Emotional Eating

An excellent method for starting to investigate the reasons for your behaviour is tracking your triggers. For example, what does happen that make you want to reach for food?

Is there something or someone bothering you? I would suggest you start keeping an eating journal. The intention is not to judge how much you eat but rather the emotions behind your eating.

A quick technique you can use to awaken your food awareness is slowly eating a bit of food. It can be anything you like. Take a small bite and savour it. What do you notice? Is the food cold or hot? What can you taste? How does it make you feel? Take note of these physical sensations. What you are trying to achieve is to enjoy food for what it is and to separate it from all the other negative feelings.

Finally, try not to feel guilty about emotional eating. It happens, and it is very common, and most importantly, you can do something about it. Just by acknowledging it, you are giving yourself some space to express what you are feeling and in the long term is a winning strategy.