Emotional eating

Jadu786

It’s hard not to want to eat junk food when you just feel down in the dumps

rheddmobile

Yes it is! When the rest of your life isn't much fun, it's hard to cut back on a source of pleasure from food.

Three main tactics helped me overcome emotional eating. First, I took inventory of the long standing problems in my life and took steps to solve some of them. I'm talking about those big issues that make your whole life a little less happy for years and years because they seem too big to fix, whether it's a relationship, a job situation, or just a room in your house that isn't the way you want it. Fixing some big things made me need comfort eating a lot less. And although it took most of a year to fix some of them, it was well worth it in the end. Second, I sought out other sources of joy that were not food connected. For example, I make time every morning to go outside and enjoy my back yard, taking a deep breath and paying attention to nature, even when the weather is bad. I also do my fingernails fun colors as a reward to myself. And I listen to music. And finally, I figured out some lower-calorie, high quality treats to substitute for the high calorie junk food that wasn't working for me. Instead of a big bag of M&Ms I eat one or two squares of really good dark chocolate, or have a latte with milk and cinnamon. Instead of chips I eat a couple of pickles or salted radishes. Instead of ice cream, Greek yogurt with fruit.

And for those times when nothing but French fries or fried chicken will do, I took up running. It's amazing how much junk food you can get away with if you run ten miles first.

I'm sorry you're not feeling great and hope you have brighter days ahead soon.

elisa123gal

wow.. great advice

Jadu786

@rheddmobile I’ve learned to control cravings the same ... exercise definitely helps ... I know what some of the problems are that I need to solve but I just have to figure out how to solve them ...