How To Beat Emotional Eating

“ Someone should open an ice cream shop with flavors like; don’t be sad or you deserve better” - Karen Salmansohn

Emotional eating or comfort eating is the practice of consuming large quantities of food, or turning to "comfort foods" or junk foods in response to feelings instead of hunger. Feelings like stress, boredom, anxiety.

When it comes to emotional eating, I used to be terrible, I still sometimes reach for food when I am stressed but I am much more in control now than I used to be. I can get incredibly stressed when there is too much going on around me, too much noise or when my house is too messy. It makes me feel overwhelmed.

I remember dinner time when my kids were small. Oh my God, it was so stressful. The mess in the kitchen from cooking, half of their dinner on the floor, dishes piled up, their toys everywhere, laundry basket full of clothes, everything out of place and the kids arguing about who was having the pink plate.

I remember scoffing the kids chicken nuggets down my throat, stuffing my face in cold pasta bows straight from the pot without even thinking about it. I used to just stand there and eat because I felt so stressed and overwhelmed internally but since then I have found ways to cope better.

Emotional eating can be beaten but to make that happen you must first address what the triggers are and also try to understand what the root cause of this behavior is. A health coach or other councilor can help you with that if needed but first here are some simple techniques that you can try at home.

1. Recognizing comfort eating

To help spot when you are comfort eating, keep a food diary for a few days. Whenever you eat something, record your mood and how hungry you are on a scale of 1 to 10.

If you find that you are eating in response to negative emotions rather than hunger, chances are that you are comfort eating.

Ask yourself: am I really hungry, or is this comfort eating? Then, wait 30 minutes before eating. Often, you will realize that it is really emotional comfort, not food, that you need. Once you have identified what sets off your comfort eating, you can start to tackle it

True Hunger vs. Emotional Hunger

Physical (true) hunger vs. Emotional hunger

It develops slowly over time vs. It comes about suddenly or abruptly.

You desire a variety of food groups vs. You crave only certain foods.

You feel the sensation of fullness and you stop eating vs. You may binge on food and not feel full.

You have no negative feelings about eating vs. You feel guilt or shame about eating.

2. Create a “trigger” list:

A list of the feelings and circumstances that tend to spark your comfort eating.

12 common comfort eating triggers:

• Stress/Anxiety

• Work stress

• Loneliness

• Money worries

• Bad weather

• Tiredness

• Arguments with your partner

• Boredom

• Sadness

• Anger

• Unemployment

• Health problems

3. Dealing with comfort eating

Think about how to change or avoid the circumstances that prompt negative feelings, which in turn lead to comfort eating. If your commute to work leaves you stressed and reaching for a snack, for example, can you find a new route?

It is not always possible to avoid difficult feelings, but if you find yourself snacking or craving certain food, it can help to follow a routine or create a new “good habit” to replace the snacking.

Non-food comfort fixes:

• Take your mind off food with some reading

• Listen to some good music

• Write down a fun thing you’re going to do today, or this week

• Watch a movie

• Phone a friend

• Go for a walk

• Clean the car

• Have a bath

• Surf the web

• Do some breathing exercises

• Exercise

• Start writing a diary and record your feelings

Left unaddressed, emotional eating may lead to binge eating disorder or other eating disorders so If you feel that you need to talk to someone and to get more help with beating emotional/ comfort eating, one to one sessions with a health coach will be a great option since health coaches help people with getting to the root cause of the issue rather than just treating the symptoms.

Action step this week: Think about a time or times when you have been using food as comfort.

1. What was/is the trigger(s)?

2. How did you deal with it or how can you deal with it right now?

3. Record your discoveries in your journal.