Knowing the stressors that cause you to reach for food is the first step toward stopping stress eating. This begins with checking in with yourself. Before you head to the kitchen, ask yourself if you’re eating because you’re hungry or if it’s a response to something else. Each time this happens, identify what you’re responding to and make a note of it. This can help you determine which situations trigger stress eating.
Most people can name the foods they reach for when responding to stress. After identifying your stressors, the next step is to remove go-to foods, especially if they’re high in sugar, heavily processed or high in trans or saturated fat. This involves removing these foods and snacks from your kitchen, your desk at work or your car. When you’re feeling stressed, replace these foods with more nutritious options that can help curb hunger, such as apples and natural peanut butter or carrot sticks and hummus.
It’s not always possible to avoid food, though. When stress is high and food is nearby, it is helpful to find other ways to take the edge off. Here are some ideas to try:
- Take a 10- to 15-minute walk.
- Practice 3 to 5 minutes of diaphragmatic breathing (belly breathing).
- Drink a glass of water. You may want to infuse it with your favourite fruit to add flavour.
- Call or FaceTime with a friend or family member.
- Write in a journal.
- Flow into a few yoga poses like Standing Forward Bend, Butterfly Pose, Triangle Pose or Legs-Up-The-Wall Pose.
- Grab an adult colouring book and your favourite crayons or pens and de-stress with creativity.
- Listen to a guided meditation.
- Read a chapter or two in a book or do a crossword puzzle.
- Keep your hands busy with a hobby like knitting, drawing, building, or squeezing a stress ball.
A more long-term solution may be to prevent or at least minimize the stress that causes stress eating in the first place. Here are three ways to include stress-reducing activities in your day:
Move your body
Practice mindfulness meditation
Seek out social support
Turning to food when you experience internal or external stress is common. When you stress eat, however, any relief it provides is often temporary. Emotional eating can affect your weight and overall health and well-being. Avoiding stress entirely is not possible. That’s why it’s critical to find healthy ways to deal with daily stressors and anxiety that don’t involve stress eating.