Emotional eaters!

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shmtb
shmtb Posts: 5 Member
in Motivation and Support
Looking for other people who turn to food when they are sad/ angry/ bored/ etc.
Trying to stop this nasty habit of mine so looking for support from people who do this themselves or, even better, have gotten to grips with it! Please add me :)

Replies

  • Truckergirl922
    Truckergirl922 Posts: 18
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    I am an emotional eater, even when I am already full from a recently eaten meal. I will STUFF myself trying to satisfy a craving I can't identify. Then I feel miserable, even in pain from being overstuffed. Then mentally beat myself up for it.

    I came across a book (literally by accident), called Intuitive Eating. And it is helping. When I want to eat something outside of my "planned" meals, I use this book and my journal to help me be more aware of why I am craving more food. Am I hungry? Does my body need it or do I just want it? What do I really want, as opposed to eating everything in sight trying to satisfy the craving? Occasionally I do still "binge" (old habits are hard to break), but I am at least becoming more aware of my emotions. If I realize that I want to eat because I'm bored, I go for a walk or clean the kitchen of even draw/color/paint, etc. If I'm sad, my journal helps with this. Sometimes writing it down can be a therapeutic as talking out.

    Learning to "deal" with our emotions and the consequences of "not dealing" with them is very much a journey not unlike the weight-loss journey. Which by the way has its own set of emotional repercussions. We praise ourselves for "being good" but chastise ourselves for "being bad." Dieting is a form of mental abuse, because no one can be perfect all the time or we wouldn't need to diet.

    Add me as a friend. Getting in touch with them is empowering. Ignoring them has caused us to seek comfort in destructive ways. :flowerforyou:
  • BEEUK
    BEEUK Posts: 113
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    Hands up!

    Best advice i heard, 'The same emotion will still be there after you have binged, alongside the new emotions of guilt. You cannot feed an emotion with food'.

    Food binging is my 'addiction'.
  • RajwaJ
    RajwaJ Posts: 191 Member
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    I'm guilty! Mental boredom is my downfall. If my brain is occupied then I am fine. I don't even think about food. But if my brain is bored, I just stuff food even though I'm not even hungry.

    I lost over 45lb and over the last year gained over half back just because of my emotional eating. No one else understands it really. I just seem to over eat. Then once I eat I feel guilty and that will trigger another eat'a'thon.

    However if I get really stressed or upset I actually stop eating.

    Will be nice to have a few more people on my friends list who can relate and maybe we can fight the urges together.
  • lawkat
    lawkat Posts: 538 Member
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    I am an emotional eater/food addict. How I have worked on combating it is making sure I am aware of why I want to eat certain foods. I have read numerous books that being mindful is the key. For example, yesterday I got some disturbing news and my thoughts immediately went to wanting to eat some comfort foods. I had to mentally tell myself that eating those foods won't make things better. The same thoughts come into play when I want to eat out of boredom. I find if I deal with my emotions in a healthy manner, then I don't feel the need to binge.

    It takes time and a lot of effort at first, but over time, it gets easier. You just have to remind yourself of why you want that particular food.
  • BEEUK
    BEEUK Posts: 113
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    I am an emotional eater/food addict. How I have worked on combating it is making sure I am aware of why I want to eat certain foods. I have read numerous books that being mindful is the key. For example, yesterday I got some disturbing news and my thoughts immediately went to wanting to eat some comfort foods. I had to mentally tell myself that eating those foods won't make things better. The same thoughts come into play when I want to eat out of boredom. I find if I deal with my emotions in a healthy manner, then I don't feel the need to binge.

    It takes time and a lot of effort at first, but over time, it gets easier. You just have to remind yourself of why you want that particular food.

    I am just about getting into this mindset and writing a food diary (including my 'feelings' that day) has really helped. Sounds too simple to work but it helped me go back and see the days I'd binged. I'd highlight the cells in red on my little excel sheet and see exactly what happened and how it made me feel so much worse! Then when i got the urge i could do back and read over, conquering the urge is hard but makes you feel great.

    My issue is not being able to stop eating, one biscuit leads to a complete meltdown and eating to the point of being so full I'm close to vomiting.
  • shmtb
    shmtb Posts: 5 Member
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    I guess i've gotten more aware of what's triggering the binges this year but that doesn't always stop me from doing it anyway. If it's boredom I can often overcome it...I used to eat a lot when writing essays for uni but now that's done, I haven't really had one of those 'attacks'. The problem usually happens if I've had a fight with someone and then I'll turn to food for comfort or if I get frustrated with myself, I'll start eating in anger in a self-sabotaging, "I don't care anymore!" kind of way :-/
    I suppose I need to find alternative 'instant' outlets for my feelings that work...

    And yeh...also dealing with all or nothing eating....one biscuit turns into one packet more often than not but it's getting better slowly :)
  • griff7809
    griff7809 Posts: 611 Member
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    Hands up!

    Best advice i heard, 'The same emotion will still be there after you have binged, alongside the new emotions of guilt. You cannot feed an emotion with food'.

    Food binging is my 'addiction'.

    QFT. I eat when I'm bored. KNOWING that, I will find something to do or down a bunch of water. Tis my technique.
  • muddyevil
    muddyevil Posts: 31
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    Whenever I was stressed, my Grandmother (bless her soul) would make me a sausage sandwich. Now I crave one whenever I am upset! But I find that MFP keeps me accountable, and I am a lot less likely to eat.
    And I just cheer myself up by playing Video Games ^_^
  • Nix143
    Nix143 Posts: 522 Member
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    I struggle with emotional eating. I went through a health scare recently and almost stood outside of myself, watching me shovel food down into my belly to try and squash those feelings of anxiety.

    I wonder why this self sabotaging behaviour happens for me. I wonder why I don't value myself enough to gift myself the thing that would make me feel better - losing weight - why I keep ramming as much food into me as possible.

    Working on it. Always working on it.
  • mandles82
    mandles82 Posts: 31
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    Emotional eater here :(

    I'm sending requests :)
  • mrswine
    mrswine Posts: 263 Member
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    Emotional eater here! My moms strategy for a bad day when we were little was to take us to eat ice cream.
  • UrbanLotus
    UrbanLotus Posts: 1,163 Member
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    Totally an emotional eater here! When I'm sad and when I'm bored - trying to cut that out, when I'm sad I either go to the gym or try a new healthy recipe to occupy my time. Anyone can add me, just send me a message :)
  • susanmc31
    susanmc31 Posts: 287 Member
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    I'm an emotional eater and i'm going through it right now. It's the first anniversary of my father's passing and i'm having a hard time with it. Would like to have friends who can help me and encouage me through it.
  • BEEUK
    BEEUK Posts: 113
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    Why do we all 'reward' ourselves with food? :explode:

    Bad day - eat crap.
    Few good days - eat crap saying 'Oh i deserve this'.
  • cat_mb
    cat_mb Posts: 14 Member
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    I want to hug every one of you who wrote so far. :flowerforyou:

    I'm there too, eating when I'm bored, anxious, frustrated. I think it's because I don't know how to use words to express myself.

    I also found out that when I'm eating, I'm busy so I have a good excuse not to be doing something unpleasant like cleaning dishes. Now of course, the more I eat, the higher the pile of dirty plates!!

    So far since March I had to study for the Graduate Records Exam (to get in grad school), my mother passed away, I had to buy a new car, I had sinus surgery, I've been doing the job of 4 because we are short staffed and I also got a knee injury. The result does not look good in a swimsuit.
  • Ennaelangels
    Ennaelangels Posts: 63 Member
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    I'm an emotional eater and i'm going through it right now. It's the first anniversary of my father's passing and i'm having a hard time with it. Would like to have friends who can help me and encouage me through it.

    I so get this... I gained most of my weight after losing my brother. It's now been over seven years and I gained about 20 kg in total. Only now I figured it is time to lose part of the weight again - also as a part of the mourning process.
    It's definitely one of the hardest thing for me to stop eating when I'm sad.
  • rage032
    rage032 Posts: 36
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    Yep, I would eat when I was bored as well, or if I had a bad day... or a good one. HAHA. These days I don't stock junky foods, and I have set meal times. Wanting to eat outside of those times is irrelevant to me. At least that's my state of mind. Every if I were to crack, I have nothing tasty in the house anyway.

    I guess it comes down to developing a muscle you've never used before... self control.
  • BEEUK
    BEEUK Posts: 113
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    Yep, I would eat when I was bored as well, or if I had a bad day... or a good one. HAHA. These days I don't stock junky foods, and I have set meal times. Wanting to eat outside of those times is irrelevant to me. At least that's my state of mind. Every if I were to crack, I have nothing tasty in the house anyway.

    I guess it comes down to developing a muscle you've never used before... self control.

    The hardest muscle to build!

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