The smell and sight of many foods makes me crave them. My mouth will even water!

Grocery shopping is like a mine field.

I'm keeping a diary of sorts about the feelings I get associated with food.

Worry is something I repeatedly find blocks me from being conscious of how much and how fast I eat food. I got in touch with this by having a goal of chewing the food more slowly, swallowing it all, then counting to at least 5, then going for the next bite. This helped to break down the way I distance myself from what is in front of me; the plate of food.
Slower eating focuses me on eating and it makes me fuller faster for one thing, but the real benefit is that it gives me an opening to identify the mood I'm actually in, the emotions, and eventually I have seen a pattern of how I gain permission from myself for myself to overeat by thinking about stressful events, even ones from the past, and other highly emotional things. Once I saw that, it became a lot easier to stop doing it and has stopped almost automatically just with this new awareness.

Hello all. I'm new to this group. My name is Doug and I live in the Akron, Ohio area. I recognize that I'm an emotional eater. Stress is a trigger for me. When I'm stressed, I go for the comfort foods; pizza, chocolate, chips, etc. or sometimes for the wine or beer.

I own my emotional eating, and I'm working to do better to manage my stress, to not overeat and to not eat the wrong types of things. In reflecting upon all of this, I grew up in a family where food equaled love and the parents, grandparents, others used food in holiday rituals, to recognize achievements, to comfort, etc. I'm not pointing fingers, but I am trying to unlearn much about food that I learned early on and to reset my relationship with food.

I also think it's important to have friends and support on this journey. Anyone please feel free to include me as a friend if you would like. I track each day and I have an open diary.

Stress

I have turned to food for comfort ever since I can remember, as does my whole family. We also use food as a way to celebrate as many people do. My dad was from the clean plate club and my mother put too much food on my plate, so I was robbed of tuning into my natural fullness cues from young on. I was not allowed to leave the table until I ate it all and it was always too much. I have lost and gained and lost and gained over the years. I tend to freak out when my weight loss shows and people comment on my looks. It just makes me feel so vulnerable and afraid and something snaps and the weight comes back on. I am too good at rationalizing or denying the amount of food I am eating. So, here I am again with my fitness pal. This time, I am also seeking professional help to work through the emotional issues that are keeping me overweight and unhealthy. I realize I need this extra support to make the loss permanent this time.

-Feeling less empowered in my world
-Feeling hopeless
-Dealing with difficult people (mostly family trigger me)

General frustration in myself but much of it is programming from my childhood. Have a sad thought, reach for empty nutrients and stuff the emotions into an abyss.

thor1god1of1awesome wrote: »

Mostly anixety drives me to overeat

That is why I am overeating since this election. Anyone else worried?

classykaren wrote: »

thor1god1of1awesome wrote: »

Mostly anixety drives me to overeat

That is why I am overeating since this election. Anyone else worried?

Everyone is. But it is important to remember that some things can not be done alone. That is why we have the Senate and the House. Years when the same party is in all places, historically tend to go better, no matter which party. There is so much help speech making, that might really off set things said being flip. I am 63, so I remember bad times, and we got thru them also. If you are a person of faith, God has this, and is in control, even for nations. If you don't, use the time to ponder. Do you really think we are an accident?

Being sad and depressed , lonely , confined because I just do not feel like going out of my room , lost of my soul and faith and life . I lost my mother in Jan 27th on me and my husband's wedding anaversary and I'm in therapy but I feel dead inside no one understands around me so I eat all my emotions away and I have gained weight , so I know how hard it is when the feeling of the need to just go eat is and it really doesn't have to be b anything yummy , just anything all day and night for me .

Hi lilmisscrabby and beverlyj, Welcome here, first time I've seen you all. I love the honesty of both your posts. Thanks for sharing the reality of your personal 'now'. That is a good start to conscious eating imo! my problem is that I just want to avoid all of my emotions, it hurts too much to feel them.

I overeat because I only eat once a day. It's bad. Also stress and sadness.

I need to start convincing, no start believing that the "hangover" isn't worth it. The guilty, the weight, all of it, the vicious cycle hangover needs to stop.