Emotional Eating

I agree! Stress and anxiety. I always reach for food to calm my nerves.

Not being able to control the outcome or change a situation. New situations, sadness, loneliness, boredom, frustration.

I am a complete emotional eater... Raised in an Italian Family, we always cooked enough food for an Army, we ate when we were happy, we ate when we are sad... everything always revolved around food. Sick, eat... bored, eat... eat eat eat eat!!! Slowly trying to change my mindset about food. One day at a time...

tlh68 wrote: »

I agree! Stress and anxiety. I always reach for food to calm my nerves.

This made me gain 60lbs.

sometimes its one thing. something upset me, I'm bored, lonely, etc. or it can be a combo of things going on that leads me to poor food choices.

After restricting/resisting foods all day; and getting home exhausted, I tend to mindlessly eat to "reward" myself for getting thru the day.

You might want to check out the website for the beck diet solution. It really isn't a diet--she is a cognitive behavioral therapist. There are some really good (and free) tips on the site about how to change your reactions to triggers. It has helped me a lot, but I think that I will always struggle with emotional eating.

Triggers for me are stress and sadness, and I agree with whomever mentioned feeling a loss of control in my life. I never really thought about it that way, but that almost exactly describes what I'm feeling when I stress eat. And that is also interesting, since I have seen many anorexics state that feeling out of control in their life had contributed to their anorexia. When I am eating and immediately after I feel an endorphin rush that takes away the negative feelings. It doesn't last long, though, and of course leads to weight gain and negative feelings. So I try to substitute other activities--a hot bath, reading a book, going for a walk, or even a different treat (hot tea with splenda, or hot chocolate seem to work. Fruit or other substitutes less so).

richbrenton wrote: »

Well, I keep asking myself what will be different this time. I've had some success with this action: when feeling the urge for food, even after I know I have had enough to eat, I say to myself: "this too will pass, and you can have that food, just wait a 15 minutes". I find that if I just put a little time between me and the urge, I get busy with something else, and the urge it passes. So this is what I'm going to do different this time I'm going to pause when I feel the urge and not admonish myself that I can't have it, but that I just can't have it now.

That really is one of the things that has worked best for me. I am also a big advocate for reaching out to a friend or family member who knows your struggle and seeing if they have five or ten minutes to chat, whether via text or phone call, to provide that distraction and receive support and encouragement. I've also looked up positive mantras, wrote down the ones that I connected with, and bring them out when needed. I also find that I can't have "trigger" foods in the house; there are some foods that I just can't seem to eat in decent portions, especially when tempted to eat for emotional comfort. Not having it in the house (or at the office) helps a lot. (When I want a treat, I go buy an individual portion rather than keep a whole box of cookies in the house, for example.) Lastly, one other trick I've been trying on myself lately, is planning a "cheat meal" every week and when I am tempted to order pizza instead of eating the healthier food in my house, I'll say to myself, "You can do that, but, if you do, you don't get to have X that you're so looking forward to on Friday night" and that really helps--especially if my cheat meal is combined with time with friends! I don't want to be the only one fretting about calories at girls' night

This is definitely still a huge struggle for me so I look forward to seeing how others handle this issue!

I have been good for fifteen days then last night I bought junk at the store, foolishly thinking I could have a little each day but instead spent less than 24 hours eating it all, did not exercise for 2 days and am 950 calories over my goal and it is only 3PM. The obvious answer is not to bring it into the house. Why I sabotage myself, I don't quite know and maybe it doesn't change anything if I did, I'm going to take a nap and try to start fresh.

For me before I could even begin to think about controlling my food intake I had to fix the aspects of my life and my self that were driving me to eat.

That meant a hard road of self discovery and self improvement. Changing the way I viewed the world and myself. Gaining some self confidence, self worth and learning about healthy boundaries and relationships. It meant changing my environment from the place I lived to the people I surrounded myself with to the way I make a living.

It started in 2008 with a realization that something had to change. It got rolling in 2009 with walking into an aikido dojo. Finding a physical activity that I loved so much that I wanted to do it even though I knew that the next several days were going to be painful. Being willing to do that for months and then years. Gaining skills in that environment which built up self confidence. Discovering wonderful new friends who were supportive and encouraging. Understanding yes but never allowing me to make excuses either. Learning how to think about positive things and not dwell on negatives. Getting a better job with better income so that I could afford to live in a home that was comfortable and for me easy to maintain. Being in a home where keeping things neat and clean is not an overwhelmingly large chore. Feeling good about my home helped with depression and low self worth.

18 months ago I entered the phase of changing jobs and home. Getting stable after this huge change took some time. Now I am in a place where I have a support network and an outlet for stress and anxiety. Stress and anxiety are no longer about things that are quite as severe as not having enough money to pay bills or a house falling down around me because I could not do anything to fix it.


I have fixed my outlook on life, my environment and my career. Through aikido I am learning to deal with years of repressed anger and traumas in a more healthy way. Now I can focus on putting food in it's proper place.