You’ve just wrapped up a morning full of stressful Zoom meetings, step out to have a break and end up buying a triple choc fudge brownie along with your latte. The coffee and cake work their magic, you feel better and (an often-unconscious) connection is made.

The relationship between food and feelings is complex.

Understanding common triggers can help you make better choices and stay on track with your health and weight loss goals. 

In simple terms, a trigger is a stimulus that’s connected or linked to a behaviour e.g. buying the choc fudge brownie in the example cited above. Other common triggers include feeling:

• Anxious about an upcoming event

• Boredom

• Angry at your partner or spouse

• Frustrated with the kids

• Tired and cranky after a poor night’s sleep

Three key components to emotional eating

1. The trigger – a stimulus that links to a behaviour; it’s the thing that sets you off; perhaps it’s a feeling state as mentioned above i.e. boredom, stress, anger, loneliness, fear, anxiety. Interestingly, even positive emotions like happiness, desire, and excitement can be triggers for some people.

2. Your craving – the food that you crave or “just have to have”, common trigger foods include chocolate, salty foods, cakes, pizza, alcohol – rarely do people experience an intense craving for a large plate of steamed broccoli or spinach!!

3. Your action – your response to the above; i.e. the way in which you handle it

Five strategies to help short circuit emotional eating

1. Understand the difference between your hunger and your cravings

Hunger is a physical sensation, generally felt in your abdomen as a grumbly or empty feeling and linked with an increased desire to eat generally, not linked to any specific food per se. 

A craving on the other hand, is usually an increased emotional desire for a particular food, even if you don’t actually feel particularly hungry.

2. Recognise your feelings

Check in with yourself and name what you are feeling e.g. I am feeling [insert emotion]

3. Relax

Take a breath, create a space in your day, put on some soothing music or step outside for a minute or two.  Do something to help yourself relax and become more mindful in the moment.

Mindfulness research is quite compelling and mindful-based practices not only improve immune function and reduce stress, they can also help you become more aware of your eating triggers and build your capacity to take positive action, rather than simply responding on autopilot. 

There are a gazillion apps, both free and paid versions, to help you develop and practice mindfulness e.g. Calm, Aura, Stop, Breathe & Think, Headspace.

4. Substitute

Have some alternative healthy foods and snacks available at work and at home and limit the amount of trigger foods you keep around you. 

If you typically crave sweet flavours, you might consider:

• 1-2 squares of a dark chocolate (minimum 70%)

• Small handful grapes

• 1-2 mandarins

• Small handful berries

• 1-2 dates or dried fig

• Small yoghurt

For a savoury craving, consider:

• Small carrot cut into sticks with hummus

• 3-4 olives

• small handful of raw nuts

• small serving of cottage cheese

5. Shift your attention

Find a way to mentally divert your focus for 3 or 4 minutes, e.g. make a cup of tea, phone a friend, take a brisk walk around the block, do the dishes etc.

What to do next

We hope this post has helped you to:

• Have a better understanding of the relationship between your hunger and cravings

• Understand how emotions can influence your food behaviours

• Be more able to recognise links between your triggers, cravings & actions

• Learn some practical strategies to help you make healthful choices

This article has been developed as part of our Healthy Fit Nutrition Coaching Program. If you would like support developing practical lifestyle nutrition and food practices to last a lifetime, please get in touch nutritioncoach@healthyfit.com.au