Any Emotional/Stress Eaters? How to cope when it's not just a "Craving"

1. You are not the only one really like this.
2. You can’t fix this problem by focusing on the eating. Eating is not the cause of your problem. It’s the effect.

Okay. For me, the thing I had to avoid was getting locked into a cycle of "I feel stressed and nervous, therefore I am eating. I had cake! There goes the diet! I feel like a failure, today is shot, I can start fresh tomorrow but I really blew it tonight and... And I may as well have some more cake. Oh, great. Now I REALLY did it..." (For the record, I'm an introvert. I think on some level, my brain worked it out that if I was constantly eating, I wasn't standing around wishing I knew how to make small talk. So in social settings, gravitating toward the food was just... what I did.)

So. When I knew I was going to be out, I tried to anticipate what was likely to be served and log it in advance. Sometimes I was right, sometimes I wasn't, but I could at least ballpark the food that was there and figure out whether, say, two chocolate chip cookies was close enough to one gingerbread man.

And along the way, I lost my food stress. Basically, logging gave me permission to eat something a bit higher in calories than usual without stressing and feeling guilty.

Which brings me to my next coping method: as much as possible, I log food before I eat it. Sometimes it's 5 seconds before, but it goes in my journal before it goes in my mouth. And then, I can see for myself how many calories it is and how much I have left. It's a last-minute check that keeps me 'real'. Am I sure I want this? Is it worth it? If it's too big a 'hit', am I willing to either close out my diary in the red, eat a lighter supper, or work out? And sometimes? The answer is "Yes." And sometimes, it's "I do want something sweet and chewy, but a brownie just isn't worth it. I'll have a Fiber One bar."

Remember when I mentioned working out? Exercise is a stress reliever. I find that on the whole, I'm less anxious and less moody when I can get a good walk or strength training workout in. Plus, the time I spend exercising is time when I can drown out the voice of the leftovers calling me from the fridge.

Not pretending I never go off the rails anymore. But I find that it's gotten easier and when I do, I don't fall far.

Hang in there.

I’m totally an emotional eater as well. Of course, the ideal solution would be to resolve the root of your stress, but that’s a hefty task.

I think a couple of things helped for me. I don’t keep any snack foods around my home if I can help it. If I slip up and purchase something that doesn’t suit my goals I either bring it into work to give to coworkers or (and this was hard for me at first) throw it out. Minty things also dissuade me from eating. So I try to brush my teeth after dinner. I keep a bag of Pur gum in my purse. If I find myself tempted to binge or in the middle of a binge, I just start chewing that gum instead. I also keep a huge selection of tea, for when I feel like tasting something but don’t want the calories.

On a more meta level, I started to let myself have bad days. Often I would give into the emotional eating so I could move on from my problems and get things done. Now I’ve just accepted that sometimes I’m going to be emotionally distraught, and instead of trying to block that feeling out with food, I just let myself feel those bad feelings.

I still slip up, but these days I try to think why I binged instead of just feeling guilty or punishing myself.