• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Living Well Kitchen
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Favorites
  • Easy Meals
  • Main Dish
  • Health
  • Quiz
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
  • subscribe
    search icon
    Homepage link
    • Favorites
    • Easy Meals
    • Main Dish
    • Health
    • Quiz
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
  • ร—
    Home ยป Favorites

    5 Tips to Stop Stress Eating

    Published: Apr 12, 2017 ยท Updated: Dec 29, 2023 ยท Post may contain affiliate links

    Five tips to help you interrupt stress or emotional eating

    Cheese and sparkling rosé happy hour
    • Tips to Stop Stress Eating
      • Identify Your Triggers
      • Observe Yourself
      • Recognize Alternatives
      • Create a Happy List
      • Enjoy What You've Chosen

    Here's the deal... stress isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's your body's way of letting you know that something is off (whatever that may be).

    The struggle lies in how you deal with stress. One of the most common ways people deal with stress is with food. That can involve intense cravings, bingeing or overeating, taking extreme control over eating, or avoiding eating altogether.

    Food is something that is easy to control. When your life feels out of control and you feel stressed, it is easy to turn to food to find something that you can control.

    Food can also feel like it has power over you when you are stressed. Maybe you start to crave certain foods when you are stressed or in other situations, and it feels like you have to have that food to satisfy your craving and relieve your stress.

    The month of April is Stress Awareness Month, so I decided it would be a fabulous time to share some tips to help you interrupt stress or emotional eating. These five tips can help you make choices to help you relieve stress that doesn't involve bingeing or feeling a loss of control.

    What can you do to interrupt the negative pattern of stress eating (or not eating)? Lucky for you, here are five tips to help:

    German Chocolate Brownies from Living Well Kitchen

    Tips to Stop Stress Eating

    Identify Your Triggers

    Notice what the triggers are for you. They are different for everyone.

    What causes you to crave food? What are the signs that lead you to want food to soothe you?

    It's important to remember that it could be something big or subtle. Something as significant as loss & grief or something as simple as being bored or procrastinating.

    Observe Yourself

    Take a moment to figure out what your patterns are and bringing acceptance to them.

    What patterns do you have? How could you bring acceptance to those patterns instead of more stress. When you are tempted to beat yourself up for being "out of control" or bingeing, notice what happened -- what brought about the binge or craving, what habits you have, etc.

    Recognize Alternatives

    Pause and look for the alternative to the situation.

    What could you do instead of stress eating? What are your alternatives? Give yourself some space to notice what those alternatives could be.

    These could be food choices as well as non-food related. These include going to food but not binging; going to a non-food activity; choosing to eat or not.

    How to Interrupt Stress Eating from Living Well Kitchen

    Create a Happy List

    Make a list of all the things that you can do to take care of yourself.

    What ways can you cope with stress? What else is there? Can you expand your coping list to be more than food? You can leave food on it but expand it.

    What are some other ways you can take care of yourself? What are some other ways to distract yourself?

    Create pleasure in your life that doesn't only involve food.

    Enjoy What You've Chosen

    Take pleasure in what you choose to do to help relieve the stress.

    If you've chosen to eat, take the time to enjoy what you eat instead of mindlessly shoveling it into your mouth. If you've chosen something else, try to be in the moment and notice that it's bringing you joy.

    When you take the chance to be present and notice the relief you are getting from what you've chosen, it will reinforce in your brain that food/stress/cravings do not have power over you. You have alternatives. You have choices. And you are fully capable of making choices that are best for you at that time.

    Meme

    More Favorites

    • close up of a white bowl with jalapeno pimento cheese.
      Jalapeรฑo Pimento Cheese
    • cut fresh avocado next to a bowl of rice with beef carnitas topped with sliced avocados.
      Beef Carnitas
    • bowl of pork with avocado, cilantro, and tortilla chips next to fresh cilantro and a blue napkin.
      Slow Cooker Salsa Verde Pork
    • plate with two breakfast sausage patties, bowl of maple mustard sauce, fresh strawberries, and a buttered english muffin.
      Low Sodium Breakfast Sausage
    391 shares
    • Yummly
    • Share
    • Tweet

    Reader Interactions

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    Primary Sidebar

    Meme holding Watson at a restaurant in san diego.

    Hi, I'm Meme!

    A thirty-something registered dietitian nutritionist here to help you enjoy food, make eating easier, and live free of diets & shame.

    About Meme

    Popular Posts

    • silver fork on a white plate with green beans and pork tenderloin with mashed potatoes covered in gravy.
      Crock Pot Pork Tenderloin
    • white wicker table with a jar of chocolate sauce with a silver spoon drizzling sauce into it.
      Easy Chocolate Sauce
    • yellow hammer drink in red cup with cherry on top, red beads
      Yellow Hammer Drink
    • white bowl with tomato salsa next to fresh cilantro, garlic, onion, and lemon on a wooden table.
      Low Sodium Salsa
    • two bowls of rotini topped with crawfish Monica sauce next to lemons, green onions, and a green napkin.
      Crawfish Monica Recipe
    • glass bowl with chicken salad on a yellow and white towel surrounded with butter crackers.
      Chicken Salad without Mayo

    Easy Dinners

    • salmon fillets covered in pesto in a white baking dish on wooden table
      Pesto Salmon
    • two white bowls of chicken apple curry topped with sliced almonds and fresh mint, apple, and blue pot with more chicken curry sauce
      Chicken Apple Curry
    • bowl of pork with avocado, cilantro, and tortilla chips next to fresh cilantro and a blue napkin.
      Slow Cooker Salsa Verde Pork
    • two ground beef taco bowls with various toppings next to a patterned napkin, cut avocado, silver spoons, and fresh cilantro.
      Ground Beef Taco Bowls
    • white plate with two slices of roasted vegetables pizza next to parmesan, fresh basil, a microplane, a bowl of pizza sauce, and a baking sheet with pizza.
      Roasted Vegetable Pizza
    • 4 stuffed sweet potato topped with chicken, black beans, and cheese on foil-lined baking sheet.
      Southwest Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

    Salad Season

    • grey plate with lettuce and avocado chicken salad next to fresh lemon and avocado.
      Avocado Chicken Salad
    • fresh strawberries on white counter with glass container of strawberry dressing, jar of balsamic vinegar
      Strawberry Salad Dressing
    • Caprese Tuna Salad from Living Well Kitchen
      Caprese Tuna Salad
    • glass bowl of roasted vegetable lentil salad next to fresh rosemary, lemon, and scattered green lentils.
      Roasted Vegetable Lentil Salad

    Summer Veggies

    • Pineapple Cucumber Gazpacho in a white bowl with fresh pineapple, cilantro and cucumber
      Pineapple Cucumber Gazpacho
    • baked zucchini slices topped with pizza sauce and cheese on a parchment lined baking sheet.
      Zucchini Pizza Bites
    • blue pot with sauteed green beans and a wooden spoon on a white countertop
      Sautรฉed Green Beans
    • white bowl of roasted bell peppers next to a silver air fryer.
      Air Fryer Bell Peppers

    More veggie recipes

    Footer

    as seen in:

    logos for cnn, huffpost, and self magazine.
    logos for buzzfeed, mbc news, brit + co, and women's health.

    Sign up for emails and updates!

    Subscribe for free!
    • About Meme
    • Privacy Policy and Disclaimer
    • Contact
    • Services
    • โ†‘ back to top

    As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Copyright ยฉ 2025 - Powered by Feast+

    We use cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Reject Read More
    Privacy & Cookies Policy

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT
    391 shares