Stress cravings

FitLaughLove

How do you guys deal with them? Craving sweets, fatty foods, or salty things when you're under stress

RAinWA

When I get super stressed I clean - a lot! Keeps me from eating and gives me a sense of accomplishment. Seems there is always something that can be scrubbed or organized.

ccsernica

Well, today I've been eating. Got almost no sleep last night. Power was out and the generator kept bothering me. It runs on diesel, and the memory of the smell of the exhaust kept giving me nightmares about CO poisoning. (Which is silly because we have CO detectors in the house, but the dreaming mind is not rational.) We have to run it because my disabled son needs his oxygen and variable-pressure mattress to keep running, or I'd turn it off at night. And then the damn thing quit about 0330 because I forgot to fuel it before I went to bed. (Frankly hoping the power would be back on by then.) So that got me up. Then after getting the kids off to school there was a meeting with the kid's new service coordinator at the regional center, then back home and a futile attempt to nap before heading in to work, with an extra trip to the gas station first because now we needed more diesel after running the generator all night.

Yeah, a bit stressed today. And I'm really too tired to get any exercise in, so I won't have the extra calories either. Fortunately I'm not in the habit of eating junk, so I ought to get adequate nutrition in any event, but I'll probably go over my goal today, and I don't have the emotional energy to care.

leejoyce31

Most of my life until almost 2 years ago I was an emotional eater. I didn't cope with it unfortunately. I would give in. When I started this weight loss journey, it stopped naturally not sure why this time but it did.

I will say that now I'm becoming peri-menopausal I sometimes feel a twinge of that desire to emotionally eat but it's controllable. Hopefully it continues to be.

Hopefully you will overcome this.

runlikeagirl1985

I don't get stress cravings so much as stress causes me to make poor food choices, so similar I guess. I have been trying very hard to make sure I have my meals prepared, try to minimize the stress over things I can control and not skipping workouts.

CattOfTheGarage

Look up ways to manage stress. Exercise helps. Also do what you can to reduce or remove the stress if possible. Obviously it isn't always possible, but don't dismiss it out of hand.

And as for the cravings, set up your diet with lots of satisfying foods, plan treats, and generally do what you can to stay on track, but if you do eat something you didn't mean to, be kind to yourself, log it and move on.