Stress/Emotional Eating...

Krohnie

I'm a terrible emotional eater, I eat to celebrate, I eat to cope with stress,I eat when I'm bored, I eat when I'm tired, I eat out with my family to feel like we are having "family time" Do you guys do this, and how on earth can you make it stop?? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

fuminator18

how about just trying to eat a little healthier each time. A drastic change can give you more stress, you see.

mamafrahm

Its good to eat, but just start making sure what you are eating is GOOD for you.

GeminiStayFresh

I am the same way, I try to do other things like journal, exercise, or make healthy choices if I do stress eat. Works for me, I still struggle though at times.

bobbie228

I am a boredom eater for sure, and also an eater when I am stressed or over tired. I just usually take a moment and walk away! walk around the blocks anything except raid the fridge. Evaluate why I think I want to eat. If I can not focus off of food I will reach for a healthy snack and see where that leads me! Sometimes when I am home and bored and want to eat I run up and down the steps a few times get my heart elevated a little and just try to forget about the food or being bored.

ifeelsqueaky

I have just started trying something new that seems to be helping. I've bought myself a journal and every time I eat something I write it down and every time I want to eat something for emotional/non-hunger reasons I write a short entry describing how I'm feeling and what I'm thinking of eating etc. Usually once I've written about my feelings it's made me realise that it's all emotional and that I'm not really hungry and it does stop me. For example my housemate and I had a small argument the other day so rather than reaching for the chocolate I wrote about how much it annoyed me and it stopped that impulse and calmed me down. It's working for me but I can see how it's not for everyone - just my two pence!

EDIT: it has also made me spot patterns in my eating which is useful (every time I eat I write down what time I've eaten it) - I've realised that I need to eat something roughly every two hours else I get so hungry that it drives me mad and makes me binge

Peridotite

I hear you there! I am one and the same and it really sucks when you realize why you are eating and you eat anyway:sad: . But like someone else said, I try to make better food choices when I am doing it and eat less. Oh and hide the sweets, because if they are in the room calories be darned!:laugh:

taiyola

Maybe stop buying in the food in to your house so you can't eat it. Or you could keep snacks nearby that are healthier, like fruits and veggies with dips, dried fruit or a small bag of nuts if you prefer savoury.

It's up to you to say NO! STOP! and make the change, which is always tough, anyone who looks at my diary will tell you this :laugh: Good luck!

SusanneWhittington

I know that feeling... just thinking about this is stressing . Worst is to avoid those situations, then you are in danger to fall into those depri-eating sessions. Here is what I try, though I struggle often and just have to fight with myself... with family I eat, but try to eat healthier, when I get bored, I try to get up and take a walk, often the boredom hunger is gone afterwards.

lil_pulp

I work hard every day to eat according to hunger rather than emotion (for me, it's mostly anxiety that I want to soothe with food). Some days I'm more successful than others, but I consider it serious progress that now I'm at least usually able to identify why I'm eating...

I do now eat less and healthier than I used to, but I would still like to deal with my emotions in non-food ways! I've made countless lists of alternative behaviors that are incompatible with eating, have "before" pictures as well as written reminders of my motivations hung up on the kitchen cabinets, etc. I expect to keep improving on this, but it's very slow going and I'll probably never be completely free of this tendency.

Good luck and feel free to add me as friend, if you'd like!

-LP

Statari

For every emotion in the book, I feel like eating. I eat to relieve stress, I eat to reinforce happiness, I eat for something to do. You name and I feel like eating because of it. My biggest weakness is my salt cravings. I crave salty, crunchy things like potato chips. My first step is to replace my ultimate weakness with something that still satisfies the creaving but isn't as bad for me. For example, I replaced chips with white cheddar Wheat Thins. I like Wheat Thins and I like to eat them but I never feel the urge to sit down and eat two boxes in one sitting. The second step is to avoid purchasing the foods that carry with them the urge to lose control. I will literally stand in front of something I WANT to buy but know I SHOULDN'T. Sometimes I win the battle and walk away with out it and sometimes I lose and take it home. It's a long process though and I'm still working on it.