From Emotional Eating to Mindful Eating: How to Change the Way We Eat During Times of Stress

Passover is the holiday of freedom, but it also touches on a much deeper human question: what happens to a person when they live for an extended period in a reality of stress, alertness, and uncertainty? And what is required to return to feeling free? Not only in thought, but also in the body, appetite, eating, and daily choices.

Veronika Meisler - a clinical dietitian and consultant for Herbalife, explains and even offers tips:

"Slavery is not always an external condition. Sometimes it begins precisely in a place that no one but ourselves can see: in the consciousness. In the way we think, feel, and react. In the way that, slowly and gradually, a person stops experiencing themselves as someone who chooses and starts operating primarily out of survival.

A cumulative sequence of stressful days, fragmented sleep, disturbing news, and emotional load is enough for the internal system to change. The brain and soul invest less energy in creativity, curiosity, and calm presence, and more in identifying risks, alertness, and rapid response, in an attempt to maintain full control. From the outside, it is not always visible. A person can continue to work, care for children, cook, and hold an entire household on their shoulders. But inside, something contracts. Patience shortens, thought becomes more rigid, it becomes harder to breathe, and harder to enjoy.

Instead of living, the person begins to manage danger. The question that organizes their day is no longer 'What is right for me?', but 'How do we get through the day safely?' And when this question becomes the permanent language of the soul, it affects almost every area of life, including eating. Some find themselves eating faster, almost without noticing what and how much. Others turn to automatic snacking for a brief moment of relief. Some actually lose their appetite, postpone meals, or simply forget to eat. Sometimes increased cravings for sweets, available carbohydrates, coffee, or anything that provides a sense of immediate comfort also appear.

The body and soul are under tension, and therefore seek rapid regulation, thus creating a delicate but persistent cycle: stress increases mindless or disordered eating, while this eating may increase feelings of heaviness, fatigue, and sometimes guilt or lack of control. At the same time, the internal language also changes. Less 'I want,' 'I choose,' 'What will do me good?' and more 'I have no strength,' 'It doesn't matter,' 'Just to get through the evening.'

When a person speaks to themselves over time in a language of coercion, resignation, and lack of choice, they begin to feel less and less free from within as well. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that Passover touches so many people, even beyond tradition. Because it does not only tell of moving from one place to another, but of a deeper transition: from contraction to space, from the automatic to choice, from survival to the possibility of breathing the breath of a free person."

Meisler suggests small and simple steps that can restore a sense of balance and stability even during busy or stressful periods:

1. Maintain regular meals throughout the day - even when the schedule is busy or unstable, regular meals can help the body maintain balance.

2. Avoid skipping meals - many hours without eating can lead to extreme hunger and mindless eating.

3. Choose food that provides stable energy - combine protein, fiber, and sufficient water intake in meals, which help with a feeling of fullness over time.

4. Reduce unnecessary load - both mentally and nutritionally. Sometimes simplicity is exactly what the body needs.

5. Pay attention to internal language - and gradually replace the language of coercion ("I must?") with questions of choice: What are my best options right now? From my regular routine, what can I preserve even now? What will help me feel slightly more stable?

In summary, Veronika says: "True freedom is not just the absence of limitations. It is the ability to act out of internal choice, even in the face of pressure, fatigue, and automatic habits. It is expressed in the ability to distinguish between physical hunger and emotional hunger, to eat out of listening, and to remember that even within a busy and challenging period, a measure of influence, choice, and internal freedom still exists within us."

(Photo: PR, Herbalife)