How to Stop Overeating at Meals
Do you often feel too full or eat past a point of comfort? Do you find that you struggle with being able to know when to stop eating? If this resonates with you, keep reading!
We all overeat. It’s normal, and honestly expected! None of us are perfect and eat the exact amount our body needs each and every time that we eat. If overeating is a constant in your life, it’s important to address the issue and learn how to incorporate habits to reduce this behavior.
Constantly overeating can be an issue because it can leave you physically feeling unwell. Your stomach may hurt, maybe it affects your ability to move. It also impacts us mentally. We may feel more disconnected than ever with our body’s desires. We may even feel guilty for overeating and transition into a negative mindset. Overeating can also have a negative impact on our health as it results in an overconsumption of calories, fat, and sodium. We’re more likely to have difficulty reaching our health and wellness goals, whatever they may be.
Overeating can be a sign that we need to incorporate balanced and healthier eating habits in our everyday routine. Pure Plates can help you to incorporate healthier habits by providing you with nourishing meals for your everyday routine. You won’t even have to think about what to make – Pure Plates takes care of that for you!
Keep reading on to learn how to navigate overeating and how to incorporate mindfulness techniques into your daily habits.
Reflection
A huge step to learning how to stop overeating is to reflect why you’re overeating. Most people assume overeating is due to intense cravings, such as wanting carbs or sugar. In fact, though, there typically is a deeper reasoning to overeating. Many times, we overeat due to emotions or stress. Food helps to give us an out for those stressors or emotions and can act as a Band-Aid for the larger issue at hand. We usually gravitate towards comfort foods and foods that make us feel good. Another common reason for overeating is boredom or habit. We might grab for food when we’re not actually hungry such as an after-dinner dessert. These habits are often done mindlessly, meaning, we don’t even realize that we are doing them.
Reflecting on your habits can help you to uncover what is really happening. It can help you to figure out your “why.” One helpful way for reflection is keeping a journal. You can try writing down foods that you’re eating, how you felt before, during, and after eating the food. This can help you to understand your eating habits and tendencies. It can help you to figure out patterns and more importantly, figure out what is working and what’s not. In the long run, the hope is that journaling and reflection will help you to stop overeating.
Planning ahead
After reflection and journaling, it’s important to take action on the discoveries that you’ve made. Many individuals, for example, learn that they overeat after dinner because they are bored, or, overeat as a result of stress. Taking action on these moments and preparing ahead mentally can help you to navigate and combat overeating. Pure Plates helps you with this by providing you with balanced meals that will keep you satisfied longer.
Avoid distractions while eating
Distractions such as TV, phone, or loud noises is one of the most common reasons for overeating. When we’re distracted, we’re more likely to pay less attention to the food that we’re eating, and more attention to the distraction. We’re zoned out, causing us to forget how much we’ve eaten and not be in tune with how we are feeling. By removing distractions, we’re able to pay more attention to our food and how we are feeling. We’re fully present and therefore able to tell if we’re full and satisfied or not.
Find other outlets to cope with emotions and stress
Responding to our emotions and stress in ways outside of food is another important component of reducing overeating. Some of our favorite ways to cope include:
- Reading a book
- Exercising
- Playing with your kids or dog
- Calling a friend
- Watching your favorite TV show
- Go for a walk
Incorporating some of these into your daily routine can help you to better navigate emotional and stressful situations when they arise.
Don’t have “off limit” foods
Having off limit foods is another huge cause of overeating. If you’ve ever been on a diet before, this probably sounds like your past! Having a food as “off limits” and keeping it out of the house can make us feel out of control when we are around it. When we have off limit foods, we’re more likely to overeat it when we are around it since we’re not sure when we’ll be around it next or allowed to have it next.
Giving yourself permission to eat the food can help you to reduce overeating later on. We no longer have the scarcity mindset and instead, we’re able to enjoy the food in moderation.
You went too long without eating
Another common reason for overeating is going too long without eating. When we go too long, potentially hours and hours, without eating, we’re likely going to overeat when we have food in front of this. This is because we’re so ravenous that we don’t get a chance to be in tune with our hunger and satisfaction during the eating process. Ways to navigate this include planning ahead. Pure Plates can help you to do this by providing you with meals and snacks do you don’t have to think about it. Always have food with you, such as snacks in the car. Life and things come up, so it’s important to think of different situations that may arise. Pure Plates takes the work off of planning ahead because you’ll already have the meals ready to go!
Your meals aren’t balanced
One of the last potential reasons for overeating that we’ll discuss today is a lack of balanced meals. Balanced meals are important because they keep you full and satisfied. Balanced meals regulate your blood sugar and don’t make you hungry just minutes after eating. Pure Plates can help you to eat balanced meals. We provide you with delicious and nourishing meals straight to your door so you can put your energy elsewhere – like navigating emotions and stressors! All of our meals have a lean protein source in combination with complex carbs and other nutrients, keeping you full and satisfied longer. Eating our meals helps you to not overeat, and therefore meet your nutrition goals in the long term.
Some of our favorite new menu items: