Emotional eating

[NoMonkeyBusiness]

One of my biggest problems has always been bored and emotional eating. I try to distract myself with school work, watching tv/movies, etc. but I’ll still sit there and think about food. The worst is when I think of a specific food that sounds good at that time. The craving and urge just get stronger. Any suggestions on how to reduce stress, bird, or emotional eating habits?

[Tiggerr]

Hello NoMonkeyBusiness and welcome.

What we eat and when we eat can make a big difference to how likely we are to have these urges.

Boredom definitely doesn't help and whilst you can't do anything about having to do school work, maybe come up with a different option to being sat watching tv... something active that you're likely to enjoy.

A quick assist would be to make sure you're getting enough fluid during the day. Ensure that you drink enough water throughout.

To understand the eating side of things, do take the time to read through everything that an administrator will reply to you with, shortly.

There are lots of ways to get involved with this forum and using it regularly helps most people.

Good luck!

[moreless Administrator 7 stone]

Hi and welcome, NoMonkeyBusiness

May I ask how old you are? Sometimes the foods we choose to eat, upset our hormones and make us crave more of the same, add boredom and inactivity into the mix and we have a 'perfect storm'. Tiggerr has given you some great pointers and maybe reading this would help too well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013...

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Wishing you all the best

[NoMonkeyBusiness]

I’m already well educated on what to eat and everything like that. I lost 90 pounds a couple of years ago through diet and exercise. Then I went on vacation and fell off for a little bit. While getting back on track I started having hip problems and now I just had an arthroscopy 3 weeks ago. So as for “being active” I’m pretty limited. I’m planning on going back to the gym next week and using a battle rope for my cardio routine. Also, I’ve recently found that I need to be gluten free now.

I just need to avoid the stress/boredom and figure out ways to avoid the extra cravings.

[moreless Administrator 7 stone in reply to NoMonkeyBusiness]

If you need to be gluten free and are suffering with joint problems, then I suggest a low carb high fat diet may be more appropriate for you, as sometimes our ideas of what constitutes a healthy diet are a little outdated. Have a look at this for a more recent thinking phcuk.org/wp-content/upload... and maybe log onto this forum too healthunlocked.com/lchf-diet

[NoMonkeyBusiness in reply to moreless]

I already do low carb. I make sure one meal each day has a carb with it like bread or grains (all gluten free of course) and I do low fat because I have a high visceral fat content (fatty organs) and my fathers side is infamous for cardiac arrest and heart problems.

When I lost my weight before I strictly only ate chicken fish fruits and veggies. All my carbs came from veggies and fruits. After a few months though I found myself starting to nod out while driving and I had even tried taking vitamin B but it didn’t help. The only thing I can think of that it would’ve been was from cutting out carbs like I had. So this time I’m trying to reduce to once a day.

Since my surgery, in 3 weeks I did loose 4 pounds just through my dieting. I guess that’s good considering I haven’t been able to be very active or so much other than sit/lay around🤷🏼‍♀️

[moreless Administrator 7 stone in reply to NoMonkeyBusiness]

Visceral fat and heart disease are not caused by dietary fat, but by eating too many carbohydrates, so what you're doing will not only exacerbate your condition, but will leave you feeling weak, because you leave your body with no fuel source. You cannot healthily follow a low carb and low fat diet.

Please read the link I gave you.

[rachelleigh73]

Hi NoMonkeyBusiness - agree with moreless that eating grains and starchy carbs are likely to be a problem - even the gluten free types. For me - eating those foods stimulates insulin which makes me crave more food than I need. I believe that thinking is changing - that carbohydrate and sugar causes obesity - not eating fat. The LCHF forum here is a great resource for exploring these ideas - good luck!

[H61g]

Hello nomoremonkeybusiness. There are many of us on here who struggle with emotional eating and spending time on here might help. I also know what I should eat etc etc...My lovely support on the Friday weigh in know my ups and downs with this issue. I lost weight last year and then life got in the way and I put it all back on. I’ve had over 30yrs of emotional eating and I’ve now realised it’s learnt behaviour and it could take me several years to learn new behaviours.

I’ve just had to take sometime off work with exhaustion and stress. It’s been quite a shock for me as I’ve been one of those who has always been there for everyone else, but what I have now realised is that I need to look at the balance of my life and make some real changes.

I love food, I enjoy carbs and I need to work out what works for me. I don’t have the discipline to cut food groups out....I’ve done ‘diets’.....my plan has to be how do I get the balance right.....food, head, relationships and making long term changes.

My latest approach if it helps is to reduce portion sizes, reduce carbs, drink more (peppermint tea I find helps me) and I have set 8pm as a cut off time to stop eating. Some days I’m managing it, sometimes I dont....but that’s life and im on a long journey...

I wish you all the best, you may need to look at other things in your life other than food to start with...but do connect with this site.....there’s some really supportive people on here all trying to crack some of this.

[NoMonkeyBusiness in reply to H61g]

I agree with what you said about looking at other things. Today I’ve decided to pick up a new hobby to keep me distracted. It’s something new and will require me to focus.

[Sammy1970]

I don't normally believe in hypnosis but I thought I'd try Sleep Hypnosis for Weight Loss. There are lots of free apps and lots of Youtube videos you can listen to. I've been amazed at how well they've worked. After about a week of listening to them everynight when I go to bed, I just didnt want to eat anything bad. There are ones that are as short as 15 minutes or as long as 8-10 hours to listen to all through the night. I can't cope with any longer than an hour even with sleep headphones but other people may find that ok. Despite not losing weight for the last 6 weeks (and being really good because I just don't want to eat bad food, like I normally do when stressed, bored, emotional etc, I still don't want to give up and binge which is what I would normally do. So if you're a 'normal' person who can lose weight if they eat right and exercise then I would recomend hypnosis. I can only assume in my case it's my age, or hormones or my prescription thats stopping me from losing weight but I'm definitely not cheating and don't want to and I can only credit the hypnosis.

[Mustlose 6lbs]

Me too