How to Beat Emotional Eating

You had a stressful day at work, come home and immediately dive into a bag of chips.

Your kids have been driving you crazy all day so you skip dinner and drown your stress with wine and cookies.

You're missing your grandma at Christmas so bake her famous lemon bars then eat the entire tray because they remind you of her.

Family drama sends you over the edge and into a container of ice cream.

Food is a great way to self-medicate because it tastes good, is easily available, legal and makes us feel better. Well, at least for a few minutes. Food connects us to the past, brings back memories and is how we can express love, care or celebration.

Food is use for comfort, celebrations, show emotions, or to make us feel good. The problem is, when we do it in excess, when we lose control, or when we can't stop.

So what do we do?

A strategy I use for myself and with my clients is to use a food journal. Often times I'll have them jot down any thoughts or feelings they are having during meals, or I'll have them choose specific times they find themselves overeating, stress eating, binging etc.

Almost always, we are able to find a link between thoughts, feelings, situations and behaviors. From there we are able to move forward with strategies to help avoid emotional eating.

Some of those strategies might include,
- getting busy doing something else that does not have to do with food.
- getting comfortable with being uncomfortable
- thinking about your future self

I'll be honest in saying that I've used this practice and several of these strategies on myself because I too deal with emotional eating! So if you know this is something you struggle with, you're not alone! Maybe try some journaling and one of the strategies I listed above. Or reach out for help! Talk to a friend, family member or hire someone (like myself) who can help coach you through overcoming limiting factors like emotional eating.

It's a common struggle but also something that can be overcome!

P.S. if you need help overcoming this struggle, this is something we will discuss in my upcoming The Macro Way Bootcamp. Click the link above if you're intersted in joining!