Overcoming Stress Eating Habit

Mountain_woman

Hello all! I am almost to my 100lb loss goal and so excited! Unfortunately there is a lingering fear in the back of my mind that I cannot shake. I am worried that I will regain due to unchecked stress eating. Now I know that it is "within my control", but realistically, how does one even begin the daunting task of overcoming a habit that I personally have had for the last 18 years? I am interested in anyone's feedback, ideas or otherwise. Thanks all! This site is fantastic for a person as anal retentive as I am!

PlushMaddam

I may not be the best person to answer this as I too have the same dilemma.I have found figuring out the exact issue helps me to control my urge.I notice for instance,at work when I'm nervous about keeping my job I tend to eat bad at lunch or do damage with candy.

Now that I know that I can be better equipped by having healthy snacks on hand and actually check the real issue.

Kiwijay

Firstly WELL DONE on the weight loss, that is AWESOME. Secondly think about how far you have come already and not about how things could be ruined by stress, emotions or whatever other habiltual things we do in regards to eating. You must have in some ways over come the 'stress' eating as you have done so well {or you may have just had a very unstressful time over that period} but I think you should focus on how far you have come and ignore all thoughts about stress in the future. Crikey I hope this all makes sense.
I am an emotion eater and have been all my life, food has always been a reward, a comfort and a medicine so to speak. I am over coming all that and with the situations I have been put in the past couple of years it has been easy to slip into them, but I am NOT going to let my interanl dialogue and the 'devil' that sometimes sits on my shoulder trying to sabotage me.
Good luck and just keep positively going forward!!!!!

shan2bthin

Wow, you rock! :bigsmile: 100 lbs. gone. I'm still working on my emotional eating, but I do know from yoyo dieting the best way to avoid stress eating or a relapse is to keep tracking your daily food intake. As you know, this site is great and you can record a quick "feeling update" to keep you in check while tracking calories. Best in health!

Mountain_woman

Thank you for the speedy responses ladies! Sigh! It can be such a challenge to police one's self when it comes to such an automatic response to stress such as this one. I actually have surprised myself by standing in front of the open refrigerator and not even realizing that I was doing it. Tough! Keep up your own great work. Appreciated!