Make Healthier Choices by Planning Ahead for Boredom Eating

If you’ve let your guard down, you may not be correctly identifying the difference between true hunger and boredom eating. Unfortunately, like a variety of emotions, this can trigger a sudden urge for food, so it is important to figure out how to manage boredom eating. Understanding your body’s needs, instead of blindly covering up feelings, will help you enjoy eating with less guilt or shame.

Planning ahead makes food choices easier whether you’re at work, on the road, or home alone. Learning more about yourself can lead to greater emotional reasoning, and intuitive eating can reduce feelings of being out of control with food, which can lead to guilt or food anxieties when you are faced with stressful times.

Boredom is silent force that drives many people to eat…

Snacking is something all of us are guilty of doing. Every now and then intense food cravings can creep up on you when you least expect it. Try one of the strategies discussed below to lessen the damage:

• Drink Enough Water – As you drink more water, your kidney function, hormonal production, and hormone release will adjust accordingly. Your body will recalibrate and efficiently utilize the increased consumption of water.
• Brush Your Teeth – The act of brushing your teeth and the fresh taste it leaves in your mouth are signals that tell your body and brain that it is temporarily time to stop eating. Since brushing makes food taste funny, it will help curb cravings and pesky urges.
• Get More Sleep – Sleep is an important time in every day, as critical hunger hormones like leptin and ghrelin are produced and released. Set your intentions for always getting more sleep to boost your energy levels.
• Be a Mindful Eater – Mindful eating means being fully attentive to your food from the time your purchase it to preparing it in your own kitchen and consuming every bite. Adjusting to mindful eating will take as well as refocusing your approach to snacking.

Try to stay focused on the present to avoid boredom…

Whether you are at home or the office, your environment can fuel mindless eating. When boredom sets in, trying running errands, visiting with a friend, or walk your dog. If you think about having too much to do, it will likely translate into negative feelings.

When you stay busy with a purpose, you are much more likely to enjoy each day and live a happier life.

Boredom eating is your body’s way of falsely telling you that you need something soothing like a favorite comfort food. Unfortunately, the creativity that boredom allows for can dream up all sorts of food possibilities.

At Metabolic Research Center, we teach and encourage clients to focus on living a healthy life. The first step to managing boredom is to understand that boredom does not signify a lack of passion. It always helps to stay focused on the present.