Emotional eating might seem like an innocent habit, but it can really derail your health progress. If you are trying to eat more intuitively, emotional or stress eating often gets in the way. But one piece of advice you have probably heard is that you need to take a pause.
Here is more information on what that means and how it helps with emotional eating.
What Does it Mean to Take a Pause?
The pause as it related to emotional eating is exactly what it sounds like a literal pause before you make any decisions. The reason you take a pause is that what often happens with emotional eating is that you deal with negative emotions, boredom, or stress, and immediately have the urge to order or eat something that isn’t always the healthiest option.
Now there is nothing wrong with emotional eating to help soothe you, but it can be a problem when it is the only coping skill you have. With the pause, you are able to just sit with your emotions for a few minutes before deciding if you really want that food, or if you are just looking to temporarily feel better.
What Should You Be Doing During This Time?
When you decide to take a moment before making any decisions, such, as ordering food or reaching for that pint of ice cream in your freezer it’s important to sit and acknowledge your emotions. Just allow yourself to be in that moment without rushing into any choices. Take some time to reflect on how you’re feeling. Is there something that triggered this urge? Did a stressful event occur? Did you have a conversation, with someone who upset you? Did something catch your attention. Bring up emotions?
You might also find it helpful to jot down your feelings so that you can better understand and address them in the future. Sometimes after taking that pause we may still have our minds set on having pizza or ordering something. However being aware of our cravings is always beneficial.
Why is it Helpful?
The pause comes in handy because it lets you see if the instinct to eat something off your meal plan was because of how you were feeling, or from actual hunger or a craving. The more you pause before taking immediate action and writing down what you were experiencing, the more you can avoid this tendency and find other ways to cope with your emotions.
