Food is often used to soothe emotions. The occasional snack to boost your spirits is not a concern; however, if you're turning to food for comfort on a regular basis, it may be a problem. Emotional eating habits may lead to obesity, compulsive eating, malnutrition, or other health problems. The trick is learning to differentiate between eating because of hunger and eating because of mood.

Becoming aware of your emotional triggers is the first and most important step. If you can identify the reasons you overeat, then you can work to manage your behavior. Try the following steps to identify and overcome your emotional eating habits:

Step 1: Track your eating behavior for one week.
Log everything you eat in a notebook, computer, palm pilot, day planner, or just scraps of paper. It doesn't matter where you write it, just make sure you include everything (small snacks and beverages add up). Keep track of time, food, quantity, degree of hunger, mood (e.g., bored, stressed, nervous, frustrated, angry, sad, happy, lonely). You won't believe what you can learn from keeping track of your eating habits.

Step 2: Review the week.
Did you eat when you weren't hungry on a regular basis (once a day or more)? If not, congratulations! You are one of the few who eat solely based on physical need. If you did, proceed with the rest of the steps to get back in touch with your body and your physical hunger needs.

Step 3: Listen to your body.
Start each day with the goal of heeding your internal cues. Be aware of what your body is telling you. Each time you are about to put something in your mouth ask yourself if you're really hungry. If your body is telling you yes, by all means eat and enjoy (you may need to reacquaint yourself with the feeling of true physical hunger if it's been a while). If your body is telling you no, try to figure out what's stimulating your desire to eat and work toward finding a more effective solution. For example, if you are tempted to eat the leftover pizza in the refrigerator because you're bored, think about a better solution, such as going for a walk or calling a friend. At first it may be difficult to separate real hunger from emotional eating, but keep practicing and you'll get the hang of it. Continue to keep your journal, so you can track your improvement.

Step 4: Eat consciously.
When you're eating, take the time to enjoy your food. Try to not combine eating with other things, such as working or watching TV. Multitasking may be efficient, but it takes away from the satisfaction of eating and may lead to overeating. If you're sitting in front of the TV, you may eat a whole bag of chips without even remembering it.

Step 5: Get to the bottom of your emotional triggers.
Now that you're aware of your emotional eating triggers, confront them before they can sabotage your conscious eating success. Learn to manage your reaction to triggers that may lead to overeating. Develop solutions, aside from eating, to deal with your emotions. If you're likely to munch on a box of cookies when you're stressed, think ahead and develop an alternate plan of action. For example, decide to practice relaxation techniques or get some exercise. You'll feel better about yourself, and you'll be working toward relieving some of that stress.

Step 6: Be patient.
Eating habits are not easily changed. It will take time to become accustomed to your new method of conscious eating. If you've made it this far, you've overcome the biggest barrier, which is realizing that you're an emotional eater. Now you can take gradual steps toward eating to satisfy physical, not emotional, hunger.

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