How to Stop Stress Eating When You're Feeling Overwhelmed From Work | Ep. 38

In this episode, Soraya breaks down why stress eating keeps happening even when you know better, and shares a practical system to finally stop the cycle. If you've ever found yourself mindlessly eating after a hard shift or a stressful day at work, this one is for you.

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Transcript

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You know what to do and you know what to eat. You've read the articles, watched TikTok, Instagram videos, saved reels, but for some reason, every time work gets busy or life gets stressful, you find yourself overeating. Today we're going to talk about why and most importantly, how to fix your stress-eating behaviors. I'm your host, Sarah Russell, certified macronutrition coach and mindset coach. And each week I share practical strategies to help you build sustainable habits, boost your energy, become obsessed with what you see when you look in the mirror, and feel confident and strong in your body, all without feeling stressed, burned out, or guilty. Let's dive in. So before we dive into how to actually overcome stress-eating habits, I want you to understand why you feel the need to eat when you're stressed in the first place. Because when you understand why it's happening and the biological response, you can stop it in its tracks. So what happens is when you feel stressed, your body releases higher cortisol. So your cortisol levels rise. And so this makes your body feel like it is under threat. It's in danger. And when your body thinks it's in danger, it's going to crave quick energy sources, things to help it survive. Quick energy sources are things that process very quickly in your system. Think simple carbs, sugar, so fries, candy, brownies, cookies, things like that. Things that simply digest very quickly into your system that give you quick energy. Another thing that happens is when you eat comfort food, your body basically experiences a dopamine release. And this means you have a brief release that you feel in the moment of stress. And so in the past, whenever you do eat food, your brain remembers oh, whenever I ate this type of food, the Chinese food, the fries, the burgers, I had this dopamine release, which felt really good in the moment. So now every time when I'm feeling stressed again, those are the types of foods I want. Hence why when you're feeling stressed, you crave specific foods. It's different for everyone, but it tends to be sugars, carbs, things like that. And especially if you're a woman with a very busy career, demanding job, maybe even taking care of your parents, if they're elderly and need help, you're basically running on fumes all day and you're depleted by the time you get home. Your nervous system is running hot all day. And so when you get home, you don't want to make a bunch of decisions. You want something that's gonna give you quick relief. Hence why I see a lot of clients that I've worked with before they work with us, when they come home, they have a glass or two of wine. They reach for the cookies, the chips, something to give them a quick relief to sit on the couch and relax. And that's because your body's just looking for that dopamine hit to distract from the stress. So it's not your fault that you stress eat, it's literally your biological response from your body experiencing heightened cortisol levels and trying to get rid of the stress, get rid of the threat as quickly as possible. So now that you understand why it happens, it'll be much easier to break this cycle and actually combat the stress in a way that's not detrimental to your weight loss and health goals. So the first thing you have to do to overcome stress eating is identify your stress eating triggers. And this looks different for everybody because the thing is, if you don't understand what triggers you to do something, you can't change the behavior because you don't see it coming. But the more you know what triggers it, the more you can catch it before it turns into stress eating. And I find that there's two different types of triggers. There is emotional triggers and there are time-based triggers. An example of an emotional trigger is when I'm stressed, I eat. When I'm bored, I'm eating. When I'm sad, I eat. Time-based triggers are a bit different and they can go hand in hand. It could be around 2 p.m. you have a craving for a certain food. Around 8 p.m. you have a craving for a certain food. And a lot of times it's not just the time, it's what's happening around that time. So perhaps at 8 p.m. you have a craving for certain foods because it's after work and after you put the kids to bed. So you're finally like, I'm depleted, I've just done something for everyone else all day. I want to do something for myself, and that triggers that response to just have the food. If it's commonly around 2 p.m., it might be due to the fact that you're not eating enough during the day. It might be due to the fact that your lunch doesn't have enough protein or fiber. And so you're craving extra things because you didn't fully fulfill your body's needs. So you might have a mix of emotional and time-based. You might find that you eat after a stressful day and that also happens to be at 8 p.m. You might find that you eat when you're bored and that also might be around 2 p.m. when work is slower. So think about the last time you stress ate. I want you to picture it, might have been last week, last month, and think about what time of day it was and if there was an emotion involved. Was it a stressful day? Was it a day where you were bored on the weekend? Was it a day where something happened and it made you very sad? Think about that scenario and that'll help you kind of figure out what your triggers are: time, emotional, or both, and what specifically those things are for you. The next thing you want to do is name the emotion and surrender to it. I know this sounds a little quirky and weird, but I'm telling you it works. Let me explain. So a lot of times we stress eat because we're trying to hide from, avoid the stress. We want a quick, immediate relief from the stress. But if you think about it, eating doesn't make you less stressed. It makes you forget about stress for the five minutes you're eating the chocolate. But once you're done eating the chocolate, all the stress comes back and you also consumed an extra 500 calories on top of you being stressed. So that's probably gonna stress you out even more because you're like, dang, I just ate that. Now I feel bad. So it really actually adds to your stress. Instead, what a lot of us struggle with is we struggle with processing hard emotions because as humans, we don't like feeling bad things. But feeling stress, sadness, boredom is a part of the human experience. It might not be as joyful as experiencing happiness and joy, but something I want you to think about is the reason happiness feels so good is because we know what sadness feels like. If there was no sadness, happiness would just feel neutral and normal. But the reason happiness feels great is because we know the opposite. So if you think about it that way, sadness is not bad. It's part of the human experience, it's part of the ebbs and flows, and it's a reference point you have for when you're feeling really happy another day, you're like, this feels great because I know what it feels like to be sad. So the difference is when you're experiencing negative emotions, you just have to know how to process them in a way that's not detrimental to what you really want in your life. So when I say surrender to your emotions, I mean accept the fact that they're there, don't feel the need to do anything about it, and move on with your day. And if you do that, the stress will inevitably go away. So sometimes there's things you can do to actually fix the situation you're stressed about, but sometimes you can't. So let's say, for example, you have a job that you applied for and you're stressed because you don't know if you're gonna get the job. Another hack I tell clients all the time is you stressing about something doesn't change the outcome. The more you're stressed about a job, doesn't mean you're more likely to get the job. So why are you wasting energy and wasting calories, eating food to hide from the stress when you can just wait for the outcome? So if you're pulling stress because you're like, oh, I applied for a job, I'm waiting to hear back, I'm waiting to hear back, allow yourself to say, hey, I recognize I'm feeling stressed about this job. I'm feeling a little bit overwhelmed about it. I accept that that emotion is there. I surrender to it, I allow it to pass through me, and I'm allowing myself to move on for the day. So instead of you fighting it by trying to ignore it, by trying to eat food, by trying to do whatever to distract yourself, you are acknowledging, you know what, I'm human. I'm feeling stressed about the situation, but I'm just going to surrender myself to it. I'm not gonna let it control me, and I'm gonna move on. That's what this step is all about. That's it, surrender. Because you cannot control that situation, but you can control your actions. You can control what you do when you feel stressed. You don't have to eat, you don't have to smoke, you don't have to drink. You can choose what you do. So when you surrender to it, you're allowing your brain to say, okay, Sarai said she's not gonna allow this emotion to control us. She's moving on with her day. So slowly that stress starts to dwindle and dwindle away. Emotions are temporary visitors, not long-term uh residents. And so what I mean by that is if you surrender to an emotion, it will inevitably go away. But if you keep trying to hide and dodge it and all these things, it's gonna keep popping up and popping up and popping up. And there's a really good example I have of a client who really struggled with this because whenever, so let me paint the picture for you. So she was a busy executive, and so she had a lot of stress in her plate, a whole team relying on her, deadlines she was responsible for hitting. And so her issue was she didn't eat that bad during the day. And in fact, she didn't really eat a lot at all. But at night when she came home, she was depleted, she was stressed, she would order food instead of cook, she would snack in the evening, and that would be her time to decompress, to kind of not think about all the things she has to do the next day or tomorrow. She'd also not go to sleep at a decent time because she was like, uh, I gotta wake up and worry about all these things at work. So this is my time to just do me. And so this was what was happening with her stress-eating behaviors. It wasn't that she was eating a lot of food throughout the day. It was really happening at night because she was stressed. And she knew she was like, Soraya, if I could just change these stress-eating behaviors, I know that I'd be able to lose the weight. Another thing that was bothering her, it wasn't just the stress eating, but it was showing up in her clothes, in her body. Like she started wearing more clothes to work that hit her body versus things she actually wanted to wear. Like she had this pant suit set she really loved that she couldn't fit in anymore. It was bothering her. She felt self-conscious when she went to work events, when she went out with friends. She could see the weight she gained in the mirror, pictures, and clothes, and she was like, enough is enough. I don't want to let this job take over my life to the point where I don't feel good in my body. So that's when she came to work with us. So she really wanted to change her stress-eating behaviors and just feel good in her skin again and feel good showing up to work. And so what we did is we really figured out, okay, your main thing is stress. This is when it happens. So it was emotional and it was time-based. We taught her the practice of understanding, okay, this is a natural part of being human, especially as a high-achieving, successful woman, you're gonna experience stress, but we have to create a plan to actually address the stress head on. So we helped her with the mindset work behind this. We even have an in-house therapist in our program to help our clients as well. But we really went deep on helping her overcome stress-eating behaviors. Now, when she feels stressed, which we're gonna get into in the next step, she actually is able to sit down for like five minutes and process it, surrender to it, not eat to try and surrender to it, but actually sit with it and let it flow through her. By the time she does that, she gets up and does something else. She goes for a walk, she reads a book, she talks to a friend, but she no longer eats when she is stressed. And when you can stop eating when you're stressed, you can stay within your calorie goals, lose weight, not feel guilty, and not overconsumed because you're not letting an emotion control your decisions. She's lost 32 pounds in her 50s, being menopausal, working as a busy executive, working long days, has a family. And the biggest reason why is because we helped her overcome her stress-eating behaviors. So that's why I say this is really, really important work. You can't just focus on eating less and moving more because if you don't understand and change your emotional eating behaviors, your stress-eating behaviors, you're always going to self-sabotage, whether it's every day, whether it's once a week, whether it's on the weekend. So I guarantee you, if you actually implement some of the things I'm talking about and really address your stress-eating behaviors, you'll be able to actually lose weight too, because food is not controlling your decisions. You're controlling your decisions with a conscious and clear mind. Now, going off of that, step three is surrendering to a non-food-related, detrimental-related activity. So, like I said with the client I was just talking about, she had certain things she would go to, which would be going for a walk, reading a book, calling a friend. So once you actually sit with and surrender to the stress, you then want to do an activity that allows you to kind of move on from that emotion. So we're not distracting ourselves, we're just transitioning into a place of moving on from the emotion. So pick like three things because you don't just want to have one, you might not feel like doing it that day. So that could be after you surrender to the stress, you go for a walk, you read a book, you journal, you color, uh, whatever feels good for you. Pick three things and just rotate them. And that way, if one day you're like, I don't feel like going for a walk, maybe I want to dance around my living room instead. Maybe I want to journal instead. You can do that. But this activity allows you to do something to give you that transition from feeling the emotion without you doing something that's gonna sabotage your health or fitness or wellness goals. Now, here's the part that no one talks about that you're probably gonna be surprised about. Step four is strategic stress eating. So I'll be honest, even if you do all the work, there are gonna be some times where you're stressed, you're like, I just want to have something. And even sometimes every once in a while, I have that feeling. And if you do decide to do that, you can do it, but in a controlled way. So a couple rules you wanna have for yourself are number one, if you are gonna stress eat or you're like, I'm stressed and I do want to eat, the first thing you're gonna do is put your phone away. No devices. Sit there and just eat, no distractions. Because when you do that, you're more aware of what you're eating, you're more in tune with your food, you're aware of every single bite, and you're actually able to savor and enjoy the food versus just getting through it because you're distracted. So, step one, eat with no devices. And this also helps because if you're not distracted, you'll know when you're comfortably full and satisfied. So if you're stress eating and you're watching TV and you're on your phone, you're gonna keep eating, eating, eating mindlessly. But if there's no distractions, you're acutely aware of the fact that you're eating and you're acutely aware of your fullness and hunger cues. And this will allow you to not overindulge. So even though you feel like you're stress eating, really you're just eating something, a snack until comfortably full, which is not a bad thing. And it's not overeating because you're stopping when you're satisfied. The second thing you want to do is make it a smarter choice. Your body craves what it's used to eating. So if you change what you're used to eating, your body will crave new things. My clients are a big, big testament to this. So, for example, if you usually crave brownies, like full like brownies you get from the grocery store, a bunch of sugar and butter and all that stuff in it, that's what you're gonna crave. But if you start eating, for example, nature bakery brownies, they're like little healthy brownies made out of figs. And that's what you start eating. When you crave brownies, you're gonna start craving that instead of the big brownies you get from the grocery store. I have so many clients who we've introduced them to new food items that are lower in calories, lower in sugar. They really like it, they start eating it. And so if they do have cravings, they're craving that lower calorie option versus a 500, 600 calorie brownie. So this is a great hack to help you when you're in this situation. So choose a smarter choice. So if you're gonna indulge, right, instead of having a 500-calorie brownie and Ben and Jerry's ice cream, which can be 500 calories for, you know, one serving, instead, maybe you could have a nature bakery brownie with one scoop of Halo Top ice cream, which is super low calorie. So you're eating maybe 300 calories versus what might have been in a thousand calorie, you know, dessert. So going smarter is gonna help you so that when you do eat, you're eating mindfully, you're eating snacks that are lower in calories, and so you're not gonna be overindulging and self-sabotaging your goals. And the next thing you wanna do to combat stress eating is prevent it by taking proactive action. What this means is don't wait until 8 p.m. when you're so hungry and you want to eat everything in front of you. Fuel yourself throughout the day because I find with our clients when they eat regular meals, they're not as hungry, they have less cravings at night. So typically, like the client I was talking about, she would not eat a lot during the day than at night. She's hungry, she has cravings, and she's stressed. It's a recipe for disaster. But if you have breakfast, then you have lunch, and then you have dinner, you're less likely to overeat at night because you're not hungry. You're probably relatively satisfied. And so you don't have room to eat a bunch of extra food because you ate adequate calories during the day. So kind of making sure you're prioritizing eating earlier in the day is a great way to make sure you don't experience stress-eating behaviors because yes, you might be stressed and maybe you want the dopamine hit, but it's less likely you're gonna go for the highest calorie option because you're not also hungry. When you mix hunger with cravings with stress, it's just a recipe for disaster. But if the only thing you're working with is just the stress, it's gonna make it easier for you to make a better decision because you're not stressed and hungry. So take that proactive action and make sure you're eating regular meals throughout the day. If you implement these steps by acknowledging your triggers, surrendering to the emotion, finding another outlet, and also having a way to indulge in a smart way if you do want to stress eat, you'll see your stress eating behaviors dramatically reduce, your cravings go down, and you'll find that you make better decisions when you do experience an emotion like stress. So thank you so much for tuning in to the Fit and Fulfilled Show today. Hope you walked away with practical strategies you can start implementing to overcome your stress eating habits and change those behaviors once and for all. And if you found this helpful in absolutely any way, I ask that you please subscribe and share this with a friend who you think would find it helpful as well so they can benefit from this information. And if you're a busy professional woman who wants foods 20 to 50 pounds and overcome your emotional eating behaviors, I would love to help. In our coaching program, the Fit and Fulfilled Academy, we help you achieve lasting weight loss through guidance, support, and accountability with fitness, mindset, and nutrition support. All the details are down below. Next week we're diving into a brand new topic that you're not going to want to miss. But until then, remember you deserve to feel as confident in your body as you do in your career. Take care.