Coping with Emotional Eating

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Gaining control through understanding yourself

Awareness begins when you "get in touch" with your feelings and how they relate to your eating habits. The best way to do this is to maintain a daily journal.

• When you write in your journal, identify the situation and the feeling that makes you want to eat. For example: "When John yells at me, I feel ______." If you can't identify the feeling, state that, as in: "I don't really know what I am feeling."
• List the foods you eat for each situation. Write down how you feel both before and after an eating episode.
• Be aware of the physical damage of your emotional eating by writing how many calories and excess grams of fat you eat during an emotional eating episode alongside your description of the eating episode.
• Remember to be kind to yourself. Your journal is an opportunity to become more aware of your feelings, thoughts and actions, not an opportunity to 'beat yourself up' or judge yourself harshly.
  
• Be sure to finish every journal entry with a positive reminder of your worth. Help to change your self-talk by writing something like: I accept myself in my entirety, just the way I am today, even though [I overate; ate compulsively etc].

Remember that although the associations between food, comfort and security are largely unconscious, the actual decision to eat is always a conscious choice. There is always an all-important deciding moment when you make a decision to eat. Be aware of that moment.

Gaining control through action

Action starts by deciding not to eat in response to a difficult emotion or situation. It is helpful to have a list of instantly effective methods of control for when your emotional “hunger” hits. You can build a repertoire of "band-aid" diversions from eating and write them in your journal. For example:

• When I feel angry I will not eat. I will listen to some music.
• When I feel lonely I will not eat. I will treat myself with a candle-lit bubble bath.
• When I am worried about something, I will not eat. I will go for a walk.
• When I am disappointed about something, I won’t eat chocolate cake. I will drink a cup of my favourite tea.

Other diversions might include calling a friend, going to a movie, gardening, or doing some housework.

Although it is important to control your eating, you don't need to deprive yourself. Limit, but do not eliminate, some of the foods you crave. When you crave a piece of chocolate, first ask yourself if you really want it. If the answer is yes, then enjoy a few pieces. Eating balanced and good-tasting meals with enough fat, protein and carbohydrate will also help to fill you nutritionally and physiologically, and minimise cravings.

Exercise is also an excellent way to manage emotional eating. To keep weight off and calm the emotional storms that compel you to eat, try taking a daily 30-minute walk.

Last updated: September 25th, 2007