How do you stop emotional eating???

mrsclaus54

I am not a stupid person. I do know that chocolate and ice cream are not healthy for me and eating a lot of them is definately not good for me. But they comfort me. I dont know how to stop that. I dont know how to get that comfort elsewhere. I guess I am looking to fill a hole, or cover pain or whatever.
Its not been a good week for me in many ways, but I need to find something else to get me threw these feelings...or whatever it is...Any suggestions????

Lulu2929

I'm an emotional eater too. Try to watch out if there is any thing in particular the triggers your eating. sometimes just changing a habit makes a difference. If I hang out in the kitchen or watch TV - I want to eat. so I'll go use the computer. Another thing that Helps is -m ake yourself write about what is bugging you or why you're feeling a certain way. Embrace the feelings, write them down than if it's not doing you any service - Throw it away.

beethedreamer

when you find out, lemme know, kay? haha

this week has been horrible for me too. but everyday is a new day and we just have to push through.

Yasmine91

I have never been an emotional eater, my little sister is though but somehow she managed to stop. I think now, when she's upset, she talks to her friends and they help her. I guess support and a friend in hand is one of those things that we really need to stay focused. For me, I draw, I listen to music, or I sleep whenever I'm upset.

Try say going for a walk, speed walk all your frustration, take up a hobby, talk to a friend, there are so many things you can do. Or, even come on here I get distracted from my cravings whenever I come on here *hug* just like brittanyr8 said, everyday is a new day. One blip won't ruin your life, just carry on the following day refreshed and hopefully feeling a little better.

Good luck sweets

MyWishfulShrinking

I just used the hell out of my willpower. It's been over a week hat I haven't used food as my comfort, and everyday I don't feels much better. It also gets much easier. Keep yourself busy and find an alternative source of comfort. You gotta break the habit!

Tennessee2019

I sent you a list of things that you can do, but forgot to add this one. Volunteer.
When I find myself in a mood & ready to raid the kitchen cupboard or fridge, I go to our local humane society.
The animals there are always glad to see you. Just spending a few minutes having them lick my face or rub up against me makes me smile & helps me get through a hard day.
Try not to end up bringing one home, like I did.

4lafz

When I am looking for "comfort" - especially at night - I drink Good Earth Caffeine Free tea Original in Sweet & Spicy. Generally something hot and flavorful works. Diet Swiss Miss does the job for me too!

nradebe

I can''t say that I am there yet but what I have noticed is that as I loose weight I feel good about that and when I want to "subotage myself" I think about the hard work that I have put in the gym and I think NO WAAAY! I am not subotaging that. actually what helped to kick start the weight loss thing was actually seeing how may calories I was eating. I thought my eating was fine and I was exercizing very hard. when I saw just ow much calories I was eating in black and white and thinking about how I was "killing " my self at the gym with no results, I quickly got a change of attitude. This week for the first time ever I think I was able not to eat a cookie, (well actually two cookies binded together by chocolate) that came with my coffee in a resturant and I don't know how but I guess God must be helpiing me with this .

azmomof2

Awesome article at this link on it. http://www.weightladder.com/how-to-stop-emotional-eating/

Also may I suggest you post inspirational post its around your home and even in your car stating why you are stronger and more important than anything that is making you feel the need to eat it away. It is a very hard thing to stop I still struggle with it and I've read that especially if while being raised as a child your parents rewarded any positive actions with food or a treat for a bad day at school and so on that you start to see food as an emotional filler. Always ask yourself before eating "Is this because my body is truly hungry and I need to feed it or am I feeling bad, down etc..?"

Good luck to you and I know that if you try real hard you will find that you are stronger than the emotions and the food! :flowerforyou:

Zuznana

All these advices are great. I have a problem like that. I use to think it's just overeating habit due to boredom, but had a really long and good think about my relationship with food and it goes way back. I suppose I'm actually lucky that I'm not bigger, with the amount of food I use to eat and snack and basically stuff myself on.

In my thoughts, I figured out, that even though I had normal childhood, my relationship with my mum was never rosy until I moved to England. I never use to stuff my face as a kid, but always ate huge portions and had seconds while I could. Of course they liked me for that. After all, my sister was very picky and I use to eat for both of us.

When I got married, everything was fine. Then my first child came and I spirraled to post natal depression. My husband use to come home from work around midnight and on my demand, he would bring me 2 McDonald meals. I would finish them before he would finish his burger...talking about stuffing myself.:laugh:

Manage to lose some weight from size 18 (uk) to size 14 and had another child. I was lucky then, no PND, but problems in my marrige started to show....and they are there till now. I had personal trainer couple fo years ago and went to size 12 in couple of months, but since I stopped, I went back up to size 14. But I really enjoyed doing all the exercise with her. That stopped when we lost our shop and had no money. I blame the recession for that.

So you can see a pattern between the overeating and mood. But how do I break a lifetime habit? Even as a child I had mood swings and was quite depressed for no reason....apart from my mum preferring my sister to make up for the fact, that she couldn't even look at her for 6 weeks when she was born. How is that fair on me as the other child?

Anyway, I suppose, that since I can't really (well, don't really want to) talk to my husband about it, I just kind of poured my heart out here. I know it's long, but somehow I feel a bit better.

Funny thing is, that in my head, I know all the reasons and causes of my overeating, but when it comes to it (before I started here) I just couldn't stop myself. It's almost like "I will just have a bit...only a tiny bit". And once you take the first bite, it's like chain reaction.....you have more and more and more and it's hard to stop. It's like a horror film....your own hand is there to get you and you are trying to hold it away with your other one.......only your evil hand wins, :laugh:

Sorry for overly long post, but am glad I can do it here, and don't have to go to therapy. Don't want to talk to my friends either..they have they own problems and some are bigger then mine. It's strange to be able to pour my heart out here, to people I don't know personally, but at least you have a choice not to read it.

kate205gti

i eat when im stressed, and am sometimes very stressed at work! i now write STJ on a bit of paper in front of me when im at breaking point and about to reach for the junk (work has a well stocked snack shop damnit) - "size ten jeans" ie: if i want to wear them i need to not sabotage my efforts! might tattoo it on my hand actually lol! otherwise low calorie foods like tomatoes and cucumber and rice cakes helps fill the gap without doing too much damage - then hit the gym and work out frustration there! or hot herbal tea (strawberry or apple and cinnamon for me) is a good sweet fix without the cals

TheresaClare

You have taken the most important first step by admitting that you are an emotional eater. The next step is to work out WHY you eat when your upset, sad, etc,etc. I also am an emotional eater. It started when I was little I came from a family who would make fun of you if you showed any emotions I learnt to hide my feelings by eating them away. Food became my closet friend. Even when I did make friends that I could talk to I found the emotional eating hard to break. Every time I thought about going on a diet I would panic. It was like being asked to give up my best friend who's always been there for me. It was only after I had 4 TIA strokes ( warning strokes ) that I knew I had to sort through this once and for all. I know I have to change how I perceive food and to learn to deal with my feelings and not mask them by eating. I know this may sound crazy, but when I m having emotions and I want to reach for food, I ask myself ' ok your worry, or sad or whatever the feeling maybe, will eating that bar of chocolate fix the problem? did it in the past? look where emotional eating have taken you. I either write down what I m feeling and how I could go about solving my problem or I think it through. Like any addiction, emotional eating is hard to break. I accept that it is not going to be easy and that I will have good days and bad days. but knowing this makes it easier,for when you are having a bad day, you know that this is part of breaking the addiction it helps you not to feel guilty and give you the courage to keep going and not give up. It won't be easy but you can do it.