My BAD Habits

Rene75Patricia

I have some bad habits I find hard to correct. I don't eat junk food often, or buy fast food. That is not my problem. My problem is that I overeat when bored, stressed, or for any reason.

When I cook I nibble.

When sitting for dinner I over eat.

When clearing up dishes I nibble again.

I cannot escape my motherly duties. I need motivation to put the fork down. What's your secret?

AsISmile

You are what they call a grazer in the british tv show secret eaters.

Basically, if you get bored go out for a walk (around the block).
Don't eat in front of the tv, it distracts you from your food. If you eat while being aware of eating you won't miss the I'm full signals you body sends.
Drink water half an hour before eating, not during. You might actually be thirsty but think your hungry. Also, drinking during dinner (or eating) kinda flushes the food through your stomach faster, reducing the full feeling.

Prevent nibbling when clearing dishes by not cooking too much.

Perhaps making an effort to accurately track calories through weighing everything you put in to your mouth will make you more aware of when you nibble.

BioQueen

I am/was a huge grazer if I'm not careful, and this was probably one of the major contributing factors to why I put on weight. I would stress eat and eat if I was bored. A few strategies I have are:

1) Go for a walk! I walk a lot more now, and it takes me about an hour to go 3 miles. So it lets me kill some time, exercise, relax, and enjoy nature.

2) I crochet, but anything you can do with your hands while watching tv/listening to music/etc is one of the most helpful things. It gives me something to do, and I cannot physically eat when I am doing this. This is especially helpful if I am deciding whether or not I am truly hungry. I work for a half an hour and then re-evaluate.

3) Drinking water (I also love unsweetened/0 cal sparkling water)

4) Track everything, even bad days. It allows you to see what patterns pop up and that one bad day won't hurt, but many will.

yopeeps025

I found others ways to control and cope with stress through other means.

I was never an eat when bored type.

tootsatv

Any other coping mechanisms to use when stress eating? Nothing seems to be working very well this far and the screaming from the bag of chips is getting really hard to ignore.

Rene75Patricia

I try tell myself that nothing tastes as good as being skinny feels. I really crave food too when I'm stressed.