How do i stop comfort eating

ASKyle

lemurcat12 wrote: »

Spamalam wrote: »

So im not gonna give u my life story but a series of traumatic events as a child lead me to comfort eat. Ive been really really good up until recently... Has anyone got any advise or tips on what they do instead this totally sucks

You have to learn to (sorry for this terminology) feel the feelings instead of constantly finding a way to avoid or stifle them. It's hard and scary, no question. I kind of wish I'd gotten help for my issues in that area, so I would explore if therapy is a possibility. That said, here are some things that worked for me:

1. Journaling. When I wanted to eat I'd force myself to write about what was going on, how I felt, whether I was really hungry, that kind of thing. I was also really good for my first few months doing this at taking some notes about the day at the end of the day or beginning of the next. It was extremely helpful.

2. Learning to sit with the feelings. When you feel bad/in need of comfort, try just forcing yourself to sit quietly in a dark room (that worked for me, I'm sure the setting varies person to person) and be conscious of how you feel and why. I had a huge level of irrational fear built up about whether I could deal, and the more I did this the easier it became. If you pray or meditate you can incorporate that too. This was actually something I did a lot when I stopped drinking, but it was helpful also to the eating, as in some ways I used food in similar ways when it came to drowning out feelings. (I am not over this entirely, but it's gotten a lot better and I'm more conscious of it.)

3. Have an alternate comfort ready. Going for a walk is a good one, or working out. Also listening to music or, for me, cooking or shopping for books/music (there are concerns about using shopping too much for obvious reasons) or making a plan/playing with weight-loss related data (which always helps with motivation too).

4. Make a check list of things to do in the day and when you feel like you need to eat decide that you will consider it only after checking off a couple of simple tasks. This seems silly, but often stress builds up around the feeling that you aren't accomplishing things and just getting a few simple things done can make you feel better.

A+++ for you.

One of the best things I've ever learned from a therapist was how to stop REACTING to my feelings and instead just FEEL them. Instead of acting on my anxiety, trying to control it, and having some sort of outburst, I've gotten to the point where I can just sit and think, "wow, I feel so anxious right now" and go about my day.

Francl27

I exercise now, honestly. I go for a walk or go to the gym. Very therapeutic, lol.

Losingthedamnweight

I was in the same place as you recently. I discovered fitness pal back in 2013 and thought "hey. This is awesome. This makes weight loss so freaking easy i should be skinny in no time!" then i would do it for a bit...then revert back to comfort eating. It went against logic alot of times...like why the hell would i sabotage myself like that?

Just recently something just kind of clicked in my head that i need to fill the rest of my life with good things that take my mind off food for me to really lose any weight. I dealt with depression and was just lonely and sad and stuck in the same old routine of "go to work. Come home. Sleep" rinse and repeat. I was bored out of my mind with my life. Nothing ever changed until about june when i started working on other things in my life to keep me busy. Talking to friends more, reading, getting some fun hobbies, occupying my mind so much that i literally forgot to eat. Comfort eating was really just tryin to fill a hole in my life that i thought only food could fill. Once i changed things up, i stopped even thinking about food whenever i got upset and just focused on myself.

shadowfax_c11

Losingthedamnweight wrote: »

Just recently something just kind of clicked in my head that i need to fill the rest of my life with good things that take my mind off food for me to really lose any weight. I dealt with depression and was just lonely and sad and stuck in the same old routine of "go to work. Come home. Sleep" rinse and repeat. I was bored out of my mind with my life. Nothing ever changed until about june when i started working on other things in my life to keep me busy. Talking to friends more, reading, getting some fun hobbies, occupying my mind so much that i literally forgot to eat. Comfort eating was really just tryin to fill a hole in my life that i thought only food could fill. Once i changed things up, i stopped even thinking about food whenever i got upset and just focused on myself.

This is pretty much my experience too. For me the changes started with the people in my life. Choosing to be around people who had qualities that I wanted to develop in myself instead of people who encouraged me to accept less than my best or who influenced me in negative ways. Then I took up a martial art. Age 39, bad knees and a heavy tendency to avoid violence, but with a lot of bottled up anger that I didn't know how to unload... and I walked into an aikido dojo because one of those new friends suggested that it would be good for me. Six years later I am a black belt in aikido and am the most active student in the dojo.

I gained some self confidence, self esteem, body integration, the ability to handle stress and conflict with calm and confidence and It helped me to get a little more fit. From there, with a bit of help and a whole lot of hard work, I upgraded my job from working shifts in a restaurant trying to make ends meet on 25 hours a week with no benefits, to a great job at a world class University, in the world of Neuroscience. The job pays great and has amazing benefits allowing me access to better health care, the ability to afford to eat healthier and to afford to move into a new home which I enjoy coming home to instead of the falling down wreck I used to live in with no heat in the winter.

Essentially you have to make your living environment and lifestyle more comfortable so that you don't need to turn to food for comfort and find a way to destress. You have to decide that you deserve it, you are worth it and you have to be willing to change starting on the inside and working your way out. The whole process took me about 7 years. And only after all of that have I been ready to tackle loosing weight.