Emotional Cravings

Try thinking of it as a gain instead? Seriously, you have literally gained 2000 calories for that day because you aren't taking home all this extra crap to eat. It's not deprivation, it's preservation. By not eating the cookies, you are gaining years to your life.

I felt the same way with Dr Pepper. I've drank it for years, and hated to give it up as it's my only real vice. I don't smoke or drink, it was my only bad habit and I wanted to keep it. But one day, I sat down at actually added up the calorie content. On my worst day, between the Dr Pepper and the Loca Mocha Monster Java Energy Drinks, I was consuming 1200 calories. I drank no less than a 2 litre of Dr Pepper a day, as well as 2 of the Loca Mochas. It was horrible. I was horrible. I've stopped drinking the Loca Mochas, and honestly don't miss them. The Dr Pepper, I haven't given up completely. But I did switch to Dr Pepper 10. I still feel sad about it, sometimes. But at the same time, I feel alot better as well. If I can end up completely giving up Dr Pepper, that will be a feat!

I have emotional eating issues too. I've been trying to get to the bottom of the emotional eating --- I want to know the root of it so I can stop. There are about a zillion reasons but here are my top few --

1. I feel stressed & out of control in other areas of life so I focus on food
Answer -- I'm working on stress management now. The best book I've read is Dave Allen's Gettting things Done: the art of stress-free productivity
2. I work soooo much that one of the only pleasures left in life is food (to the point that eating an egg over salad for breakfast gave me a near nervous breakdown one day!!)
Answer -- I found a job with a better work-life balance & I've been there 2 months! Now, I'm trying to integrate other fun/beauty into my day: a quick walk, coffee with a friend, building a snowman with my kid (yes, it flipping snowed here last weekend!!)
3. It's a comfort thing...I want to feel cozy with warm chai & bread pudding, etc
Answer -- I am looking for other ways to feel comfort. Examples are a cup of tea, a massage from my husband, a bath, reading under my electric blanket (or answering your post on my iPad under the cozy electric blanket!)

In the last couple of months, I've lost 7#. Now, I'm working on integrating movement into my still super busy (but not as stressful) days.

Best of luck to you!! I hope that you get to the heart of this issue & tackle it head on!!!

This is a tough thing to deal with and it can pop up any time I refused to stop drinking for years because I couldnt deal with the sense of NEVER
never having a social drink again never having that great wine with the wonderful dinner all the nevers never unwinding EVERY day with drink after drink till one day the nevers were killing me my BP was through the roof my weight was sky high I realized the nevers didnt mean a thing my life was more important and I coped 4 years later I have had champagne one news year and some great wine on vacation in Aruba and realized I couldnt care less my healthy life was better so I can now drink if I choose but have no interest
the thing is this is a life style change and sometimes you can eat the cookies most times you wont normal not heavy people splurge have cookies or drinks or whatever the big difference is what they do after they go back to normal eating Turkey day all kinds of fit people pig out but the following day its back an extra walk or run etc. they dont feel like depriving themselves its a one time event
You have handled all challenges till now so dont obsess if you eat 2 or 3 cookies so be it then back to the great exercise gym rat you are becoming

FINALLY! someone has put together into words that make sense about what goes on with food in my mind. thank you so much. i experience the very same thing (i literally snapped when my boyfriend took away a bag of crazy bread from little ceasers the other night) and dont really know what to do about it. i just love food. laying on the couch watching a movie eating an entire box of pizza, with an entire carton of ice cream, and cookies is one of my favorite past times.

sick, isnt it?

Someone else said AWARENESS of this is a BIG VICTORY.

I am STILL an emotional eater, and I suppose as long as I'm STILL breathing, I will face this obstacle the rest of my life.

HOWEVER, the stronger I've become, the more victories under my belt, the greater I realize I ALWAYS have a choice to
allow or not allow my EMOTIONS/FEELINGS to override my resolve to a healthier lifestyle.

Not sure if this will help you, but early on in this journey, a friend lovingly told me to
NOT *REWARD* myself with FOOD-
either *treating* myself for doing something "good"
or punishing myself for not making a goal I set

This was a lightbulb going off- A HA MOMENT for me...
realizing how I DO use food as an emotional crutch.
I binge when I'm angry @ myself
and I withhold food when I'm loathing my lack of self-control- punishing myself for not having any self control....
vicious cycle.

SO, if it helps, remember this phrase:

You're NOT a dog, don't *reward* yourself w/ a treat.


And BEST WISHES to you, you're on the road to a healthier you and you're doing GREAT~

How about dividing up the leftovers and offering them to other people? That way you'll get the feeling of doing something good for others and limit the amount of food you take home, but still get to enjoy a little bit.

Ah the road to self knowledge, rocky lil critter, isn't it? But so worth travelling.

I've always known I had emotional issues with eating but never really figured out what/why/how etc. Anyway this week I ran slap bang into one, in the same way you have. And it was startling.

I've torn a muscle in my back and am in quite a lot of pain. Would you believe that pain makes me want to eat? I was really shocked. It' so counter intuitive but there it was. My back went, I was prone in bed unable to get up and the first thing I did when I managed to get out of bed was to go to the kitchen and make myself some buttery white toast. And this is after a month where I've had no cravings, enjoyed eating well, it hasnt been a battle at all. Then yesterday on my way out of the doctor's surgery in a lot of pain I walked to the chemist (drugstore) to get my painkillers and had to stop myself from crossing over the road and going to Tesco and buying a pie or some chips or anything really. It was almost as if my body was going OWWWWW! and my brain was going There There, have some food to make it better.

A real lightbulb moment for me. Food won't make my pain go away, it won't make me 'better'.

As someone said if the question isn't that you're hungry then food is not the answer. So I think when you start figuring out what your questions are, what's triggering you then you can start to unravel all the crazy nonsense we put ourselves through.

Awareness is amazing - so mourn that plate of cookies then let it go, physically and emotionally.

Good luck

The thing I have found that best helps me in those situations is to completely remove the temptation. My roommate brought home chocolate cupcakes the other day and said she wasn't going to eat them. They sat on the counter for 2 days and to avoid letting myself go I put them in the trash. I've always had a thing about throwing away food because I was raised and live in the south where you "clean your plate" and don't waste food. But I have found that rather than putting the "trash food" in my body I put it where it belongs, in the trash. It has become easier and easier as I have gone through my pantry, fridge, and freezer to literally rid myself of the temptation by throwing it away. That way I don't have the ability to lose myself in an emotion and head straight for the bad food that has been sitting in the back of my brain teasing me and waiting for that opportunity to have a bad day and I run to it for comfort. Replace your emotional eating with something else. When you have an emotional episode that triggers an emotional eating response, have an impromtu workout session or find something to do rather than run to put food in your mouth. You can do this and you can overcome it!