5 Easy Ways to Curb Emotional Eating

In a society that has developed an insatiable love affair with food, it’s easy to see how prevalent emotional eating has become. Taste, as one of our five senses, can bring much joy and pleasure into our lives. It’s when we use eating as a replacement or balm for another emotion that we need to reevaluate our perspective on cuisine. Let’s look at a few ways to keep your relationship with food in its proper perspective.

Be in Tune With Your Body

Being aware of your body’s needs and signals is essential in maintaining a healthy relationship with food. Ask yourself before you indulge in a tasty meal or snack if are you are actually hungry. If you are still full from the last snack you enjoyed earlier, any eating you are doing is actually damaging your body and overloading your stomach.

Identify Your Emotions

It’s important to be aware of what you are feeling every time you reach for food. Are you stressed, tired, upset or depressed? These are common negative emotions which many people attempt to ease through food.

Pamper Your Emotional Self

Whatever emotions may have your gut in a twist, caring for yourself and your body can be very spiritually restorative. Taking a bath, giving yourself a pedicure, diving into a good book, even going for a hike are just a few simple ways to set your emotions to rights.

Don’t Surround Yourself With Temptation

If you are working towards a different way of eating, avoid stocking up the shelves with those comforting foods you have used in the past to drown your emotions. This does not mean you cannot have yummy sweets and snacks at your disposal, simply that you shouldn’t make it so easy to slip back into over-consuming the foods you’ve previously abused.

Make Lifestyle Changes

There are simple ways to take care of your body and mind which will leave you feeling more emotionally balanced, and less likely to search out food for emotional nourishment. Work on sleeping more, reducing stress (and how you handle it) in your life. Take a closer look at your home or social environment and make sure these environments aren’t playing a part in the negative emotions associated with emotional eating. You may not be able to change all aspects of your life which produce damaging emotions, but you do have the power to decide whether to allow these negative feelings to control your life through food or in other destructive ways.