Emotional eating, stress eating, and bored eating all lead to a less-than-ideal relationship with food. Plus, eating never actually HELPS the root cause of your emotions, stress, or boredom.

True food freedom (and a healthy relationship with food) only exists if you’re able to find way to FEEL and process your emotions without food.

Check out 4 steps you can take to beat emotional eating, once and for all!

1. When you first feel emotions/stress/boredom, take a deep breath. Don’t impulsively just eat. Ask yourself and be HONEST with yourself: What’s really going on here? What’s causing your distress? What’s in your control (in regards to the cause) and what’s out of your control?
2. Ask yourself if you’re physically hungry. If your stomach is growly and you’re irritable, chances are you’re hungry.
3. If you’re hungry, eat mindfully. If you’re not hungry, ask yourself if you’re willing to find another way to process your emotions. Be honest with yourself. Will eating HELP the cause of your emotions?
4. If you choose to eat, pay attention to your emotions and thoughts while eating. Stop eating when you feel full. If you decide to self-soothe, don’t be afraid to try multiple things to help you feel better.

Know that beating emotional eating takes MANY times of practicing these 4 steps. You won’t be “cured” after running through these steps once.

In step 4, you may need to try LOTS of different activities many different times to really know how you can best process emotions and stress. Don’t give up after trying something once.

Try out these 4 steps the next time you feel upset, and let me know how it goes for you!