How Intuitive Eating Can Help Control Emotional Eating

We all have happy emotions and sad emotions and food can often be associated with all of them. Think of when you are happy. What foods do you think of? They may be foods you like to eat when you celebrate. What about when you are sad or stressed? Many find comfort in chocolate or sugary delights, while others reach for salty or fried foods.

Whatever your choices are, emotional eating is not good for you.

Intuitive eating is a non-diet approach toward healthier well-being, and one of its key principles is coping with your emotions without using food. Emotional eating is okay as long as you are intentional about your food choices and not reactive or impulsive.

You can use intuitive eating to cope with your emotions in a way where food becomes helpful. You need to pay attention to your food, savor its taste, and enjoy your meal, which can be soothing.

Emotional eating becomes bad for you if it’s the only coping mechanism you have, and you just eat whatever, whenever. Positive emotional eating, on the one hand, is about being conscious of your food choices. However, it is also beneficial in having other means to cope with stressors, so you are not dependent on food.

Ways That Intuitive Eating Can Help With Emotional Eating

Here are some ways that intuitive eating can help you handle the times you feel out of control emotionally.

Feed Your Body Sufficiently

Make sure you’re eating enough to give your body the energy it needs. Sometimes when you are feeling down you can overeat, other times you can undereat. You need the right balance to sustain your body at optimum levels to help fight off fatigue and tiredness. If you’re quite active and busy during the day, you may not have sufficient fuel to sustain your energy. The result? You become hungry, easily tired, and irritated.

Find Other Coping Mechanisms Aside From Food

If you struggle with emotional eating, finding other means of coping with your emotions without food is important. You can take a short work around the block, read a good book, tend to your garden, or write in a journal. Maybe you also need to talk to someone you trust, like your spouse or best friend. Experiment with different activities that can ease your mind without reaching for a bag of chips or a block of chocolate.

Move Your Body

Moving your body in a way that you enjoy is one of the principles of intuitive eating. Exercise is known to release feel-good hormones that can help you destress and diffuse anxiety. You can do a few minutes of yoga, go for a walk, stretch or swim, or do whatever movement you enjoy doing without forcing yourself to finish a routine.

Break The Restrict-Binge Cycle

Intuitive eating is about permitting yourself to eat the food you enjoy without feeling guilty, which helps end the restrict-binge cycle.

This cycle happens mostly when dieting. You restrict yourself from certain foods, then once you’re in control, you might feel deprived and struggle with your cravings or hunger. You might give in and overeat, not knowing when you’ll ever get your next chance to eat these fave foods of yours.

After your binge eating, you may feel ashamed and guilty, so you either go back to restricting your food or you overeat again. It’s a rollercoaster ride of emotions and eating.

Intuitive eating teaches you to give yourself some freedom and not feel guilty. At the start, you’ll go through the honeymoon period where you have to deal with the fear that you might go out of control. However, if you are mindful and stick to the key principles of intuitive eating, you’ll get over it and break the cycle.

In Summary

Emotional eating isn’t necessarily a bad thing for you in intuitive eating. The key is to turn to food positively by making conscious food choices that can soothe your emotions. Emotional eating becomes negative when food becomes your only coping mechanism to handle your big emotions, and you do so impulsively.

Intuitive eating can help control your emotional eating if you honor your hunger, move your body, get in tune with your fullness, and break the restrict-binge cycle. It’s normal to be emotional, but you must find other ways to cope with your emotions without food for better eating habits and well-being.