Stress eating can sneak up and derail even the best of intentions when it comes to diet or nutrition plans… and with it can come a cycle of shame and food obsession. Many women begin this habit early in life and continue to use it to cope through the stress of early motherhood.

It’s often assumed that knowing “what to eat” will break the habit, but emotional eating isn’t really about the food at all. it’s about coping with emotions.

The truth is you don’t need to completely avoid all sugar or certain food groups… in fact, trying to overly manipulate the food can exacerbate emotional eating, and doesn’t require you to look at the core issue aka handling stress in healthy ways.

Here are 3 steps to reducing your emotional eating THIS WEEK.

1. Notice your patterns while in a clear mindset. Don’t wait until you’re in the middle of a stressful and triggering moment to try and hash it out or change your automatic habit. Take note (and maybe write down) if there are certain times of day, days of the week, locations, or situations (like at work or with your kids or spouse) that lead to the emotional eating. Bringing awareness to what happens BEFORE the eating is crucial. As you become more aware of what leads up to emotionally eating, it will be easier to break the old habit.
   

2. If you do notice a pattern, think about what you can do differently to create a gap between the emotion and the eating. Set a timer for 20 minutes, journal about how you’re feeling, take a walk, call a friend, etc. Think of how you WANT to react. How would a healthier version of you react in this situation? What could she doe other than eat? What would feel better in the long run, not just in this moment?? After 20 minutes has passed, come back to the situation, and assess if you are actually hungry.
   

3. Use the hunger scale. This can help you to notice if you’re eating because you’re hungry or for other reasons like stress, anxiety, etc. It’s very normal and common to eat for reasons other than hunger. A big part or mindful, or intuitive eating is learning to come back to your body aka listening to your hunger and fullness cues (which we usually lose by about age 3). The goal is to stay in the center of the hunger scale, meaning eat when you’re hungry, and stop when you’re satisfied (not stuffed). This can more easily happen when you slow down while eating, eat without distraction (like phone, tv, and laptop), and eat foods that are satisfying.

Now don’t get me wrong… food DOES play a small role in emotional eating. What and when you eat certain foods (like sugary foods or highly processed carbs) can influence cravings and satiety. if you want to learn more about WHAT to eat to stay satisfied so you CAN think clearly and tune into your hunger and fullness cues, be sure and download my free ebook.