Boredom Eating

When it hits, get up and move.

Why are you bored? Do you not know how to get up and exercise?

I make a big pot of hot tea and drink that so I'm still consuming something to help the craving. I also started keeping a chart on the fridge and keep track of the days I overeat/bored eat/binge, it helps keep me on track to visually see and if I go a certain amount of days without overeating I treat myself with something non food related.

And I agree with getting up and moving. Go for a walk, find an activity to do, exercise, or if it's late at night just go to bed.

I get bored and want to snack during the day at work. No, I cannot just get up and leave my desk to go exercise or entertain myself. I just make sure I only keep healthy snacks around and I usually pre-log them all so I know what I can and can't eat throughout the day.

I have the same problem as where I work is very slow and somewhat dull. There is some truth to the get up and move thing, i go for lots of walks, it does keep me from eating.

To overcome boredom ... do something.

When I was growing up, I learned very quickly to entertain myself. If I dared to say the words, "I'm bored" to my mother, I'd be out washing windows or something. She would find me something to do ... and chances are it wouldn't be at all what I had in mind.

So I learned to become busy all the time.

Tips
-- Exercise. Here are a whole list of sports: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sports ... start working your way through them.

-- Get a hobby. Here are a whole list of hobbies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hobbies ... start working your way through them.

-- Take classes. Most communities have community courses (check with your local library or your town website if you're not sure). Colleges and universities also have community courses. Or maybe you might want to pursue a degree.

-- If you're at work, take on extra projects, see if your company will let you take courses during work time, put your hand up for various committees ... become involved.


And of course, simply don't have food available at a time when you might become bored. Have tea or chewing gum or something else around instead.

I go for a bath. My boredom eat time is every evening!

bainsworth1a wrote: »

getting up and moving is a good suggestion.
I have to keep my hands busy. especially if all I am doing is watching tv to relax. I have to do something else too like be on the computer or crochet.

Yeah, me too ... I rarely just sit and watch TV. I just can't do that. I'm usually dashing about doing housework during the commericals, or working on a hobby or two or three during the show.

I have to be VERY busy to not think about food. Saying go exercise isn't the most helpful thing, especially when your tied to the work desk with a boring report to write or you are winding down for the night.

I find not keeping snacks around at all helps and if I do want a snack I have to 'work' for it - eg go and get it from the shop or make it at home. Usually by the time the snack is within reach I don't want it anymore.

Other things I can suggest are drinking lots of water, and allocating snack calories and logging before eating. I personally have moved into no snack zone. For me they are empty calories - snacking doesn't fill me up I just want more. Try a few things and see what works for you.

Sugarless gum is one thing that can help with this, another option is 'fiddle toys' for passive brain stimulation while you work on something boring and must remain at your desk (a stress ball or the 'tangle relax therapy' are good options).