People eat for various reasons. To stop emotional eating, you need to know what triggers it. Know what situations, emotions or places trigger emotional hunger. Emotional eating is primarily triggered by negative feelings and sometimes positive emotions, such as rewarding yourself for an achievement.

Causes of emotional eating

• Stress: Most people tend to eat when they are stressed and there is a good reason for it. When stress is chronic, high levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, are released. Cortisol gives you cravings for salty, sugary, and fatty foods, foods that will boost your energy and pleasure levels.

• Boredom: This happens when you are inactive and have nothing to do. You can eat to overcome boredom. You feel empty and unsatisfied, so you eat to kill the boredom and have that feeling of fullness.

• Childhood habits: You may recall childhood memories of food. Some parents use snacks to reward children for doing good things, perhaps their parents will reward them with chocolate every time they get good grades. You can get into the habit from childhood.

• Social influences: Dining with friends is a great way to socialize and have fun, but it can sometimes lead to overeating. It will be easy for you to overeat when your friends do too, or you will overeat to calm your nerves. If your family or friends encourage you to overeat, it is easy to do so.

• Fill in emotions: eating can be a way to silence negative emotions you may have, such as anger, shame, loneliness, sadness, and so on. By concentrating on eating, you can temporarily forget those emotions.

How to stop emotional eating

An easy way to do this is to keep a food diary and a mood diary. Every time you realize you’ve eaten unhealthy food, write it down. Later, review the emotions that made you eat. Over time you will be able to identify habits or emotions that make you overeat. Once you know what triggers your emotional eating, you can start working on how to stop it and find healthier ways to eat.

1. Find other ways to feed your feelings

If you can’t find another way to deal with your emotions without involving food, then it will be almost impossible to stop this habit. One of the reasons diets fail is because they offer logical nutritional advice assuming the only thing keeping you from eating right is a lack of knowledge. This type of advice works only if you can control your eating habits. Identifying your triggers and understanding your cycle is not enough to stop emotional eating; you need to find other ways to deal with your emotions. When you’re stressed or lonely, you can call or hang out with a friend who makes you feel better, visit places you like, read an interesting book, watch a comedy show, or play with your pet.

2. Pause when the cravings come

This may not be as easy as it sounds because when you feel the urge to eat, it is the only thing you can think of. You feel the need to eat right there. Take at least 5 minutes before giving in to the craving, this gives you time to think about the bad decision you are about to make. Within that period, you can change your mind and make a better decision. If 5 minutes is too much for you, start with 2 minutes and increase the time as you improve.

3. Learn to accept good and bad feelings.

Emotional eating comes from not being able to deal with your feelings in your head. Find a friend or professional with whom you can talk about the problems and problems you are having. Being able to accept bad and good feelings without involving food will help you progress.

Four. Participate in healthy lifestyle habits

Exercising, getting enough rest, and getting enough sleep will make it easier for you to deal with any problems you may encounter, be they emotional or physical. Make time for a 30-minute exercise at least 5 days a week, relax, and get 7-8 hours of sleep every day. It is also important to surround yourself with positive people who will encourage you and help you deal with your problems.