Food

Distraction is always a good strategy.
Make yourself busy.

Think about why you have that impulse. If the problem isn't fueling or nutrition, the best solution isn't food. Find and address the root cause.

Boredom? How about resuming an old hobby, or starting a new one? Bonus points for hobbies that require clean hands (sketching, needlework, playing a musical instrument, etc.) or create dirty ones (painting, gardening, carpentry, etc.).

Habit of eating at a particular time or in a particular situation? The easiest way to break a habit is usually to form a new replacement habit, rather than trying to quit cold turkey. Think about stretching, drinking a hot tea (herbal if too close to bedtime for caffeine), or one of those distracting hobbies.

Fatigue? Work on improving sleep quality/quantity, or reduce over-exercising if that's part of the picture.

Stress? If you can eliminate or reduce the stress, do that. If you can't get rid of it, consider non-food stress management tactics. I can't say what that is for you, but examples of things others do would include journaling, mild exercise, prayer or meditation, adult coloring books, aromatherapy bubble baths, calming music, and more.

Emotional soothing? Some people report good results from learning to sit with the feelings and explore them, rather than stuffing them down. That can be uncomfortable. I'm not advocating rumination/perseveration, but acceptance of the feelings, or focused, productive analysis and problem-solving about how to deal with the situations that provoked the feelings.

There are lots of options, but it matters why the eating is happening. Successful long term weight management really is a long sequence of opportunities for analysis and problem-solving. The results can be very much worth that effort, in improved quality of life, in my experience.

Best wishes!

i also struggle with this. i deal with it - for now - by drinking herb teas i really like, sweetened with stevia extract, which has no calories. i eat a lot of calorie-free popsicles made from my favorite 0 calorie sodas and water enhancers. i may eat a fat-free light yogurt - there are some flavors i really enjoy. sugar free juicy gels - 5 calories each, strawberry and the orange ones are good. there's more tasty low to no calorie things.

as to ann's point about why one eats, for me it's a combination of exhaustion - there's not a lot of positive things one can do when you're too tired to stand up, and stress combined with exhaustion. for a while, i stopped my munching, but after some scary things, i'm still dealing with processing my feelings about it.

Practice.


Ya hafta start saying, "No."

That is at times very challenging. These are things that work for me… chewing sugar free gum, water, flavored no calorie seltzer, go for a walk

hounton wrote: »

Dr. Weil's 478 breathing
https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=weil+478+breathing&mid=35EDBD5DCD943DF34AFC35EDBD5DCD943DF34AFC&FORM=VIRE

This is mostly about increased nitric oxide production and it's effects on our overall health and well being, which is well documented and I guess it could relate to this post in a way of reducing inflammation and stimulating white blood cell production and a bunch of other effects. One thing he didn't mention is that humming during these sessions increase nitric oxide production 15-20 times. Twice a day is my particular schedule, once in the morning as soon as I get up and another in the afternoon.