Are you wondering how you can stop stress-eating? A big “problem-area” of people who are trying to improve their overall diet is stress-eating. When we feel stressed, we may turn to food to ease our minds.
We see food as a calm in the storm. Food makes us feel good. We have a connection to food.
However, food is never the solution to address our emotions and feelings. Whether it is stress, depression, anxiety, boredom, or happiness, food never works long-term. Sure, we may feel a temporary lift in our mood, but we are still left with the feelings. Food doesn’t get to the root of the issue.
It’s easy to see that food doesn’t solve difficult emotional situations, but when we are in the midst of that feeling, we aren’t always logical. Today, I’ll outline some tips to stop eating when you feel stressed.
Tips to Stop Stress-Eating
1. Quit dieting!
Sorry, this is going to be in just about every list I make! But here’s why. If you diet, you have forbidden foods. You have a higher emotional attachment to food. There is a heightened reward response when we eat a food after restriction.
When we are stressed we aren’t able to spend emotional energy on restriction, so we cave. We eat the forbidden food, probably a lot of it, and feel guilty about it. The cycle repeats. As long as you are restricting, you will continue to feel drawn to food.
2. Take a time-out
Come up with a game plan before you try to use food to cope. Take some deep breaths. Do you have a friend to call? Take a 5-minute walk. Meditate. Pray for peace, for clarity, for wisdom. Find something to distract you for a few minutes while you calm down and get your bearings.
3. Determine what you really need
Coping with emotions, such as stress, can happen in many different ways. Not only do we need to cope, but we need to get to the root of the emotion.
Why are you feeling stressed? Can you change the situation? Are sleep-deprived and need a nap? Do you have a hard time saying no and find yourself over-committed?
Journaling during these feelings can be a helpful way to bring the issue to light. Whatever your stressor is, there is a better way to cope than with food.
4. Give yourself grace
Lastly, if you tried the first 3 tips and still ended up using food to cope with stress, it’s going to be okay! You can learn something from every experience you have.
For example, you may learn that when you are running on 3 hours of sleep, you have to work, and have extracurricular activities after that, you crave the comfort of food. Perhaps you learn that you can’t function well on 3 hours of sleep, so you make sleep a priority for your health.
Without judgement, you learn and move on from the situation. You don’t try to make up for it the next day with increased exercise or decreased food intake. Give yourself grace.
Are you ready to stop stress-eating? Book an appointment today I’d love to encourage you on your intuitive eating journey.
About the author
Erin is a registered dietitian and diabetes educator with almost 20 years of experience. She specializes in weight-inclusive diabetes care and prevention, intuitive eating, fitness, and women’s health. She works as a consultant and writer in the health and wellness space. Erin is passionate about empowering people to manage their own health and to have peace with food.