I'm a Stress Eater and I Don't Know What to Do About It

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Local hospitals and other places sometimes offer stress management courses,..could probably offer a lot of alternatives for you.

I just lash out at others, probably not a good alternative to eating

The most important thing to do is before you eat, ask yourself, are you hungry, stressed, etc. If you truly are hungry then measure it on a scale of 0-10 with 0 being not hungry and 10 being starving. About half-way through your meal/snack, reevaluate again and before you finish reevaluate again. Constantly asking yourself why you are eating. Eventually it will be eating when hungry. Also if you need sweets, use the 3 bite rule. (Trust me, it really works.) Take 3 bites, but enjoy each one. I've been told that this truly satisfies the sweet tooth, and it really does, just hard to believe at first.

Good Luck. Best thing is we are all struggling with our weight and we can help each other.

I've lived in my current location for several years and really thought that moving to the burbs as a single person was a huge mistake. I'm disconnected, everyone around me is married w/kids or over 70, and I often feel that I could leave tomorrow and no one would notice. (I unfortunately bought my house at the HEIGHT of the market, and would end up owing a few hundred thousand dollars if I sold it now, so I am stuck here.)

Then Hurricane Sandy hit, and I immediately began volunteering. I just felt as though I had to do something to help. But after 13 days of showing up at the shelter in my community, suddenly I know a ton of people and have something in common with them. Several other volunteers actually live on my street, actually also own dogs, etc. We can't get over that we live literally a few hundred feet from one another and haven't ever met in all these years when we like each other so much.

I understand the feeling that you are sort of always in limbo. I move a lot with my job, travel frequently and have an irregular schedule even when I manage to stay in one place for a few years. It's quite isolating, as you feel you can't commit to any sort of group activity since you'll miss half the meetings/events. The few people who do reach out feel rejected when you cancel because you are suddenly going to be out of town. That's been my situation for most of my adult life--that's the sort of work I do and the schedule I have. As we get older, it gets harder as most people our age are settled.

Find something within your interests and/or skill set and volunteer. Or join a club that incorporates an interest, even though you are going to miss half the meetings. Get out there. It helps!

I've lived in my current location for several years and really thought that moving to the burbs as a single person was a huge mistake. I'm disconnected, everyone around me is married w/kids or over 70, and I often feel that I could leave tomorrow and no one would notice. (I unfortunately bought my house at the HEIGHT of the market, and would end up owing a few hundred thousand dollars if I sold it now, so I am stuck here.)

Then Hurricane Sandy hit, and I immediately began volunteering. I just felt as though I had to do something to help. But after 13 days of showing up at the shelter in my community, suddenly I know a ton of people and have something in common with them. Several other volunteers actually live on my street, actually also own dogs, etc. We can't get over that we live literally a few hundred feet from one another and haven't ever met in all these years when we like each other so much.

I understand the feeling that you are sort of always in limbo. I move a lot with my job, travel frequently and have an irregular schedule even when I manage to stay in one place for a few years. It's quite isolating, as you feel you can't commit to any sort of group activity since you'll miss half the meetings/events. The few people who do reach out feel rejected when you cancel because you are suddenly going to be out of town. That's been my situation for most of my adult life--that's the sort of work I do and the schedule I have. As we get older, it gets harder as most people our age are settled.

Find something within your interests and/or skill set and volunteer. Or join a club that incorporates an interest, even though you are going to miss half the meetings. Get out there. It helps!

Joining these clubs and volunteering makes a huge difference. When I live in another major city, I joined a sports club. I lent my rather hideous volleyball skills whenever I could show up and met a lot of people. That also got me into a volunteering website in that city--you could sign up just for a day or project, but it turned out to be the same core group of 20-30 people my age at all of these projects.

5 yrs later, I moved several hundred miles away and called the one person I knew who lived in the new city--who had been part of this sports club and the volunteer group in the old city. He spent the first 3 months I lived there inviting me to EVERYTHING. I still missed or had to decline half the invitations, but he knew my schedule from our previous acquaintance and never gave up on me (no, he wasn't trying to date me, he was just a nice person and liked organizing events). Because of his generous efforts in always including me, I met my new social set in the new town.

Join something--anything! It pays off!

It even got me out of a ticket! LOL I had lived in the then-new location for about a month, still had the old plates on my car, ran a red light accidentally at about 6 AM on my way to a volunteer project because I was reading the directions while driving and was promptly pulled over.

The cop looked at my printout of directions, which validated my claim of trying to get to a volunteer site, and said to me, "You've lived here a month and you're already volunteering? You deserve a ticket--you ran that light--but I just can't bring myself to give you one when you are already trying to help us and you just got here. But please get in-state plates tomorrow."

I said. "Thank you, Officer. I will try to be more careful, and I will get right on those plates."

You can't go wrong volunteering.

The most important thing to do is before you eat, ask yourself, are you hungry, stressed, etc. If you truly are hungry then measure it on a scale of 0-10 with 0 being not hungry and 10 being starving. About half-way through your meal/snack, reevaluate again and before you finish reevaluate again. Constantly asking yourself why you are eating. Eventually it will be eating when hungry. Also if you need sweets, use the 3 bite rule. (Trust me, it really works.) Take 3 bites, but enjoy each one. I've been told that this truly satisfies the sweet tooth, and it really does, just hard to believe at first.

Good Luck. Best thing is we are all struggling with our weight and we can help each other.

That's great advice, often I'm not hungry. I do best when there's no junk food in the house but my husband complained the other day there were no snacks, so I bought him cookies and I haven't stopped eating them. I stay with my mother some days out of the month for work and always has a stash of snacks. My will power is great when I'm not stressed, but when I am its like I can't help myself.

I think what I find the most discouraging, when I'm stressed I don't want to work out. I haven't been consistent at the gym in the last month and it is frustrating. I'm just trying to get back on track and stay there. I go hard for a few months and then I stop, then I start back, then I stop. Ugh

Pick a competition that's 2-4 months from now. Maybe a road race? Find a way to make that commitment stick--a friend is going to do it with you or you join a team raising money for charity--so you can't back out. Then if you quit, you are not only letting yourself down, you'r letting down a friend or a charity you feel passionate about. It helps get you to workouts you'd rather skip!

I've had more stress then I care to remember since May. It seemed like every single facet of my life (work, personal, family) was in major crisis. The absolute best thing I did was to re-join the gym. Even just walking on the treadmill for 30 minutes watching something like TMZ is a huge stress relief. When I am at the gym I am there for me, just me. I don't check emails or answer texts because it's my time. No stress, it's me focusing on ME!!! Plus they have lots of punching bags at my gym to let loose on!!! If I have a cruddy super tired day, I just tell myself "30 minutes and thats it". Most times Im there for at least an hour.

I love this thread. Much of it is applicable to me and I appreciate everyone's input, as well. I have identified that I am an emotional eater. (How have I just figured this out--isn't this a common problem)? I love healthy foods. I eat them every day. BUT I top it ALL off with great big double and triple servings of junk junk junk.
I voluntarily put myself in a HIGHLY stressful situation of quitting my career to take a sabbatical and am in China teaching English for a year. This place is madness and I've been seeking refuge in junk food. The oreos and snickers have taken over this place and taken over my cupboards. I am also growing despondent because running is my favorite exercise and I cannot run outside due to the air quality and I cannot afford a gym. So I've given myself a two pronged obstacle.
Reading everything everyone says is tremendously helpful so thank you!

The most important thing to do is before you eat, ask yourself, are you hungry, stressed, etc. If you truly are hungry then measure it on a scale of 0-10 with 0 being not hungry and 10 being starving. About half-way through your meal/snack, reevaluate again and before you finish reevaluate again. Constantly asking yourself why you are eating. Eventually it will be eating when hungry. Also if you need sweets, use the 3 bite rule. (Trust me, it really works.) Take 3 bites, but enjoy each one. I've been told that this truly satisfies the sweet tooth, and it really does, just hard to believe at first.

Good Luck. Best thing is we are all struggling with our weight and we can help each other.

That's great advice, often I'm not hungry. I do best when there's no junk food in the house but my husband complained the other day there were no snacks, so I bought him cookies and I haven't stopped eating them. I stay with my mother some days out of the month for work and always has a stash of snacks. My will power is great when I'm not stressed, but when I am its like I can't help myself.

I think what I find the most discouraging, when I'm stressed I don't want to work out. I haven't been consistent at the gym in the last month and it is frustrating. I'm just trying to get back on track and stay there. I go hard for a few months and then I stop, then I start back, then I stop. Ugh

Pick a competition that's 2-4 months from now. Maybe a road race? Find a way to make that commitment stick--a friend is going to do it with you or you join a team raising money for charity--so you can't back out. Then if you quit, you are not only letting yourself down, you'r letting down a friend or a charity you feel passionate about. It helps get you to workouts you'd rather skip!

I've had more stress then I care to remember since May. It seemed like every single facet of my life (work, personal, family) was in major crisis. The absolute best thing I did was to re-join the gym. Even just walking on the treadmill for 30 minutes watching something like TMZ is a huge stress relief. When I am at the gym I am there for me, just me. I don't check emails or answer texts because it's my time. No stress, it's me focusing on ME!!! Plus they have lots of punching bags at my gym to let loose on!!! If I have a cruddy super tired day, I just tell myself "30 minutes and thats it". Most times Im there for at least an hour.

I LOVE this idea of setting a minimum time and then letting yourself off the workout hook. It just ain't gonna happen on some days.

Back when I was a serious runner, I had a rule like that. I committed to 20 minutes, because it actually often took my creaky body that long to actually FEEL GOOD running. If I hit the 20 minute ark and would still have preferred shoving bamboo shoots up my fingernails, I called it a day. But ore often than not, at the 20 minute mark I felt good to be out there and kept going.