Your Emotional Eating Toolkit: Slowing Down a Binge

This blog post is the one of a series where we’re giving advice on tools you can try and see if they are worth adding to your ‘toolkit’ when you’re faced with emotional eating. Some tools will work for you and others you won’t find as helpful—check out our previous posts here and give some of them a try!

Have you had a busy day at work, and you sit with some chips next to your computer, only to find yourself scraping the bottom of the bag without realizing it? Or maybe it is late at night and you’re in front of the TV and scooping from an ice cream pint until there isn’t a bite left?

Often those of us who binge eat will do so in a rushed way. This could look like hopping from sweet to salty and back to sweet again, or maybe it’s a panicked shopping spree at the corner store before up ending the bag of goodies in bed where you intend to indulge. Ultimately, we’re hoping the binge will give us some relief from how we’re feeling or create a false sense of control when it seems like everything else has run wild.

Here are a few things you can try to slow down the emotional eating experience. And no, we’re not talking the old unhelpful advice of “paint your nails as a distraction” or “if you’re really hungry, you’ll be satisfied with an apple.” The tips below might still lead to a binge—and that is ok! They may not work the first few times or may not work depending on the situation you are facing, but the more you try one or more of these you are bringing awareness to how and why you are eating emotionally. And that can feel powerful!

Take a few deep breaths. If you’re just about to binge usually not only is your mind running, but your body is showing signs of stress—this could be a tightness in the chest, shallow breathing, maybe a restless leg or fingers. Taking a few deep breaths will signal to your mind and body that it is ok to slow down. Even if you go on to binge, these two or three breaths can bring some comfort before the food does.

Plate what you want to eat. When it comes to emotional eating not only are we focused on what we are going to eat, but how much. A big quantity of food means a longer distraction from what we are (or don’t want to) feeling, allowing us to continue a binge over time. Try setting out your various foods in front of you, you can even go so far as to plate them on your favourite dishes. This is NOT to shame you but to bring a sense of ritual or ‘mealtime’ feel back to the situation. It also slightly shifts your focus from eating the food to enjoying the food, giving you a few moments to slow down.

Rate the experience. It is possible the foods you choose to emotionally eat have some sort of significance. It could be food you enjoyed as a child (hello birthday cake!), or maybe it is foods you tell yourself you “can’t have” in order to lose weight, or maybe even they are foods you hide from your partner so you can maintain an image of perfection. When you are looking at the foods you plan to binge on ask yourself:

Does it taste as good as the craving (or your memory of the food) made it seem?

You might surprise yourself by finding that the joy of a certain food is gone after the first few bites or that it doesn’t taste as good as you thought (or remembered).

 💛 Your peace awaits.