Emotional Eating

I took a bit of a blog break over the past week. The beginning of the week was filled with snow day fun and the end of the week got wrapped up in a family emergency.  It was quite a week!

In the midst of my family emergency I found myself trying to fight a very bad habit: emotional eating.  Food has always been a huge comfort for me.  I go for treats whether I'm celebrating or when I'm feeling low.  Over the past few years I have developed an awareness of my emotional eating but I still struggle with curbing it.  I've tried to substitute running for eating and while those runs typically calm me down, a run will never satisfy me the same way a cupcake will.  

For now, since I still struggle with finding a good substitute for food, I have developed a strategy to keep my emotional eating in check.  First, I acknowledge why I'm suddenly craving something salty, fatty, or sweet.  This in itself is a step for me, I used to just grab whatever I craved and never thought about why I was eating it; this often lead to binging.  After I acknowledge why I'm craving my snack, I give myself permission to have it in moderation.  Before sitting down to eat, I plan out how much I am going to eat (one cupcake, one serving of ice cream, a crab-pretzel at Happy Hour).  Planning is essential to keeping a binge at bay.  I am a ruler follower by nature, so if I make a rule for myself, I generally stick to it.  By the time I finish my serving, my emotional eating craving has typically subsided.  Yes, by giving in to the emotion I do typically go over my calories for the day; however, sometimes I need to do it, and that's okay with me.  I get back on track the next day.  

I am going to keep trying to figure out something to replace my emotional eating, but for now I at least have a plan.

What do you do when the urge to eat your emotions strikes?

<3 T