How to deal with emotional eating?

I used to be an emotional eater. Now I use exercise to self-soothe. Yay for exercise high!

This may sound a little silly but whenever I go for a snack (so not meals), before I eat I take a minute and ask myself "will this make me feel better?" Sometimes the answer is yes either because I'm actually hungry or because sometimes it's ok to eat your feelings (not all the time, not most of the time but sometimes). Taking the moment to be mindful let's me make the choice. Am I having this snack to fuel my body or am I having this snack to soothe my feelings. Most of the time, if the snack was to soothe my feelings I can find a better coping mechanism. But either way, it's my choice and I know which choice I'm making. I gained a lot of weight in the months after my mom died and this strategy has really helped me move on from that type of coping and helped me seek out the help I actually needed for my grief.

kommodevaran wrote: »

I always believed I was an emotional eater, but as as soon as I replaced the sweets and snacks in my cupboards with real food and started planning my meals and eating real meals, the constant overeating just magically stopped.

Ya, this definitely helped me with munchies with no discernible cause.

I've talked to some people who suggest making a note, whether mental or actually writing it down, and tracking how you feel when you get the urge to over eat. You can better see trends in how you are feeling emotionally and maybe what is triggering you to over eat. I also like the suggestion of exercise to self soothe.