Hello friends, Erin Power Board Certified Health Coach is here to answer your questions about comfort eating and stress eating. If you are struggling with this, you are not alone! We’re here with tips and support for building healthy relationships with food during times of stress. Have a question you’d like to ask our health coaches? Leave it below in the comments or in the Mark’s Daily Apple Facebook group.
Michelle asked:
“I always end up eating comfort food when I’m nervous or stressed, and I’m always nervous or stressed! After a hard day, I eat so much pizza or other food that I feel like eating and gain weight. Then I felt guilty, couldn’t sleep, and worried even more! How do I stop doing this? “
It’s real to soothe yourself with food during times of stress. So, unfortunately, the consequences of eating foods that make us feel worse are better.
Chronic stress itself can contribute to cravings and unwanted weight gain because it deregulates and taxes the nervous and endocrine systems, including overstimulating stress hormones. like cortisol and adrenaline. To make matters worse, people with chronic stress are more likely to have access to foods high in sugar, carbs, and saturated fat.
It’s clear that high-quality, total saturated fats are not healthy! But combining it with sugar, a large carb intake, and an overall excess of calories can lead to unwanted weight gain, overload the digestive system, and promote systemic inflammation.
Furthermore, foods that make us “feel like crap” are often not high quality or whole foods. It’s much more common for people struggling with comfort or emotional eating to turn to highly processed or fast foods that are high in unhealthy trans fats and fatty nut oils. high purity.
And, as you’ve noted, overeating and eating foods that make us feel physically and mentally unwell completely causes additional stress and interferes with a good night’s sleep. This exacerbates chronic stress, systemic inflammation, and unwanted weight gain. Ironically, it also makes us more likely to engage in emotional eating the next day — literally eating on a futile cycle.
Ask for help
First, take a deep breath and know that you are not alone. More and more people are experiencing stress, anxiety, depression, and other forms of mental-emotional challenges. In an effort to cope, many people turn to emotional foods and eating habits that make them feel worse. People with a history of disordered eating are even more susceptible to falling into such a state during periods of anxiety and uncertainty.
I would like to mention here—for anyone reading—that when your eating habits start to spiral out of control to the point of potentially developing an eating disorder, you may want to see a licensed therapist. or other mental health professional. The same goes for anyone with clinical depression, anxiety, or other serious mental health concerns.
That said, as a Primal Health Coach, I work with many clients who struggle with emotional eating. As a coach, I can assure you that there is hope to step out of unproductive cycles and change your relationship with food.
By recognizing your stereotypes around eating and asking for help, you’ve taken a brave and big first step. I’ll share a few others below!
Strategies and tips for emotional eating
1. Reframe the comfort eating.
One of the first things I suggest is recalibrating “comfort eating”. Instead of treating it as synonymous with “emotional eating” or what some call “emotional eating,” come up with a new and improved definition.
What if comfort eating meant eating food that made you feel better after eating? In other words, choose food and eat in a way that gives you real comfort!
Part of this is food choice. So I recommend equipping your home with healthy Primal options. It just makes it easier for you when your environment is set up to help you. On the other hand, an easy way to avoid foods that make you feel uncomfortable is to not keep them around.
2. Pause and play the tape forward.
This is a great thing to do in the moment — before you “go too far” or when you find yourself in the middle of it. This moves the emotional moment of eating into the “present tense”. Many times we reflect on our diets as “unhelpful” afterward, filled with frustration and guilt, which… often doesn’t work.
In these situations, visualize yourself overdoing it — whatever that means to you — and notice what happens next. See yourself 10 minutes from now, after you’ve been trying to fall asleep, and tomorrow morning. Really realize how your actions now will affect your future self. How do you feel physically or emotionally?
Now imagine an alternative scenario—one where you would choose otherwise and perhaps put food aside for now. Where will that choice lead?
Practice making choices in a moment when you know your future self will feel better.
3. Breathe and move!
Instead of telling yourself you can’t have something, try saying, “Maybe later, after 10 deep breaths or 10 minutes of walking.”
By themselves, walking and taking slow, deep breaths are great strategies for regulating the nervous system and reducing stress and anxiety. You’ll distract yourself with activities that calm your mind and help you connect with how your body and mind feel. This is a great way to eliminate the urge and help reduce cravings.
4. Write it down.
Many studies have shown the beneficial effects of journaling or “expressive writing” in reducing physical and mental-emotional symptoms. Some people also find it helpful to keep a food diary as a form of personal accountability and adherence to eating goals.
This is a more permanent strategy, as journaling is most effective when done consistently over a period of weeks or months. Don’t let that discourage you! Take time every morning or evening (even 10 minutes) to put pen to paper or finger to keyboard.
You can write about how you feel and specific eating patterns… or just see what you want to appear on the page. It’s important to (1) not censor or judge yourself, and (2) give yourself an outlet to reflect on where you are and where you want to be.
The act of writing it down can help you change your relationship with eating over time.
5. Cultivate interest.
Instead of just focusing on what you want to change or avoid, identify something you can look forward to and even get excited about it!
This isn’t a big deal, and ideally it should be something you can do on a regular basis — especially whenever you tend to eat emotionally. Perhaps there is an activity or project you enjoy, a book you want to read, or a TV show you want to watch. Choose something that you can look forward to AND will make you feel comfortable and relaxed — both in the moment and in the after.
6. Get support.
While the steps above provide a solid starting point, I cannot stress enough the value of getting support and working with a mental health professional or live coach.
External accountability is truly a game changer, and we can help you navigate your specific circumstances and challenges. As part of this, we can provide “hard love” when needed but will also answer questions, offer personalized guidance and, above all, empower you to do Take actions that best support your health and well-being goals. Working with a coach for even a month or two can help you recalibrate, reset, and give you a framework for success. Visit myprimalcoach.com to learn more and get started.
Do you struggle with emotional eating? Have any tips to share? Drop them and other questions to me in the comments!
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