Treatment for Emotional Eating: Options to Try

Emotional eating is an issue for many people as stress is a major factor. We turn to sweet and salty snacks to get through stressful events or for comfort after a long day. Have you ever found yourself eating when you are not hungry? Instead, a dreaded phone call, toxic relationship, work burnout, or deadline causes us to seek the serotonin rush of comfort food.

There are tasks and lifestyle changes you can implement to stop emotional eating.

Tips to stop emotional eating

If you find yourself in a pattern of emotional eating at least twice a week for six months or more, you may need professional guidance to help you overcome the urges and behavioral pattern. Counseling can help you learn how to manage your stress more effectively. For example, if your emotional eating is rooted in anger, your counselor may suggest anger management and conflict resolution methods.

Emotional eating typically follows a trigger, not just a habit. The trigger may be a negative thought or emotion. When you can identify those thoughts and emotions that send you into a tailspin, you are more likely to overcome emotional eating by reframing those into positive beliefs and feelings and changing your behavior.

Hit pause.

When you feel the overwhelming urge to turn to food, ask yourself why. Take a moment to pause and reflect on what is driving your behavior. What thoughts are going through your mind? Is it a limiting belief? For example, if you have a deadline looming, are you telling yourself that you can never meet it, so why try? Do you say negative things about yourself?

Negative thoughts and limiting beliefs can leave you anxious and depressed, and these emotions are triggers for emotional eating.

Journal.

Changing your thoughts, beliefs, and emotions may take work through counseling and psychotherapy, but the result in mindset and behavior can be life-changing. Try journaling throughout the day to analyze your thought patterns and see how they affect your feelings and actions. Purchase a small notebook to carry around with you and jot down your thoughts before, during, and after eating.

Why are you eating right now? Are you hungry? If not, what made you want to reach for a snack? By delving into the root of your behavior, you see where you need to make changes and seek help. Your journal may also uncover other disordered eating patterns, such as binge eating – secretly consuming large amounts of food in a short period a few times a week.

Find healthy alternatives.

What foods do you reach for when you are upset, frustrated, sad, or stressed? Do you crave sweet snacks like ice cream or donuts? Do you want something salty like trail mix or potato chips? Are your choices a combination of the two?

What healthy swaps could you make that would not derail your health as much as processed food can? You want healthy alternatives to stabilize your blood sugar, as these spikes can worsen cravings and contribute to diabetes and overweight. For example, try peanut butter on celery for a nice crunch instead of chips, or blend frozen berries with cottage cheese or Greek yogurt for an alternative to ice cream.

Go for a walk.

Walking is an excellent exercise for reducing stress, distracting your mind from emotional eating, and ramping up your cardiorespiratory system. Walking is a low-impact activity, so almost anyone can do it at their own pace. Check with your physician to confirm your health allows for a walking program, and then start slowly. You can always add more distance or time as you gain momentum and adapt.

You might need to get creative if you live in an area that is not walking-friendly. Try at-home walking videos, park farther away from stores, or get off at a bus stop a little earlier than usual. You may want to use your lunch breaks to walk around the building or up and down the stairs. Aim for at least thirty minutes of activity daily.

You can even spread these into small snippets, such as three 10-minute sessions. If you sit most of the day, schedule five-minute breaks to stand up and move around, perhaps walking down the hall to check on a coworker or refill your water bottle.

Seek help from a counselor.

Emotional eating can lead to physical, emotional, and mental conditions. Stop emotional eating now before it has a chance to ruin your health. Contact our office today to schedule an appointment with a Christian counselor. Your counselor will work with you to get to the root of your emotional eating and help stop any behavioral patterns that may lead to an eating disorder, such as binge eating or bulimia.