How To Stop Emotional Eating

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Here's how to stop emotional eating, before it sabotages your efforts to shift menopausal weight.

Even if you've been an emotional eater for many years, there are tactics you can use to help yourself.

It always takes time to get used to new patterns of behaviour, so do persist. Even if you slip back one day - and the chances are that you will - forgive yourself and carry on. Once you know how to stop emotional eating, you can remind yourself of what you need to do, every time you feel tempted to eat for the wrong reasons.

How to stop emotional eating

• Eat only when you're hungry
The very first thing to do is to when you start to tackle emotional eating, is to learn to recognise the signs of hunger. You might feel them in your stomach, your chest or your mouth and throat.
• Pay attention to what you're eating
Grazing in front of the TV, or demolishing a big bowl of ice cream just because it's there are examples of mindless eating, which which can become a habit without you even noticing.
• Identify the foods that trigger emotional eating
Don't keep big stocks of these foods in your home. By limiting your opportunities to eat trigger foods, you make it easier to resist the urge to eat them because of your feelings.
• Eat what you want to eat, but stop when you've had enough
If you ban certain foods, you'll make them all the more desirable. When you're hungry, take time to think what you'd really love to eat. Then eat slowly, savouring every mouthful. Have just enough to satisfy your hunger, and stop. Read up on intuitive eating techniques, which can help you.
• Find creative distractions
Think of things you love doing - reading, listening to music, talking to friends, soaking in the bathtub - and use these activities to distract yourself enjoyably, when you feel like eating emotionally.
• Work out WHY you eat emotionally, and address your issues

You could do this by writing about your feelings, talking them through with a friend - or through seeking professional help from a counsellor or therapist. It can be difficult and painful to unravel feelings, but bringing them out into the open can help you to find more positive ways of feeling better.

Once you know how to stop emotional eating, you can put these strategies to good use. Get your eating habits back under control, and you'll be in a much better place to limit any menopausal weight gain.

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