Comfort Eating and Food Addictions

Been there and done that. If you must have cookies, chips, chocolate in the house, try buying the single serving sized ones made for kids lunches. That's a very easy way to portion control. Each individual wrapper for each snack is shocking to look at when you see all the ones you ate in one day staring back at you. That's how I started. And once you get the hang of comfort eating just 1 packet of chips/cookies, etc, then it is so much easier to start winding down your comfort food purchases and maybe only have chips in the house or cookies, but not both.

Emotional eating is so hard. It really is. But maybe also try taking a walk up and down your street when you think you need the chips first. And then go have chips if you really do. If you can do that too, your brain may pick up on "I do some mild exercise when I'm upset" and may let you get away with that before demanding those chips.

And nacho cheese Doritos were my favorite back in the day. Best of luck to you though.

Setting aside the whole addiction thing (but some interesting posts re a new study elsewhere), I don't get the but. If in the throes of emotion you are likely to decide you don't care about your weight, that's why not having it in the house will help.

Otherwise, you need to deal with finding other ways to address your emotions. I found forcing myself to be really mindful of why I wanted to eat and journaling helpful. Also, doing something else to address stress or emotion (today was the worst in a while and I went for a run, but walking, listening to music, meditating all could work, and many other things). It's hard to break the mental connection, but totally possible.

Your children need a mom who is happy, healthy, and strong. You owe this to them and to yourself.
It only takes two weeks to get all that sugar out of your system so that you rarely crave it.
When ever we get exercise and get enough sleep, we do not "comfort eat." If keeping up with the house is overwhelming.
find it in the budget to get a cleaning lady.
For dinner, eat protein and lots of vegetables.For example at dinner, eat meet with three vegetable sides along with some fats and oil..
Breakfast is easy: reheat something from dinner.
Consider moving to college part -time while you get your health and well being "organized."

Problem is... I am so exhausted from everything on my plate. I was doing so well at the beginning of the year, I was doing the beachbody workout T25 and was clean eating. I managed to get down to 230lbs but now I have gained most of it back.

I had some similar issues when I was first starting. My job gets super stressful and crazy off and on, and I was having numerous nights where I had to stay until 10 or so, so would get home starving and not wanting to cook and plus I'd be both stressed and hungry at work in the evening where there's all kinds of food I didn't want to eat around. I had to figure out a way to deal with that.

Add to it that I had a workout plan fell apart for the same reason and my mind was telling me that it was all ruined anyway since I wasn't working out so I might as well just eat what I wanted and be happy and start again later.

Somehow this time I was able to (a) put together a plan for this issues which I knew were going to come up and bring lunch and dinner to work and eat something in the morning too; and (b) stop beating myself up about the working out and just control what I could--eating well. It's gotten engrained enough now that everything is easier, even fitting in the working out, but I do think that not holding yourself to overly high standards is part of it. Life's hard enough, and it definitely sounds like you have lots of deal with.

So in the meantime I have been trying to gain control back over my eating but I am stumped on healthy meals. For example, breakfasts I need to eat quick and a hurry so I end up eating a bowl of frosted flakes, and then I don't eat again until like 2PM (which I know is bad but I get so submersed in my schooling, and also don't have an appetite from the stress) and then I end up doing something quick again like as of late ichiban, which is full of sodium I know.

If you plan for this, you can find a way to deal with it. What do you like for breakfast? Sounds like something without cooking time is key, so maybe a greek yogurt and fruit? Hard boiled eggs (premade) and fruit? For me having some protein really makes a difference in feeling satiated, and some fat too (like in the eggs or, say, 2% greek yogurt).

Then for lunch maybe having something on hand premade, like a sandwich or (my favorite) some leftover dinner? (I intentionally make extras so I can have them for lunch too.) For dinner, cooking ahead can help, or figuring out some quick things to make and having the ingredients on hand. That's been a big help for me in going (when I'm home) from being overwhelmed and tired and ordering food to quickly whipping up something, maybe even just an omelet with lots and vegetables.

Having stuff on hand that you are okay with snacking on, like yogurt or nuts or raw veggies or fruit is also good to avoid the "I'm hungry and stressed" eating.

I'm a super simple cook on the day to day basis--I usually just do some kind of meat, vegetables, and whatever else seems to go--rice or potatoes (roasted) or sweet potato, etc. I keep my portion of the starch reasonably small but that's good when you have people in the house who aren't dieting. If I have the food on hand I can cook a good meal in 30 mins or under. Sometimes I roast things or do rice which will take longer, but usually those things are mostly hands off. I love roasting chicken pieces and potatoes, putting in veggies with the potatoes toward the end, and then getting them out. Delicious and no work at all.

I totally get the feeling 'exhausted', honestly I hate exercising,but I still take a walk every day. (I have a dog)About 2-3 neighborhood kids tag along. They love it! I say start there. Short walks with your kiddies you'll enjoy it!