Are you really hungry, or are you just bored?
I know I eat when I’m bored. And that was where a lot of my comfort eating started.
When my son was little, I was home alone, and my son was in bed, so I’d eat for something to do, or eat because the tv was on… I didn’t really need much of an excuse. Can you relate to this?
A good question to ask when you feel like grabbing something to eat and it’s not a normal meal time or normal snack time, is “Am I hungry or just bored?
Just becoming aware of your feelings is incredibly powerful.
8 things to do instead of eating when you’re bored.
- Go and brush your teeth and whilst you’re in the bathroom, run through a little beauty routine, a mini facial, a nice head massage, or a makeover session… Look in the mirror and remind yourself how awesome you are.
- Do something active. Go for a walk, dance, or stick a YouTube workout video on. Check out the Indoor Walking videos from Lucy Wyndham-Read on YouTube. I really love these.
- Tidy and clean a room, you’ll distract yourself and have a nice tidy and clean home.
- Drink some water, this will help you to stop the feeling of being hungry. Did you know that the feeling you get when you’re thirsty is just like the hungry feeling? So go for water first.
- Call a friend. Call several friends and walk whilst you’re on the phone.
- Write a letter to someone. Writing a handwritten letter and posting it is becoming a lost art, but I think we can all agree it’s lovely to receive such a personal letter, so not only will you be keeping yourself from being bored, you’ll be brightening someone else’s day
- Play a board game (if you have someone else to play with). Board games are great for when you’re bored. Sorry, couldn’t resist that 🙂
- Play a game on your phone. Keep your fingers busy and your mind active.
I also wrote a post on Eating Mindfully that would be well worth a read.
Other emotional triggers can have us in the food cupboards.
Of course, it’s not just when we’re feeling bored that we can overeat, all kinds of emotions have us raiding the food cupboards.
Things like feeling tired, sad, angry, and frustrated… can all lead to mindlessly eating. And it’s not just these kinds of emotions either, it can be happy emotions too.
EFT, Emotional Freedom Techniques is a powerful way to release emotions that lead us to overeat.
I want to share this blog post on comfort eating with tips and EFT script to help avoid it.
EFT tapping for when you feel bored
- SET UP: Tap the side of the hand (just below the little finger) and say… I’m tapping to release this bored feeling.
- Top of the head: Feeling bored
- Eyebrow: Feeling like I need to eat
- Side of the eye: But I’m just bored
- Under the eye: Feeling bored
- Under the nose: I release this feeling now
- Under the mouth: Feeling bored
- Collarbone: I let this feeling go now
- Side of the hand: this feeling
Repeat this script. Keep tapping for several minutes. A couple of great tips…
- Drink a glass of water before tapping
- Get up and walk around the house while you tap
Next, you can move to positive EFT tapping. Tap in what you want. There are loads of ideas in this blog post – FEELING POSITIVE AND WEIGHT LOSS EFT SCRIPTS
POSITIVE EFT TO IMPROVE THE WAY YOU FEEL
Here’s an example:
Top of the head: I feel great
Eyebrow: I love my body
Side of the eye: My mind is calm
Under the eye: I totally respect my body
Under the nose: I feel satisfied
Under the mouth: I am filled with love
Collarbone: I love and cherish myself
Side of the hand: Every day my life gets better and better
Affirmations are positive statements and you can say any positive affirmation as you move through the EFT tapping points. Here are some fantastic AFFIRMATION IDEAS.
Here are a few more posts worth having a read…
Dealing with emotions in a positive way
The snacking habit and how to stop it
If you have your own ideas, share them in the comments below.
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Coach Wendy – Wendy Tomlinson Coaching
Lincolnshire – UK
Mindset Coach
Life Skills Coach
EFT Master Practitioner
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Gillian says
A lot of times I know I’m bored but I don’t care and I keep eating anyways. I’m going to try handwriting a letter next time. I just gave someone a thank you card on beautiful stationary and I think they were as happy about the message as they were about the beauty of the card!
Wendy Tomlinson says
Keep an eye out on the YouTube channel too, I’ve made a note to add an EFT Video for bored eating.
Robyn says
I’m a bored eater and these are some really great ideas! I hate wandering round the house with nothing to do (even though most of the time I have 100’s of things I need to be doing). I think I’ll try the phone a friend…I like that idea!
Wendy Tomlinson says
I think it’s something many of us struggle with Robyn.
Sarah says
That’s an interesting one! I guess it’s quite common to eat because someone is bored. I’ve never felt bored, but I can be prone to eating too much of something when I particularly love it. 😉
Wendy Tomlinson says
I think as long as that doesn’t happen every day, it’s fine. xx
CAROL CASSARA says
I’ve noticed that this is true. Bored eating is something I do.
Wendy Tomlinson says
You’re certast try to be aware of it and try to find something else other than food to fill the gap.
Amanda P says
I eat when I’m bored sometimes too. If I go to the fridge and can’t find something in the first few seconds, I walk away and figure I’m bored. If I’m really hungry, something will sound good.
Wendy Tomlinson says
Makes sense Amanda.