Emotional Eating Causes & How To Reverse Them
/You prepped all of your meals for the week ahead on the weekend. It's your Sunday Meal Prep day. You are prepared and ready for the week ahead.
You eat your prepped breakfast with coffee in the kitchen of your home. Before you leave for the office, you grab your lunch out of the fridge to take with you.
When you arrive at work, your inbox is overflowing with new emails. You can't seem to stay ahead. You have deadlines coming up, and you feel like you don't have enough hours in the day. On top of all of that, your boss just got done screaming at you.
Negative thoughts and emotions consume you. All you can think about are candy and snacks. You're craving something sugary and sweet. You need something to fill the void that you're feeling. The lunch you brought just won't do the trick. Luckily, your office keeps snacks in the cabinets in the kitchen.
This should help, right? If not, you're already planning on stopping at the store and finding something better for dinner instead of what you made for the week. One day won't kill you. You ate a healthy breakfast, so it could be worse.
Let's learn more about emotional eating causes and how to reverse them.
The Causes of Emotional Eating
If you find yourself running to the kitchen whenever you're feeling down or stressed, there's a good chance you may be experiencing emotional eating.
It's extremely common for people to turn to food as comfort and as a way to cope. We use food as a way to survive. It makes sense why our bodies respond in a positive way to it. Unfortunately, when we use food as a way to cope, it's not actually helping to address or solve the problem at hand. Sure, it may make you feel good in the moment, but it can also lead you to feel guilty and shameful about these habits.
These are some of the main causes of emotional eating:
Financial Worries
Health Issues
Relationship Problems
Work Stress
Other potential causes are related to a lack of awareness, ability, or understanding of your own body or emotions. These include:
Inability to manage your emotions
Inability to describe, process, or understand your emotions
Not realizing how you actually feel
An underactive cortisol response to stress
How to Reverse Emotional Eating
If you're worried about your emotional eating, there are certain steps you can take to regain control and get back on track again.
Keep a Food Log
Starting a food log or journal can be a great way to help you determine how much and when you eat. It's also a great way to check in with how you're feeling before or after certain meals. It's also important not to deprive yourself. Over time, you'll have a better sense of if you're using food for fuel versus as a coping mechanism.
Reduce Your Stress
Stress is one of the main causes of emotional eating. Instead of turning to food next time you're stressed, try incorporating stress-relieving techniques like yoga, meditation, or deep breathing.
Seek Professional Help
If you're still having trouble controlling your emotional eating, it's okay. Emotional eating is very common. Seeking help is one of the best things you can do to get back on track again.
A therapist will help you understand the difference between eating to fuel your body versus turning to food when you're stressed or emotional. Therapy can also help you get a better understanding of why you may be an emotional eater. Your therapist will be able to work with you to teach you better ways to cope next time you're feeling anxious or stressed.
Reach out to me today for anxiety treatment or depression counseling so I can help you to feel control over your habits during times of stress.