Emotional Eating: Tips to Keep Stress From Derailing Your Health Goals by Susan Bowerman, M.S., R.D., CSSD, CSOWM, FAND

Stress eating, also known as emotional eating, is defined by consuming food in response to your feelings, which is often followed by guilt. According to the American Psychological Association, people turn to food when under stress because it helps distract them. Here are some tips to help you stay on track with your health goals:

• Work on your coping skills. Every time you eat in response to stress, it’s just a reminder that you can’t cope with your emotions. Practice tolerating your emotions, or finding other ways to deal with your stress.

• Unlearn bad habits. Like other bad habits, stress eating happens before you’ve even had a chance to think about it. So, you need to “un-learn” your bad habits and practice doing something other than eating when a bad day strikes like walking, listening to music or meditating.

• Avoid emotional eating by eating regularly. No time to meal prep, you might want to consider a meal replacement shake.

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