Food Cravings are a Red Flag for Boredom Eating

Boredom eating is when food takes center stage because you are dealing with some uncomfortable feeling. If you are having a craving, take time to determine if the hunger is biological. If so, enjoy a healthy snack. It is important that you can identify when you actually need to eat and when you are just eating because you are bored. Ironically, it is easy to confuse the two. Having a specific craving is often a red flag for boredom eating. Understanding your body’s needs, instead of blindly covering up negative feelings, will help you enjoy eating with less guilt or shame. It is not unusual for you to reach for a snack when there’s not much else to do.

Snacking on occasion can be completely normal…

When ignored, boredom eating can cause you to overeat and gain weight. If you find yourself struggling with food cravings, consider the following strategies to stave off the urge to snack:

• Drink Enough Water – The easiest way to know if you’re hydrating properly is to look at the color of your urine. If you are drinking enough water, your urine will be pale yellow to nearly clear in color.
• Brush Your Teeth – When you are bored with what you’re doing and find yourself craving a particular treat, brushing your teeth is a convenient and healthy way to distract yourself from those nagging urges to eat.
• 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 – If you can keep you mind in the present by being conscious of what you’re doing, you will find yourself paying attention to get more out of your life, including the foods you consume.

Boredom can produce creative food cravings…

When you start to feel bored, stop and ask yourself why. Processing your true feelings might seem a bit uncomfortable at first but it is a healthy exercise in mindfulness that serves an effective distraction to boredom eating. If you always seem to be overwhelmed and somewhat exhausted, then chances are you feel out of balance and are always trying to multitask. Save being busy for concentrating on the task at hand and focusing on the moment. Physical hunger is tied to the last time you ate and tends to come on gradually, whereas emotional hunger is triggered by emotional events, such as stress, anxiety, fatigue, worry, and especially boredom.

Instead of trying to judge whether you are full or not, ask yourself if you would truly be satisfied by the food you are thinking about eating. At MRC, our delicious recipes and healthy snacks can satisfy your hunger and provide the nutrition your body needs.