I eat when I'm bored

I also tend to eat when I am bored. I think everyone does to some extent. If I feel like I going to overeat I drink coffee and that curbs the hunger.

As far as being on track, just keep logging even when you go over. At least you are doing something positive. I don't where one can find motivation externally I think it has to come from within. When you do get your motivation back start up your steps/exercise. Good luck.

I entertain myself with food too. I love to prepare it and I love to eat it, especially baking.

The main way I have found to avoid the boredom eating is to keep my hands busy with something else. Last year I crocheted 6 afghans (one for every household in my family) and I lost 75 lb. I recently took up coloring books, mostly floral designs or mandalas.

Gisel2015 wrote: »

Out of curiosity and without offending anybody but, how do people get bored? I am honestly asking this question because I am puzzled, especially when I read posts like these one in MFP.

This is actually a very good question. Although I understand boredom, I can also use it as an excuse for procrastinating about something. Or maybe it means I just feel lazy. It's a great excuse for a lot of things -- including eating! So thinking about what's "really" behind feeling bored might be worth exploring.

Miss Lezlie, if you think about it, you may not have time to be bored. You seem to have a very busy schedule taking care of your children and house all day. I remember those days; having nothing to do, was never the problem. Not having something to do was "the" problem. However, sometimes the everyday routine of a stay at home mom can be boring and overwhelming. My only suggestion is that you do some kind of food and activity planning and try to switch things around. Plan for a walk with your baby (weather permitting), after your drop your older children at school, or plan the walk before you pick them up. You will be out of the house and not tempted to over eat. Review your food intake and make sure that you get enough protein and fat in your meals to keep you full longer. Keep out of the house those high calories tempting treats until you are able to control your cravings. Get DVDs workouts that you can do several times a week when your baby is sleeping. Plan your day and like PamOliva suggested try to find out what is really behind you boredom. If you still feel like blowing your diet off, maybe you should talk to your doctor and ask him/her to test your thyroid. Sometimes boredom is actually lack of energy and over eating may be a sign of a hypothyroid.
Good luck and congratulations on your weight loss so far.

I just have a few things that may not be helpful but this is potentially complex.

First of all it's possible that you're eating for reasons other than boredom. It could be environmental for example. It could be that recent lack of positive feedback has caused motivation to dwindle a bit (this is a downward spiral and it sucks).


It could genuinely be boredom.

A few things I would consider implementing in the short term:

1) The next time you find yourself mindlessly snacking, ask yourself if you are hungry. If you are not hungry, you can still choose to eat the food, but say to yourself "I am not hungry but I am going to eat this anyway". This will sound almost insane but it will bring about a high level of awareness to your eating habits as well as satiety cues. It will also likely cause you to not eat some of those snacks some of the time.

2) Arrange your kitchen such that energy dense, snack-prone foods like chips, cookies, etc are less prevalent, invisible, and inconvenient in your food environment. For example, never keep chips in an open bag on the counter. Keep them sealed and in a cupboard that you do not frequent. In extreme cases some people are better off not even keeping them in the house. Keep healthier options like fruits and vegetables more visible and more accessible in your environment. This will increase the likelihood that when you do snack, you choose better options.

3) Create physical distance from the food. Quite literally, stay out of the kitchen unless you are preparing food for yourself or your family. If you are going to play with your kids, do it further away from the kitchen.

Finally, if the issue truly is boredom, the above things will still be helpful, but you should just go out of the house and do fun things with your kids.

Good luck and feel free to PM me if you have questions.

Eat at the dining room table so you can associate food with food.
That helps you retrain yourself so that you are not eating at random times and places.

I work full time and go to school 3/4 time. When semesters end, I'm sometimes "bored" in the evenings because of the abrupt cessation of being excessively busy, where every moment had multiple things I need to be doing. I also find that sometimes when I'm stressed or unhappy I will be "bored" in the sense that I don't want to do any of the things that are available to do - neither the house cleaning or exercise I should be doing nor the reading, crocheting, playing computer games or watching TV that I could entertain myself with. Neither of those situations is anything like the extreme boredom I experienced when working 60+ hours a week at a job where I spent 2-3 hours a day literally tied to a desk (actually physically attached to the desk with a ground cable, though I could remove it) with no work and not allowed to leave, get me work, or do anything at else except sit quietly and wait for more work. So in that sense, I suppose I'm not ever really bored now - I suppose what most of us mean when we say "bored" is that we don't like the available options of activities.

As to eating when you are bored...maybe try low calorie foods? I eat cucumber or broccoli when I feel hungry but know I shouldn't really be hungry. I also know when I'm craving soda that I need to drink more water because I'm actually just thirsty or stressed. If it's a habit like a nervous twitch where you need to be doing something with your hands and snacking does that for you, maybe take up a hand craft like crochet or knitting or macrame.

One other thought - this might be just me, but I sometimes have this restless, annoyed, bored sort of feeling, which sends me rattling around the house, turning the TV on and off, trying to read but can't pay attention, staring pensively into the fridge and cupboards but not finding anything I want, kind of like a stereotypical teenage angst scene. I've learned that I won't get any satisfaction from eating in this state, because what's actually going on is me being horny. Just a thought - one appetite can spill over into others and make things confusing.