Question for People who -WERE- Emotional/Bored Eaters

Rogsman

I take a completely different approach, I eat.

I save some calories for this, cause I'm going to do it - there's no escape. So I have a stockpile of oranges, grapefruit, berries, pears, apples, Greek yogurt, etc... When it really gets bad I reach for a protein bar, usually one of those chocolate ones.

Itch scratched every single time. I'm the only healthy eater in my family, so there's much worse options available.

IowaJen1979

I am a former binge eater and I still struggle with these feelings. The urge to binge never really goes away, unfortunately. Like an addiction, I just had to quit cold turkey. When I felt the urge to binge, I would come to this board and remind myself why I didn't need to turn to food for comfort. Eventually it got easier and my urges came less often. What I learned is that most times I am feeling the need to binge I actually AM hungry, so I eat a healthy snack. I plan my meals for the week and only buy those foods at the grocery store.

ladyredeemed4

Food is a comfort to us - at all times. It makes me feel good eating something delicious, it doesn't judge us, doesn't argue back. Food is a friend. One thing that has been consistent with me losing weight on MFP is journaling -Of course I have had a couple of weeks I gained. You have to substitute something else for the excessive eating. The first few days were the hardest for me, but it did become easier (now at Thanksgiving, I know I will have a challenge - Got to get me a plan in place first). If I want a piece of cake or pizza, I will have in moderation - I just know I will have to work it off. I love having pink crystal light, kind of frozen - it taste so good and refreshing. Best of luck... : )

cwolfman13

How did you develop a health relationship with food? Sometimes, I feel so trapped or bored and food is what I turn to. A lot of the time, I feel like I'm obsessed with it... Then I wonder if I should enjoy food so much. How did you handle it?

For me it all started with portion control. I've always been a foodie and enjoyed good food and wasn't about to sit around and eat celery all day long...but when I actually started portioning things out I found that I enjoyed them that much more...and I also enjoyed the fact that I was satiated...not stuffed to the gills.

As far as the boredom goes, I always made sure I had veggies around that I liked and could just snack on raw...i.e. grape tomatoes, baby cucumbers, carrots, etc. Ultimately though, it was just about breaking the habit...really that's all bored eating is...it's habit. Breaking habits suck, but it can be done....just lots of will power. I figure it took me about a month of two to really break myself of "bored eating" I did other little things like refusing to let myself eat in front of the t.v...I made myself get up and have my snack at the dinner table or something. I also stopped eating my jelly beans and gummy worms in bed while I was reading (a long time habit) and made it a point to try to replace bad habits with better ones.

I also dramatically increased my activity...whenever I started to think about food and get into that obsession...gotta have something mindset I'd just drop and do some push-ups or jumping jacks or whatever. I've also become much better at cleaning random things and fixing random things around the house just to keep me moving and keep my mind occupied. I probably over did it in RE to my actual exercise early on, but that helped as well...I have a far more balanced fitness regimen now though.

kowajenn

I'm both an emotional and bored eater. I think I have a handle on the emotional part (I haven't binged in a year) but when I'm bored I can walk into the kitchen 10 times in an hour looking for something to munch on. I've made my bedroom my haven and stay up there as much as possible to avoid the temptations downstairs. I don't have any junk in the house and I save a hundred or so calories for a snack later in the evening. Last night I had some almonds. It's much more habit than hunger.

I also always have a goal in mind. I'm still on the weight loss journey and I've been rewarding myself along the way. I have a cruise planned in January to mark 1 year of weight loss and I'll be damned if I go into it out of control. I also plan to go on a shopping spree in the spring to replace my wardrobe and that's a prize I want really bad. When I go for an extra piece of cheese, I ask myself if it's worth not achieving what I want.

Lifeisgood4

Bump

DatPanna

Thanks!! Everyone's been so thoughtful in their answers, and really, its good to know it's doable. I think, just from seeing the posts, it's easy to tell there are a couple ways to handle the situation. I'm not sure what will work for me yet, but I know something will. I'm glad that others benefited from this post.

kuntry_navy

gum

ash8184

This is tough. Can you do something instead of eat? Maybe go for a walk or play a game online. If I'm conscious enough and really thinking straight, when I feel hungry, I'll drink something first and see if that helps me re-focus.

lillivewire87

I love food, so I embrace that. I watch shows (DDD baby!), and I read food blogs. I find my willpower and inspiration in figuring out ways to make the food I see healthier, and making it clean. And I also have truly learned moderation. I measure everything and find that by putting it away and only taking out exactly what a serving size is, I am just as satisfied and I enjoy it just as much. I have also started the healthy habit of when I feel down, or frustrated, or whatever I go to the gym and get on the treadmill. It took time, but now instead of wanting to eat an entire bag of Oreos, now I crave walking or going to the gym when I am emotional.

Everything in moderation and everything in time! You can do it!

ryske

Now that Call of Duty has come out I can stay away from my tub of ice cream

Speazzy

I am a former binge/emotional eater (I still occasionally do in moments of weakness). I have a few things that I try to do/not do. I try to satiate my hunger with some healthy or drink a ton of water. I try not to buy things that I tend to binge on (snack foods - trail mix, m&m's, etc). Or if I do buy them, I ration out potion sizes, because if I eat out of the bag it is all over from there. I also chew gum. I have found that it is not wise to deny yourself something to the point that you obsess over it...that is when the floodgates open and how a 2 lbs bag of peanut m&m's "disappears".

9thChakra

My short answer is:

I found the audiobook, "Intuitive Eating" very insightful and helpful.

I'm still working on things. I know I developed emotional eating as one of my coping mechanisms when I was young. I am just now beginning to acknowledge and give thanks that I had this as a way of coping then, but also acknowledging that it is no longer useful in my life and it is actually hurting me.

Again, I highly recommend the audiobook.

http://www.amazon.com/Intuitive-Eating-Practical-Yourself-Chronic/dp/1591796822/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1383698652&sr=1-3&keywords=intuitive+eating

Best to you!

9thChakra

karlospiklington

I have always been an emotional eater which has led to me being overweight. I changed my relationship with food fairly recently when I realised that comfort eating wasn't actually making me feel better anymore. It seems odd to think it took me so long to realise that. But now every time I am tempted to slip back into old habits I remember how bad it feels to be overweight or how it just made me feel worse.

If I really need to eat something I will use chewing gum but usually I try to distract myself with something else. Playing guitar or learning to play something new often helps as it can improve my mood like the food did, totally distract me from the urge to comfort eat and gives me a sense of accomplishment that stuffing my face never did.

ModernNerd

Totes used to be a boredom eater. I have three suggestions that really helped me.

1. Remove the temptation.
I went cold-turkey and got rid of snack foods. No chips, no pop, no cookies, no nada in my cupboards. After some time I found that I no longer even wanted those foods.

2. Get busy!
Sign up for a pilates class. Do one of those 30 day challenges everyone yaks about. Create your own circuit training routine for the next month at the gym. The less time you're bored or sad, the less time you give food the opportunity to tempt you.

3. Brush your teeth after meals.
I find that I'm far less tempted to graze if I just brushed my teeth.

Best of luck OP, you got this:)

heyjay31

I go ahead and eat. My bored eating is when I get my extra protein in. Greek yogurt with granola, nuts, or an Apple/banana with peanut butter! Yum!!
I've always been a bored eater no sense trying to torture myself over it.....just keep healthy snacks around for these occasions.
Good luck:)

sc193usa

I was an emotional and a bored eater. Sad=eat, happy=eat, stressed=eat, bored=eat. Which added up to a lot of eating. Consistently logging helped me see how much harm these were doing me. I would still stay in my calories for the day, but I realized that my binge on gummy bears meant that I couldn't eat dinner and was still hungry.

I found it helped to have really filling and low-cal snacks around, carrots and hummus worked well for me. Then if I felt like eating, I could have those and I'd get full enough that I couldn't stand eating more while staying in my calories.

Now I see that my relationship to food has changed, and my fiance agrees. Other than that TOM, I really don't have problems with it anymore. I do try to spread my lunch out throughout the day, which helps with snacking from boredom, fruit in the mid morning, noon time main meal/protein, afternoon veggie snack. Halloween showed me that I still have work to do, but I do feel really good about how I've changed. I've also taken to distracting myself from boredom by cleaning, there's no need to go anywhere and depending on what you are doing, it can be pretty active/stress relieving.

Pearsquared

As for bored eating, I try keep my hands busy because I need them to eat, and honestly, I'd rather be playing pokemon. Finding ways to fill the emotional side was more difficult. I write down everything that pops into my mind that makes me even the least bit happy or excited (trying out a new music artist or genre, picking out a book, people watching in the mall, etc. etc.). Whenever I'm stressed, I either think about doing these things or go out and do them. Even thinking about doing them makes me feel better, and I don't have to fill it with food.