emotional eating

I just thought I would take a moment to introduce myself. I am new to My fitness Pal, but not to the weight loss struggle. I am an emotional eater, who would love to quit. I start new everyday, but it seems more days than not, something comes up and i crave/eat something bad.
I would love to hear from others out there who are open enough to talk about their issues, and maybe how they were able to finally make a change.
I am desperately looking for ways to not let my emotions take over.

Hi

I am an emotional eater too. But I'm also struggling with binge eating and I had an ED some years ago so I don't know if I can give any piece of advice.

I can just say that being honest with yourself and log everything you eat in mfp can be a huge help! I've tried a lot of diets and stuff before and I've noticed that noting everything I eat - even during a binge - helps a lot because 1) it's a pain to write everything before/after eating it and 2) I'm ashamed of myself when I see all I overate written black on write and I hate that feeling. Since I joined mfp in June (I think), I had ups and downs but I'm proud to say I haven't beinged/had a crisis of emotional eating for 2 weeks now and it's a huge progress for me

So my tips: log absolutely everything you eat; drink loads of lemon water (it helps with sugar cravings); when you're sad or upset or something, go for a walk or work out or grab your phone and call your most talkative friend or relative; chew mint gums (they also help with cravings).

Good luck with your weight loss journey! You can do it! )

Hey,

Most of what I've learned about weight loss I learned watching my partner struggle with alcoholism...... he would use the upsets in his life to justify having that drink at the end of the day, the same way I would eat twix bars to ease the hurt and lonliness in my life.... I might blame it on the girl at work, or my kids being rotten or my house being a mess, but it was really just looking for an excuse to eat.....

Take control of your life....no one is stopping you from having that chocolate bar..... it's yours if you want it, but it's not good for you..... and in the long run it's taking more away from you than the little bit of comfort it's giving you in the moment....the feelings of guilt and shame and helplessness that come with being overweight becomes a vicious circle when we turn to food for comfort..... the same as an alcoholic feels when he sobers up after a night of binge drinking.....we feel worthless and defeated and less capable than all the NORMAL people out there.....

When you feel yourself reaching for that "bottle" stop and ask yourself why you're REALLY feeling like this......instead do a quick 5 minute work out, drink a nice hot cup of tea or go brush your hair in front of the mirror and tell yourself that YOU are beautiful and that YOU are worth this......Give yourself a break and if the rest of the world around you sucks then at least you know that YOU are doing what YOU can to make YOUR life better....

good luck and you CAN do it...... I promise :flowerforyou:

Wow, this sounds perfect. Thanks!!! And I do the same, so add me as a friend, whoever needs support and gives it

I just thought I would take a moment to introduce myself. I am new to My fitness Pal, but not to the weight loss struggle. I am an emotional eater, who would love to quit. I start new everyday, but it seems more days than not, something comes up and i crave/eat something bad.
I would love to hear from others out there who are open enough to talk about their issues, and maybe how they were able to finally make a change.
I am desperately looking for ways to not let my emotions take over.

I don't have emotional eating issues and I think that made it easier for me to lose my excess weight, but I have a lot of friends who struggle with the same issue as you. There are some really good books out there and most of my friends say that keeping journal helps, and for some they get professional therapy as well. It's usually something that has nothing to do with food but you are trying to fill a need. One girl I know is having success now after therapy and she actually talks about it on audio podcast that is downloadable for free. I think for some people need to resolve these emotional issues first before trying to diet, or just take the diet slower than others.

I wish you the best.

Hey,

Most of what I've learned about weight loss I learned watching my partner struggle with alcoholism...... he would use the upsets in his life to justify having that drink at the end of the day, the same way I would eat twix bars to ease the hurt and lonliness in my life.... I might blame it on the girl at work, or my kids being rotten or my house being a mess, but it was really just looking for an excuse to eat.....

Take control of your life....no one is stopping you from having that chocolate bar..... it's yours if you want it, but it's not good for you..... and in the long run it's taking more away from you than the little bit of comfort it's giving you in the moment....the feelings of guilt and shame and helplessness that come with being overweight becomes a vicious circle when we turn to food for comfort..... the same as an alcoholic feels when he sobers up after a night of binge drinking.....we feel worthless and defeated and less capable than all the NORMAL people out there.....

When you feel yourself reaching for that "bottle" stop and ask yourself why you're REALLY feeling like this......instead do a quick 5 minute work out, drink a nice hot cup of tea or go brush your hair in front of the mirror and tell yourself that YOU are beautiful and that YOU are worth this......Give yourself a break and if the rest of the world around you sucks then at least you know that YOU are doing what YOU can to make YOUR life better....

good luck and you CAN do it...... I promise :flowerforyou:

This is exactly what has been helping me...

I am in the same place and can totally relate. Please add me as a friend.

I am a closet binger. I wait for the kids to go to school and wait for hubby and kids to go to sleep. I never counted my calories on a big binge. I was upset a few days ago when I ended up about 400 calories more than I wanted but I was able to stop. I worry about putting on a few pounds over the next 3 weeks my Mom is coming in for a visit for three weeks and we do like to go out for lunch together. I don't have a great cell phone just a prepay. So I will have to be careful and eat more vegetables and fruit. Her favorite is Chinese which is my favorite too. So I will eat in moderation but it will be so hard. I already know to pass on the rice but it will be hard to pass on the Egg Rolls and Crab Wonton. Have a good day. Of course add me as a friend. I am 53 female 5foot 7 160 pounds. Two years ago I stopped smoking and decided to take 2 years off to be home with the kids.

There are some really good ideas on here that I will try myself. I am horrible about emotional eating hence the recent 3 lb gain over the last few months. I personally feel like food is the one thing in my life I can control when I can't control those around me yet I can't seem to control my urge to stop eating. It's a conundrum that I am trying to work through.

It is so difficult and I was so motivated and then problems started arising and I was super stressed about things, still am, and I'm finding it super hard to get my motivation back. I still want to do this but don't have the energy to do it day in and day out like I was and need. Just got to hang in there and keep trying.

Hi, we share the same problem. Some days I'm super healthy but then if 1 day I'm stressed out or just tired....I eat like a pig! I have to say this happens more often during the weekend. Every monday I'm really disappointed on myself cause I worked out like crazy and ate healthy monday-friday and then ruined it all by sunday evening!
Everybody keep telling me that the solution is focusing on my goal but sometimes I just stop thinking probably....

I am also an emotional eater. Make me mad, happy, sad and I eat. Let me get overworked, stressed, tired and I eat. It is a real struggle to stay on track, but I keep trying!

I am sorry to hear about your struggle, I know how difficult it is. I've been emotionally eating since I was young child, I've struggled in the yoyo cycle since I was about 12. I'll be honest depending on how severe your emotional eating is, its not usually as easy as reading a book or some nice threads on MFP. It took me almost 4 years of therapy and some of those years intensive to break the cycle. My issues stem from multiple roots which mostly include conflict with my parents. My parents came from very abusive backgrounds and though they do their best, those emotional issues they endured still trickle down to my siblings and I. Much of my emotional eating stems from not allowing myself to be angry at my parents and also not allowing myself to define who i am. By working through the resentment, standing up for myself, and allowing myself to begin to define who I am on my own terms and not my parents terms I was able to break the cycle. Most of emotional eating for everyone is rooted in avoidance of resentful feelings. You feel out of control of your own emotions and need an outside source to comfort yourself or you find comfort in destroying yourself. My advice would be the following:

1. Give therapy a try if you havent already and try a psychodynamic therapist.
2. If you cant afford a therapist find an overeaters annonymous group in your area and see if that helps.
3. Read Geneen Roth's books
4. Allow yourself to overeat for now, but when you do ask yourself questions about it. Why are you eating? Are you eating for comfort or to sabotage yourself? Why do you need comfort? Whats bothering you that youre not addressing in life? Are you scared to confront someone? Are you lonely? When you start answering these questions it may help you to start taking actions rather than just looking for be comforted. The one big similarity between overeaters, addicts, etc is that someone sometime in our life made us feel like we were powerless to change a situation and all we had was comforting ourselves in our despair. You have to learn to take your power back.
5. If this is related to self esteem, something that helped me was changing my attitude. Sometimes I felt like a failure like I was truly a worthless human being because I didnt fit into my (insert authority figure) set of criteria for a worthwhile human being. Then I realized that it was just as delusional to think I was worthless as it was to think I was fantastic all the time, you're probably a good person who is considerate of others who has good days and bad days. No one needs to be more or less than that. Dont be so hard on yourself.