Ten Ways to Stop Emotional Eating

1. Learn the difference between physical and emotional hunger. Am I actually truly physically hungry, or do I have a head hunger? Or heart hunger?

2. Eat slowly and listen to your body for clues that you're physically satisfied. When you feel any indication that you are full, STOP eating. Just stop. Tell yourself that you are probably full, but if, in 15 minutes, you are actually genuinely hungry still, you can have some more food.

3. Don't eat mindlessly in front of the TV. Or whilst on the computer. Or whilst reading. Or whilst chatting over a glass of wine.

4. Don't deprive yourself of foods you love – just don't overdo it.

5. Don't eat in bed or on the sofa. Eat at table. With a plate and a knife and fork. Stop emotional eating by eating in the proper place all the time.

6. Treat your body with respect: nourish it, move it around, listen to it, and pamper it. Tune in to your body, and listen to it properly, to stop emotional eating.

7. Look for connections between the events in your day and your apparent cravings for food. Identify the triggers that push you over the line and make you want to eat mindlessly. Write it down. Journal the connections you make between emotions and irrational eating.

8. Deal with your triggers. If you can't cut them from your life entirely, find better ways to cope with your feelings. Eating mindlessly makes things worse.

9. Name the emotion. If you have a food that is "calling you", I can pretty much guarantee that it is actually an emotion that needs attention.  If you can name the emotional you are really feeling, you can address that need, not eat over the top of it.

10. If you are desperate to eat something, anything, just to "feel better", just imagine this:

You have been taken away from all that you are familiar with, your home, your roles in life. You have finally been returned to safety. What is it that you want MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE? What do you need, first and foremost?

THAT is what you need to reach for. Not food.


For me, that final exercise showed me so much.

I so often reach for food for comfort.

Bored? A cuddle would solve that.

Frustrated? A cuddle would sooth.

Lonely? A cuddle would alleviate that.

Angry? A cuddle could diffuse that.

Grieving? A cuddle could soften the pain.

Happy? A cuddle would amplify that.

Sad? A cuddle would nurture.

Feeling ignored? In need of attention? A cuddle and a whispered chat would wipe those feelings of rejection away.

Somewhere, evidently, way back when, I am sure that I was given food as comfort, by well meaning family members. Repeatedly. Quick fix in a busy household. Old habits die hard, especially when it is a habit passed down through generations of busy parents.

But children don't want food: they want a cuddle. They want comfort.

So there is an additional lesson there, for many of us, I suspect.