EMOTIONAL EATING?

I have had issues with emotional eating. I agree with the above poster about it becoming a cycle. The only way that I have found to beat it, is to break the cycle. You just have to stop yourself. As dumb as it may sound, I have conversations with myself when the feeling strikes. I just do my best to talk myself out of it, because I know what the consequences are. I had my first bout of it in about 6 months about 2 weeks ago, it lasted about a week and I just binged and binged. I know it isn't easy, but once you make the decision to stop doing it, after about a week, not binging/emotional eating becomes habit, the more you don't do it, the easier it becomes. Yes, you will have triggers sometimes, and when that happens you have to find a way to not reach for the food. Maybe it's getting out of the house, or logging onto mfp and finding motivation here. Sometimes if you just call yourself out on it publicly, for instance tell someone how you are feeling, post it on your mfp wall etc...you may be surprised at how it really helps the feeling pass. It does take work though, and it is a mental battle at times, but the more you win, the easier it becomes (as previously stated).

I've found that finding something that you do for stress reduction in place of eating can help. For example, I used to be an emotional eater (still find myself in that role every once in a while when things get especially stressful) it helps me to look up what I'm planning on eating and decide if it's worth that calories, if I decide that it's worth it... or decide I don't care at that moment I then try to think about how I feel after I eat said snack... usually it's not good stuff like fruit or veggies that I binge on and I usually feel like crap after eating in anyway. Sometimes that helps. If that doesn't help then getting up and doing something active usually helps to boost your mood and can distract you enough to get through the impulse. It really is a process, and unfortunately the only way to change is to make the consious decision to change and to put steps into place for yourself when you find yourself in that situation. You are by no means alone! But you can break out of it!!

advice.

1) therapy/counseling

2) when you log ur foods there is a notes section.

I used that as a journal to see if happenings in my day led to emotional eating. apparently not for me. since you already know you are an emotional eater maybe this type of journaling can help you identify moods to watch for or just habits that don't help you. if i had discovered i was an emotional eater my next step was going to be to actually write a mood with zero calories right at each meal inputting it as "enter your own food" or whatever that's called when you can put anything in the food diary. I thought that would help me see it more clearly and then give me ideas how to fix it but that didn't turn out to be the case for me.

I'm sorry that it is for you but since you know it I think that's the hardest part of anything. Once you know you can fix it.

I like the comment about talking to yourself about it. You have to figure out what the trigger is and stay away from it. My emotional trigger was family issues. I have a lot of intertwining on going problems with family that just doesn't give a **** about me and I had to accept that. I also do a form of therapy in scrap booking. When I am feeling the urge to eat after a phone conversation with a family member, I high tail to my scrap booking station and get working. Sometimes, the best solution would be to just walk about from the problem but for me, them being my family, I can't. Everyone one here said such awesome things, I don't want to repeat anyone but finding the trigger and diverting yourself is your best option.

At least you r aware that you r emotionally eating!! That is a first step!!! Like everyone said try to find your triggers ( stress, anger, depression). When you get that feeling reach out to anybody. I realized that if I talk about it even in a blog it helps me fight the urge. Don't get me wrong there r days when I give in and I'm sure there will be more but don't let those days tear all your hard work apart. My favourite lines is pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep on trying. If you r making healthy choices most of the time you r doing more than many out there. Be proud of what you r accomplishing!!!

I ran across something interesting at Whole Foods called Bach Emotional Eating Support Kit. It has three different herbal supplement bottles for different phases of emotional eating/binging. It has really good reviews, I wonder if anyone here has ever used it?

http://www.iherb.com/product-reviews/Bach-Original-Flower-Essences-Emotional-Eating-Support-Kit-3-Bottles-0-35-fl-oz-10-ml-Each/11480/?p=1