Emotional eating...

So Im not new to cc- but since last summer i gained the 20lbs that i lost back due to stress and my emotional eating (which i didnt even know i had until someone pointed it out) something im assesssing now that im aware.

so now i am aiming to lose 1lb a week for a long time. Which i think will be more maintainable?does anyone have any experience with the above issues? and what worked(s) for you? is it hard to kick the emotional eating aspect right out of your life??

currently i am 166.2 lbs at 5'5-5'6ish- im 23 and an apple shape.

If you know you tend to overeat or make poor food choices when you're stressed? happy? bored?.... then you're 90% done solving the problem.  I think it makes life much easier if you simply don't have a lot of food around.  Don't have full-to-busting cupboards, for example.  Clear your house of junk.   Takes time to knock a bad habit on the head (which is all it is, really) and if you can create a break by removing the problem from your environment.... you just have to find a different way to respond. 

Emotions, like death & taxes are inevitable.  Your response can vary.

I am not a classic emotional eater, but I did find once I started really paying attention to my portion sizes that I was a habitual eater.  I would walk in the kitchen, and get something to eat even when I wasn't physically hungry.  It was just a habit (a bad one).  I formed a new habit of saying to myself each time I started eating "Am I really hungry?.  If not, why am I eating?  If yes, is this the best choice I could be making?"  At the risk of sounding crazy, I actually said those words out loud.  I found that the easiest way to tell if I was really hungry is if an apple or a bowl of vegetable soup sounded appetizing.  If I "just wanted to eat" I tended to only want things like cheese or crackers or cookies.  And, like GI-Jane says, it was best to not have those things available until I corrected the bad habit of eating when I wasn't hungry.  Now, it doesn't matter if bad choices are available, because I actually don't engage in much recreational eating anymore.  That took about 4 months of logging every darn thing I ate, now, even though I still log, I find I am usually naturally in my calorie range without much planning.

One advantage to losing about 1 pound per week is that you can have a few treats scheduled into your eating plan (because you are only aiming for a 500 cal/day deficit), which helps keep the whole thing more sustainable while you are building your new lifestyle.  Good luck!

thanks!! these responses help a lot. and yes knowing is definitely a huge step in the right direction.  when i emotional eat its not like i go to veggies or anything healthy its usually ice cream, cookies, cake etc. so clearing my cupboards of that is a must. im actually going to do that right after i post !!

yeah 1lb is very doable and wont make me feel defeated- i just need to re-vamp my snacking - which i already knew- it just helps to hear other similar situations and what works for you. its totally encouraging!!

im the ultimate bored eater. im taking a year off from school and working constantly. this would seem great and like id be really busy all day, but i work at dunkin donuts.

so all day i sit there bored popping munchkins. im having a lot of trouble but trying really hard to loose the dunkin donut i gained.

 so far the best trick ive been using is to drink a hot or cold beverage instead of eating donuts it might help for your stress or sad eating to have a nice hot cup of tea with honey which i believe is a natural appatite suppressant

either way good luck and i know how you feel

thanks zoey! i will try it im a total tea lover.although lately ive been drinking coffee. lol munchkins will totally get you i used to eat those all the time also lol.

good luck to you as well!!

Yup, I'm also an emotional eater.  Whenever I'm stressed I reach for food.  And the worse it is for me, the further I reach - I'll even head to the shops, as many times as necessary - to get the necessary 'hug'. 

I'm trying to learn alternative coping strategies.

I read Paul McKenna's book 'I can make you thin' which has some strategies on how to deal with this.  I just need to practise them now I'm in a stress-free period so that I can choose to react healthily to stress and not destructively.

One of his suggestions is to remember what a loved one or someone you respect said to you before when they were praising you, or how other people view you, and to use that as your armour rather than the chocolate bar/pretzel, etc.

I'll let you know how I get on.

I used to binge because of my health issues and though I had to gain weight. I talked to several doctors and they didn't tell me I had to gain weight... I was in my healthy weight already. that sorta stopped my binges but it continued for a bit out of habit.

I started counting my calories religiously and that stopped me from eating like a crazy person. I tell myself NO (I"m calorie zig zagging so I dont want my schedule to get messed up and even out my calorie amounts... it'll just hamper the zig zag!) and that usually does it for me. go get packs of gum, suckers, etc.