Stress eating

kirstendawm
kirstendawm Posts: 101 Member
edited November 20 in Health and Weight Loss
How do you all control your stress eating? I like food anyways, but I find comfort in it when I'm stressed about work or school. Having a soda or an afternoon snack seems to relieve some of my stress. I know that this is not healthy.
Have any of you dealt with this or are dealing with it now? How do you deal with it??

Replies

  • lynn1643
    lynn1643 Posts: 36 Member
    I have the same problem and am looking for help too, especially after work. The book "Brain over binge" helped me a bit....
  • whmscll
    whmscll Posts: 2,254 Member
    There Is nothing wrong with an afternoon snack, and if your soda is diet there's nothing wrong with that, either.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    Woah. What's unhealthy about a soda or snack? Make them fit into your allotment and you're golden. As far as stress eating, move more.
  • philiesgrl22
    philiesgrl22 Posts: 19 Member
    I was the same way in college. I was drinking a soda a day, and then I read an article that said if you drink 1 can of soda a day for a year you gain 10 pounds just from all the sugar. This article is what kicked my soda habit. This was back in December 2009, and now I vary rarely drink soda, and I really don't miss it much.
  • QueenOSpades
    QueenOSpades Posts: 171 Member
    I would stay away from diet soda as it's full of junk. Low sodium club soda with lemon/ lime is as awesome substitute!
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
    If it is one soda and a snack, it seems that it is part of a good plan that can work for you.
  • Asher_Ethan
    Asher_Ethan Posts: 2,430 Member
    Ugh I'm the worst stress eater.... I finally am able to control simple stress from work (drinking more water and redirecting my attention to something else from food) but a couple of weeks ago one of my good friends and dog died in the same weekend... there was no stopping that stress eating but Monday I was right back on it.
  • ogmomma2012
    ogmomma2012 Posts: 1,520 Member
    Diet soda is just fine. I want to binge with stress too. Sometimes I give in... but I move on from that knowing that it will take a little longer to get back to my goals. Sometimes I run up the stairs or run around my office building. I can only keep that up for a couple minutes but it really helps release the stress or pent up anger. LATELY, the stress has been enough for me to go back to smoking, but it's blown over and I don't want to keep smoking so reminding myself how good exerting myself feels is important so I don't go back to food or smoking.
  • jeweidanz
    jeweidanz Posts: 14 Member
    I go for a walk and listen to an audio book. I still want my favorite stress food but at least I am not around it. :)
  • kelseyluthy
    kelseyluthy Posts: 6 Member
    I'm a huge stress eater. Like Dr Pepper and a Hershey bar before bed on high stress days. I quit soda. I haven't quit chocolate but I switched to dark and allow myself 1/4 of a bar if I did good throughout the day now. Kinda a treat, guilt free! I used to also go and buy a blizzard and take 5 bites before saying "you'll never reach your goals going this route" then toss it in the trash. I used to finish my 1yr olds food when she was done, I quit that. You just have to tell yourself "I'm in control. Not my cravings!"
  • maggiewithfins
    maggiewithfins Posts: 75 Member
    Make a list of things to do to distract yourself and do those instead of stress eating. And don't be too hard on yourself, else you'll have two problems, the original one and the guilt etc from beating yourself up for overeating.
  • Novela2015
    Novela2015 Posts: 1 Member
    I totally stress eat, meditation helps me reduce my stress and I find i will munch less through out the fatty and lose weight. But when I canot find the time to meditate I choose pickles and cucumbers to Bing on
  • thingofstuff
    thingofstuff Posts: 93 Member
    When I know I'm going to stress eat (midterms, finals, interview/go see coming up, PMS, etc.), I try to hide the foods I know I'll eat mindlessly like salty crackers, tortilla chips, or Oreos and keep something out I can eat a lot of. I have a big bowl of granny smith apples on the counter where I can see it and usually pre-cut some to keep in a container for easy-to-eat apples on hand (I have Temporomandibular joint disorder, aka lockjaw, which is stress-induced so sometimes I can't stress eat even if I want to ha). I also pre-cut celery and buy lots of grape tomatoes so there is always something easy to grab in the fridge when I need to sit down and mindlessly eat. I will literally eat an entire bag of spinach during an hour long TV show on study breaks. I keep interestingly flavoured lean turkey deli cold cuts in the fridge (smoked with cracked black pepper is great, but sundried tomato and herb is my fave) for a filling and protean-y snack, it's more expensive so I feel it is necessary to get a few snacks out of it instead of eating it all in one go. I also buy lots of single-serve yogourt pods in a variety of flavours (0% MF so I can have a few, or greek which is WAY more filling) and try to drink tea all the time. I drink mostly green tea anyway, but diet soda from time to time isn't bad for you. I also keep a bag of pitted prunes out, I honestly think prunes are really tasty and are like chewy sweet/sour gummy candy. What's more, if you eat too many you kind of get punished so they are a self-monitoring binge snack. I have found that 6-8 is a reasonably filling serving that does not end uncomfortably. I also always keep a full water bottle within arms reach, because so often I think I'm hungry and feel like I'm getting a headache, but I was really just dehydrated. I hope this helps, all of these strategies have been tried and tested over 5 years of undergrad while modelling and working a job with weird hours (4am/5am wake up 5am/6am start time) then going to classes.
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