Simple Solutions to Control Emotional Eating
What is emotional eating?
Eating in response to positive and negative emotions, which could be emotional overeating, or stress eating or simply eating out of boredom rather than actual hunger.
What does emotional eating looks like?
Taking a break from work and getting a snack even though you aren’t hungry, eating in front of the TV because you are used to it, getting news and turning to food.
Many of us eat due to emotion or environment – and we either don’t realize it or we get disappointed in ourselves after the fact.
Just because boredom or stress eating can be common in our daily lives does NOT mean we must be frustrated by it.
Research shows that when we take planned breaks, we are more productive! Our brains NEED a break from work, it’s absolutely normal and healthy to give your brain a change in focus.
Likewise, we commonly encounter stressors—stress is a normal part of our lives. But how we deal with it and manage it is extremely important!
Let’s dive into the 3 strategies to help you take control over your emotional eating.
Here are some positive outcomes we see when we STOP eating from boredom or as a response to stress:
👉🏽Decreased bloating
👉🏽Stabilized blood sugar which can improve your mood, reduce fatigue, increase your energy levels, improve brain and blood vessel health, and may even reduce your risk of nerve and kidney damage!
👉🏽Decreased overall calories, often leading to easier weight loss
👉🏽Increased confidence and self-control
👉🏽Savings on groceries!
Because emotional eating is often linked to stress and boredom it is important to stay aware.
As stress eating is affected by emotions, triggering cravings for comfort foods.
This is caused by an increase in cortisol, the body’s stress hormone. Cortisol triggers the release of glucose into the bloodstream to provide quick energy. Cortisol can also increase the brain’s desire for rewarding experiences. Foods high in sugar, fat, or salt activate the brain’s reward system by boosting dopamine levels. When you’re stressed and cortisol is high, your brain may crave these types of foods to stimulate that reward pathway, providing a temporary sense of comfort or relief.
Let’s discuss how to combat emotional eating the next time you are stressed or bored!
Tip #1️⃣
Practice Mindful Eating
Mindful eating is a practice that involves paying full attention to the present moment while eating, without distractions, and tuning into your body’s hunger and fullness cues. This approach can be especially helpful in managing stress eating or boredom eating.
Practicing mindful eating takes awareness and intention at meal times.
Mindful eating has many benefits, including better digestion, improved satisfaction, and more control over food choices.
But how can you be mindful at meals?
1: Eat without distraction.
Take time to eat your meals and snacks. Turn off the TV, try not to respond to messages or emails, or scroll through your phone.
Think about blocking off time in your calendar during the work day to eat work undistracted.
2: Slow down when eating.
Take small bites, chew thoroughly, and take breaks between bites such as putting your utensils down to allow your body time to signal when you’re full.
Did you know it takes about 20 minutes for your stomach to send a signal to your brain letting it know that you’re full?
3: Engage your senses.
Notice the colors, smells, and textures of the food. Focus on how it feels in your mouth and savor each bite.
4: Practice gratitude:
Appreciate the food you’re eating and the nourishment it provides, which can help shift your mindset from eating as an emotional escape to eating as a mindful and nourishing practice.
If you can start practicing one of these this week it will start to drastically change your relationship with your meals and emotions at meal times.
What about boredom eating?
Maybe you do find yourself getting bored when watching TV, doing homework, or in the car…Stop what you are doing, either turn the TV off and do something else – read a book or go for a walk, call a friend.
Changing up your routine with anything improves your creativity and neuroplasticity, this is when the brain adjusts and responds to new situations or changes in their environment – think rewiring for growth!
So try this in other areas of your life! Especailly when you are bored and thinking you’re hungry.
Remember, we often mistake our thirst cues for hunger. Keep a glass of water, seltzer or tea near by to make sure you are hydrated.
When it comes to eating, be sure to take a pause before eating. Take a moment to check in with yourself. Ask yourself these questions: Are you truly hungry or is there an emotional or boredom trigger behind your desire to eat?
Boredom can lead to mindless snacking or overeating as a way to fill emotional voids.
Unfortunately this can have negative impacts on your health when mindless eating happens.
Such as creating a cycle of emotional distress and unhealthy eating habits. It can contribute to weight gain, poor nutrition, and a range of chronic health conditions such as obesity, diabetes, digestive issues, increased risk for heart disease, while also increasing feelings of guilt, shame, and anxiety. Over time, it can impair emotional regulation and make it harder to develop healthy coping mechanisms.
Finding ways to address the root causes of emotional eating—such as through mindfulness, therapy, and healthier coping strategies—can help break this cycle and improve both mental and physical health.
Tip #2️⃣
Find Healthy Alternatives
We’ve all been there- we are practicing mindful eating, changing routines, and creating better habits, but sometimes, when left to our own devices, we go back to what we know
This means that we have to pivot and change. Find healthier alternatives to comfort foods that provide too many calories, are more processed, and will leave you wanting more than satisfied.
A few options look like:
🫐 Fruit
🥦Veggies
🥜Nuts
🍿Air-Popped Popcorn
🥣Greek Yogurt or Cottage Cheese
🥨Rice Cakes
☕️Herbal teas
At Fit2LIve the first core principle is to focus on whole foods first, this is a great cue to remember when looking for healthy alternatives!
Take it a step further once you have been able to nail down some healthier alternatives.
Making sure to have FULL satisfaction after a meal or snack is KEY🔑
This is why balanced eating will help you:
🌟Eating a balanced diet of mostly whole foods with a balance of protein, carbohydrates, and fat will keep you fuller and fueled for longer.
🌟When our bodies feel satiated, it will be easier to ignore those temptations of over-consuming cravings when we feel stressed or bored.
Ideally, we have 1 small snack between each of our larger meals, or about 2 snacks each day.
Snacks, just like meals, should be balanced.
Try to include protein, carbs, and fat at each snack time.
Here are some easy, balanced, whole food snack ideas that you can try this week!
Tip #3️⃣:
Engage in Stress-Relieving Activities
Overcoming emotional eating takes time, but having the right tools in place to help you is important.
So, let’s explore some options for stress-free activities for when you are dealing with emotional triggers.
Start by keeping a food journal to help identify what is actually triggering the emotional eating. This is great to share with your nutrition coach or dietitian to help decide which activity would be most beneficial for you to dive into during these times.
It could be distracting yourself with hobbies. Or doing stress-relieving activities that can replace eating when stressed.
🌟Taking a walk, stretching, meditating, or doing yoga is an excellent method to help decrease stress (your cortisol) and decrease emotional eating tendencies.
It could be as simple as scheduling daily walks or trying a beginner yoga video to avoid it altogether, keeping your emotional and stress levels regulated.
What to do when you feel the urge to EAT and you don’t have an activity to turn to that is non-food related…..
🛑 STOP
When a stressor has triggered you and you are about to react, follow these 4 steps:
🙌🏽Slow down
🙌🏽Take a breath
🙌🏽Observe: what are you feeling in your body? What are you thinking? What other possibilities exist?
🙌🏽Proceed, considering multiple possibilities
If that is difficult to remember, try ‘Box Breathing’ ⭐️
Breathe in for 4 seconds, hold for 4 second, release your breathe for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds and repeat as many times as you want until you are able to make a clear decision vs an impulsive decision.
Engaging in stress-relieving activities offers numerous physical and mental benefits that contribute to overall well-being.
Physically, these activities help lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, reduce blood pressure, and improve heart health by promoting relaxation and better circulation.
Mentally, stress-relieving practices like exercise, meditation, or deep breathing can improve mood, enhance focus, and reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. These activities foster a sense of calm and balance, helping individuals develop healthier coping mechanisms and better emotional resilience in the face of daily challenges.
Overall, incorporating stress relief into daily routines supports both physical health and mental clarity, leading to a more balanced and fulfilling life.
Don’t forget to track your progress! Tracking emotions and eating habits to identify patterns is helpful, but it’s great to see how far you’ve come in your journey!
Building healthy habits over time creates consistency, and that consistency compounds into WINS.
It’s time for you to take action and start implementing these strategies in your own life.
Begin by identifying the best strategies for you to navigate emotional eating; try them out this week!
Consistency and commitment to yourself in combating emotional eating takes time, but it is doable with focus, consistency, and accountability.
At Fit2Live our coaches provide support and accountability so that you can be consistent and successful in meeting your goals.
If you would like to find out more about controlling emotional eating, make an appointment with one of our nutrition and wellness coaches and learn how we can help you identify your triggers and develop the habits mentioned above.
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