Emotional Eating Triggers

The first step to handling emotional eating is to identify your emotional eating triggers. We all have different reasons for emotional eating. While you may never eat when you're happy, your best friend may celebrate each small victory with a binge. My best friend clams up and subsists on water and saltines when she's depressed; I eat anything within reach when feeling blue.

Put it in Writing

By keeping a food diary, you'll be able to record how you're feeling and how much, how often, and what you eat. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just a plain spiral notebook will do the trick, Simply write the date at the top of the page and then jot down what you eat and how you feel before and after.

In time, you will find that your emotional eating has a pattern. Do you overeat when you're angry? Do you splurge on an extra serving of dessert when you're frustrated?

Seeing your habits in black and white is the only way to get the true measure of your own personal emotional eating triggers.

Plan Alternatives

The only way to put this record to use effectively is to plan alternative activities to eating so you'll have another option the next time the situation and/or feelings arise in your life.

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