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 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 stop eating when you feel satisfied but not stuffed.

Strategies To Stop Emotional Eating To Control Your Life

Emotional eating is a habit that quickly spirals out of control instead of making you feel in control. It would be best if you found 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.

1. 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.
2. 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 you want to spend time with to become a positive and uplifting experience.
3. Adopt Healthy Habits – Replace emotional eating with sustainable habits that benefit your health and wellbeing. Make sure you get 8 hours of sleep per night, create a happy work/home balance to reduce stress, and make exercise a priority as it will help boost your happy hormones.

Check out one important episode of the Pursue Your Spark podcast where I talk about “Stop Eating Your Emotions!” Click the link below, and you can also listen here or wherever you consume your audio content.