Ways to Relieve Emotional Eating and Holiday Food Stress
The festive season reminds us about the joy of sharing food, spending time with friends and family. Shopping, cleaning, cooking, baking, traveling and socializing - the holidays can make the last few weeks of the year a stressful time, and for many of us, it's easy to turn to food to relieve our anxiety.
We also know that the indulgent foods we tend to eat between the office parties, through Christmas day, to the celebrations over New Year, that that the festive period can be somewhat of a challenging time to eat well.
Emotional eating often increases over the holidays, a time when expectations are high and sweets and treats abound. Emotional eating this time of year may be fuelled by socializing with people you don't ordinarily see, unresolved childhood grievances, alcohol, travel fatigue, pressure to party, shifts in routines, unhealthy family dynamics and striving to be on your best behaviour.
Emotional eating isn't just about filling some metaphorical emptiness inside. It's driven by a survival instinct deep in the human brain.
When we eat tasty food, we get a hit of dopamine, the brain chemical responsible for feelings of pleasure. Anything that feels good - getting a sweet text message from a special someone, enjoying a glass of wine, or having sex - triggers this same reward mechanism in the brain.
Generally speaking, the brain's hardwiring works in favour of the human species, motivating us to repeat activities that are life sustaining by connecting them to feelings of pleasure or reward. This explains why we have strong instinctive cravings for food and sex: they're essential to survival.
But when you use food to comfort yourself or to numb emotional pain on a regular basis, this behaviour can lock into the same reward-equals-survival dynamic that drives us toward life-sustaining activities like sex. The brain thinks If it feels good, it must be important to my survival, so I had better keep doing it. The result is that you may binge on foods you find comforting.
Research shows that with the extra calories consumed across all of the celebrations during the festive season, we can gain on average around 1kg (roughly 2lbs). But don't worry, it is possible to eat, drink and be merry without over doing it.
If your goal this holiday is to enjoy the food and celebrations in a way that you won't regret on January 2nd, here are some tips to help you navigate those days between now and then.
- sleep
- going for a five-minute walk
- sitting outside
- putting on your favourite music and dancing
- calling a close friend to chat
- Fill your plate with healthy things
- Journal
- Connect with people, not food
- Watch the alcohol
The more ways you can think of to distract yourself, the easier it will become over time to stop stress eating. Instead, resisting will become your new habit.
Keep a food journal from December 11 to January 1. It will help you see that the "binge" you thought you had was actually just too much brie. It will also help you eat less. Knowing you will have to write it down will make you think twice before going for seconds of the pie.
Choose how you'll soothe yourself. The part of your brain that associates food with survival is rather primitive. Luckily, there are other parts of the brain - notably the prefrontal cortex - that are capable of taking a broader, more rational perspective. With practice, you can notice that you're about to overeat for emotional reasons. Then you can use your "higher brain" to decide that you'll soothe your emotions by calling a friend, going for a walk, or taking a hot bath instead.
Enjoy the holidays! Allow yourself time and space to feel and process your emotions that may come up, instead of shoving those feelings down with food. Ultimately, feeling empowered helps you control your emotions and eating.
Be good to yourself, connect with the people you love, and have a wonderful time.
Love and light,
Sophie and Ellie xx
Sources:
Psychologytoday.com
Healthharvard.edu; nutritiouslife.com
