Anyone overcome emotional eating?

I am a stay at home mom and I tend to get stressed easily hint: why I need to lose this weight I am also a emotional eater. It seems to help me not to have all that much junk types of food in my house so I cannot eat unhealthy and I try to find some healthy snacks. such as low fat graham crackers and 1/4 cup of fat free whip topping in the center of two whole crackers and freeze them.. Aww. they taste kinda like those cookies with the ice creem in the middle but they are low fat. to say no to a lof of food we are used to are hard. and easy to just give up and eat. but lets keep our heads up and figure this out together.
Jessica

Emotional eating has always been a big problem for me. I denied it for a long time, thinking that I don't eat anymore than anyone else....and I thought how can it be emotional eating? I was eating no more than three meals a day. It's WHAT I was eating that made me realize this and HOW that eating made me feel. When I eat a cheesburger, hot wings, cake, whatever....it makes me feel good. Temporarily. Just like a drug addict. WHEN I was eating these things also made me realize my problem. When I would get stressful news or have a bad day, dinner would always make me feel better...as long as it was really fattening or sugary. Sodas would also do the trick. Food addiction or emotional eating....it's all the same for me. I ate, I felt better. Then I would feel guilty for what I ate.

As a child, my mother passed away when I was six. My dad took on two jobs, so my sister and I stayed with my grandparents alot. Everytime we'd go over there, we'd get spoiled rotten. We got to go to Toys R Us and get toys and go wherever we wanted to eat. My grandmother would take us to the grocery store and we'd get to pick out whatever we wanted. I'm sure they were just trying to provide a fun place for us to be, to take our minds off the tradgedy of losing our mother. However, food become a comfort. A release of emotions. It was fun to go to grandma's and bake brownies and pound cakes and experiment in her kitchen with all sorts of cooking. None of it was healthy of course. How many kids do you know that want to cook up a chicken breast and veggies???

As an adult, due to life circumstances, I decided to pursue a career in counseling. In graduate school I took Addictive and Compulsive Disorders. This class not only helped me understand my mother's addiction to alcohol, which took her life....it helped me understand my addiction to food. All those yummy things we like to eat release serotonin in our brains just like many drugs will do. I took this class 3 years ago and I'm just now doing something about it. Although I was educated, I wasn't ready to make the change. It all made sense to me, I just didn't care enough about myself to make the change. Food is like any other choice in life. You have to make a decision. Decide you want something better for yourself, your family, your life. Just as someone turns to drugs, alcohol, or cigarettes in a time of emotional turmoil....we turn to food. And just like someone that enters rehab to kick their addiction....we have to take it one day at a time and know that we need support from others who stuggle with the same issues. I'm a firm believer that you can learn more from those who have experienced what you're going through then some textbook that gives you scientific explanations. That's why I'm so grateful I found this site and it's members!!! The value in that is immeasurable.

I don't keep bad foods in the house, that way there's no chance you'll overeat crap food because it's not even around! I don't have any self control at the grocery store either, if I see something I want, regardless of it's health value, I'll buy it - especially if it's on sale! To combat this I have my groceries delivered now. This way I can see whats in my cart and be smarter about my food purchases. Has helped keep the food bill lower too!

Ultimately, the secret to overcoming emotional eating is to fix what's emotional in your life first. If that means seeing a counselor to dig up the root of the problems, so be it. Working on your stress levels and finding ways to decrease the stress in your life, so be it. I struggle with nighttime eating every day. For me its because I'm bored and doing nothing productive, just watching tv. So now I try to do something to keep myself busy - organizing things, cleaning, lifting weights or doing crunches while watching tv, playing wii games, etc. Changing your relationship with food and finding something else to fill the time and/or emotions, is the only way to overcome it all. It's a struggle I have not mastered yet. :ohwell:

sometimes it feels like you can't resist binging or overeating, and sometimes you may legitimately be starving and then your body's natural survival instincts kick in and try to make you binge. I always convince myself to drink a large glass of water, possibly snack on some carrot sticks or an apple and see how I feel afterward. Although the water usually fills me up and also gives me more time to rethink my overeating choices. good luck :flowerforyou:

I have always been an emotional eater in one way or another. Congratulations!!! Food? Sad? Food!!! Etc, etc, I'm sure everyone in this post knows what I mean. Emotional eating for me took on a life of it's own in the last few years though. I've been through alot, put soooooooo much unbelieveable stress on myself, and so alot of the time I would just give in and just go for it. SO not good for me, and I know that now. I posted on this a while back about having a conversation with youself, and I do this. Will the pain and the stress still be there if you devour a dozen cookies? Of course. I work to avoid these things now, and I don't buy the foods that would induce this. Also I drink water, work out, and talk to myself like a totally crazy person :laugh: Good luck and congratulations on your resistance!!!! :flowerforyou: