Grief and stress eating, how to not cope with food?

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Aleluya17
Aleluya17 Posts: 205 Member
in Motivation and Support
I didn't have a good day yesterday. My Uncle had a massive heart attack while driving in to town on Friday. The state troopers found him pulled over on the side of the road. It took forty mins to get him stabilized with CPR and shocked back into a stable heart rhythm. They life flighted him up to a major hospital in my home state. He took a turn for the worse and passed away last night. I was unfortunate enough to find out on Facebook before my family was able to contact me by phone. That opened a whole new can of worms.

I'm pissed at myself for eating out of stress and grief last night. Instead of coping I just decided to throw my diet out the window and eat whatever I felt like, hungry or not. I am unhappy I let emotion rule me. One day of eating bad won't ruin me, nor will it make me lose any determination to keep going and do what I need to get healthy. I've owned up to it. What I want to do now is figure out how I can prevent myself from doing this every time there is a bump in the road. Does anyone have any tips to keep themselves from eating because they are stressed out or upset?

tldr: How do you not stress eat?

Replies

  • RealWomenLovePitbulls
    RealWomenLovePitbulls Posts: 729 Member
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    you need to find something else to do when ur stressed to replace eating, maybe go for a walk or have someone u can talk to.
    remind urself that eating is not gonna help the problem at all and is not gonna make u feel better, probably will make u feel worse.
  • nadia_in_mtl
    nadia_in_mtl Posts: 88
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    I'm sorry about your uncle :(

    I posted a similar topic on this board a few days ago. If you have the habit of eating away at your stress and emotions, like I do, you have to make a very conscious effort not to. It's hard to break patterns that are years and years old, but it is possible. I recently learned that an old friend from school died in a car accident, and it took so much effort not to stress eat and to instead go out to jog. I came to the message boards when I found myself heading in the stress eating direction, someone posted an encouraging reply, and that motivated me to go out and exercise.

    Being aware of why you're reaching for food would help, this is what I mean by saying we have to make conscious effort and to be aware of how we're feeling when we reach for food.

    Forget what happened yesterday, no use beating yourself up over it. I am sure you are still sad about your uncle passing away, but how are you going to handle today? Eating your grief won't help anyone or bring your uncle back to life. Even though you feel very sad now, it is a chance to start changing habits.
  • LaReindeer
    LaReindeer Posts: 2
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    My condolences to you..... please take a moment to remember all the good things about your uncle.

    Myself personally I have been through a million different ways to "cope with life" and they all work but not all the time. It was suggested to me about 3 months ago that I give "Mindfullness Meditation" a shot, "you can't do it wrong" I was told.
    So I bought the book "Full Catastrophe Living" and the Cd's that accompany it. I had an awful time for the first two to three weeks my anxiety level went off the charts and I was really frustrated, after that I had a meditation session that was awesome and I could see why people do this stuff.
    What I have achieved from my daily meditation practice is greater than all of the previous tools I have used in the past 5 years.
    It won't change what happens to you from day to day but how you see it and how you then respond rather than react ( emotional eating). Yes a positive attitude is necessary but not an easy thing to do when in the heat of the moment. Meditation will teach you how to cope with life in the moment. It is the simplest thing I have ever done and probably the hardest thing because it is not doing or trying but just being.
    Maybe you will find this helpful too.
  • Mistila
    Mistila Posts: 38
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    I'm so sorry for your loss and how you found out, that really hurts! I have no advice I just thought I'd let you know I understand the eating out of stress, I lost my phone Friday for a little while and instantly I was starving hungry I know that sound funny but the stress of not finding it and being in a hurry did it to me I think for me just realizing what is happening helps a little! bit.
  • cybelenoire
    cybelenoire Posts: 36 Member
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    I am so sorry to hear of your loss. I can sympathize. I was with my father when he had a heart attack last year. My mother and I were both in the kitchen when it happened, and I (trained as a Sheriffs deputy) had to not only perform CPR on him, but also remain in the room while first responders and medics worked on him. We were not able to save him. I was, at that point, close to 20 lbs lost. I managed to drop 5 more in the months following, but after the holidays (which also included my parents wedding anniversary) I became more stressed and started back to stress eating and gained 10. I've been fighting depression--not going to the gym, slacking on my dance and yoga practice, and sleeping more than doing things. I'm just starting to snap out of it, barely past the year mark (July 23).

    Don't beat yourself up for eating out of grief. It happens, especially for those of us who deal with stress through food. But, as someone mentioned, when you feel the urge to eat, find something else to do. Take a walk. Ride your bike. Go to the gym (if you do that regularly). My escape was belly dance practice, because I could do it closed up in my room and if i cried, no one had to see it. I also found a lot of peace in yoga.

    And if you need someone to talk to, I'm definitely here to listen. *big hugs*

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