Boredom eating, also known as mindless eating, can definitely send your diet off-track. One minute, you're watching tv or reading something on the internet, and the next, you have a sugary or salty snack in your hands. You've thrown off your diet, added more calories to your food diary for the day, and now have to contend with the fact that you're a boredom eater.

While eating out of boredom once in a while is fine, if you continue the habit, you'll definitely begin to add the weight that you've lost back on. Thankfully, there are many ways to stop boredom eating. Here are some of the best.

1. Hide Your Snacks 

Look at it this way. If your snacks aren't within reach, you won't grab them while you're watching television or browsing the internet. If you previously kept snacks lying around on your coffee table or end table, move them to a cabinet in another room. If you have to move from your comfy seat to get a snack, you're much less likely to do so.

Boredom eating tends to occur when you have snacks on hand—as in inches from your hands.

2. Track Your Habits 

Why do you eat out of boredom? What tasks are you working on when it happens? Pay attention to your impulse eating and note what you're doing at the time in order to determine your patterns. You might find that you tend to eat mindlessly when you're reading a book or watching a movie. If that's the case, you know when to expect your snacking to occur and can stop it before it starts.

You can also find other ways to keep yourself busy, instead of the habits that cause you to eat out of boredom.

3. Keep Your Hands Busy 

Eating when you're bored tends to occur when your hands are empty. Even if you're holding something like a book, you still have a free hand to reach for snacks. Instead of doing nothing when you're relaxing and in front of your favorite streaming service, keep your hands busy.

Do a crossword puzzle or a word search, or take up a fun hobby like knitting, crocheting, or sewing. Remember that the fuller your hands are and the busier your mind is, the less likely it is that you'll decide to have a snack or two.

4. Don't Confuse Boredom with Relaxation 

Boredom is one thing, and relaxation is another. They are very different. Boredom is when you tend to go for snacks because you need something to occupy yourself. Relaxation is when you're so chilled out on the couch or recliner that you don't want to get up and eat.

If you focus on simply relaxing when you need a time out and don't feel like doing anything, you won't be bored. Therefore, you won't end up ruining your diet with snacks.

5. Be Mindful of Your Hunger 

Are you really hungry? Or are you just eating because you're bored? This is something that you need to ask yourself every time that you head to the snack cupboard. See if you can rate your hunger on a scale of one to ten, with ten being "eat something right now because you're hangry."

If you find yourself between a one and a four on the scale, then you probably aren't that hungry. It's a handy way to know whether or not you should actually eat something. If you do this every time you are about to eat, you may find that you reach for food for reasons other than hunger.

6. Focus on Your Food 

Sometimes, the problem isn't so much that you're boredom eating, but how you're boredom eating. If you eat food quickly without properly chewing it, then you'll end up eating far more than you would if you actually focused on your food.

The next time you find yourself with a cookie in your hand, spend time savoring it. Taste the batter and the chocolate chips. Focus on how the cookie tastes, its texture, and how much it crumbles when you bite into it. You'll likely find that you eat less this way.

7. Don't Buy Snacks in Bulk 

While bulk goods stores like Sam's Club and Costco are great for saving money, they're horrible for people who like to boredom eat. There's nothing like a giant bag of chips or several dozen small packages of cookies for someone who likes to eat as they watch television.

So, what can you do? Instead of buying snacks in bulk, go to the regular grocery store and only purchase them in smaller packages. You'll eat less this way.

8. Stay Busy 

You need to have downtime, as it's good for your mental health. With that said, the more you have to do when you're relaxing (like hobbies such as beading or puzzle building), the less likely you are to be completely bored.

And of course, if you aren't bored, you won't be able to do any mindless, boredom eating. Plus, having hobbies is a part of self-care, so they're perfectly good for you. If you don't have a hobby, now is the time to pick one up.

9. Get Up and Exercise 

The next time you feel like snacking out of boredom, get up and exercise. Do a few jumping jacks or sit-ups, walk around your house a few times, or jog to the corner and back. Do you feel like snacking now? You probably won't.

In addition to not ruining your diet with a sugary treat, you just got in a small workout, which burned calories instead of adding them into your digestive system. It seems like a pretty good way to halt snacking in its tracks, right?

10. Buy Fewer Types of Snacks 

Sometimes, variety comes back to bite you. The more types of snacks that you have on hand, the more likely you are to find yourself boredom eating. You'll sit in your lounge chair, reading a book, thinking about the snacks that you have on hand, and you'll end up eating them.

Or you'll see a commercial on tv for a certain type of snack good and realize that you have it in the cupboard. Guess how that ends? By having a smaller variety of snack foods, you end up eliminating these situations.

If You Absolutely Must Have a Snack 

Of course, there are times when you really need to have a snack. You find that you're actually hungry (a five and over on the hunger scale), and it's hours until dinner time. You feel your blood sugar crashing, and you're beginning to get hangry. It's time to eat something.

What do you do? You don't want a full meal, as that would defeat the purpose of dinner. You just want a snack. But isn't snacking bad?

In reality, snacking isn't explicitly bad for you. However, mindless and boredom snacking are because they involve eating food without really paying attention to it. As a result, you end up eating more than you should, and those foods that you're snacking on are more than likely bad for you. If you truly need a snack, here's what you should do.

Keep Healthy Snacks on Hand 

There are plenty of healthy snacks out there. Some of the "bad" ones described here are cookies, chips, cakes, and so on. They are usually highly processed, full of sugar and preservatives, and tend to be bad for you when you eat a lot of them.

On the other hand, healthy snacks are minimally processed and actually good for you. When you need a snack, have a bag of baby carrots or sliced cucumbers and some dip on hand or a bag of whole-grain crackers. These are just a few examples of the many healthy snacks that you can incorporate into your routine.

Pre-Portion Your Snacks

In addition to having healthy snacks around, you should also portion them out. Place those baby carrots in small Ziploc bags. Put some whole-grain crackers and sliced fresh fruit in a bento box.

By having everything pre-portioned, you don't have to worry about eating multiple servings. Instead, you'll have a single serving in your hands, and you just simply have to stop eating when it's gone. This is a great way to snack.

Boredom Eating Doesn’t Have to Win 

Though many give in to the mindless temptation of boredom eating, you don’t have to! Simply find ways to keep yourself busy and have healthy snack options on hand for those must-have hangry moments. If you follow these simple tips, you’re sure to avoid the mighty pitfall of boredom eating!

Sources:

13 Science-Backed Tips to Stop Mindless Eating | Healthline

10 Ways to Stop Mindless Snacking | Women's Health

Tips to Avoid Mindless Snacking | Wisconsin College of Agricultural and Life Sciences