What foods do you choose when you're feeling depressed or anxious? Or happy and optimistic?

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  • mamadon
    mamadon Posts: 1,422 Member
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    I've been in maintenance for almost four years, but still have occasional struggles with emotional or stressful eating. I'm still able to maintain because I don't let my occasional bursts of happy/sad/worried eating lead me into a defeatist mode, like it would have done before. Yeah, I admit it, to myself and others I still have days when I eat my emotions, I'm not perfect, I just don't ever let that slide into an everyday thing. My diary is open if you want to look. Its got several years of entries on there. High calorie days (2500 plus) are either my weekends, as I balance out my calories or a stressful day.
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,752 Member
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    nickssweetheart wrote: »
    I get it. livingleanlivingclean gave the optimal response. But I'm not optimal yet. Being on myfitnesspal doesn't automatically make us 100% rational human beings all the time. It means, for me, that I'm a work in progress, but at least I'm actively working on it.

    I'm not sure what quoting it over and over added to the thread.

    I was confused by the multiple quotes too!

    And I'm definitely not a rational human being, and always a work in progress - I react to stress in different ways and it took me a long time to find away to cope without food. I still have days where I am in stressful situations and think "I need X, Y, Z and the rest of the alphabet because that'll make me feel good"... I just know how to tell myself no.
  • neenaexp
    neenaexp Posts: 38 Member
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    nickssweetheart wrote: »
    I get it. livingleanlivingclean gave the optimal response. But I'm not optimal yet. Being on myfitnesspal doesn't automatically make us 100% rational human beings all the time. It means, for me, that I'm a work in progress, but at least I'm actively working on it.

    I'm not sure what quoting it over and over added to the thread.
    nickssweetheart wrote: »
    I get it. livingleanlivingclean gave the optimal response. But I'm not optimal yet. Being on myfitnesspal doesn't automatically make us 100% rational human beings all the time. It means, for me, that I'm a work in progress, but at least I'm actively working on it.

    I'm not sure what quoting it over and over added to the thread.

  • neenaexp
    neenaexp Posts: 38 Member
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    I️ didn’t mean to repost that quote repeatedly! But yea, her responses make sense to me.
  • neenaexp
    neenaexp Posts: 38 Member
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    Yea I️ can’t do these forums properly. Just wasted over an hour reading Nick Cave’s entire discography.
  • nickssweetheart
    nickssweetheart Posts: 874 Member
    edited November 2017
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    There's a learning curve. With 31 posts you're not expected to be perfect yet. ;)
  • neenaexp
    neenaexp Posts: 38 Member
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    Beautiful lyrics too! Someone needs to start a lyrics thread...
  • rchelen
    rchelen Posts: 46 Member
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    Stress eater here! Especially around pms I crave everything carb and sugar! When I'm happy? I don't care for them. I eat mostly vegetables!
  • AmyOutOfControl
    AmyOutOfControl Posts: 1,425 Member
    edited November 2017
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    Stress = chocolate and wine. I did not read the other responses in fear of messing up the integrity of your study
  • bioklutz
    bioklutz Posts: 1,365 Member
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    I don't tend to eat my emotion. There was one time in past few years that I was highly stressed (had a gun pointed at me) and I intentionally overate in hopes of it putting me in a food coma so I could sleep. I had mongolian beef chow fun, fried rice and some dumplings.

    Overeating on the positive side usually is events with family or going out to dinner with my husband. My food choices are pretty variable. I will say that I tend to prefer spicy food.
  • Christen850
    Christen850 Posts: 19 Member
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    When I’m stressed/anxious, I binge on something heavy, savory, and cheesy like pasta or pizza. It’s comforting because I grew up on those foods. When depressed, I always go out and “treat” myself to a hot chai latte with shot of espresso for a sweet jolt. When I’m happy, I crave something light and sweet like smoothies or fresh fruit.
  • Idontcareyoupick
    Idontcareyoupick Posts: 2,834 Member
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    I'm an emotional eater. You can look at my diary and compare Sunday 12th to Tuesday 14th on my page. I lean towards chocolate for snacks and other high sugar high calorie to feel better. Working on it though
  • Kipenzi7
    Kipenzi7 Posts: 24 Member
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    This is great you guys, thank you so much for the responses. I'm figuring out if there's a good way to organize this for data purposes but keep em coming if you're willing!
  • Kipenzi7
    Kipenzi7 Posts: 24 Member
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    bebeisfit wrote: »
    I am an emotional eater, when I'm stressed or depressed I can eat 4 or 5,000 calories in a day. I can make my diary open to the public if you like and give you specific days. And I do log all of those calories. Monday, Nov 13th was a stressful day - I visited my mom who has alzheimers. Saturday the 11th was an in control day. I usually make notes for why I overate. I do better when I have meals already cooked vs eating on the fly. I've almost always been a binger, except when I kept an 85lb loss off for a few years in my late 40's. My bio has a bit more info on that. Feel free to pm me with questions.

    That's super helpful, thank you- if it's alright with you I'd like to use those logs as examples in a presentation, with no identifying information of course.

    Most of my patients spend a lot of the time in the hospital so it can be hard to give real-life examples of how we emotionally eat in times of stress. They're stressed of course but don't get to choose to overeat because we control everything, but that doesn't mean they don't need concrete examples to get the idea and hear what sounds familiar to them.
  • Sp1tfire
    Sp1tfire Posts: 1,120 Member
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    I used to go for sugar and fast food when I was stressed but I've realized that it doesn't help the situation and sometimes makes me feel worse and jittery. Sometimes I even got sick. Now I try to stick with my usual foods when I am stressed or busy and it helps me work better and stay healthier.

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