By Christina Sanghera
Team Inspired Wellness
After a long day at work, a stressful moment, an argument; do you find yourself heading to the pantry to sort out your feelings? Food is never more as seductive as when you are in a situation you feel you can’t control. All that stress spirals around in your brain and you feel like you might be quite literally losing your mind … sound like I’ve been there? Because I have, and in fact, I still feel this way on occasion.
The biggest difference is in my understanding of why it’s never a safe bet to use food as a crutch, the one thing I can “control” when everything else is rebelling. Because let’s be honest: do you really have “control” when you’re bingeing on a tub of ice cream? To break this pattern you’ve got to learn not to let daily life struggles dictate how and why you eat.
And you’ve also got to get real with yourself and recognize your patterns! In this post I’m sharing 5 ways I made huge strides in cutting ties with my love affair of emotional eating. I hope you find something that resonates and inspires you to make leaps of progress on your journey.
Breathe
I’m listing this one first because it’s something we forget to do in the daily shuffle: BREATHE! Not shallow, anxious, how-will-I-ever-meet-all-these-deadlines breath. I’m talking relaxed, I’ve-got-this breath. Take 5 minutes and do a quick meditation that uses your breath to calm the nervous system and bring you back to the present. We tend to live life on auto pilot and eat the same way. It doesn’t have to be a formal guided meditation; do what works for you!
Have Some Tea
Fancy some tea, mate? Ha! That’s the nerd in me clawing to escape from this post. I promise to keep it to a minimum 😉 Anywho, tea is your friend. Not only does it boast an insane amount of flavor variety, it’s also really soothing and it takes your mind off an impending emotional eating decision.
Write It Out
When we take a step back and view ourselves from the outside looking in, it’s remarkable the things we’ll uncover. But we’ve first got to be willing to go there and get vulnerable. We have to be okay with not being perfect, and understand that in order to get better we have to grasp what’s not working – that way we know what actually needs fixing! The next time you feel an emotional food decision coming on, write it out and answer these questions:
What is happening in this very moment?
Is there a specific person or situation stressing me out?Am I really hungry? When is the last time I ate?
How will I feel after this?
Get Some Nature Therapy
Even a ten minute walk can have a profound effect on stress levels. The way modern life is set up is opposite of how we thrive. We aren’t meant to sit for hours on end under fluorescent lighting with 50 million tasks to accomplish and a limited amount of hours to do it. It’s no wonder our bodies and minds rebel! It’s a cry for help, and we need to listen. Next time you’re traipsing over to the kitchen in search of a caloric cure for feelings, make a conscious decision to take a walk outside without your phone and just enjoy everything around you: the smells, the sounds, the sky. This mini reset will make that emotional eating moment feel much less appealing.
Think About It
Live in the present moment as much as possible. Stop living on auto pilot and letting your eating patterns follow suit. You don’t need a big, grandiose plan that’s all fluff and no substance. What you NEED is the little things practiced consistently, every day. Isn’t that refreshing? To know that you can start right now, with your next decision?
What are some things you do to stop emotional eating in its tracks? I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
Until Next Time,
Christina Sanghera
About Inspired Wellness
We are a wellness movement aimed at cultivating greatness in all areas of life. We believe that everything is connected and that having the body of your dreams shouldn’t come at the price of your mental and emotional health. You can catch us locally in sunny Sacramento CA inspiring lives at our wellness center with fitness, nutrition and lifestyle programs, or online doing the same thing!
Stay in touch, come connect with us in these places:
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16 Comments
My worst emotional eating is when I am working on a deadline and I have motions to write. I would just sit and munch and type and not even realize how much I was eating. Cheese-it’s and goldfish crackers were my go-to. When I finally acknowledged, this is ridiculous, I started by taking pre-portioned baggies of it to work instead of the whole box. That helped control how much I was eating but I still felt like I was eating too much of it. Now, I try not to even buy them at all.
Yup, out of sight and (mostly) out of mind! The longer you follow a clean eating plan, the less you’ll want that stuff anyway 🙂
When stressed, when I accomplished something or when I somehow justify it to myself….I make lots of excuses to eat badly or not work out. I love that this is about more than just what we put in, but really how we treat ourselves. Just breathing for 5 minutes makes a world of difference.
Right!? Sometimes we forget how important the little things are.
I haven’t yet mastered my emotional eating, but, what I have found that helps is the following: 1) remain conscious, meaning make an effort to reduce your stress by being aware of when it triggers and taking the steps to calm down. 2) I’ve found deep breathing will help me. I pause and take a few deep breaths, collect myself and carry on. 3) I’ve also found that “dedicating” a workout to a stressor helps. When slamming the med ball or kicking the punching bag I’m thinking about what happened that day. And don’t let the stress take over. I’ve done this where I just want to go home and veg out because to do anything else is just exhausting. But what I’ve learned is that it doesn’t give me the release I need for the stress and can make it worse. You have to be active and intentional with your life/choices. Not eating emotionally can be a positive result of that.
YES!! Awareness is the first step, right? Love your thoughtful reply. Keep it up!
It’s an ongoing struggle with my tendacy to emotional/stress eat. Work gets hectic and I tend to snack on bad things. I am about midway through this awesome book called “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle, that really focuses on staying in the “now”. This translates to not focusing on the past or the future but the current moment instead. I have been practicing that thought process which helps allieviate stress which inturn helps with the snacking!
This has always been my biggest challenge. I wish I could say I have discovered a secret trick but it is a struggle every single day. I go through periods where my willpower is good and I can conquer it but also have long periods where I just can’t.
When I’m feeling stressed at work, I make sure to step outside the office on my breaks and take a walk, listen to music, or chat with a friend. I feel better doing so than if I reach for coffee or an unhealthy snack.
This is one that is going to be harder for me. I think I get bored and eat. I will be trying instead to take the dog for a walk if I can or making a nice cup
of tea!
I’m going to reach for water, kombucha, or herbal tea when I’m feeling stressed instead of my usual go-to comfort foods (chocolate and coffee). I may just be dehydrated and not actually hungry.
The comfort foods end up making me feel worse! I pay for it in poor sleep or a headache or bathroom troubles. It’s worse the older I get, which is a blessing of aging!
Whenever I feel like emotional eating, I come to boot camp! Or go for a run! Or if I can’t do either of those, I drink a big glass of iced water with lemon and put a piece of chewing gum in my mouth… that seems to kill the craving!
I feel this so hard… emotional eating is definitely something that I turn too.
I’m a boredom eater. I think if I feel that “boredom binge” coming on, I need to find out ways to make myself busy, i.e., take a walk, talk to a friend, finish the laundry! ;-P
I don’t have an emotional eating problem. Yet, I do drink more or less according to my emotions. Ready to cleanse my body of alcohol!