Managing Comfort Eating

Neliel

This is in relation to a forum post I read earlier asking 'are you a stress eater?'. And I thought yes. Yes I am. I was 'off the wagon' for probably about 6 months and have recently started to (or more accurately, trying to start to) get my eating habits back under control. I'm a HUGE emotional eater. I suffer from chronic anxiety (which has been horrific over the past 2 months as i've had so many Uni assignments and my dissertation deadline is fast approaching) which in turn has made me turn to just eating absolute crap with no control whatsoever.

I know what I want. I want to lose the second half of the weight i was working on before I well and truly fell off the wagon. And I start off really well with my food choices for a few days but then when the anxiety hits me, I just totally lose that control. I just want to know how other emotional eaters control these lapses? Please keep in mind that I really have chronic anxiety - to the point of panic attacks when the anxiety really hits me. What methods do you use to control your eating when you feel totally out of your own control?

evakay1

I am a huge comfort eater, and deal with anxiety on a daily basis. I unfortunately don't have a solution, but i have found religiously documenting what I eat on MFP enough to limit how much i intake in those moments! I'm not sure mine is the healthiest solution, but seeing those numbers and doing the mental calculations of how far back substituting food for comfort will take me, and that usually is enough to curb the damage.
A bit of meditation, a cup of tea and skipping/doing less of my exercise for the day also lessens my anxiety.

KaleidoscopeEyes1056

I found this article from Time, and it has quite a few good suggestions. As for myself, I keep healthy food in the house and when I get emotional, and go for the fridge (new phenomenon for me, usually I just don't eat when I'm emotional.) I think to myself "Am I really hungry?" and if they answer is "No, but dammit, I'm going to eat!" then I'll grab something healthy. Something like salad, fruit, maybe yogurt. That's my tip!

http://healthland.time.com/2012/03/19/5-tips-to-overcome-emotional-eating/#emotional-eating

fishboat

Comfort eating is hard to stop. If you have someone to help you when you go for the junk food to stop and eat something good it helps. If you don't have a helper it is very hard to stop. There is a lot of way to change I just don't know any. Sorry. Rick

Neliel

Thanks for the advice. The thing is, my comfort eating has to involve 'bad' foods. Usually something sweet and I will actually go out of my way to get something if there isn't anything in the house. I just really want to take control of this now and stop giving in to it at all! Maybe it's just going to take time and eventually my want for weight loss will overpower that of my need to comfort eat?

kitmonster

Ya know, I'm one of those comfort/stress eaters too. Actually the best indicator of my emotional state is my weight, as whenever things in life get a little wonky, none of my clothes fit anymore.

As for dealing? I'll echo some of what's been said before about religiously logging every mouthful, no matter what foodstuff it might be. Second challenge is to stay within the alotted cals per day, even when you want to eat the whole choccy bar whole (sideways, lengthways takes too long) and spit the wrapper out when you're done!

The combo of these two can be a powerful motivator, as your primary goals won't be reached without curbing the sugar etc (just for stating the obvious).
A trick that worked for me was, clicheed as it may be, exercise. 30 min walk, heck even 20! and it gets me the extra 100 kcals for something that isn't normally within budget. Nut/fruit mixes help, fresh fruit, smoothies, as well as freezing foods, making them harder to eat. The emotional satisfaction is still there, it just takes a lot longer.

Also, by sticking to the kcal budget like your life depended on it, the sugary snacks aren't worth it as opposed to the hunger that usually accompanies it afterwards. Short term reward (choccy/ice cream) vs long term (not feeling hungry all the smegging time).
So if I want a bowl of ice cream or a hot cross bun, that's fine, but shed the cals first. -Best of both worlds.

No idea if it makes sense or is of relevance to you, but at least this is one major way that mfp has helped me on the way to shedding kilos. It might be worth a try for you too!

Best of luck on your journey, the community's rooting for ya!