How to Permanently Stop Emotional Eating

TexasTallchick
TexasTallchick Posts: 139 Member
in Food and Nutrition
For those of you have been successful with this, what is your best advice?

I eat when I'm bored, sad, happy, depressed, anxious, and so on. I want to learn to eat for nutrition and to fuel my body, but I lapse back into old habits quickly. I'm almost the heaviest I've ever been.

Along with recovering from foot surgery, I've been dealing with the 5-year 'anniversary' of my 47yo husband's unexpected death and now I've officially outlived him. I've struggled with PTSD on top of everything else.

Thank you in advance.
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Replies

  • herblovinmom
    herblovinmom Posts: 441 Member
    I found what works for me is to replace the bad habit with a better habit. For me I tend to get snacky when stressed. Instead of reaching for food and giving into cravings I will drink water, go for a walk, clean something, call someone to chat, exercise, etc. if I can distract myself from eating for 20 minutes the urge will pass.
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  • littlegreenparrot1
    littlegreenparrot1 Posts: 702 Member
    I have been working hard to separate emotions and eating, and try to focus on what I know to be better choices. There's only so much damage I can do if I'm sat with a big bowl of fruit.

    I also ditched the guilt, if I've had a rubbish day and really want pizza or whatever for dinner I just have it. It happens less often now it's not 'forbidden', and I don't end up caving after a few days and eating twice as much as I would have in the first place.

    That's a lot to deal with though, if not already I would suggest a counsellor or similar to help with that.
  • GinLee61
    GinLee61 Posts: 1,226 Member
    When I am stressed or upset I am just the opposite, I can't eat at all. However my biggest downfall is boredom. When I'm bored all I want to do is eat. So when I do get bored and start feeling the urge to eat I typically do any of the things suggested by @herblovinmom to distract myself and usually the feeling passes.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Have you done any therapy? That would be where I would start. Those underlying issues have to be dealt with first. I have benefited a lot from CBT for both my anxiety as well as my alcohol abuse.
  • jje1967
    jje1967 Posts: 3 Member
    I took 16 weeks on BED therapy and learned that the most important thing is to identify triggers. In other words, what emotions or thoughts do you have that trigger a binge. For example, boredom was a major trigger for me so I made a list of 6 or so things to do if I got bored and wanted to binge. So now instead of binging I might go listen to Spotify or organize my tool cabinet.

    Its going to be different for each person. The key is identify what triggers a binge and work out alternatives. Feeling hopeless or depressed is a major binge trigger. You may need a few therapy sessions to learn alternative coping strategies.
  • JBanx256
    JBanx256 Posts: 1,479 Member
    Just here to say you've got a lot on your mind. I'm terribly sorry for your loss. If you haven't gone to any sort of counseling yet, it may be beneficial.

    I tend to be a big stress-muncher myself; I generally either try to divert my attention elsewhere or find something a little less-crappy to satisfy the craving (eg, baby carrots)....but yano, sometimes it happens & that's OK, just gotta work through it and keep going.

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