Emotional Eating/Binge Eating

I would throw it out. Every time you feel like emotionally eating. i would turn on the kettle. Have a green tea or herbal tea. But this kind of this should really be taken to a counsellor and/or dietitian.

I often eat more when I'm feeling bored or sad and a lot of the tips you mentioned usually help. It sounds like you have a lot of anxiety in general and around food in particular so perhaps counselling would help.

I wouldn't feel right with just throwing it away. I am one of those people that hates wasting food.

I can't stand the thought of throwing out food... I feel sooooo guilty

But I still feel really guilty about spending all that money and then just giving it away

it makes me feel really scared and depressed to give it away

"so much emotional control over me"

you arnt kidding, you are living in fear of food, its like an abusive husband, you wouldnt keep him around, you'd "bin" him

get that food in the bin, or give it to a charity store (they might give you a weird look but bah) or knock on your neigbours door and hand it over

you may feel guilty etc.. whatever but it will pass, but then you can start a new relationship with new food, grab some mushrooms, some peppers, keep a good shelf of spices and experiment and put YOU in control, not the food

you shouldnt fear your food, unless your on the T-rex and velocoraptor diet, then you are perfectly ok to fear your food

^_^

I'm going to disagree with some of the replies here (sorry people!). Don't try to stop it completely - you won't be able to anyway probably until you sort out the REASONS you're doing it.

Next time you want to eat the chocolate think about how you feel. What is making you feel this way? What are you thinking? It's your thoughts and feelings that are making you turn to food. This isn't bad or wrong - in fact it's perfectly normal behaviour! Food is your coping mechanism for the problems you have. Don't worry too much about eating at the moment - try to sort out your problems and then food will get back back into the right place in your life.

In the meantime make sure you're eating healthy meals, try to relax and do lots of inner searching. Be gentle on yourself and forgive yourself...

:-)

I am a emotional eater and also struggle!

I find having low fat treats in this helps so I don't feel like I'm missing out. If my partners eating something something for pudding or supper I can still have something.
Reading helps me about people who are doing well and losing weightit makes me want to do well like they are doing or TV programmes such as 'the biggest loser'
I also look at photos of times when I was happier with myself and this often helps to steer me away.

There are going to be times when you will not be strong. last night I ate much more pasta than I was supposed to because I was feeling miserable and really wanted to dig into some yummy chcocolate desert that was in the fridge but instead I came on here. I felt much more motivated after having some friendly advice on here and went for a walk to help walk off the pasta instead of feeling sorry for myself and eating the pud.

You say you would feel guilty throwing it out but you feel guilty eating it. Which guilt is deeper? Which will you feel good about tomorrow?

I am struggling with comfort eating right now too. Out of control.

What my plan is (starting today) - log foods for the next day the night before. I logged today last night, leaving room for more and watching macros somewhat - at first I was negative in sugar. I included popcorn for a snack. Snacks are good - they stop binges. I am grocery shopping today and picking up 100cal popcorn packs. I would normally make a bag and split it - but right now I would eat it all!

The main things that have helped me are things I've learned from listening to Pema Chodron (a Budhist nun who has several cds about coping).

1) Work with what you can. When you get that craving think to yourself 'am I strong enough to risist this today' and really challenge the idea of whether you are truely strong enough or not. If not, have it but don't feel guilty. the more you do this, the stronger you'll get and the more times you can say not to food.

2) Be gentle on yourself. Beating yourself and getting worked up will only make you worse. try to build some time into your day for relaxing. Mindfulness breathing and meditation are useful for this but again, don't expect to be good at it right away, it takes practice.

3) Do you really what what your craving or could you substitue a healthier option so you still get to eat but don't blow your day. Ie a banana instead of chocolate.

Hope that helps

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I wouldn't feel right with just throwing it away. I am one of those people that hates wasting food. I don't even really know where it came from, but I can't stand the thought of throwing out food... I feel sooooo guilty. I have already talked with her about it being hard not to eat all of the chocolate and so she has taken a lot to work and I have given a lot to friends. But I still feel really guilty about spending all that money and then just giving it away. Part of it is really difficult too, because it makes me feel really scared and depressed to give it away; like once it is gone my security blanket isn't there anymore. It makes me sad that I have to give it away because I can't eat a normal portion of it. It is dumb because it is *just* food, but yet it has so much emotional control over me.

What you're doing is sooo hard keeping it all in the house it's the equivilent of trying to quit smoking but having a 200 carton of cigarettes in the cupboard, trust me get rid of it all and don't buy anymore whether it's giving it away (take it into your work, school, evening class and just tell people what they don't take will be binned) or binning it and pouring a can of coke on top after you've binned it and taking it to where you're bin men collect it outside (so you don't fish it back out)

However it's really hard to go from that to pure clean eating, what I did was get some iced lolly pops in to eat. Dunno what you have where you live but I get Walls mini milks, walls mini twisters and mini fruit pastill lollies to get my sweet fix (only buying one box at a time so I can't go too mad if I have more than one lolly), ice lollies take a few minutes to eat so you usually get over your craving after one and the ones I listed are less then 50 cals a pop

However the main thing may be trying to break the emotional cycle of binge eating and avoid times/places when you binge, so if it's at home get out of the house but def try to speak to someone about it, Good luck and take care. x

I didn't realise my binge eating was out of control until one day I was out shopping with hubby and kids and I managed to buy a chocolate bar & eat it without the hubby noticing and I FELT PROUD that i'd accomplished this. I always knew I had a problem cause I used to hide in the bathroom or in the kitchen and eat something really quick before anyone noticed, but when I felt proud about the chocolate bar, I think that was a real wake up call for me.

I've been a binge eater for nearly all of my life. Since I've joined MFP I've only binged twice, I'm proud to say. It's just as much an emotional thing as a physical thing. You need to take it HOUR by HOUR, and then day by day and so on.... It WILL be VERY hard at first, and I didn't beleive it myself, but it will get better in time. You'll be able to control yourself just that little bit more. Remember you've been doing this for a very long time, don't consider a bad day as a failure, just a little slip up and get yourself back on track. I still have problems the week before my cycle with the sweet (chocolate) cravings, but I don't deny myself anything, I just take it in proper serving sizes now. I find denying yourself makes things even worse, to a point that when you do finally have what you want you 'pig out'. Let yourself have little bits, just enough to satisfy your 'need'.

It will get better, I promise. As long as you're positive, and determined you will get there.

I'd be more than happy to be your friend and help support you, one binger to another