Bad Mood Binging

HBombaMama

Okay people. This is a real question. How do you cope with food when you are having a bad mood day? I can't get a grip on this. I consciously say f*** it and eat crap just because I'm in the dumps. What do you do for will power? I could use some support on this one. Any and all suggestions appreciated. Thanks!

Helloitsdan

Personally I deal with SAD and ADD.
I dons high quality fish oil in the AM and get 1g DHA and about 650md EPA.
AGCG from supplement or drinking green tea as well as 5-htp helps a lot.
If I decide to eat something, I go hard on protein.

Hugs and I hope it gets better!

JustJennie13

I have these days. I survive with herbal tea, fish oil and Vitamin B Stress Complex (be advised!!! It turns your urine neon yellow)!!! Last week I had a rough one where all I wanted to do was eat or cry... I ended up running 6 miles and felt better.

DoctahJenn

Exercise really helps. First of all, it improves your mood. Second, it gives you extra calories to eat. Also I find it completely eliminates cravings, at least for me. And if all else fails, take a nap when possible. Can't eat when you're sleeping!

sophieamhaley

I totally do this, I have days where I just eat crap and don't want to exercise. Usually I log it and give myself a tut tut and think, tomorrow is another day.
Or I make myself go for a jog or have a bath or go to bed early and read my book.
But ultimately, it's easily done, everyone has off days.

HBombaMama

Thanks Helloitsdan. I know it's a mind game and I just want some tricks in my bag to pull out when I need them.

dakotababy

I first acknowledge that I am eating because of my emotions and then I STOP. I avoid food until my tummy is physically rumbling.

HBombaMama

"I have these days. I survive with herbal tea, fish oil and Vitamin B Stress Complex (be advised!!! It turns your urine neon yellow)!!! Last week I had a rough one where all I wanted to do was eat or cry... I ended up running 6 miles and felt better. "

JustJennie13-what's the science behind the herbal tea and fish oil? Just wondering how the suggestions enhance either mood/perspective or craving control. Thanks for the suggestions!

HBombaMama

Thanks everyone for your comments! I will have to try the supplements, tea, etc and ultimately you are all right: take the negative feelings and admit/accept them. Then, be smarter than your emotions and divert a craving into something positive like exercise, books, bath, SLEEP. All of those make a body feel much better in the long run. I will be working on this.

mamahannick

I agree with exercise! Not only does it reward your body with endorphins, but it does give you those extra calories to eat. No sense in diverting a craving if you have room for it in your day

sophieamhaley

I've just been for a jog and came back feeling much better. Unfortunately my mood and desire for crap is creeping back in!!!

liamsmom551

Totally how I feel almost daily! I've found coming here and talking helps.... drinking water...and looking in the mirror at my gut. (Big motivator)

cebreisch

It is different for me now than it was back when I started. I would just totally give in to the impulse to just EAT.

I've also been at the point where I could say, "All I want to do is eat, but that's not going to make whatever is causing my bad mood to go away. It'll still be there when I'm done."

If I know I'm just going to have to engage in eating (when I'm on top of my game), I'll try to drink water, and have something protein-ish before having something "bad". Just on the off chance that that'll help me from totally going off the deep end.

HBombaMama

Totally how I feel almost daily! I've found coming here and talking helps.... drinking water...and looking in the mirror at my gut. (Big motivator)

I hope you find some peace and happiness in your mind. Talking is a huge help to relieve the stress that builds up in my head. Don't look in the mirror in a bad mood and be disgusted. Use it for fuel! I notice you are a parent and know from experience that that is a huge motivator and sense of happiness/accomplishment. Good luck with your daily challenges.

Brandolin11

The suggestions on this board are wonderful strategies for dealing with the issue in the moment. The only thing I'd caution against, is that *only* using these strategies might not work for the long term. They are "fixes" for the moment (which are important!). But there's something deeper at play here....

Eating to assuage our feelings (negative or otherwise) is a condition that runs VERY deep in our psyche and must be healed and dealt with at the emotional level if it's going to actually stop. There are great books and articles, etc. out there that talk about emotional eating (I'm in the middle of a great book called, "Food Triggers" by Rhona Epstein which I'm recommending to everyone because it's amazing) and I strongly suggest you check some out and start learning about *why* you eat to try to feel better.

Emotional eating, on the surface, *appears* to be a "comforting" exercise - i.e., we feel terrible about something (depressed, bored, angry, lonely, etc.), so we eat to "feel better" in the moment after eating whatever we want in whatever quantities we want.

But it's a mirage, isn't it?

About 10 minutes after the pint of ice cream has been gulped down our gullet, the guilt settles in with a powerful punch. We end up beating ourselves up ("why did I do that AGAIN? I said I was going to eat well and lose weight and get healthy! But I screwed it up AGAIN. It's hopeless. I may as well just eat whatever I want the rest of the day...I'll start again tomorrow, etc. etc."). We end up gaining weight. The sugar crash makes us feel sluggish and bloated and gross.

So basically....we spend 95% of our time feeling like CRAP and only 5% (or less) feel that "rush" of "good feelings".

My conclusion? Emotional eating is actually ABUSE.

We are LITERALLY abusing ourselves. We are literally causing ourselves PAIN. Physcially and emotionally. And we live with that abuser right inside our own bodies. There is no escape when YOU are the abuser. It's not like you can run away from that person.

Over two years ago, I chose to see emotional eating as abuse. And I chose to stop abusing myself. I chose to kick that lady out of my life, for good. I chose to educate myself on WHY I do this and HOW to stop it. Now, I turn to healthy means to assuage and heal my negative feelings. Healthy things like massages, bubble baths, hanging out with my little baby niece and sister, listening to Jim Gaffigan and other comedians on Pandora, going out to movies with friends, journaling, exercising, creating art or music, getting in my car and driving into the sunset and screaming at the windshield until I feel better, petting the neighbor's dog, listening to an incredible piece of music, buying a new pair of shoes (if it fits in my budget - we don't want to create the same problem with money, right?)...and the list goes on and on. NONE of those things hurt me. NONE of those things cause me MORE pain.

It's time to stop hurting yourself. Figure it out and implement solutions. You will be SO happy, and free. I know I am.

kenyainez

I go to work on a punching bag. LOL. Nah, bad moods can be cured with exercise because it's a great stress reliever. . I used to run to food when I had a bad day, but then I realized deep down I just wanted to eat crap and used my bad mood as an excuse to do so (not saying that's what you're doing, just saying that's what I realized when I was doing it). So I figured why do something thats going to make me slip backwards and pi$$ me off even moreso when I see how far I've set myself back because I turned up on comfort foods when I can just do something that's going to help keep me moving in the right direction?

skeo

I pre-log the food I am considering eating. Those two bags of chips, that one can of coke, and the butterfinger...along with the muffin, two cookies..and that kind of stops me in my tracks. No matter how bad of a day, do I really want to sabotage myself? I've done this already today.

and then I put that energy into planning my work out, setting new PR's, and just having that time to myself so I can work out the frustrations of the day.

No issues with eating any of the above, just when the day has gone to hell, we kind of say eff it..one cookie becomes 5, and it's really not worth it.

Hope you're day has gotten better :flowerforyou:

Brandolin11

I pre-log the food I am considering eating. Those two bags of chips, that one can of coke, and the butterfinger...along with the muffin, two cookies..and that kind of stops me in my tracks. No matter how bad of a day, do I really want to sabotage myself? I've done this already today.

That is brilliant.

skeo

I pre-log the food I am considering eating. Those two bags of chips, that one can of coke, and the butterfinger...along with the muffin, two cookies..and that kind of stops me in my tracks. No matter how bad of a day, do I really want to sabotage myself? I've done this already today.

That is brilliant.

thank you :blushing:

Graelwyn75

The suggestions on this board are wonderful strategies for dealing with the issue in the moment. The only thing I'd caution against, is that *only* using these strategies might not work for the long term. They are "fixes" for the moment (which are important!). But there's something deeper at play here....

Eating to assuage our feelings (negative or otherwise) is a condition that runs VERY deep in our psyche and must be healed and dealt with at the emotional level if it's going to actually stop. There are great books and articles, etc. out there that talk about emotional eating (I'm in the middle of a great book called, "Food Triggers" by Rhona Epstein which I'm recommending to everyone because it's amazing) and I strongly suggest you check some out and start learning about *why* you eat to try to feel better.

Emotional eating, on the surface, *appears* to be a "comforting" exercise - i.e., we feel terrible about something (depressed, bored, angry, lonely, etc.), so we eat to "feel better" in the moment after eating whatever we want in whatever quantities we want.

But it's a mirage, isn't it?

About 10 minutes after the pint of ice cream has been gulped down our gullet, the guilt settles in with a powerful punch. We end up beating ourselves up ("why did I do that AGAIN? I said I was going to eat well and lose weight and get healthy! But I screwed it up AGAIN. It's hopeless. I may as well just eat whatever I want the rest of the day...I'll start again tomorrow, etc. etc."). We end up gaining weight. The sugar crash makes us feel sluggish and bloated and gross.

So basically....we spend 95% of our time feeling like CRAP and only 5% (or less) feel that "rush" of "good feelings".

My conclusion? Emotional eating is actually ABUSE.

We are LITERALLY abusing ourselves. We are literally causing ourselves PAIN. Physcially and emotionally. And we live with that abuser right inside our own bodies. There is no escape when YOU are the abuser. It's not like you can run away from that person.

Over two years ago, I chose to see emotional eating as abuse. And I chose to stop abusing myself. I chose to kick that lady out of my life, for good. I chose to educate myself on WHY I do this and HOW to stop it. Now, I turn to healthy means to assuage and heal my negative feelings. Healthy things like massages, bubble baths, hanging out with my little baby niece and sister, listening to Jim Gaffigan and other comedians on Pandora, going out to movies with friends, journaling, exercising, creating art or music, getting in my car and driving into the sunset and screaming at the windshield until I feel better, petting the neighbor's dog, listening to an incredible piece of music, buying a new pair of shoes (if it fits in my budget - we don't want to create the same problem with money, right?)...and the list goes on and on. NONE of those things hurt me. NONE of those things cause me MORE pain.

It's time to stop hurting yourself. Figure it out and implement solutions. You will be SO happy, and free. I know I am.

Brilliant post.

HBombaMama

My conclusion? Emotional eating is actually ABUSE.

We are LITERALLY abusing ourselves. We are literally causing ourselves PAIN. Physcially and emotionally. And we live with that abuser right inside our own bodies. There is no escape when YOU are the abuser. It's not like you can run away from that person.

...

It's time to stop hurting yourself. Figure it out and implement solutions. You will be SO happy, and free. I know I am.

Wow. Thank you Ma'am. I appreciate it so much when people say it the way they see it vs. the oh, honey, it's ok routine. This was very well said and really does make me think about the WHY involved. Also, I don't know if I would have ever labeled myself as an emotional eater...but even it food isn't my solution every time, every time it is would make food the emotional crutch that time. Your outlook is to beautiful really. I will look into some literature and thank you so much for your wisdom.

HBombaMama

but then I realized deep down I just wanted to eat crap and used my bad mood as an excuse to do so

Yes. This is probably part of the underlying truth to the matter. Thank you for your honesty. It helps me admit to myself what I probably know when I hear the words out of someone else' mouth. I hope I will be strong enough one day to put into action all the things I know I should be doing!

HBombaMama

I pre-log the food I am considering eating. Those two bags of chips, that one can of coke, and the butterfinger...along with the muffin, two cookies..and that kind of stops me in my tracks. No matter how bad of a day, do I really want to sabotage myself?
Hope you're day has gotten better :flowerforyou:

It wasn't really a bad day which is probably why I had the clarity of mind to finally say, "HELP!"

Great suggestion. I know I cringe when I start to add up the food to come and usually alter my plans when I do. My guilty move then would be to know I am not going to like the numbers so I will eat and then record after when I am being undisciplined. I have some major work to do with determination!

Thank you for the flowers.