Maintaining willpower when emotional eating urges kick in

Welcome! Congrats on the 8lb loss.

Emotional eating is really a bi@#^ for me, too.

I find that the easiest way to avoid a craving is to avoid keeping tricky foods in the house at all. Packaged foods are my downfall. Super convenient...too easy. I get upset, I walk to the kitchen, open the fridge, and nom nom nom....until I run out of food. Not having the food available cuts right to the core of the bad behaviour. No food = no binge.

I am also going to start budgeting my food the day before, with pre-packaged portions. (I like the convenience of packages...maybe it will make it easier for me to help keep eating a practical survival activity, not an emotional activity?) Check in with me and I will let you know how it goes.

I too am an emotional eater; it's been my downfall for many years. I had a really tricky week last week and had to really dig deep to stop myself eating rubbish. I walked (a lot), talked to my friends and husband, came on here and looked at what everyone else was doing (this helps hugely) and I held on to the reasons I am doing this and what I am achieving and what I still want to achieve. I remember how easy it is to put back on my hard fought weight loss and hold on to how good I am starting to feel. It's not easy, but you CAN do it; just believe in yourself! xx

I also emotionally eat, but having been through the weight loss thing a couple of times, I have learned that once exercise is a well established habit, and the benefits to mood and brain function become obvious, it is easier to use my workout as a source of emotional relief than it is eating junk. I also discovered if any of life's stresses interfere with my ability to get my workout, I am in greater danger of emotional eating. Because I have finally learned that working out is as important to my mind and body as any prescribed medicine, I let nothing interfere with making certain I get my hour in everyday.

So keep it up with the exercise. Treat it as if it is as essential to you as eating food to fuel your body, and it will get easier and easier to avoid emotional eating. Make sure, too, you are eating balanced nutrition. Eating nutritionally balanced meals helps fight cravings and also, for me anyway, gets rid of excessive hunger. Takes awhile though, so stick with it. I have personally also learned I have to stay away heavily processed foods and salt. Those lead me down the road to perdition, so find your weak spots in your old diet and stay away from them. After a month of good eating and exercise, you'll get used to feeling healthier, and then you'll cheat one day and have some of your old nasty comfort food, then get sick off of it. That is a teaching experience, let me tell you.

Hi there. I am an emotional eater that has turned to food to get me through some of life's toughest times but find that it has just left me overweight, sick and feeling worse about myself. I'm only about 10 weeks into my journey but have finally been able to make exercise a habit and have found MFP tracking really helpful in planning meals.

My question is, how do others deal with the desire to eat when you are sad, tired, frustrated, bored, etc? I've heard the "drink water" "go for a walk" - what if anything do you do internally to help yourself? I want to get through these rough patches so I don't ruin all my hard work and wonder what those of you out there are doing to do the same.

Thanks! xo

This.
When your hungry.... your hungry.... cant do anything about it.... plan your meals at an interval convenient for your lifestyle so you dont get hungry and there's no food around but rubbish food..... and ohhhh to answer your question... Im not quite sold about the "emotional eating" perse.... YOU EAT or YOU DON'T.... you give in or you don't.... in my personal experience there are days where my resolve is weak and I GIVE IN but i don't cry in the corner and go eat a whole box of pizza since i had a bite already anyway..... go back to your healthy eating habit as soon as possible... in the end consistency will prevail.... it wont be easy but nonetheless BETTER THAN WHERE YOU ARE NOW health wise RESOLVE YOURSELF TO NEVER QUIT!

That has been one of my hardest things to overcome as well. Sad? Chocolate bar. Stressed out? That pack of cookies will solve the problem. It has taken me awhile not to turn to food as comfort. When i'm sad i make tea, it calms me down and helps a sweet craving if you put honey in it. If you emotionaly eat don't buy foods you know you will eat when you're sad just get rid of them 100%. Instead buy dark chocolate (lindtt dark chocolate orange is so yummy) or put low fat whipped cream on strawberries. But try to find other alternatives, like taking a nap, im a big sleeper and taking a 20 minute nap makes me forget about the food altogether. Take a shower, refresh your mind. Read a book, call a friend, watch health youtube videos, paint your toes, clean up your house, watch your favorite movie or tv show, write about how you feel, eat some fruit, try to distract and relax your mind. Don't depend emotions on food, it will just make you feel worse. It's a hard thing to overcome but it can be done, keep on going!!

For me, I go back to the basics, i.e. my emotions. Emotional eating is an attempt to cope without actually addressing the cause of the emotion. So I ask myself or actually write down "what am I really feeling?" and I go deeper than happy, sad, angry. Then I ask myself "what do I need?" which I am really good at ignoring or minimizing hence the uncomfortable emotions I'm trying to mask with the dopamine rush eating gives me. Then I work at meeting those needs which can be very tough because it usually means I have to change my behavior. I meditate twice a day, even if it is just a mindfulness exercise. And each day I set an intention; today it was to turn dull into vibrant. How does that help? I find it gives me a competing train of thought to focus on when something triggers the eating compulsion. Today, I was triggered by a person who I really prefer not to interact with repeatedly interjecting himself into different parts of my day. So, I distracted myself by adding vibrancy to as many things as I could. I made it through the day without eating unhealthy and when calm, I sought support from a co-worker on how to structure day to minimize those encounters. Hope I didn't stray too far or over share. Best of luck!

I emotionally eat as well.
Here is just a general life lesson I am LEARNING as I continue to battle my emotional eating demons.

"Feelings aren't facts"

The way I'm feeling often affects the facts of how hard I have been working. Something will snap in my brain and all of the donuts, slurpees, cakes, chocolates, everything evil for me to even come near, it will just scream at me to eat it NOW! The only way I have been staying grounded is

#1 I'm challenging myself to eat clean or naturally derived foods this month. No processed foods. It is hard. So, when I do emotionally eat, i'm angrily noshing on carrot sticks and cucumber. Doesn't pack the same punch, but I'll tell you what, when I over stuff myself on those things, I realize I didn't really need or want to eat after all. It was just a moment. Real reality check.

#2 I've been reminding myself about how disgusted I have been feeling about my body image lately. How much I hate the fat around my middle. About how yes, I have had some success but I have so much further to go. I remind myself that after I lose these 60+ lbs, it'll be ok to have the occasional donut or treat to indulge on. But, for now, right now, I have to say no. For me. For the promises I made to myself. For the "I can't be here forever". For the "God, she got HOT". I just have to keep going, and so do you.

So, again... Feelings aren't facts.

I can't help with the emotional part - I'm still working on it; I'm not sure why I can be strong sometimes and other times, so weak. Here are a few things that have helped me in the past.

Don't have trigger foods in the house - although I can get pretty creative if I really want to.

Don't let yourself get hungry.

Journaling not only your food, but your feelings may help.

Log every single thing. Be honest with yourself. It does no good to hide those binges from yourself.

Don't give up! It's never to late to start a U-turn. So, if you binge - you move on, make the U-turn back to healthy eating.

Good luck!