Eating Habits

hope25

How do you go about changing your bad eating habits?

I know that I need to go from eating food for pleasure to eating for health.

I am a very emotional eater. I eat my feelings - happy, sad, nervous, etc. All summer I have told myself over and over that I will eat better, stop the mindless eating etc. Then the next thing I know I have eaten something not so great without even realizing what I am doing.

How do I break that cycle?

aquarabbit

Look up "I Can Make You Thin". It's a book. But don't bother buying the book (even though it's only $10 on the half priced shelf I'm sure). I don't necessarily like the whole book, but his way of looking at how you eat your food has REALLY helped me stop the mindless part of the eating. He has these 4 rules that basically say, if you're hungry, eat something, when you're full, stop, FOCUS on the food (don't watch tv or listen to the radio or talk to someone), and don't deny yourself what you want. That's been very helpful for me.

Also, put your fork, sammie, spoon, whatever, down in between each bite and don't pick it up until you've properly chewed and swallowed. That'll help you realize when you're full.

As far as the emotional part, you have to find another outlet. You just want to change how you're feeling, and you can do that with something else. I'm very competitive, so I like playing games with my husband (chess and such) or playing online video games (you can't go to the fridge when your team is depending on you!). Sometimes a walk. I also have some quotes and pictures of hotties on my fridge and pantry. That way I have to look at those before I stuff my face. Change them up once a month too so that you don't become accustomed to them.

Hope this helps. There's also a great emotional eaters group on MFP. Are you a member of any groups yet?

hope25

Thank you for the advice I will look that book up.

Mslmesq

I also recommend French Women don't get Fat as a good book to teach you how to eat. What you want to learn is to eat more mindfully. There is nothing wrong with eating for pleasure, but most pleasure in food is in the first few bites. If you have gone beyond this with extreme emotional eating (as opposed to just mindless or bored eating), have you discussed this with a therapist? No judgements here (have my own issues), but they can really help get to the underlying cause to help you stop.

prattiger65

One thing that helped me is to meal plan, I log everything in advance, even my treats. By doing this, I know if I eat too much at meal time, I get no ICE CREAM!!!!!!!! and that would be tragic. Good luck.

AlabasterVerve

Stop eating the carbs, they just make you hungry. When you feel the urge to eat even though you're not really hungry eat fat and protein instead of carbs. It's not going to satisfy you because what you're craving is the sugar/starch/carbs but it helps. Give it a couple of weeks and see how you do.

I was convinced I was an emotional eater -- because that's what all the magazine articles and talk shows said -- but after a few weeks of eating low carb that urge to eat (and overeat) all of the time went away COMPLETELY. No self control, drinking water before you eat, putting down your fork between each bite or any of the agonizing little tricks you come up with to try and stop yourself from eating were needed. My appetite just felt normal and the urge to eat all of the time went away.

At any rate, that's what worked for me and I know there are some other people who've experienced the same thing so it might be worth a shot if restricting your carbs is something you're willing or able to do. Good luck.

TheGymGypsy

I am boredom eater. The key to success in my case was getting rid of ALL snack food from my home. (and freezer meals.) If I wanted to ear something I actually had to prepare it, and that would deter me unless I was actually hungry. It sucked for awhile, but now I have been able to reintegrate snack food into my home and use self control.