☐ Ask yourself simply, "Why am I eating?"
Be honest with your answer.
Emotional eating (or stress eating) is using food to make yourself feel better- eating to satisfy emotional needs, rather than to satisfy physical hunger (www.helpguide.org)
☐ Ask yourself what exactly it is that you are eating.
This is an easy question to answer if you are about to eat a banana, a broiled piece of fish, and other foods found in nature.
It is sometimes virtually impossible to answer that question when you try to decipher exactly what makes up highly processed food.
☐ Ask yourself how you will feel after you eat?
You have probably had regrets and frustration after eating unhealthy junk food before.
Being honest with yourself about how you know a particular food will make you feel is important.
☐ Ask yourself, "How will this food help my long-term health?"
If you are trying to lose weight, or improve your health and wellbeing in some other way, thinking long-term can help you avoid the short-term effects of bad eating habits.
☐ Ask yourself if a smaller portion would suffice.
This gets you thinking about the core reason for your eating.
There's nothing wrong with eating a brownie or piece of cake every now and then, but do you really need 6 pieces or more?
☐ Ask yourself, "Am I about to binge on junk food as a way to punish myself?"
Turning to the food you know is not good for you is one way you may be punishing yourself for some perceived mistake or failure.
When eating is your primary emotional coping mechanism-when your first impulse is to eat whenever you’re stressed, upset, angry, lonely, exhausted, or bored-you will get stuck in an unhealthy cycle (www.helpguide.org).
