Dear RAK ON readers,
Before we get into this week’s newsletter, I want to personally invite you to join me for a live WFPB cook-along on Sunday, August 25! We’ll be exploring the vibrant flavors of Costa Rica together. Learn more and reserve your spot here.
💡 In Today’s Edition:
🌱 Roots Reflection: Understanding Emotional Eating
🧘🏽♂️ Awareness Action: Building Awareness with the BREATH Tool
💛 Kindness Opportunity: Practical Steps to Shift Away from Emotional Eating
🌱 Roots Reflection: Understanding Emotional Eating
Do you reach for food when feeling stressed, upset, or even bored? Emotional eating happens when we eat not out of hunger but to cope with our feelings. It's a common habit that often sneaks into our lives without us even realizing it.
In a recent conversation on The Health Feast with Dr. Tom Rifai, a leading expert in lifestyle medicine, we delved into the complexities of emotional eating (Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube). Dr. Rifai emphasized that emotional eating isn’t just about the food—it’s about how we manage our thoughts and feelings. He explained how the brain often seeks comfort in food because it provides a quick, temporary relief. But this relief is fleeting, and the underlying emotions remain unaddressed.
Reflecting on this conversation reminded me of my own history of emotional eating. For years, I used highly processed food and fast food to comfort and blunt my emotions. This habit took a significant toll on my health, having been diagnosed with high blood pressure and prediabetes in my mid-30s. It wasn’t until I started a regular meditation practice that I began to see my thoughts and feelings more clearly and cope with them in a healthier way.
Mindful awareness transformed how I handled my emotions and my relationship with food. I got better at recognizing my emotional triggers and finding healthier ways to cope.
🧘🏽♂️ Awareness Action: Building Awareness with the BREATH Tool
Awareness is the first crucial step in managing emotional eating. One tool that I find incredibly effective in building this awareness is the BREATH tool. It’s a quick and easy way to pause and assess your motivations before reaching for food:
B: Boredom - Are you eating just because you’re bored? Consider choosing a more fulfilling activity instead.
R: Reacting to Strong Emotions - Is a strong emotion, like anger or sadness, driving you to eat? Identifying the emotion helps you address it in healthier ways.
E: Environment - Are your surroundings triggering you to eat when you’re not hungry? Being aware of these cues helps you make conscious choices.
A: Anxiety and Stress - Are stress or anxiety pushing you towards food? Recognizing this can prompt you to find other ways to cope, like deep breathing or a walk.
T: Tiredness or Thirst - Are you truly hungry, or are you tired or thirsty? Addressing your body’s real needs can prevent unnecessary eating.
H: Habit - Are you eating out of routine rather than hunger? Becoming aware of automatic habits helps you break them.
How to use BREATH in the moment:
When you feel the urge to eat, pause and breathe. Quickly scan through each letter of the BREATH tool, asking yourself these questions. This brief moment of reflection helps you make a more mindful decision about whether to eat or choose a healthier response.
💛 Kindness Opportunity: Practical Steps to Shift Away from Emotional Eating
Here are some practical strategies to help you better honor your emotions with kindness and foster healthier habits:
Start a Meditation Practice: Just a few minutes a day can make a significant difference. Meditation helps you observe your thoughts and emotions without judgment, allowing you to process them in a healthier way. Start with short, guided sessions and gradually build up your practice.
For a guided app, I recommend Smiling Mind, which is entirely free and designed to help you integrate mindful awareness into your life.
Create Your Happiness List: I like to keep a list of activities that I call my “Happiness List.” These are activities that meet three crucial criteria: they bring you joy, make you feel better afterward, and are good for you. Examples might include calling a friend, taking a walk, reading a good book, or listening to your favorite music. The key is to have this list readily available so that when you’re tempted to eat for emotional reasons, you can choose something from the list instead.
You can watch this live stream where I discuss creating your personal Happiness List.
Practice Mindful Substitution: Instead of reaching for food, try engaging in an alternative activity that comforts you. This could be a walk in nature, a call to a friend, or practicing deep breathing exercises.
If you do reach for food, try to make it tasty and nourishing. I like to eat frozen cherries, which feel indulgent, reduce inflammation in my body, and may even help me get deeper sleep.
Connect with a Support System: Surrounding yourself with supportive people can significantly improve your handling of emotional challenges. Connecting with others who understand our struggles makes us feel less alone and more empowered to make positive changes.
RAK Your Life Tribes offer group support and accountability, creating a space to share your experiences and receive encouragement. Join the Plant-Based, Heart Health, or Men’s Peak Tribe. Spots are limited. Learn more about RYL Tribes here.
Remember, managing emotional eating is a journey that takes time and patience. By building awareness, practicing self-kindness, and taking practical steps, you can transform your relationship with food and your emotions.
Live well and RAK ON,
Dr. Rak 👊🏽
What mindful awareness about your triggers and how to set yourself up to succeed. Perhaps your years of meditation practice did make a difference 😊
This topic is top of mind for me. I've used food for years as a coping mechanism, and it still rears it's head from time to time. Planning ahead helps me the most. Meal prepping, taking meat out of there freezer in the morning, having healthy lunch with me. I change my environment so that what I intend to eat is available, and that means I'm less likely to veer off to the side. I also use substitution and choose non-food things.
Meditation never made a bit of difference for me, even after years of daily practice.I was a full-time meditator with a junk food habit that was killing me.