Emotaionl eating: How to conker it??

Emotional eating can very difficult to tackle. And I've found there's no one way or strategy to tackle it. I try to take a variety of approaches every day, with varying levels of success!

If you really need to eat, because its comforting, try to munch on low cal foods - rice cakes or carrot sticks. Make sure you keep high cal foods out of the house so the only things you have to binge on are relatively low.

Try distraction techniques, take up or continue a hobby. Things that keep your hands and mind busy are great, so sewing/knitting/puzzles/crosswords. Write down your thoughts and feelings in a journal. Chat online with a friend - one who understands your need to keep chatting would be ideal. Take a bath and read a book, a nice soak with lovely smellies, some candles, music if you like it.

Have a look for some supportive forums with eating problems - i like the 3 fat chicks forums, lots of good resources there.

My current strategy is boiled sweets. One of those leaves my mouth coated in suagr and feeling disgustingly sweet, so i don't want to eat anything else.

Also, lots of flavoured waters and teas might help (hit and miss for me). But they can full your brain into feeling you've eaten because of the flavours and fill your tummy.

A lot of people suggest writing down the reasons you want to eat but i can't say i find that particularly useful - i know i'm emotional eater, regardless of emotion, i want to eat. writing it down doesn't help me tackle it any better.

I found that the biggest thing for me was honest logging.

I sent out a tonne of friend requests to people I respected from posts in the forums, opened my diary, and logged honestly. Once I started to "know" these people, I felt accountable for my actions, and for the food I put in my mouth.

It's way less satisfying to cram 6 cookies in my mouth because I'm sad if I know I have an audience. Announcing I'm going for a walk, and then following through on it, turns out to be way more satisfying and therapeutic. Plus, if I do the math before hand, a 400 calorie emotional fix rarely seems worth it.

Emotional eating and secretive eating went hand-in-hand for me, too. So when I broke the "secret" part, food was less powerful as an emotional tool, anyway. It became just food, mostly, over time.

Others have mentioned other good strategies, so I'll just leave my tip to LOG IT!

The other bonus to honest logging is that you know how much damage you're doing (calorie-wise) with an emotional eating session, even when they do happen. That way you can't catapult yourself further into guilt and self-shame by magnifying the effects of your eating in your mind. It's logged, it's out there, it's done and it's accounted for. Move on .

Edited to add: It may be worth looking into counseling for the deeper emotional issues? I'm certain you already know that food won't fix the pain, but it might be worth exploring the issues with someone qualified to help you with them. I know it's easier said than done, and counseling may not be attainable for you (not knowing your geographical/transportation/financial situation), but if you hadn't thought of it, I have several friends in counseling and it has changed their lives for the better.

Eating Less by Gillian Riiley is a great book on over eating.

start taking control over your emotions.

learn better coping skills.

cut the tree down at the foundation, not at the branches.

This. It IS hard to deal with losing (in some ways) a child. However, if she is almost 13, you are getting close to her being an adult and can choose to have you in her life or not. And to what degree.

I don't know what the situation was (not asking, not judging), yet you have a lifetime relationship to think of, not just the next few years. Think big picture. Finish crying over what you've lost if you need to, then get back up and focus on where you're GOING.

Be KIND to yourself. And as others have noted, that's probably going to be something other than binging (which is really an exercise in self-hate). You can do this. I have - and there are 3 amazing adults (22, 24, 26) who make it a point to keep me in their lives.

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Work on the problem itself is the best advice I can give. I was severely depressed and emotional eating a lot, but when I stopped and learnt how to tackle the things giving me stress, the need to comfort eat was removed and made everything easier. Of course it doesn't happen overnight but it's something you need to do if you want to get over comfort-eating

Rather than trying to conquer emotional eating, it would probably be more productive to find another outlet for yourself instead of eating. There will always be things in life that act as a "trigger", but if you do something healthy instead of unhealthy when "triggered" by stress, etc, then your health won't be as compromised when these things happen. I find that running helps. It's highly personal. Some people like cycling, juggling, rowing, surfing, playing an instrument, knitting, etc, etc. These are all things that people do to soothe themselves and would be preferable to eating. As I said, I have found running to be very soothing, but it's not for everyone. Experiment until you find your own "zen", preferably something you can turn to at a "whim", when you need to "decompress". Good luck

Exactly....because fighting against it is really difficult and puts your focus constantly on the food. It basically will wear you down quickly, but feeling the emotions and finding another way to deal with the stress of those feelings is really helpful. I exercise ALOT when I am stressed and I also like word searches(sounds really cheesy) and they seem to take my mind off of food too.

Hiya

Thanks for your support, How do I stop this feeling of...... I really want to be healthy, inside & out if I can go smokefree for 4 years I can do this. Right?

You can! And speaking of "out" - a great starting point is walking outside. Don't think "workout" just go out there and breathe. Look at what's growing (or will be growing again in spring). Bundle up however you need to and go on out to watch the snow/rain/sunshine.

Another commenter mentioned mindfulness books. You might particularly enjoy Pema Chodron's "When Things Fall Apart" - she's very encouraging :-)