Are you struggling with food cravings and overeating due to stress? Do you find yourself taking solace in snacks and comfort foods during times of distress? It’s no secret that the world has become increasingly stressful. With chaotic schedules, responsibilities and mundane tasks, it’s all too easy to start turning to food for solace. Thankfully, there are ways to navigate emotional eating and consciously choose foods that will actually nurture your body. In this article, we’ll discuss strategies to overcome stress-related food cravings and help you take control of your food choices.
1. Life’s Challenges & Stress Eating
Life throws many challenges at us every day. From a demanding career to family crisis, we have to deal with adverse situations that can drive us to emotional stress eating. This unhealthy habit of ‘eating your feelings’ is entirely human, but if it’s happening on a regular basis, it can have a detrimental effect on your health and wellbeing.
Here are a few tips to help you stop stress eating:
- When a stressful situation arises, take a step back and try to identify the source of the issue.
- Try to think of healthier coping mechanisms such as going for a walk, talking to a friend, or workout.
- Maintain a balanced diet and eat only when you feel hungry.
On the other hand, however, it’s perfectly normal to allow yourself a special treat occasionally. Even if you have been avoiding snacks, it’s ok to reward yourself from time to time. Having a few small pieces of candy or a spoonful of ice cream won’t set you back if it’s done in moderation.
At the end of the day, listen to your body and mind and do what makes you feel best.
2. Identifying Unhealthy Eating Habits
It is crucial to keep track of our eating habits to ensure we’re staying healthy. However, some unhealthy habits might creep in without us even noticing. Here are some warning signs that can help you identify unhealthy eating habits before they become a problem:
- Constant dieting: Struggling to curb your appetite between diets? You may be setting unrealistic goals and not allowing yourself enough indulgences. This restricts the body of essential nutrients and can lead to further health problems.
- Obsessive Exercise: When food becomes scarce, we often offset the lack of nutrients by increasing our physical activity. Moving around more can be beneficial, but when taken to extreme lengths, it can lead to exhaustion and injury to the body.
- Oversized Meal Portions:It is important to find balance when it comes to portion sizes. Eating too much, too often, can create a vicious cycle of food cravings and lead to indigestion.
Being aware of the changes in your body and your dietary habits is essential to leading a healthy lifestyle. Keeping a food journal can be very helpful in recognizing and addressing the warning signs of unhealthy eating habits. In addition, eating nutrient-rich foods and enjoying an occasional indulgence can bring you closer to the balanced eating plan you are aiming for.
3. Temptation Tactics & Food Cravings
When you’re faced with deep cravings and temptations, it can be difficult to stay on track with your diet. However, by remembering a few important tips, you can stay in control and reach the healthy goals you’ve set for yourself.
- Examine Your Eating Habits: Taking a moment to examine your eating habits can help to determine what’s causing your cravings and make it easier to stay away from those tempting foods. Are you not eating enough? Eating too much of the wrong kind? Eating at the wrong times? Once you identify the source of your cravings, you can adjust your diet accordingly.
- Have Substitutes On Hand: Dealing with food cravings in a healthy way can be easier if you have more nutritious alternatives prepared ahead of time. Keep some healthy snacks like cut up vegetables, yogurt, or a homemade smoothie close by to satisfy those midnight cravings.
It’s also important to recognize that food cravings are often caused by emotional distress. Try to find healthier ways to deal with your stress such as going for a walk, talking to a friend, or taking a hot bath.
Food cravings don’t have to mean the end of your diet. Just keep in mind that it all comes down to self-control and taking the necessary steps to keep yourself on track.
4. Finding Solution-Focused Alternatives
When dealing with challenging situations, it’s important to be able to shift the perspective and come up with a solution-oriented mindset. Here are a few approaches to help you find practical and positive alternatives.
- Do the Opposite – Oftentimes, negative patterns will repeat unless you look for opposite solutions. When faced with a difficult issue, think of what the exact opposite of your usual reaction is. Consider different approaches that could potentially yield different outcomes.
- Break it into Smaller Parts – Start by breaking the issue down into small, manageable components. Make a list of all the possible solutions you can come up with. Then, start addressing each point one by one until you’ve worked through every angle.
- Explore Creativity – Come up with different ideas, even if they seem absurd. This level of creative freedom can help you to let go of fixed notions and get outside of the box. As the challenge begins to take shape, you’ll start to notice more options and potential solutions.
Finally, remain open and receptive to different ideas from others. Talking through a difficult issue with someone else may help you gain insight into solutions you wouldn’t have or thought of yourself. As you put all of the pieces of the puzzle together, you’ll eventually find a path to a workable solution.
5. Overcoming Emotional Eating Step by Step
1. Understand the Habits behind Emotional Eating
If you’re engaging in emotional eating, it’s important to first understand why it happens. Examine why you’re eating – whether it’s out of hunger or you’re trying to fix negative feelings. Start to recognize your own patterns and triggers so that you can replace the habit with something else.
2. Find Healthy Coping Methods
Figure out alternative, healthier ways to cope with emotional triggers. Make a list of activities that you can do instead of emotional eating, such as:
- Journaling
- Going for a walk
- Doing some deep breathing exercises
- Watching a movie
- Calling a friend
Any of these activities can help remind you of activities that bring relief and joy, instead of relying on food to provide comfort.
3. Set Positive Eating Goals
It’s okay to want to enjoy food. Rather than banishing all foods that bring pleasure, it’s possible to develop mindful, healthy eating habits that don’t lead to overeating. Establish reasonable goals that can be achieved on a regular basis, such as having healthy snacks on hand, sharing desserts with family or friends, and eating meals in regular schedules.
6. Taking Control of Stressful Eating Situations
No matter the circumstances, it can be hard to avoid stress eating. The occasional snack here and there won’t do too much damage, but more frequent lapses can lead to an unhealthy weight gain. Here are a few tips for taking control of those stressful eating situations.
- Acknowledge your feelings. Stress isn’t something that goes away as quickly as it came. Before reaching for the snacks, take time to acknowledge why you feel stressed and any accompanying emotions you may be experiencing. Acknowledging these feelings can help you find healthier ways to manage them.
- Remind yourself of your why. When trying to make any lifestyle change, it’s important to remember why you’re doing it. Whether it’s having more energy, achieving a personal goal, or just feeling healthier, reminding yourself will make it easier to make healthy decisions.
- Have a healthy snack arsenal. Prepare yourself in advance so you don’t end up reaching for a snack. Have a stash of healthy snacks that you can grab when you’re feeling snacky. Favorites could include air-popped popcorn, almonds, or raw veggies.
It’s not always easy to take control, but staying mindful can help. When you feel yourself reaching for something unhealthy, take a few moments to assess the situation and think about what would be healthiest for you in the long-term. It’s never too late to begin taking control.
At the end of the day, it is important to remember that emotional eating is a normal behavior, and it does not need to be judged. With dedication and the right strategies, you can develop a healthier, more balanced relationship with food and be better equipped to navigate emotional eating with confidence.