How to Find Your Emotional Eating Triggers

If you’re reading this, the chances are that you’ve probably begun the process of trying to find out what motivates you to eat at times that may not be the most appropriate for your health.

It’s important to acknowledge is that you’re taking these first steps to gain control over the habits that have formed over the course of a few years, and for some, a lifetime, but what can you do to get in control? The first step was recognizing that you had an issue, so the second will be to learn how to uncover your triggers to emotional eating.

Keep A Food Journal

The most powerful ally that you will have in your search for the source of your emotional eating will be your food journal. This is where you will write the details of your eating habits each day.

Be sure that you leave space to include the factors and circumstances of each meal and what you ate for each. As you begin to detail each meal, it’s incredibly likely that a pattern will begin to emerge. This pattern will probably be a cross section of the moments and influences that trigger emotional eating.

Why It Works

The food journal is the most honest and least biased source of information that you will have at your disposal. There probably won’t be anything as convincing as your own handwriting.

Being able to see what your habits are throughout the week gives you a good idea of how you spend your time and when you eat. Was it stress? Who were you talking to before you ate food? These pieces of information could be the key to setting you free from emotional eating, but it only works if you’re willing to be as honest as possible.

Avoid the Triggers

Now that you know who or what is the source of triggers for emotional eating. It’s time to become proactive and stop allowing these triggers to drive you into a state of unhealthiness.

This can be done in most cases by simply avoiding the triggers. If you know that certain things, events, or people stress you out, it might be a good idea to limit your contact with some of these triggers until you have more control over your eating habits. It’s okay, and can even be important to place your well-being over some obligations.

Emotional Eating Treatments