Weight Loss

Over the years food has become an automatic response to dealing with life.  Although I’ve lost 50 or so pounds in the last 1.5 years, lately I find myself wanting to respond to things with food.  It’s somewhat mindless though I am aware.


I can see that this can easily lead to a slippery slope, but I haven't quite got a handle on it.  Any thoughts?

I don't think it's at all unhealthy, unnatural or a bad idea to gain pleasure or comfort from food.  Food is meant to be pleasurable and it's meant to be savoured - a fact often overlooked in some Western societies that treat food as either fuel to get us through the day or a collection of nutrition statistics and calories. 

So it's not comfort eating per se that causes the problem.  It's the type and quantity of food involved.   If, whenever you felt stressed or upset you reached for a big bowl of home-made chicken soup and a punnet of strawberries it would a) be comforting and b) extremely healthy.  So my suggestion would be to not worry about the fact that you derive comfort from food especially but be more discerning about your choice of food when you do.

I appreciate your point and haven't thought about it that way.  I've linked eating for comfort as negative.  At this point I'm still eating 12 cookies and then thinking "something's up?"  I need to get to a place where I can make the choice to eat for comfort and then choose wisely.  

Hello!  I have dealt with this for most of my life!  I have also lost a great deal of weight over the last 1.5 years and even after all of this work to replace bad habits with good ones, I still occasionally want to comfort myself with food.

The biological reason is that food, like drugs, releases dopamine in the brain.  In effect, your body gets a "high" from delicious foods.  That's why when you're having a bad day, you're more likely to reach for whatever your "naughty" food is.

How I deal:  This is a cognitive process for me.  I just ask myself these questions...

-Am I really hungry?  Or am I just cranky, bored, PMSing, etc...?

-Is it really worth it?  How guilty will I feel tomorrow?  How long will it take me to burn this off?

For me, most of the time, it's just not worth it.  So, instead of having a Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich, I'll have a bowl of no sugar added ice cream.  The point is, you're probably going to cave if you make it an "all or nothing" situation.  You can have 150-200 calories over your daily limit and be just fine.  It's going 1000 calories over that is a problem and is not healthy.  It's just mind over matter for me, and I'm not saying this ALWAYS works.  But it works often enough that I am still losing weight after all this time.