How to Not Eat Your Feelings
By Erin Massey

Well, summer is on its way. That means heading to the river, enjoying the sunshine, sitting on the beach and wearing a SWIMSUIT. That’s almost a swear word right now after having gone through the pandemic and spending a lot of time at home coming up with new recipes, and finding really any reason to eat. Which, in turn, brings us to emotional eating. We may not even be aware that we do it, but believe it or not emotionally eating happens more often than we think. High caloric and sugary eats are usually what satisfies these cravings, which eventually can lead to weight gain. Anything from health issues, conflicts in relationships, work, financial struggles and feeling tired are all possible triggers for turning to food to self soothe.
The following are some ideas for trying to reduce emotional eating in an effort to lose weight and find healthier coping options:
– If you’re just eating because you are bored, try to substitute eating with doing other activities such as taking a walk or watching a movie.
– Get rid of tempting comfort foods in your home, and delay going to the grocery story if you are feeling angry or sad, as we tend to buy not as good food choices if we’re feeling this way.
– Eating more of healthy foods and occasional snacks can keep you satisfied to eliminate food cravings.
– Try gaining insight into whether or not your hunger is physical or emotional. Most likely if you ate not too long ago and your stomach is growling, then the craving to eat will pass relatively quickly.
– Get a good support network for yourself. You are less likely to emotional eat if you have friends and family that you can talk to.
– Keeping a food diary that contains when, how much, how often and how you are feeling when you eat can help you gain insight into patterns that show the relationship between the food you eat and your mood at the time.
– Getting involved in stress reducing activities such as deep breathing exercises or yoga can assist in reducing stress that can eventually lead to emotional eating.
– Take the opportunity to learn from emotional eating experiences to help reduce or prevent them in the future. Don’t get discouraged… we can learn from mistakes!