You have a real rough day at work and you come home to a project your kid forgot to do. All you want to do is curl up on the couch but you still have to make dinner and prepare everyone’s lunch for tomorrow and your youngest has soccer practice. Ever have days like this? I know I definitely do! When this would happen the first thing I would do when I walked in the door was reach for some chocolate or let’s face it, a glass of wine. I just needed that instant gratification but it never lasted! Thankfully I can so I don’t do this nearly as often anymore and you can be the same. I put together some of my tips to help avoid emotional eating!
Did you happen to catch me saying that I don’t do this “nearly” as much anymore? I wanted to point that out because no matter how many strategies I have, I’m not perfect. You aren’t going to be perfect either so on those days when your strategies don’t work, don’t get down on yourself! Acknowledge what happened and try again the next time!
#01 Identify Your Triggers
Taking note of when you want to reach for that emotional snack is really helpful! All you need to do for this one is just think about it. What is causing you to reach for the snack or what caused you to eat it? Just answering that question can be a big step in helping to decrease how often you use food to feel better.
Once you’ve spent some time identifying your triggers you can be more mindful of them and step in right before. Maybe getting home from work makes you feel overwhelmed and that is your trigger. You reach for some chocolate to help ease the stress. Well instead of walking in the house and going to the kitchen maybe you walk in the house and put on your exercise clothes instead. Change up your routine to help it work in your favor.
When we change our routine we are actually building new habits and since you are starting something new you can be in control of what you do!
#02 Find Another Way To Cope
Just as we did with the first idea, we are going to identify your triggers first. Doing that is really the key to helping change the behavior. So once we have those triggers identified we can create an emotional menu. This is just a list of a few things you truly enjoy doing. When you start to feel the urge to reach for your snack because you are overwhelmed you can pull out the menu and choose something on that list instead.
When I did this for myself I noticed that getting home from work was where I struggled the most. I was tired from the day but also overwhelmed because I still had so much left to do for the night. This is where I used my emotional menu. I actually used to have an alarm set on my phone to go off right around the time I would be getting home from work. The alarm would ring and I would see a list of a few things I could do instead of reaching for the chocolate.
It was just a great visual reminder. On my list I had things like do yoga, workout, sit and read with my kids, and 5 minutes to play a game. These little actions help fill my bucket back up instead of a snack. Let’s face it, the chocolate only worked for a few minutes and then I was reaching for more. These actions lasted a lot longer and gave me what I needed to be successful!
#03 Pause Before Eating
We talked before that we are not perfect. I’m not either so no worries! Sometimes my strategies don’t work and I find myself in the candy drawer, and yes we have a candy drawer more on that in a future post! When this happens I have one more little trick up my sleeve!
Before I eat it, I have to wait 5 minutes. I set the timer and go about my day. When the timer goes off, if I’m still really really craving it, I eat it. If that feeling has passed, I move on! During that 5 minutes though I am not sitting in front of the chocolate counting down the seconds. The key is to go to a task while you wait. Usually I find that since I’ve already moved onto a task I needed to do I pass on the treat.
#04 Set Yourself Up For Success
If you had to choose between cookies in the package or cutting up fruit which would you choose? Well for me I would choose the cookies and not because I like them more, but because adding another task to my to do list overwhelmed me more! Can you relate?
So when I say set yourself up for success I mean pre cut some fruit and vegetables so you can just grab them. Have healthy choices available without you having to put extra work into eating them. This was a really simple task but it was so successful for me! I chop up all the fruit and vegetables on Sunday and reaching for them is simple! You can even buy pre chopped fruit and vegetables if that makes it even easier for you!
#05 Next Steps
While these tips I am giving you can be super helpful, sometimes we are emotionally eating for bigger reasons. I highly recommend anyone feeling like this reach out to a therapist. They are there to help you and there is absolutely nothing wrong with asking for help!
I feel like there is such a big stigma on going to therapy, though I do feel it is getting better! I like to be completely up front, I have been going to therapy for 5 years now, since I had my youngest son. I am very outspoken about it because I truly believe it helps get the stigma away.
So please reach out to a therapist if you feel like you are dealing with underlying issues that are causing you to emotionally eat!
Five easy tips to help you when you feel like you are regulating your emotions with food. We have all been there so don’t think you are alone in this struggle. The best thing you can take away from reading this is to be intentional and acknowledge your feelings. Identifying what is causing them can help so much!
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