What to do when emotional eating strikes

Questions to ask yourself to stop the spiral and prevent an emotional eating session.

So you have found yourself head deep in the refrigerator or pantry. Or just about to tear into a bag of chips. You don't even remember walking into the kitchen. But you do know you are feeling something and food helps you forget, fill the time or makes you feel better (for the moment anyway).

How do you gain control and prevent an emotional eating event?

Ask yourself these questions:

• Am I actually hungry? Is your stomach growling or do you feel like you just "need" something right now?

If you are not actually hungry then ask yourself...

• What emotion am I feeling right now? Take a minute and check-in with yourself. Are you feeling angry, sad, bored, anxious, happy, overwhelmed? Are you avoiding something?

Once you have pinpointed the emotion or emotions

you are feeling ask yourself...

• How do I need to cope or handle this emotion? Do you need to call a friend or therapist? Do you need a change of scenery? Do you need to for a walk? Do you need to scream into a pillow? Or journal your thoughts? This is something you may want to plan ahead of time.

After you have worked through the emotion...

• What did I learn? What brought on this emotion? Self-awareness is a powerful thing. Think back to what happened just before you felt the urge to grab food. Did you get some upsetting news? Did you just have a heated discussion with someone? Do you always get this way after talking to a certain person? Or reading the news?

When you know your triggers, you can prevent

emotional eating events in the future.