Discovering Your Eating Cycle

Understanding the what, when, why, how, and where of your eating patterns will permit you to be much more mindful of your eating now and in the future. If you’ve never given thought to your eating patterns and choices, now is the time to investigate them.

Consider these questions to learn about how you approach food and eating:

1. Why do you eat? Your immediate response might be related to hunger or keeping yourself alive. But you’d be surprised how many other reasons that you might have for eating.

• Make a list of all the reasons you eat. You could even ask yourself this question before each snack and meal for the next few days. Record your answers.

2. When do you eat? Do you eat at certain times of the day? During certain activities, such as watching TV, sitting with friends, or taking a break from work? Are there certain moods that trigger you to eat?

• For the next couple of days, track when you eat. Notice the time of day and the general circumstances.

3. Where do you eat? The car? Dinner table? Couch? Track this for a week or so, too.

4. What do you eat? Does the time of day, circumstance, mood, location, and reason for eating impact your food choices?

• What foods do you like?
• What foods do you dislike?
• What is your favorite unhealthy food? Why?
• Are you more likely to eat poorly in the car than when you eat at home?
• Do you eat more junk food while watching TV?
• Do you eat better in the morning or at night?
• Do you eat better when in a good mood versus a bad mood?
• Do you eat better when you’re alone or with others?
• Do you eat better at home or at a restaurant?
• Notice when you’re most likely to eat nutritiously – or not.

5. How do you eat? There are many ways to eat the same food.

• Do you eat quickly or slowly?
• Do you normally eat alone or with others?
• Small bites or large?
• Do you pay attention to your food, or are you daydreaming?
• Do you eat for enjoyment or for health?
• Do you take many small drinks during a meal?
• Do you eat one food on your plate until it’s gone before moving on to another?

Become an expert on your own eating habits and methods. This is great practice for paying attention to your eating. It’s also very informative.

It’s much easier to eat well and maintain a healthy weight if you know the times and circumstances in which you're most likely to eat nutritiously or give in to unhealthy foods. Knowing your motivations for eating is important, too.

You’ll be surprised by what you learn if you go through this process. With this information, you’ll be in a much better position to eat properly and maximize your health.



“Unhealthy eating habits cause major health problems, such as diabetes and heart disease, and can also lead to food insecurity, disrupted eating patterns, and low self-esteem.”
- Matt Cartwright



Chapter 3: Stress-Related Eating

There are biological reasons that so many people eat when stressed. When a person is physically or emotionally stressed, the body releases a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol does a lot of things, including increasing food cravings for foods high in sugar or fat. Stress also increases the hormones that produce feelings of hunger. Stress is harmful to your mind and body.

It’s especially important to be mindful during those periods of time you’re experiencing stress.

Stress makes it much more like that you will:

1. Experience hunger even though you’ve already had plenty to eat. Eating when your body doesn’t need food increases the chance of unintentional weight gain and can negatively affect your health.

• Just because you’re hungry doesn’t mean you should eat. Hunger is a signal that you should consider eating. So, consider it. But if you’ve already had enough to eat, make the decision to pass.

2. Eat when you’re not hungry. If eating makes you feel better, your brain doesn’t care if you’re hungry or not. It will make eating seem like a great idea. Unfortunately, eating when your body doesn’t need food leads to weight gain, which contributes to the development of many diseases.

3. Eat unhealthy foods. Under stress, many people will resort to eating all sorts of things they know they shouldn’t eat. Chips, ice cream, processed meats, sweets, and other unhealthy foods suddenly become even more appealing than they usually are.

4. Eat too much. Eating while stressed is likely to result in overeating. And not only do you eat too much, but you’re likely to be eating unhealthy foods.

5. Eat in a way that makes you feel even worse. If you’re eating when your body doesn’t need food, and you’re eating foods that aren’t good for you, you’re almost certainly going to feel worse after you eat than you felt before you started.

6. Eat mindlessly in general. Stress takes your mind off the eating experience. You’re more likely to find yourself eating while watching TV, watching YouTube videos, thinking about whatever is causing you stress, or daydreaming.

Stress is a part of life now more than ever. It’s easy to allow your eating patterns to get out of control when you’re stressed. You’re more likely to crave unhealthy foods or eat when you’re not even hungry. Stress and poor eating habits are strongly linked.



“I learned very early that our health is always impaired by some excess either of food or abstinence, and I never had any physician except myself.”
- Giacomo Casanova



Use these strategies to avoid the tendency to eat poorly during stressful times:

1. Keep track of your food intake. If you’re feeling stressed on a regular basis, and many people are these days, it’s a good time to track your food intake. There are plenty of free apps, such as MyFitnessPal, that make it very easy to keep track of your calories, macronutrients, and even exercise.

• Having an actual number to look at makes it easier to gauge if you have a legitimate reason to eat.

2. Assess your hunger. Are you really hungry? Take an objective look at your hunger. Did you eat recently? Have you been engaged in a lot of physical activity since you last ate? Do you actually feel hungry, or do you just have the urge to eat?

• If you’re not hungry, do your best not to eat. If you simply have to eat in spite of not truly needing to, try eating something that’s healthy but has minimal calories. Lettuce, other greens, celery, broccoli, and cauliflower are a few examples of foods that are practically calorie free.

3. Make healthy choices. If you’re feeling stress, but it actually is time to have a meal, focus more than ever on eating healthy foods. It’s so easy to eat poorly during stressful times that your food selection is especially important.

• Healthy foods will allow your mind and body to deal with stress more effectively. And the last thing you need is to create even more stress by eating poorly and becoming sick.

4. Eat slowly. One of the most effective ways to avoid overeating is to eat slowly. Very slowly. Decide that you’re going to take small bites and chew ridiculously slowly. Chew your food at least 30 times.

• Take a small drink of water between each bite. That’s water, not juice, soda, or anything else.

5. Eat without distraction. No radio, chatting, TV, cell phone, or books. It’s just you and your food.

6. Relieve your stress in other ways. If you don’t have a legitimate biological need to eat, it’s best not to eat. Regardless of how tough you are, you must deal with the stress that’s pushing you to eat, or you’ll eventually fail. You’ll eventually give in if you don’t find something else to do. Some stress-relieving ideas are:

• Go for a walk.
• Read a book.
• Find a yoga class on TV and participate.
• Call someone.
• Clean your garage.
• Meditate.
• Take a nap.
• Take a hot shower or bath.

Stress-related eating is very common, but that doesn’t mean you have to allow stress to affect the way you eat. Stress affects the way you feel compelled to eat, but you can choose to eat mindfully instead. Mindful eating is a way to combat stress-related eating and its negative effects on your diet and health.

Did you find this post fun, informative and useful? If so, please share it with others!

If you have a comment, question or suggestion, please leave a comment below!

Cheers, Helene Malmsio


Related Reading: Healthy Eating Plan

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