Most discussions around emotional eating focus on stress, sadness, or difficult emotions. However, for many people, the bigger issue is eating when they feel good. This pattern can be problematic because it means that the only time you are not eating emotionally is when life feels just ‘neutral.’
While eating for comfort when feeling low makes sense as a natural coping mechanism, eating when happy can be even more disruptive. When you’re already feeling good, adding food is unnecessary—it also often dulls the positive emotion rather than enhances it. The meal or foods become a distraction rather than a celebration, cutting short the natural duration of happiness. There are two main reasons involved with eating when feeling good, these are:
Chasing More Pleasure – Eating when things are already going well is often an attempt to heap more pleasure and happiness onto the occasion. Eating can feel like an easy way to intensify the moment even further, to reach a peak state. This can sometimes stem from fear or concerns that these events are short-lived and infrequent. As a result, you try to do as many things as possible to make the situation even better. However, the problem is that happiness doesn’t multiply in this way. Instead of extending joy, eating often shifts your focus away from the moment and onto the food itself. The act of eating becomes the new focal point, pulling you out of the original feeling of happiness. This is why a great conversation can suddenly become quieter after food arrives, or why celebrations can sometimes feel more about the meal than the actual experience.
Anchoring – The second reason you eat when happy is due to emotional anchors. Over time, you have developed a connection that tells you when things go well, food or drink should be involved in celebration. As a society, food is deeply tied to memories of fun, family, and celebration. Birthday cakes, festive meals, and childhood treats create strong associations between happiness and eating. Over time, this turns into a habit—every time you feel happy, your brain automatically signals that it’s time to eat. This is why some people instinctively reward themselves with food after a good day or a personal win. Over time, this pattern can be so ingrained that it feels strange to experience happiness without a food-based celebration
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Magnifying Happiness Without Food – Rather than using food to try and hold onto happiness, the better approach is to amplify the moment. The simplest method is to just do nothing and carry on about your normal business, letting the good feeling resonate within your body. So many people find this strange because they are so programmed to grab for a food or a drink. Other productive ways to extend the feeling include movement (walking, exercising, stretching), music (listening, playing, singing, dancing), talking to others about it or personal reflections (journaling, gratitude).
If you are skeptical about this you can test it for yourself. The next time you are feeling good for whatever reason, avoid doing anything to “enhance” it. Note how long you feel good for, it could be 20 minutes, 4 hours, or 1 day. Then, repeat this when you next feel good, but this time allow yourself to “enhance” it by eating your typical celebratory foods. You will find there is a big difference in how long the happiness persists. You may initially blame external factors for why it was cut short when you ate the foods, but this pattern will keep repeating itself if you test it further.
What Does This Mean For You
If this is something that you feel applies to you and you would like to address then the next step is simply noticing when it happens. Ask yourself: Am I eating because I’m hungry, or because I’m trying to hold onto a feeling? You may find it feels strange to not do anything, but this sensation will change fairly soon.
Photo – Dinner in Poland with the Hyrox lads, a new Brazilian restaurant I went in North London and my birthday celebrations from previous years ;
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