Sweets as comfort and reward: how to stop?

SlimFlirty

Hi Everyone!!

After much honest self-evaluation, its clear that I am an emotional eater. When I am:

- Bored
- Frustrated
- Sulking after remembering/reliving BS from long ago that should remain dead and buried
- Lonesome

What have you done to sidestep this behavior? What have you used to motivate yourself to do something ELSE...did you replace this behavior with something else?

Thanks for your input

VeryKatie

I told myself I couldn't get my eyebrows waxed until I got to XX weight. I have German eyebrows. They were like fuzzy little caterpillars always reminding me to stay on track haha.

ETA: And for lonesome - I'd Skype my friend. Bored I haven't figured out yet. Reading these forums can be entertaining though

jctk0419

I used to have a drink when stressed (beer, etc), and I've made the choice to not use that as a tool anymore (mainly due to wanting to get pregnant and I don't want to there to be an issue of consuming alcohol during pregnancy), so I've needed to find another means of dealing with stress/frustration. It's really helped me that I can talk to my husband about anything at all, and generally talking about what's bugging me helps me to not only face what's going on, rather than hiding it, but he can usually offer solutions for dealing with it as well. And if not, just talking about it helps.

If you don't have someone you can vent to, grab a journal or computer blog/Word program that you can vent to. You can then decide to delete/shred the entry, or save it for proof of how far you've come.

As for rewards...a new color of nail polish. I tend to do my own nails, it's cheaper than a professional mani/pedi. However, maybe that's something I'll save up for, for a major milestone like 20 pounds lost or something. :-)

GoForLew

You and me both. Emotional eating/eating when bored, etc. is the biggest problem I have. If I have any sweets in the house, I'm going to eat them, but I also don't seem to be able to go without them. I am trying now to buy things like Popsicles or lower-calorie sweets to keep around. Or smaller things, like one piece of Dove chocolate..things like that. Just remember, it is okay to eat sweets once in awhile.

vcdfw

Hello “emotional eater”, I feel your pain. I can say the same thing about myself and to be completely honest, I am also a food addict. There just wasn’t anything in my life that food didn’t comfort me through, make more manageable or completely distract me from until now.

Health issues are forcing me to be a better steward of my body so I sat myself down, literally because standing too long is just too darn uncomfortable, and came to the realization that I have HUGE debt to repay to my body. The candy, oh how I loved candy, and junk food, fast food, vast amounts of food, preprocessed foods with more chemicals and empty calories then nutrition I’ve shoveled into my body without a care have packed on more pounds than I thought possible. So now, it’s time to pay the Piper so to speak and pay the debt of the good nutrition my body needs to help me live longer.

I share all of this to hopefully convey how I got to what I’m about to recommend to you. I researched the daily nutritional needs for a female of my weight, height and age and developed a base eating plan that gives me total nutrition for the day, but within a 2,000 daily calorie range, which was I lot harder than I thought it would be! One of the elements of this daily eating plan is a smoothie.

I make up one 6 cup smoothie (48oz) and divide it into four 24oz containers which is 12oz each container. Then I add filtered water for the other 12 ounces. This makes a watered down smoothing that I literally drink all day long. The only time I’m not drinking it is when I exercise and I bring water for that. So in essence I’m bird killing by getting about ½ the nutrition my body needs a day and all the water it needs in doing this.

The unexpected, wonderfully amazing, side effect is that I haven’t wanted, craved or even thought about candy or fast food since I started. I am drinking practically nonstop, carry my cup everywhere I go and I find when I’m bored… I don’t think of food first! I didn’t think that would EVER be possible but making sure I drink all of the 4 bottles a day is really taking over my thought process about reaching for the candy or other snacks.

My smoothie is:
1c organic strawberries; 1c organic blueberries, 1c 2% milk, 1.5 tsp flax seed, 1c spinach, 1c mixed field greens & 1 banana. When I first started making it I added one sweet n low pack until I got used to the taste… it seemed a little tart at first but now I don’t want that anymore.

Hope this helps 

saanjana

Hey there….I'm in the same boat…I think a lot of us are

Here's one way I try to beat it.

I make a daily salad with lentil sprouts, tomato, avocado, onions, and a little lime squeezed on top. When I want to eat out of boredom, I force myself to eat this - it tastes good, but it is very light, and I can't have that much.

Another think I do is drink a large amount of unsweetened lime water. I squeeze fresh lime, add water, and store about 500 ml in a liter bottle. When I have a craving I add ice to the mix, and drink the whole thing.


They key here is to prepare these items early so you are ready when the craving strikes. When you have an intense craving, you eat whatever is in front. Especially when you are motional or bored….you want something to munch on. Some say that preparing something at the moment busies you. So you can try that. I found that in my case, if I have these items prepared ahead of time, then I definitely keep myself from eating sweets, chocolate, cheese and other high calorie foods.


Try to do this for week. It might surprise you

Shalaurise

Ha! I would so love to have a useful trick, but I don't. I have a ton of bad habits to go with the eating for everything... like biting my nails... pulling out my eyelashes.. or eyebrows if I am out of eyelashes.... I compulsively mess with my hair... I am just glad I don't pull that out yet honestly. Eating is just something else to do for me... *sigh*

GiGiBeans

You could compulsively clean instead. :flowerforyou: