Do you find yourself reaching for the ice cream or potato chips when you’re stressed? Do you rush to the fridge when you hear bad news? Pig out on the sofa at night when bored? Or find that you’ve eaten dinner whilst preparing it? When life gets a little crazy or unpredictable, it’s easy to reach for things that give you that feeling of comfort and security. Recognizing the signs of emotional eating is the first step in taking back control of your eating habits and your life.
How To Stop Emotional Eating To Control Your Life
How to recognize emotional eating
Key signs of emotional eating make it easier to recognize and kick those habits. You may be relying on emotional eating as a control mechanism if you:
- eat when stressed, sad, or bored
- eat when you are not hungry or keep eating when you feel full
- use food as a reward
- eat until you feel stuffed
- food or eating makes you feel safe
- you feel out of control or just can’t help yourself around food
Are you really hungry?
Emotional eating and physical hunger have different signs. Listening to your body’s cues will help you establish which one you are experiencing.
Emotional Eating comes on suddenly, and you feel like you need to eat right now. You crave specific foods, usually fatty and salty food. You keep eating even after you feel full. Feelings of shame and guilt are triggered after emotional eating.
Physical hunger is a gradual feeling that allows you time to plan the foods that you really want and enjoy eating. You can wait for a while before eating, and you are able to stop eating when you feel satisfied but not stuffed.
3 Strategies to stop emotional eating
Emotional eating is a habit that quickly spirals out of control instead of making you feel in control. You need to find a new strategy for emotional regulation. But what? You already know that diets don’t work. Understanding your behavior and why it’s not a healthy and sustainable habit will help you stop emotional eating as a control mechanism.
- Mindful Eating – Pay attention to your internal cues and why you are reaching for food. Turn off electronics and focus on your meal as a full sensory experience. This will encourage you to be present, eat more slowly, and become aware of when you have had enough food.
- Notice What You Can Control – Emotional eating is a controlled response to stressful situations. Reduce this by listing the things that you CAN control. Organize your calendar, structure your days, plan your exercise routines, make meal plans, and choose the people that you want to spend time with so it becomes a positive and uplifting experience.
- Adopt Healthy Habits – Replace emotional eating with sustainable habits that benefit your health and well-being. Make sure you get 8 hours of sleep per night, create a happy work/home balance to reduce stress, and prioritize exercise, as it will help boost your happy hormones!
With a little mindfulness and practice, you can stop emotional eating and regain control of your life. Why not check out some of these recipes as a health-boosting replacement for comfort food?
Hello Heike,
I agree I need to pay more attention to what I’m eating and also to stop eating while I’m doing something. I eat often eats when I’m stressed and not because of hunger. I found this blog talking to me. Thanks for the eye opener.
Nancy, it’s so important to be mindful in all parts of our lives, and I am glad this post resonated with you. Let me know what strategy you’ll start with.
Yes, yes, and yes!
I can see myself featured in this post. I am quilt y of stress and more often these days boredom eating.
Thanks for the reminder to pay attention and get back on a healthy track.
Rosemary
Rosemary, I am so glad that you found my blog helpful. It’s so easy to fall into an unhealthy habit without recognizing it.
I don’t have a problem with emotional eating but I tend to eat more than I need to.
I JUST LOVE FOOD!
Your tips are also great for over eaters like me.
Hugs,
Robin
Robin, I love food too, and I know exactly how you feel. Baby steps and smaller plates.
Hi Heike,
I’m so glad you shared these tips! My eating this fall has way too often been based on my emotions of the moment rather than true hunger. With more holidays coming up, I really, really need to get a handle on this now before even more food temptations are in our house.
Lauren
Hi Lauren, you made my day by stopping by and sharing your feelings about food. Yes, the temptations are coming but we are not on a diet so that we feel restricted. Instead, we use our best judgment and intuition. I hope one of my tips resonates with you.
I think this post was written just for me! Thank you for sharing, I needed to see this today.
Hi Libbie, thank you for your honesty and maybe one of my strategies will help you move forward.
Mindful eating is so important! These are great tips!
Michele, thank you so much for stopping by, and I totally agree with you.
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