How do you stop the cycle of bad eating?

Well, I think it's okay to tell yourself that tomorrow is a new day. But only if you actually start fresh the next day.

When I eat a bad meal, instead of saying tomorrow is a new day and I will start over, I say my next meal is a new start and I eat well for my next meal. I think this journey is one meal at a time not one day at a time. The more you start making good choices the better you will start feeling. The better you start feeling the more you will want to make good choices. One meal/snack at a time

I had one of those days yesterday where I ate more in the mid-morning than I would normally eat. What always stops me from completely throwing away the entire day is to log what I ate right away, and I mean everything. When I do that, it brings me back to reality and helps me to stay on track for the rest of the day. I may end up going over but I don't go over by that much.

My triggers are being bored - I am a multi-tasker during the week and find that the weekends are challenging to stay busy, especially when it's not nice outside and I'm stuck inside. What helps me (when I remember to do it), is to make myself a list of things to get done on the weekend, and to especially keep myself out of the kitchen!

Good luck! You will find something that works for you to avoid emotional eating.

Good advice so far. I have had a little success so far in losing the weight, but I will admit that I still like to eat and still have the eating habit. For me it's not emotion but habit and boredom. I'd like to work on that, but step one for me was replacing bad eating with good eating.

I always make sure that the kitchen is stocked with things on my "good list." There are so many things that we can snack on that won't blow our days. If you haven't already, develop a fondness for fruits and vegetables. You can eat so much and still have a positive effect on your health. Make it unacceptable to open a box or a can or cover something with a sauce.

Some of my favorite snacks are simple ones and are fairly satisfying. I will slice up an apple and an orange and sit with that. Slice it up on a plate, so it takes longer to eat and you have something to do with your hands. The other night, I took romaine leaves and topped each with a thin slice of tomato and a few small slivers of onion. Drizzled VERY lighly with a fat free, low cal dressing (wasabi dijon, in this case) and it made a great plate to snack on for under 75 calories. Pretzels are my backup, but I strictly control the portions.

Like a previous poster, I prepare some things ahead of time. Once a week (or more often as needed), I prepare a really big tupperware full of salad. That way, it is always ready and I can just dish it on to a plate. It's easy to eat until you are really full and you still have been good to yourself. I also cook a soup weekly and preportion it into servings of about 100-150 calories. You can make sure that it's full of good stuff and lacking in the bad stuff.

The key is having easier access to the foods that are good choices than you do to the bad choices.

And my number one rule is that I NEVER eat anything before I whip out my phone and log the meal. I might plate it and sit down, but before I touch a fork I make sure to log what is on my plate. That focuses my mind on the decision I am about to make and gives me another chance to make sure that I am doing the right thing.

Good luck!

I started by:

1) tracking for a couple of weeks before I worried about losing.
(although seeing what I was eating I couldn't help but rein back a bit)

2) seeing where I could make small changes on things that weren't that important to me.
(Don't even think of taking chocolate out of my diet!!!)
--Reducing quantities where I won't notice it so much
--Swapping out things instead of eliminating them.


3) Look at my diary and started adding foods that had positive healthy effects specifically for the health issue in my family.
I found most of the things I "should" add were really yummy too! salmon, avocado, oatmeal, mango, red grapes....
(Sort of think of food as medicine to deal with family history of various health issue oatmeal is good for heart health, mango and red grapes lower cholesterol, tumeric and cinnamon good for arthritis)

4) every couple of weeks I see where I can make another couple of small changes.
If you completely revamp your diet, it's way easy to revert to old ways in times of stress.
If you make a series of small changes, food still offers you some sense of comfort.
sort of a comfort continuum, and after a while the first small changes will seem comforting in themselves.
You don't have to be perfect you just have to do better.

5) also rather than being uberstrict with the target MFP set for me I did the math to find out the calories needed to maintain my goal weight and my current weight and I gave myself a range with 1200 as my rock bottom, lose 1 lb/wk as my target and maintain my goal weight as the top of my range. As long as I keep within in this range I'll lose. I tend to naturally zig zag my calories 3-4 at very close to my target and then a higher calorie day closer to the top of my range.

As long as I stayed under maintain my current weight calories I won't gain. So no need to throw in the towel, just pick-up where I left off.

Once I found ways to lessen the stress, I found it way easier to focus on the process and let the results follow. (It's what worked for me some people nee the stress to get them motivated. Me I get scared and overwhelmed and don't see the big goal as acheivable. I only worry about it 1 lb at a time.)

I figure if I've got a good plan that I can actually maintain I can keep this off for a long time to come, without feeling deprived.
Good Luck

Great advice for me too!

I am an emotional eater as well. I used to do what you said, just forget it until the next day or even the next MONDAY! I don't know how many times I have started over on Monday!! I agree with one person who said to just tell yourself I am starting over the next snack, or meal. Also to log in what you ate even if if went way over your calories or carbs for the day. That way we are facing what we did and not just shoving it under the rug, so to speak.

You can do this! We are ALL in the same boat!