How many times during the day do you eat when you’re not hungry?
If you stop and check the status of your stomach before you reach for food, you may find you’re often eating for reasons other than hunger.
During these times, you probably experience strong cravings for salty snacks, sweets, or fatty foods. (It’s doubtful that you’ll crave a salad with tuna.)
That’s because you’re eating for emotional reasons. You’re looking for relief from uncomfortable feelings, such as:
- Stress
- Anger
- Boredom
- Loneliness
- Anxiousness
- Fear
You may also feel the need to eat when you’re happy, excited, or filled with nervous excitement.
Food has become your coping mechanism. It relieves, rewards, and releases emotions. Using food this way, however, leads to weight problems.
To get out of the food-using rut, you need to: 1) recognize when you’re eating for emotional reasons rather than hunger. The first step is simply to “catch” yourself in the behavior. 2) Then you need to find healthy behaviors to replace eating. You need to find ways to relieve your emotions in positive ways.
Here are some replacement behaviors to consider:
- Exercise
- Drink herbal tea or lemon water
- Chew sugar free gum
- Brush teeth
- Do chores
- Run errands
- Read a book
- Take a bath or shower
- Call a friend
If all else fails, eat a snack, but choose wisely.
