Emotional Eating

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karenkoen
karenkoen Posts: 13
in Motivation and Support
Any tips for emotional eating? I tend to snack when I am anxious, upset, sad etc, single mom with high stress job with a lot of travel time.

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  • rubyautumn4
    rubyautumn4 Posts: 818 Member
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    Drink water
    Go for a walk instead...even just around the house
    Clean something - by the time I'm scrubbing the tub I'm too gross to do anything other than finish cleaning it and taking a shower
    Keep cut up veggies and fruit handy to snack on
  • imchicbad
    imchicbad Posts: 1,650 Member
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    water, gum, pickles lol works for me:flowerforyou:
  • imchicbad
    imchicbad Posts: 1,650 Member
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    Oh and 100 calorie popcorn!:love::love: :love: :love: :love:
  • cplangfo
    cplangfo Posts: 1 Member
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    For me, the trick wasn't to substitute my snacks with something healthier; it was to break the addiction to snacking entirely. Now I drink water or-better--write in a journal, clean, or take a walk that gets me away from food. After a couple days, I found that the desire to snack--to just have something to chew on--was gone.
  • vjsmiles
    vjsmiles Posts: 8 Member
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    Journal!!! I am reading a good book about emotional eating. The best thing has been writing down not only what I am feeling now, but also my relationship to food going back to childhood. It's called "Stop Eating Your Heart Out." I haven't read the whole thing, but so far I would highly recommend it.
  • snoopynut1972
    snoopynut1972 Posts: 49 Member
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    I had to retrain myself. I'm a stress eater, so when I'd get stressed or worked up about something (especially at work), I headed for the vending machine for some chocolate. Now, I put on my tennis shoes and take a few laps around the parking garage when I get stressed. The cravings for chocolate go away and I get some extra steps in!

    Find something that eases the stress, or occupies your brain so you aren't thinking about food. It will take time to retrain yourself, so in the meantime grab a healthy snack and some water if you can't shake the need to snack.
  • karenkoen
    karenkoen Posts: 13
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    Thanks - I seem to do ok at home - kids keep me pretty busy and by the time they go to be I am way too exhausted to do anything much less eat. I have a horrible time at work - when I am not traveling I sit in front of a computer all day. 3pm is my danger time - tired, bored, stressed etc. And of course when I travel, I eat out every meal and half the time in the airport. I have ordered a Polar FT4 to track when I do work out and 3 new cookbooks that will hopefully help along the way for healthy meals.
  • karenkoen
    karenkoen Posts: 13
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    I will look that up on my kindle - thanks!

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