Feeling sorry for myself

A few things have helped me overcome my emotional eating habit.
I have struggled with anxiety and depression for years. I've been on cocktails of medication and therapy and everything you can think of. Now, I'm down to one pill (Zoloft) a day, and I run. I find my mental state is better when I get up and run first thing in the morning (it takes a week or two to convince your body to actually get to it first thing, but it can happen). If I get my run in, it sets my day off right. I can use that 20 minutes to clear my head, center myself emotionally and spiritually, and just have a balanced start. I also tend to be less prone to impulse eating when I have breakfast. If I skip breakfast, I tend to binge at some point during the day. I also "pre-log" my foods, especially if we're going out for dinner, so that before I even get to the table I know what I can indulge in without spending big calories. If you've worked it into your diet, then you know it's okay to have a snack. If you're approaching your limit, but feel a need to eat something (for me, it's always ice cream), do a quick bit of cardio to "earn it". You will be surprised to find that at the end of the cardio, you may not want that snack anymore, and the extra deficit will aid your weight loss. If you DO still want the snack, then you can indulge guilt-free.

I'm going to come into this thread and feel sorry for myself, too, okay? Every day that I have to wake up early is a day of cravings. I seem to have a Pavlovian response to hearing an alarm clock in the morning. Just the sound of it makes me stressed out, depressed, angry, and most of all, hungry!

So far, I have resisted all the yummy, comforting foods calling my name this past week, but it's much harder than it was when I could just sleep in. And no, going to bed earlier doesn't help, I'm just not a morning person. When I try to sleep at a reasonable hour, all I do is toss and turn.

I have these days too. whether they are hormonal or endorphin driven I am not certain; I am not a structured excerciser but I have found if I don't do SOMETHING everyday the self pity can creep in all too quickly and sometimes it still does....but I recover quicker. So for me, walking at my lunch hour, or riding my bike after work (even tho i would rather cook and have a glass of wine) seems to be the recipe for good mood and positive thinking. The pilates I do twice a week is a routine but the walking/riding seems to help my brain-I have suffered from anxiety in the past and even dibilitating panic attacks but not in the last 3 years since I started moving my *kitten* more. Hope this helps.

When i feel that way i really hve to DIG DEEEP and pray. (if ur not a spiritual person then digging deep will work too) I've learned to ask talk to myself, "are u really hungry" "Ok, you're in a bad mood, why eat then get upset later about it and feel worse?" Yes, i literally do talk to myself, lol. but it has been working for me.

Usually when i feel the need to eat for emotional reasons i sit back and wait 20 mins or (while tlking to myself) and wait it out... and if i still feel like eating then i wait some more and talk some more until i am ready to eat because i'm actually hunary! Hope that helped.

This is very similar to the thought processes I put myself through when I'm craving, and it helps a lot. If I'm not hungry for just about anything, if what I want is specific, I know it's a craving and not food I want for my body, but food I want to use to soothe my stressed out brain. It doesn't make me stop wanting it necessarily, but at least it tells me why I want it.

For me it was drinking so I joined program, worked the steps and I also had a good deal of therapy. Now I know that I am responsible for all my crap and it is my choice to feel gratitude or decorate my pity palace for my pity party.

You are not alone, there are groups in real life as well as on line that can help you if you want to be helped.

Good luck. I it is kinda tough learning all that stuff about ourselves as well as taking responsibility for our lives (not being a victim, blaming others or obsessing on a situation that will turn us into an emotional wreck) but it is so freaking worth it!

Give yourself no choice. When you give yourself the choice to eat bad then you will at some point. Make it so it just isn't an option, you get no say in it.

Give yourself no choice. When you give yourself the choice to eat bad then you will at some point. Make it so it just isn't an option, you get no say in it.

Soooo much easier said than done! But I find putting it off helps even if you can't make yourself say no. I told myself the other morning when I desperately wanted a chocolate chip frappe that if I was still determined to have it that afternoon I was welcome to it, with a double quarter pounder to go with it. By the time afternoon rolled around I'd had a steak and enough time to talk myself out of it.

By evening, I was craving again. I told myself I could have it tomorrow if I still wanted it that bad. By morning, the craving had subsided enough to get another steak into my system, with olive oil and butter for some filling fat. By evening, I didn't want the burger and frappe anymore.

And so it goes. When I'm craving, if I can force myself to eat something fat and protein filled and healthy that I don't want, sometimes I'll stop wanting what I shouldn't eat.

A few things that have worked for me are.....
1. After I would eat something that I really shouldn't have I feel bad, bloated, awful, unhealthy. If I have a craving I try and imagine how I will feel after I eat whatever it is I am craving, I think about how I will feel and ask myself "do you really want to eat this?" .....usually this works to stop the craving.
2. I try and exercise first thing in the morning because then for the rest of the day I want to eat healthy so that it doens't "negate" the exercise I have accomplished.
3. I have been eating "gluten free" and it takes away MOST of the cravings. I have also lost weight which why most of us are here. I do not have a gluten intolerance but because gluten is in almost everything it seems that are bodies are being bombarded. When we eat gluten it turns into sugar in our bodies giving us a burst of energy but after about 30 minutes it drains us (the sugar rush) and our bodies are not satisfied and therefore want to "eat" again.......hence the cravings.

I am not a doctor nor a researcher I am just telling you what works for me. It's important to try different things for your own body.
Good luck, I sincerely wish you well :flowerforyou: