Stopping the eat impulse

I’m overweight I’ve been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes I lost 14 kg and brought my sugars back to where they should be but have steadily put weight back on as I injured my foot and stopped exercising. I’m emotionally driven by food both stress and boredom! I have a highly stressful job. I need some mechanisms to stop the impulse to eat. I want to be fitter and healthier.

[IndigoBlue61]

Hello and welcome to the forum Lulu919 😊

You have my sympathy, I’m also nursing a very painful foot injury and cannot exercise, it’s not easy. ☹️ The most important thing is to eat the right foods in the right quantity, if you’re not moving much I’ve found I need to keep my carbohydrates low as well as calories. Have a look on the NHS BMI checker for your own target range. And remember, weight loss is 90% food so you don’t HAVE to exercise

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Best wishes in your weight loss journey

Indigo 😊

[IndigoBlue61 in reply to IndigoBlue61]

Ps this posts may help with the emotional eating helpguide.org/articles/diet...

And also have a look at this book by Gillian Riley about the Addictive Desire to Eat healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh...

[Rhosyn2 in reply to IndigoBlue61]

I second Gillian Riley! I love her book Eat Less.

[IndigoBlue61 in reply to Rhosyn2]

She great ain’t she? It’s really helped me. Making what we eat (or don’t eat) a free choice, not a deprivation 😊

[Rhosyn2 in reply to IndigoBlue61]

That shift in mindset is so crucial. <3

[Hidden in reply to IndigoBlue61]

Thank you so much, I’m going to check out the links you sent me. I’m off to the Dr tomorrow to try and work out what is wrong with my foot! X Ray shows no broken bones! So back to the drawing board. I’m going to start logging my food to make a start in minimising what I’m putting in my mouth!

[IndigoBlue61 in reply to Hidden]

Good luck at the Doctors, hope they can sort you out 😊

Logging food is so important, I couldn’t understand why I was overweight when my meals were so healthy, it was all the snacking 😩

[Rhosyn2]

Hi there! I am also an emotional eater. What helped me turn a corner was learning that stresses don't 'let' or 'make' me do anything. It's how I had learned to handle stress.

This was eye opening for me, to think that I cannot eat recreationally anymore to ease boredom, it can't be my hobby, and it can't be the way I ease stress either, I have to find other ways. Food doesn't serve me; other stress relief options might, and I'm trying out a bunch and seeing what works in the moment. It's hit and miss but slowly, I'm moving in the right direction.

I hope that helps you shift your mindset so that you feel in control.

[IndigoBlue61 in reply to Rhosyn2]

Lovely response Rhosyn 😊

[Pineapple27]

Hi Hidden and welcome. I ABSOLUTELY understand the foot injury and boredom driven eating. I have a physical disability that I was born with that severely compromises my mobility, but also had a head on car crash in 2002 and sustained a severe leg injury that resulted in an ankle fusion - I was unable to weight bear at all on one leg for over 3 years (and unable to use elbow crutches because of my disability).

There's nothing better to focus the mind on how to change our bad eating habits than starting to keep a log of everything that we eat during a day - especially if some of the eating is done in a mindless way (eg, taking a biscuit as we pass the open packet on the side in the kitchen...)

If you want this to work for the longer term, you need to think about it as a lifestyle change rather than a diet. That lifestyle change will need to happen a bit at a time and will involve many things : changing your behaviour around food, portion control, emotional eating triggers, increasing your activity levels, trying new foods, making healthy food swaps, etc.

Commitment to diet/lifestyle change and resistance to temptation doesn't just happen! It has to be worked at.

The only way I have succeeded this time is to change how I approach food and eating it. I have learned to resist temptation! BUT please believe that this has taken a LOT of hard work and practice.

It's about "normalising" or "modifying" behaviour around food... and I think that with enough "practice" it becomes more and more easy until you get to the point where a behaviour is modified to the point of it becoming the only way.

I am sure that even some people who are not over weight do sometimes over indulge - but the fact is they don't do it very often...

Those of us who are over weight have been used to "treating" ourselves, eating portions that are too large, eating the things that we know are calorific because we can!

It's been a combination of changing all of those aspects of how I behave around food that has meant I have been successful this time.

I have developed a respect for the food I eat. Not everyone has the ability to eat as well as we in the western world eat. We should not abuse the privilege.

I rarely eat "on the hoof" any more, I rarely eat between meals. I take time to sit at a table and present my meals nicely. I take a moment or two to really look at my plate of food before I pick up my knife and fork.

Almost daily I say to hubbie "Aren't we lucky to be able to enjoy such lovely food". I really mean that too, I am not saying it for anyones benefit but his and mine. We should never take for granted having easy access to delicious food stuffs and our ability and love of cooking!

If you log your food - keep track of how many calories some of those "treats" contain, after a while they kind of stay in your head (medium egg = 70 cals, slice of white bread 100 cals, meringue nest 57 cals, 30g (matchbox size) of cheddar, 122 cals)

I do have sweet treats, but I buy my own choice, so things like 2 finger Kitkat, single finger Twix, Club biscuit... these are all around 100 calories. I keep them in a tin and I can have one whenever I want to, but I limit it to no more than one a day and usually with my afternoon cup of tea. That's not to say I eat one on a daily basis (usually about 2-3 times a week). They are always logged into my diary.

If you don't keep a log of what you are eating and the calories foods contain, then it's a bit like trying to travel from one place to another without a map! You might get there eventually BUT it's likely to take you much longer than if you planned the route and used a map PLUS you might take a few wrong turnings and end up going back on yourself!

I have also learned not to plan each trip out of the house to include food. Once upon a time, I'd have included lunch with a trip into town, coffee and cake with a visit to the garden centre.

I now plan or even prepare a meal BEFORE I go out (usually a salad) so that I know exactly what I can eat as soon as I walk into the door... and don't turn to "what I fancy" (usually high calorie carbs that don't keep you full for very long...)

Make a list of the reasons WHY you want to lose weight. Keep it somewhere safe (stuck to the inside of a kitchen cupboard door?) and look at it from time to time, especially when you are raiding the kitchen for treats!

I always ask myself before eating something really calorific "Do I really want to eat this thing more than I want to lose weight this week?". It's called "mindful eating" - being aware of why you are considering eating - real hunger? Boredom? Temptation? Feeling fed up?

Have a glass of water, wait 5 minutes and consider whether you still want the food. Once it's been snaffled down, it's too late and you may end up feeling cross and angry with yourself....

....and that feeling (guilt, failure) lasts for a long time, much longer than the temporary enjoyment of whatever treat you ate....

Oh, and I always remind myself how good the feeling is of seeing a loss on the scales at my weekly weigh in! That wonderful feeling lasts for days! Don't forget how that feels - you need to remind yourself of that feeling next time temptation strikes!

I’m healthier and fitter now at the age of 56 than I was 20 years ago…..

I am writing this as someone who had struggled all of my life (since the age of 9) to lose weight. I have a significant disability that affects my mobility - use a wheelchair outside of the house. I am also very short (4ft 8”). It wasn't until the age of 49 when I started to log everything and kept track of the calories I was consuming that the truth hit me between the eyes. I was eating FAR TOO MUCH for a short sedentary person. I changed my whole approach to food and eating it that everything else clicked into place

Just wished I’d found what worked for me years ago.

[Mrssocks]

What a helpful response! You give me hope - and I am sure lots of people feel the same way. Thank you!!

[BridgeGirl Administrator 2 stone in reply to Mrssocks]

I think you probably meant this for Pineapple27 so I am tagging her

[Mrssocks in reply to BridgeGirl]

Thanks!

[shepherdbuk]

hi,

this may sound a bit off the wall and I am fairly new relying on it. But in case it helps: My sensation of 'HUNGER' (screaming inside), like yours occurring with stress (and some boredom), sits for me, right in the middle of solarplexus. I have now discovered the concept of chakras and - for the one in the solarplexus a key sentence 'this is our area of self protection...' So when cravings arise, I just turn to that sentence -. So far it helps. Best wishes,

[BridgeGirl Administrator 2 stone in reply to shepherdbuk]

Hello, shepherdbuk, and welcome to the forum 😊

You don't need to be hungry to lose weight. In fact, not eating enough is a common reason for plans failing so, if you're counting calories, find your recommended range from the NHS BMI calculator and aim for the upper half of that range.

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Wishing you all the best and I hope you become an active member of this community 😊

[focused1 Maintainer 13kg]

Don't bother about the exercise until you are better but concentrate on what you eat and how much of it . For most it is 80% food , 20% exercise . I had to think I can't eat it if it isn't there . You will soon adjust ...won't repeat what advice has been given as don't think I could add anything any better but stop feel guilty .A couple of bad days ...? forget them and start afresh .