Emotional Eating during Lockdown

19 May Emotional Eating during Lockdown

By Hannah Buckland, Healthy Hearts Care Planner

It’s Mental Health Awareness Week, which seems like a great opportunity for us to reflect on some of the challenges Covid-19 and the lockdown have imposed upon us in the past few months. It has been an incredibly stressful time for everyone, and naturally our feelings and emotions are all over the place. For a lot of people, this has led to emotional eating – eating for comfort, boredom or stress. We take a look at why this might be, and explore how to cope with emotional eating during lockdown.

Our eating habits are often linked to our emotions; whether we’re feeling happy, angry, bored, stressed or sad, we can turn to food for comfort and satisfaction. Emotional eating is when you use food to make yourself feel better. In lockdown, when we are unable to see our family, to socialise with our friends, and to do many of the other things we enjoy, it is natural to use food to fulfil our emotional needs.

The stress of the situation, and the boredom, are understandably sending us to our fridges and kitchen cupboards more often than usual. It is important to point out that using food to cope with your emotions is a completely normal response, and there is no shame in emotional eating.

However, it will not fix your emotional problems. In fact, it can often make you feel worse. Afterwards, not only does the original emotional issue remain, but you may also feel guilty for overeating. In the long term, it is necessary to address the feelings behind the emotional eating.

As lockdown looks set to continue for the foreseeable future, we’ve developed some ideas for how you can fulfil your emotional needs and cope with emotional eating whilst staying at home.

• Try to keep to a routine of having three regular meals a day. Plan your weekly shop and avoid buying foods you tend to crave and overeat.
• Enjoy food – spend time planning enjoyable meals, trying new dishes and cooking in the kitchen.
• Allow yourself to snack but try to prepare healthy snacks like yoghurt and fruit, a small handful of mixed nuts, or vegetable crudities with hummus.
• Try to find alternative ways to address your emotional needs. If you’re bored, try a new activity. If you’re stressed, go for a brisk walk or try some meditation. If you’re lonely, call a friend or family member.
• Schedule in some time for self-care. This could be anything from sitting down with a cup of tea and a good book, to having a bath with some scented candles, or moving in a way that you find enjoyable.

Most importantly, try to avoid too many negative thoughts. You are living through a global pandemic – it’s a really difficult time and beating yourself up about your eating habits is not going to help you feel any better. Accept that your eating may look a little different to normal and try not to feel too bad about it. Remember, things will get back to normal – the lockdown will not last for ever. Try your best to stay positive, look after yourself, and stay safe.

If you’d like a helping hand with staying on track with your eating during this time, we are still open to support your goals. Join us here or call 020 3434 2500.