Emotional Eaters and Food Addictions Area

lemurcat12 wrote: »

For anyone interested in this topic, there's a reasonably active emotional eaters group here: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1012-emotional-eating

I consider myself an emotional/stress eater, although I am working on it, and definitely have a tendency to use eating behaviors to self-comfort (not good with emotional discomfort and it's one of many avoidant behaviors I fall back on too easily still). Don't consider that to be the same thing as a food addiction -- I don't think food addiction is a thing* except in that we ALL need it to live, of course, and would have major side effects, like death, without it, but I do think eating addiction is. I don't have that either, though, despite my various eating-related issues, as I see it as more extreme, like what some morbidly obese people struggle with, where eating and certain foods become priority one.

*I don't care if others do, though, or have any interest in arguing. Whatever works. Just saying how I feel about it. I do think some websites or gurus with hand out sometimes are too quick to try to convince people that normal human behaviors like having some trouble moderating tasty food=major problem/addiction/something wrong with you.

Nobody can argue with your viewpoint really because there's many ways to see it.

One thing I find interesting is what you said about needing food to live. Absolutely! We do! Wish we could just walk around with "nutrition lines" attached to us but it doesn't work that way.

That's probably the rub. With cigarettes or drugs or booze, you don't need the thing to stay alive. With food you do.

And you can't make food an "enemy" and just go cold turkey. So you're stuck trying to figure out how to make food work for you instead of the other way around.

You mentioned comfort food or food to comfort. I decided the term "comfort food" was an insidious way of getting into our psyches. Words have power. And who doesn't want/need comfort every so often? Besides, it almost seems like everything that isn't a "comfort" food is, by default, a discomfort food. Not a very good message.

I'm trying to get free from that bugaboo myself. What techniques do you use?

sarseg81 wrote: »

I am an emotional eater. I blindly eat when I'm bored or sad; but, hardly ever over eat when I'm angry or happy.

I've been overweight since puberty, before then I was a skinny tomboy. I can't remember a time that I was under 240 until now. I started the year at 246 and last Monday I weighed in at 226, so yay 20 lbs down.

Any way looking for friends trying to lose weight and get healthy. Any body feel free to add me

Hey thats awesome! Give yourself a huge hurrah!!!

And it seems theres a number of us with the same thing a-goin. As well as people willing to offer support!

mccannnp wrote: »

I spent many years " eating my feelings." But it stopped working so went into counseling which I strongly reccomend.EMDR and cognitive behavioral therapy helped identify and treat the anxiety that caused my over eating. Currently reading a book called change anything. It points out that " will power" is not an inherent trait but rather a set of skills that can be learned.

As you read and learn, if you come across any insights from the book that you think could be helpful, feel free to share them!

Will power is something developed, I think. Some people have been so broken down in life that they never learned the skill as a constant in their lives. It seems to me that one thing people who have a problem with food limits have in common with people who are addicted to cigarettes, etc., is that they "enjoy" the item. Be it because of taste, or because of emotional need, the food, like the cigarette or whatever, offers a temporary satisfaction.

Adam is absolutely correct in saying we need to replace this with something else. I think the key is what you replace it with that gives one the same satiating sensation but without the guilt and, obviously, weight gain.

My husband smoked for 40 years. He quit "cold turkey" (without any patches or pills) but he did replace the hand motion with cut up plastic straws that were the same size as cigarettes. Ingenious! And he became a gum chewer.

He was able to pinpoint the hand motion, oral touch and of course, the need for something in his mouth (like sucking in smoke I guess) and replace them with make-shift replacements.

Anyone on here have any idea what the break down is with food and what to replace those elements with? I'm totally flummoxed on that one!

lemurcat12 wrote: »

I actually don't think it's about replacing it directly, although there are things that can in the short term and make it easier (I often go to get coffee or tea instead of snacking at the times I used to use food for stress, etc.). Simply replacing it with low calorie options (carrots, kohlrabi, celery, radishes, a pickle) can be an option, and stuff I've used as a temporary measure at times. But a huge thing is dealing with stress or bad feelings in a different way -- journaling, exercise, music, sitting with the feelings (can be a big one), meditating or prayer, talking to someone, etc.

Very interesting. "Sitting with the feelings". We seem to live in a society that wants to do all we can to avoid facing any feeling that's uncomfortable, don't we? So that would seem to be counter productive EXCEPT for the fact that sitting with the feelings can also be just waiting to see if they pass! And they often do, so I am finding.

Good points!

TitaniumTexan wrote: »

Hi, all, glad to see this discussion. One thing I have found VERY helpful in my struggle not to turn to fatty food and/or beverages when I'm upset is shadowboxing classes. After I had been taking shadowboxing classes for several weeks, one day something bad happened and I realized that my first thought had not been to make nachos and/or a cocktail...it had been that I wanted to punch something. So I did. :-) Don't worry, it was just the air in my class, but it made me feel great. I then started saving up all of life's little (and not-so-little) irritations and punching them out during class. MUCH better.

Whew!! Remind me to watch out for you! lol Actually that sounds really good!

I wonder if getting a boxing bag and hanging it near my husband would help? Just kidding!
Really though, I think sometimes we develop coping skills in our younger years that simply aren't healthy. This sounds like a great idea when one is feeling very angry or upset as opposed to eating the foods that "make" us "feel good".

Thanks for the in-put!

angielee43 wrote: »

I'm so sorry...prayerfully a better tomorrow

Thanks so much. Prayer truly works! I got up, worked out. Called the day a new start. Ate lean ham for protein (and nothing else); had a salad with some chopped chicken, smoked oysters, EVOO and a small ciabata roll.

The bane of my existence is not planning ahead. I should've planned ahead for working and for eating at a meeting. Ugh!