Breaking Your Boredom Snacking Habit

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• RELATED EPISODE: Night-time Snacking Habit
• RELATED EPISODE: Emotional Eating at Work

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Read the Transcript:

Breaking Your Boredom Eating Habit

Hi there, welcome to the Eating Habits for Life podcast. Today, I’m diving into a topic that is a popular eating habit that many wish to break.

It was an eating habit that I discovered I had many years ago when I was working as an orthopedic surgery trauma physician assistant. You wouldn’t think that that would cause boredom, and it certainly did not, but at night, when I was relaxing on the couch, I felt bored compared to being constantly stimulated all day in that job.

And I will get more into that as far as understanding why boredom snacking occurs, and how you can break your boredom snacking habit for good.

Also, in this episode I will explain what boredom snacking looks like, psychological triggers, how it really relates to career women.

I will also help you to identify boredom snacking patterns, including recognizing your triggers.

I will also give you strategies to combat boredom snacking that are simple that you can do on your own. Finally, I’ll include some tips to help you to break your snacking habit long term.

OK, so as I mentioned, you wouldn’t think that busy career women or busy people in general would have a problem with boredom snacking.

In my fast-paced career as a physician assistant, especially in a level one trauma center, where I was part of the orthopedic surgical team, I never would have thought that I would develop a boredom snacking habit. My job was anything but boring.

But the problem was I got so used to that stimulation, that then later after I came home and maybe even created more stimulation for myself by going for a run, when I was winding down on the couch at night, I felt bored.

That was only because of the contrast of not really doing anything at night, to doing everything at a very fast pace during the day, with all the patients that I was taking care of at the hospital and in the office.

So for you, do you feel like your day is pretty busy or pretty stimulating either mentally or physically and then part of your day can be the opposite of that?

That can totally set you up for developing a boredom snacking habit.

Either feeling like it’s busy or stimulating for multiple hours, and then that’s very much contrasted at night when it’s more relaxing. Or maybe you have alternating periods of time during your day and even during your night where it’s busy, not busy, busy, not busy, etc.

That can set you up for a boredom snacking habit.

Or maybe you don’t have a busy or super stimulating job or personal life and it’s just all kind of non stimulating. That can also set you up for a boredom snacking habit.

Now, how is boredom snacking different than boredom eating or even boredom nibbling?

All three are extremely similar, but I guess the nuances would be that boredom eating would maybe be like if you were eating a full meal out of boredom and not due to actual hunger.

Boredom snacking would be more of like your snacky foods.

And then boredom nibbling would just be like when you grab a little nibble here and there but maybe find that it’s due to boredom and not actual hunger.

I’ve caught myself doing that, but because I’m so aware, I’ve caught myself.

So, the psychological triggers for why we actually snack when we’re bored is because our brains crave stimulation.

And food, especially that very tasty food like high sugar or high salt or fat foods or snacks, provides a lot of pleasure, so our brain sees it as a quick fix to not being stimulated.

You see boredom can be seen as discomfort, because it’s an emotion that’s not exactly a positive emotion, so our brains then want to avoid that discomfort and make us feel pleasure instead. And food can quickly provide that instant pleasure.

However, it’s not true internal pleasure. It’s just pleasure that’s very temporary from an external source.

But our brain sometimes does not care about that and will try very hard to avoid discomfort and increase pleasure.

So, think about yourself. If you’ve ever had to sit in a long meeting at work, and I think now that we are often working remotely, that could even make the boredom during those long meetings worse.

Because when you’re not actually in the room with physical people, you might even feel less stimulated. You might find yourself yawning a little bit more if you are in a long virtual meeting, rather than a long in person meeting.

Or, when you’re working alone say on your computer, especially if you’re at home and not in a workplace. And that’s just because of not having that stimulation around you of other people. And that can be a nice thing, because you might be able to focus better when you’re on your own without that outside stimulation.

But, it can also create an environment where you can be susceptible to boredom. And then when you have easy access to your kitchen and all the snacks, it just sets you up for creating that boredom snacking habit.

And I’m not immune to it either.

My job now as an eating habits and weight loss coach is very stimulating to me, because I love it so much, but there are certain tasks when I’m not seeing clients that are a little bit mundane. Such as creating pins for Pinterest for my podcast episodes and blog posts.

So I’ve noticed that sometimes when I’m making pins, especially in the afternoon, an especially if I’ve had a very busy day prior to that, I start feeling the urge to go into the kitchen to get something to munch on.

But because I’m very aware of it, since I also use the tools that I teach my clients, that is absolute key.

So when my human brain does start feeling bored and like it needs a little stimulation and then has that urge to get that stimulation from a snack, I’m aware of it, and very much in control of it.

Without relying on willpower, by the way. Because willpower is a lot of work and not something that you want to have to rely on, especially at the end of the day when your brain is already zapped of energy.

Next, I’m going to share some strategies, starting with things you can do ahead of time, and then things you can do in the moment.

For ahead of time:

If you can start recognizing some triggers like when you notice that you might be boredom snacking, take note of that. Jot it down.

When you start gathering data, you start recognizing patterns. And when you start seeing patterns, you can have that awareness ahead of time, so that you can be conscious of it, deliberate, and prepped in advance.

So that’s really the first step to breaking your boredom snacking habit.

Next, you’re going to create a plan that you’ll have ahead of time, for when it does come up that you feel that urge to snack due to boredom. So, remind yourself that your brain just wants stimulation. There are lots of different ways to stimulate your brain besides food. Better ways.

So, make a list of a few options that you could do in the scenarios that you find yourself feeling bored and wanting to snack due to the boredom.

For example, if you typically find yourself boredom snacking at night when you’re watching TV, maybe get one of those stress relief balls that you could start squeezing while you’re watching TV.

That way you’re getting stimulated in a physical way and also by trying to focus on the TV and focus on continuing to squeeze the stress ball.

Or maybe you could even get an adult coloring book and colored pencils and color while you’re watching TV. You get the idea, you can think of a few things that you could do.

And if it’s something like boredom during your work day, even just stimulation like getting up and walking around your house.

Or if you’re at the office, standing up and stretching, and doing a lap around the office. Just don’t go into the break room where all the snacks are, because you don’t need anything making it harder for you at the beginning.

I always have my clients create plans ahead of time and I have a special process for creating that plan to make sure that it is doable, that we’ve problem solved for any potential challenges, and there are certain things within that process that make it more likely they’ll follow through on it.

And they consistently find that this process works extremely well for them. One of my clients tells me every session that she just cannot believe how effective it is for her, which makes me so happy, because she is just incredulous about it.

Alright, now because thoughts play such a big part in eating behaviors, I want you to start thinking about boredom as peace.

Our brains can see boredom as uncomfortable. But what if we reframed it and instead of not being stimulated being boredom, it was peace instead? Or something similar to that, like relaxation.

So let’s talk some strategies while you’re in the moment:

If you’re working and starting to feel bored, just take a moment to pause, close your eyes if you can and just feel peaceful.

When you start seeing boredom as not such a horrible thing, your brain is going to have less of a need to escape from that boredom. It’ll have less of a need to get stimulated by food.

And it’s a win win, because that’ll just feel better to you if you reframe boredom and take that pause and tell yourself that you’re feeling peaceful or relaxed.

That might take several times of doing, because your brain is so used to seeing boredom as uncomfortable and something that you don’t really want to be feeling.

So that’s normal if the first few times you’re like yeah that’s not working. Just give it a chance and try doing that several times. It will start getting easier.

If you’re still feeling that urge, then follow-through on that plan you made ahead of time. But if you decided that you were going to do the adult coloring book if you were feeling bored at night while watching TV, then start doing it.

And here’s a little tip: Set yourself up for success.

Make sure that adult coloring book and colored pencils are near the couch where you typically sit That way, it’s easily accessible.

When you want to follow through with doing the action that you intend to do, you need to make it easy for yourself to actually do that.

Also having the coloring book and colored pencils there serves as a visual trigger to remind you that that’s what you wanted to do instead of going to the kitchen and getting the snack.

And then give yourself some praise for following through. Our brains are kind of like little children. They actually need that positive reinforcement, that bit of praise to keep doing something.

So don’t underestimate the power of some kind words to yourself.

And to create a long term habit of not snacking while feeling bored, you just need to do this enough times. Then your brain starts to form a link between that feeling of boredom and whatever alternative activity, instead of the snacking.

Or, maybe you don’t do an activity and just have broken that boredom snacking habit by starting to think of boredom as a moment of peace.

But the end result is that you break that boredom snacking habit.

Now I know it’s very natural to feel like “Yeah that all makes total sense, I can totally do this”, and then have trouble actually doing it on your own.

That’s very common and very normal. Breaking Bad eating habits is something that can feel very challenging. Which is why so many people still struggle with bad eating habits.

You can be super intelligent and a very hard worker, and still have trouble with bad eating habits. All of my clients have been very intelligent, very hard workers, very capable, but still really struggled. Enough that they said they’ve had enough, and need my help.

So please don’t feel ashamed or like there’s something wrong with you if you struggle with this.

I try to help you via these podcasts with very simple, actionable things that can be done on your own, but there’s still always going to be a percentage of people that struggle with this, due to lots of different circumstances.

So, you may be the person who has tried at least something on her or his own already, and you’re getting more and more frustrated and feel like you need help now. I am here for you. Don’t let your frustration go on any longer, because it’ll just have more and more of a negative effect on you.

I recently had some 1:1 coaching slots open up, because of clients who have transformed their eating habits and have completed our work together. So, if you’re interested in being the next person, then book a free consultation with me using the link in the episode description or right on my website, https://katemjohnston.com/consult.

And I’m excited for you, because if you book your free consultation, say “yes” to yourself and your future health by saying “yes” my 1:1 coaching program, Eat with Intention, and start by the end of August, I will give you my 8-week Confidence Continuum program for free.

This is an 8-week maintenance program that you’ll do after our main work together, the 1:1 Coaching Program, Eat With Intention, that helps you transition to doing it all on your own without me. So it just really skyrockets your confidence and comfort even more so.

And by the way, this entails actual sessions with me, not text message or email check-ins. It’s one-on-one continued support and accountability, for extra-boosted confidence and comfort, but it’s done in a weaning process kind of a way.

Alright my lovelies, thanks for listening, think about what your future self would do, and let’s conquer that boredom snacking habit and any other bad eating habits.