Our bad eating habits often revolve around our emotions in some capacity. Some people may equate food with love, while others may use food as a means to cope with the stress of deeper issues. Have you ever found yourself looking for something to snack on as soon as you begin to feel stressed out? One of the most important things to understand is that there is a huge difference between eating for nourishment and eating because of the way you are feeling at a given time. If you have found yourself in a spiral of relying on food for stress relief, keep reading to learn ways to get out of this cycle and stop stress eating.
How To Stop Relying On Food For Stress Relief
To learn how to stop emotional eating, you must first work to better understand your relationship with food. What this means, is that you have to get honest with yourself. At the end of the day, we can lie to everyone except self. If you find yourself eating when you are not hungry, or wanting to eat when you have a rough day, it might be time to take a long look at your relationship with food. While there are many things out there that are delicious, they are not good for us, and overeating them is even worse. Emotional eating is almost always caused by some sort of trigger, to correct the behavior you must understand your triggers.
Understanding Emotional Eating
For some people, stress takes their appetite completely away. While for others, stress creates an overwhelming sense of hunger. Emotional eating can completely sabotage your fitness efforts because in most cases when people stress eat, they consume way more food than they normally would.
Know that the feeling you get from emotional eating is very temporary. This is why it is imperative to deal with the issue(s) that cause you to overeat so that you can work on your relationship with food.
Emotional Eating Triggers To Avoid
While stress is one of the most common reasons people overeat, there are many other triggers that you will want to be mindful of as you work on your relationship with food.
Social influences: If you work or have ever worked in an office setting, you know this one all too well. It seems like there is always cookies, donuts, or pizza, just all the bad things that appear throughout the day. Everyone is in the kitchen area together enjoying the treats, and you feel obligated to join in, right? Wrong, when you have an issue with food, you have to be mindful of what you eat and when you eat. In this situation, try to avoid the area where everyone is. Don’t allow yourself to be tempted by others, and understand that you, my friend, are an individual and you do not have to do what everyone else is doing.
Boredom: Ever find yourself sitting on the couch watching tv and snacking for no reason? You just finished a meal, but while binge-watching a show, you start to feel like you need a snack. We are all guilty of this one. The problem with this behavior is that it is the true definition of being a couch potato. Sitting dormant and eating is not good for our bodies. Additionally, when we are distracted, we tend to eat more than we usually would.
Instead of grabbing the chips or cookies, you need to ask yourself are you really hungry? Changing your relationship with food is all about being honest with yourself. We are very suggestive people, sometimes seeing something on TV can make us want to run to the kitchen. If you find yourself doing this, try to stop yourself at the moment. Drink a glass of water, or eat a piece of fruit. We want to avoid sitting still for hours and eating junk food for hours.
Memories/Habits: I’m sure many of us have fond memories of being given something sweet for doing something good. You get an A on your report card, and you get taken out for ice cream. While this reward system was great when we were children, the good behavior reward system does not work as well when we are adults.
What To Do Instead Of Stress Eating
Once you have a better understanding of what triggers your emotional eating, you can work to find ways to cope with it and strategies to help you avoid relying on food for stress relief.
Pay close attention to what triggers you to emotional eat: If stress is your trigger, try to pay close attention to how you are feeling at that moment. I highly recommend starting a journal or even keeping track of your emotions using the notes section of your phone. Tune in to what happens when you feel stressed. Are you hungry in your stomach, or are you hungry in your head? There is a big difference between the two. Understanding that every time you think you are hungry does not mean you are hungry will be key in helping you to stop stress eating.
What to do when the trigger happens: If you feel your trigger happening, try to do something healthy like take a short walk. Even if it is just a short walk around your building, or around wherever you are, get your body moving to help clear your mind. Take deep breaths and try to center yourself. Understand that when you begin implementing these techniques, it may feel difficult at the beginning, but it will get easier. Remember above when I said you could not lie to yourself?
Eating mindfully: Food is fuel. It is meant to power and nourish our bodies. When you eat when you’re hungry, how does it feel? More than likely your body feels full and ready to go, but when we emotional eat, our heads tell us we want more. Learn to understand the differences between how you feel when you eat your regularly scheduled meal such as dinner, versus how you feel when you grab a bag of chips to eat right after finishing a meal. There is a difference.
Get support: Sometimes when we are trying to make changes in our lives, it can feel overwhelming. Try to lean on family and friends, and if you are unable to, try to find support groups.
Don’t allow yourself to feel bored: If your emotional eating trigger is boredom, try to find ways to keep yourself entertained. Get active by heading to the gym, or if weather permits take a bike ride. If you are anything like me, I am sure there are people that you haven’t called for a long time. Pick up the phone and catch up with an old friend or relative. Turn on some music and have a dance party, or read a book.
Remove temptation: I love chips, like for real, ask my husband. I know that I cannot keep chips in my home, because if they are there, I am eating them. Over the years, I have learned that I cannot keep chips in the house regularly. This does not mean that I deprive myself, but chips are not a common item on my weekly grocery list. Everything in moderation, but since I fully understand that I cannot eat a small amount of chips and move on, I do not regularly keep them in my home. Try to incorporate healthy snacks into your lifestyle like the ones on this list.
Moderation is ok: Trying to go at this cold turkey is not the best strategy. Our bodies will quickly become bored with eating the same things over and over. Therefore it is ok to have the occasional treat. Just remember not to overdo it. If you have an issue with the amount of food you consume, instead of buying the pack of Oreo cookies, grab a dessert while out. The portion size is usually small, and the craving is then satiated, and there are no leftovers to go back to. However, this is not something that you can do every day. Remember, moderation is key.
Plan for the day ahead: If you find that you tend to get stressed out at work, try to plan ahead by packing healthy snacks. Slice up a cucumber and put a bit of lime juice on it, or make a homemade trail mix with almonds, walnuts, and a small amount of cacao nibs. If you must snack in between meals, make it a healthy snack.
Takeaways
If you are working to stop emotional eating, take the time to understand what triggers you to eat. In most cases, it is stress, and I know from personal experience that it is not always easy to just eliminate the stress from your life. However, the tips above can help you learn ways to stop relying on food for stress relief. The goal is for you to be healthy inside and out by identifying your emotions and actually dealing with them in a healthy way. If you feel that you need to seek professional help, know that there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
