look like right now (be honest with yourself here – overeating the food is not kind to your body or yourself in the long run).
- Plan a new habit in advance and on purpose. Set a reminder on your phone or put it into your daily schedule. There are apps to remind you to carry out your new habit. Some apps can do this and let you record your progress. Your brain will love this little reward. I have just found Habitify, a free app that I am enjoying.
- Try a drink of water or herbal tea instead of food when you are not physically hungry. Or choose a healthier option such as fruit or nuts if you are not ready to give up the emotional eat straight away.
- A hug with a family member or a friend helps reduce feelings of stress, anxiety and overwhelm – perhaps not at work unless you have that relationship!
- A short walk, 10 squats or walk up and down some stairs a few times.
- Listen to 10 minutes of a great podcast.
- Have a bath – probably not during working hours!
- Measure out your snack or nibbles – put the snack into a container instead of eating a whole bag or box.
- Practice a breathing exercise. A simple one is to put your hands on your tummy, breathe in for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds and breathe out for 4 seconds. Do this cycle for 2- 10 minutes. You can download some great free meditation apps or find some online if you want some further direction and motivation.
- Choose to feel the emotion and not avoid it by doing something else. Where is it in your body? Describe it and breathe it in and out. This is more of an advanced skill that I teach, but super powerful when you get good at it.
- Play some relaxing music or your favourite song (have a dance if you feel like it!)
- Use some aromatherapy smells to help destress.
- Create a mantra to repeat to yourself each day. Some to try are I am learning to love myself; I am becoming someone who feels emotion; I am open to believing I can do this; I am important. Let me know what your favourite one is.
- If like me, you are resistant to the cold and see this as a negative emotion, then grab a hot water bottle and pop it on your lap. It is so soothing. If that doesn’t do it for you, try sipping on a cup of herbal tea.
If you are interested in figuring out your emotional eating triggers and solutions to your Yo-yo dieting life, schedule a FREE No-Obligation discovery zoom call. Click HERE to schedule a call and find out more about how I can help you put the brakes on emotional eating and improve your life.
Have a beautiful day
