First, there is eating because you are hungry. Often the hunger is excessive or too frequent.
Secondly, there is eating for emotional reasons. For example, because I am nervous, bored, or anxious. There is a feeling you just want to put something in your mouth and eat it.
Sometimes asking myself if I am hungry leads me to start feeling hungry.
I just dumped a bunch of maple syrup over multigrain bread and ate that. Right now I am on a real nice sugar high. I usually get plenty of protein, so consuming so much sugar is not as bad for me as it is for people who don’t get a lot of protein. I have a sugar crash, but it is not that bad.
@LilyoftheValley That is a good idea. I do something similar. I drink water and decaf coffee every evening.
I feel bad when I eat just because “my mouth needs it.” It’s like when we were babies and we needed a pacifier in our mouth to keep from crying.
Basically I feel like eating is something I would like to do. I feel like my mouth and stomach want me to eat. It’s part emotional and it’s part oral.