How to Take Control of Emotional Eating
You seem to always be looking for a quick fix for the things in your life. Food has become one of those outlets for you. No matter how you're feeling, you tend to reward or comfort yourself with food.
No matter how hard you try to limit unhealthy foods or restrict yourself from falling victim to another binging cycle. You can't seem to get rid of using food as a solution to the problems in your life.
You're not alone if emotional eating has become a normal part of your life. That being said, it's important to take back that control so you can work towards having a better relationship with food as well as yourself. This is how to take control of emotional eating.
Don't Be So Hard On Yourself
If you're trying to take back control over your emotional eating, make sure that you give yourself grace as you work towards being healthier and more mindful of your eating habits. You will have setbacks along the way. These setbacks don't mean that you're a failure or that you should just give up on making these necessary changes. Instead of beating yourself up, use it as a learning lesson. Try to determine what brought you to want to emotionally eat and how you can work to handle a stressful situation differently in the future.
Are You Actually Hungry?
The next time you're worried if you're emotionally eating or not, ask yourself if you're actually hungry. Take the time to pause and reflect on addressing your level of hunger before you respond by eating or binging on food. Signs that you're truly hungry typically involve a stomach growling or feeling tired. Once you determine if you're actually hungry or not, you can try to determine your emotion levels. Checking in on your emotions can help you realize if you're actually hungry or if you're reaching for food as a temporary solution to feeling better in the short term.
Keep Track of Your Meals
Keeping track of your meals with the help of a food diary can help you track the meals you're eating as well as situations that may have come up during your day that caused you to reach for an extra snack. Tracking can help you become aware of any patterns that occur between the foods that you're consuming and your mood. Once you take the time to identify and acknowledge these patterns, it will be easier to overcome these patterns moving forward.
Practice Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a great way to bring your body and brain back to the present moment in time. A lot of stress and anxiety can come from worrying about past events or future events that haven't even occurred yet. Mindfulness can help keep you grounded. When you're truly living in the present moment in time, it can help you recognize when you're actually hungry versus when you may be trying to fill a void or make yourself feel better with food.
Implement Healthy Coping Mechanisms
Try to replace your emotional eating with activities that are better for your overall mental health and wellness. There are many different alternative options that you can try out to see what works better for you! Here are just a few of the many different coping mechanisms that you can try out to see what works best for you and your needs:
Find a creative outlet
Get outside
Lean on your loved ones
Move your body
Seek Additional Support
Emotional eating is a common coping mechanism. When it comes to emotional eating, it's important to consider healthier options that will be better suited for your health, as well as a better long-term solution for you. If you're interested in learning more about emotional eating therapy and find coping mechanisms that are healthier and better suited to your needs, reach out to us today.
