6 Helpful Ways To Manage Emotional Or Stress Eating

Emotional or stress eating is a condition in which we  rely heavily on food in order to satisfy an emotional need. It can also be defined as food being used as a tool to soothe an emotional discomfort caused by either a mental or a physical malaise that is not  hunger. Emotional or stress eating can be triggered by a litany of things such as , loneliness, conflicts,boredom, anxiety, exhaustion, anger etc.

Food is supposed to be our best friend that helps fuel our journey through life. But instead, If we only live to eat and use food abusively for reasons besides building, repairing, protecting and healing the body, then we have an issue at hand to address.

Stress and emotional eating throws us off our diet plan and could cause major drawback into our fitness goals and journey. 

The following are 6 helpful ways that can be used to manage and eradicate emotional and stress eating.

1- Manage and eliminate stress factors

In today's world, it is nearly impossible to go without stress. Work and family could

be really stressful , the environment we living in, is a big stressor in itself. Stress leads to over- eating when food is a source of re-comfort. But instead of feeling good,  we are left with even more stress and guilt after an unnecessary intake of excess food and calories.

The following are a few examples  of how to manage stress and eliminate its factors.

Change jobs or locations if the environment is not propitious to you

sever bad relationship

Rest when tired

Ask significant other to help with kids and chores

Avoid drugs and alcohol

Get better at time management

Have a venting mechanism or keep a diary

Practice meditation

2- Keep a minimum  food at home

Keep only the necessary at home and if possible, raw food.

This technique works in the sense that you are self depriving  from food when your craving starts. You may have to take a trip to the grocery store more often than usual,  but you will see the benefit of it when you're up late at night, contemplating an emotional binge of food while everything is close, and that you have a very little options available inside your fridge. 

3- Engage in an Enjoyable physical activity

Check this out :

you leave  your 9 to 5 job - you go to your soccer practice that you love so much - you eat dinner- you are too tired- you sleep like a baby - you wake up the next day- you repeat.

In a situation like this, you are gaining multiple benefits :

Stress relieve

Improved mental and physical health

Less idleness, so less boredom

In addition to your normal daily routines, add an enjoyable physical activity. There is a myriad of options you can chose from.

4- Grocery shop while not under the Influence of hunger

Shopping for Groceries while you are hungry  is proven to heighten your need for unnecessary food items. Also,to make matter worse, you may be drawn towards sugary and fatty foods.

This technique is helpful in the sense that you are more likely to not bring an excess food at home, and definitely not a big box of nutty bars or some chips or candies. This technique has a resemblance  to the second point of this article in the sense that it helps keep temptations in check.

5- Healthy Snacking

Snacking on food that are high in protein and fibers are  good options.

They either fill you up quick (proteins have a superior yield for satiety); or they won't flood you system with calories that you don't need (fibers are poorly broken down in the body, which makes their calorific contribution negligible).

Nuts and seeds, bananas, pears, broccoli , avocados, tuna, beans  and low fat dairy are good examples of food to snack on.

But keep in mind that for a 2000 calories diet, you only need 50 to 175 grams of proteins and about 28 grams of fiber daily.

6- Food tracking

Food Tracking is another tool that can be used to manage stress eating.

Tracking your food intake can teach you about your cravings and what triggers them. It is good to do so because it increases the awareness towards food and helps you at holding yourself accountable about your relationship with it.

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