How to Overcome Bored Eating
Bored eating is another kind of emotional eating that originates from not paying attention to hunger cues. You eat to pass the time between classes, or you are having a lazy day at home and just eat while watching a movie. Bored eating is not inherently wrong, but it is just important to be aware that we are bored eating. When we eat out of boredom, we disconnect from our true hunger and fullness signals, which leads to us not knowing when to start and stop eating. Think about the last time you were bored eating, eating just out of enjoyment when you weren’t hungry, while you watched TV. How full did you feel after? Was it uncomfortable? Did you question how you mindlessly ate so much? If you answered yes, then it is time to dig deeper and discover how you can overcome bored eating. Reminder that eating just for pleasure is not bad, and it is actually normal, but it is important to be more aware of how our eating habits make us feel physically. Eating should not be our first strategy to experience pleasure and satisfaction.
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Here are 4 ways to Overcome Bored Eating
1. BE PRESENT
Being present is the first step for how to overcome bored eating. Usually, bored eating is a mindless process for people. We feel bored or lonely and go straight to food because it’s usually convenient, quick, and doesn’t require much thought or mental power. Eating can provide a temporary sense of comfort to make us feel satisfied for the time being. To break the habit of bored eating, the key is to slow down and be present when you have the drive to gravitate toward food when you are bored. This is universal, whenever you want to eat, it is important to be present to really know what you want and how much you want to eat. Being present means that you are hitting pause on what you are doing so you can evaluate what you want. Slowing down the evolution of feeling bored and going straight to food is the goal because we want to be present and decide ‘do I want to eat this? How will it make me feel? Am I eating out of boredom?’
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2. Figure Out any triggers
Identifying any triggers is the next step to overcome bored eating. These triggers are any patterns you find associated with your bored eating. Some common triggers can be having ready to eat food on the counter tops, being home alone, watching TV, and the weekend in general can be a trigger because now instead of being at work and having limited food around, it’s the weekend and you have food stocked in the kitchen all day. Identifying these triggers is important because once you recognize what can cause you to start eating just because you are bored, you can begin to slow down and ask yourself if you really want to be eating right now. Additionally, it can be beneficial to find replacements for these triggers too. For example, if you always keep cereal boxes out on the counter, and that is why you find yourself gravitating toward eating as an activity during the day, it can help to find a new spot for them in the pantry. Replacing your cereal spot with fruit can also help too. If your trigger is watching TV while eating, ask yourself if you really just want a snack, and you turn the TV on or if you really want to watch TV, and then you supplement with eating. This is important to differentiate your motives for bored eating. Often, when we eat while we aren’t hungry, we feel a drive to supplement it with looking at our phone, watching TV, or doing another activity. The distraction while eating takes us away from our hunger signals.
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3. ASK YOURSELF IF YOU ARE HUNGRY
The next step to overcome bored eating is to ask yourself if you are hungry. Though it is okay to eat when you aren’t technically hungry, it is important to gauge hunger to decide how much you are willing to eat. It doesn’t feel good to eat to the point of feeling sick, so if you understand how hungry you are, you will be less likely to eat too much. When we eat out of boredom, we continue to eat past satisfaction because we are trying to fill a void, and usually, food isn’t the best at doing that. You can decide your hunger level by using the hunger scale outlined below. It is optimal to always stay between 7 and 4 because these levels do not cause us any discomfort that may motivate restriction or overconsumption. If you decide you are hungry then, by all means, eat! If you are not hungry and still want to eat, then go for a smaller snack or treat that won’t make you feel uncomfortably full afterward. If you find you are not hungry and still do not what to engage in bored eating, then it is time to think about other strategies to help you feel occupied.
10 - extremely stuffed, nauseous, feeling sick
9 - stuffed, very uncomfortable
8 - overfull, somewhat uncomfortable
7 - full
6 - satisfied, could eat more
5 - neutral
4 - hungry stomach growling
3 - uncomfortably hungry, distracted
2 - very hungry, low energy, weak, dizzy
1 - starving, no energy, very weak
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4. Replace the eating with something else
The last step to overcome bored eating is to replace eating with another activity to help you feel occupied. Eating is a common mechanism to go to when we feel bored and don’t have much to do, so we must find other strategies because eating should not be our only coping mechanism for boredom. Some things to replace bored eating are doing house chores, hanging out with a friend, read a book, and going for a walk. These activities are more productive and will allow you to feel occupied and accomplished when you finish them.
