REAL Emotional Eating: Do you do this? Is there a cure?

I guess I have to accept that it's my hand moving my food into my mouth that causes me to gain or lose. Lately because of job worries I have been craving chocolate, and specifically NOT the dark chocolate I usually nibble. No.

I have been eating Nutella by the spoonful and also eating m&m's (plain and peanut, depending on what the emanations from space indicate).

The thing is: this eating is emotional. I'm not hungry. I just want this particular food. The advice I've been getting: "eat this instead. Drink tea. Make this sugar free chocolate. Eat another sweet, not the one you want." This is all very well intentioned, and I appreciate the supportive nature of it. But it doesn't address what is going on with me. It's all beside the point.

If I were rationally hungry, or able to plan, choose, etc., I wouldn't be doing this. I want what I want because I want it. I eat good healthy homemade whole foods. I just eat the chocolate, too. I don't usually have this trouble, but I'm having it now. Does this ring a bell for you? Does anyone else do this?

Because of my spiritual disciplines, I know that I have to accept where I am right now, the fear, anger, grief and other strong feelings I'm having. I also know I do have choices, and I am making choices. The choices I have made in the last few days have not been to control my calories.

PS: I never eat artificial sweeteners because my mama raised me right. I also hate the taste (and the thought) of artificial "calorie free" sweets.

I have had the same problem for the last 4 years of my life.

Huge problems which caused me to binge and get twice the size I originally was, by 20 I had a 1 month old baby boy and my dad passed away. So both my parents were gone and I had this 1 month old baby so no need to say my emotions were sooooo confused and eating was my way out of it.

I got out of it just recently changed my way of thinking. I said to myself I am strong and food wont help me deal with what life has thrown at me. It will just get me more miserable. Keeping pictures of me at my heavy est and me at my lowest weight on the desktop pc all so helped and I admit I printed those and stuck them on my fridge and my cupboard's.

It honestly helped me a lot. I hope this might help you too as I know exectley what you are going through xxx

Meme and me too,

Emotional eating is hard and you are the only person that can change it. In my case it is the stress of the job and the day in day out of the day. When you have a deadline and your boss needs it two days ago. The vending machine is your only friend and it has good food. (Not true but it is closer to you)

I fixed the problem with grapes, the past two weeks i also froze them and eat them like ice cubes. Fruit and extra water!

As for the vending machine they are changing the stuff. Bake potato chips? 

Oh yes, definitely been there. I found that the problem was that I constantly said to myself 'this food is right in front of your nose, but you cannot eat it'.

Solution 1: Don`t keep the trigger foods around. Either get them out of the house or put them somewehere out of reach, or at least out of sight if that`ll work.

If that`s not possible, then solution 2: Say to yourself that you can eat it. Maybe even have a little bit. Then ask yourself if you still want it, now that you know it`s not forbidden anymore. Most often than not you`ll be surprised that the craving goes away.

It`s all mind over matter, really. Trial and error will show what works best for you. Just try to avoid the all or nothing mentality. "As long as I`ve had 5 spoonfuls, might just as well finish the whole jar, at least it won`t tempt me again tomorrow" - sound familiar? And when tomorrow comes, you`ll buy a new stash, "to practice moderation", and just end up repeating it. Break the cycle, one tablespoon of nutella tastes just as good as one jar for A LOT less calories and MUCH less guilt.

I know what you mean. I called that behavior my bratty self.  Sometimes I just eat because I want to and sometimes it is emotional. I talk to myself in the mirror and tell myself to stop it and get it together. I had to do this today before my day started because I felt that I did not want to exercise and yesterday I ate a lot of junk. So that is what I am going to continue to do when I feel like I just want to eat. I am not saying it will work all the time but it is worth a try.

I used to get high on chocolate, (I hadn't eaten it in years) which is why I used to eat it by the bucketload when I was going through a very rough time a few months ago. I honestly felt the only way I could get through my day was by scarfing down a MINIMUM of 500g per day. This was on top of my usual food. Even knowing that it wrecks my skin (I have rosacea and this was a trigger for it) couldn't stop me from devouring it. I even tried switching to cheap and nasty chocolate, but that didn't work either. I was addicted to it.

I'd put on 20lbs over the course of a few months, and my clothes refused to fit and thats what got me coz I didnt want to waste any money buying new clothes and I added up how much I was actually spending on my choccy fix lol but somehow I managed to make a concious decision that I would go to the gym/go for a walk/eat nibbly fruit like grapes instead. And it worked! I feel so much healthier, I've lost weight, and I'm heaps happier too. It was hard at first, but once good habits kick in, its easy. So now whenever I feel down, I'll make excuses and go swimming! I still eat choc occasionally tho...

Original Post by ily51:

Solution 1: Don`t keep the trigger foods around. Either get them out of the house or put them somewehere out of reach, or at least out of sight if that`ll work.

If that`s not possible, then solution 2: Say to yourself that you can eat it. Maybe even have a little bit. Then ask yourself if you still want it, now that you know it`s not forbidden anymore. Most often than not you`ll be surprised that the craving goes away.

solution 1 FOR SURE!! I can't buy chips. If I do, I'll eat a whole big bag by myself until they're all gone :/  If I buy trigger foods (holidays, planning for having a bunch of people in), I'll keep it in the attic. No joke.

There's physical cravings and mental compulsions--they are tough to deal with. I deprived myself for years just keeping stuff out of the house. My mother did the same. What happens when you open the floodgates? What happens when you or someone you love brings the "bad" food into the house?

I am going to add more meditation to my daily practices, and I am going to forgive myself no matter how much or how often I fail and give in to the cravings and compulsions. I'm going through a rough time now, and I'm reaching out, and I'm taking care of myself. I have logged every morsel, and I have jumped on the wii fit for my body tests too. I know what is happening.

Good luck with restricting, depriving and bingeing. I'm going to keep trying to live.

Original Post by earth_mom:

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Good luck with restricting, depriving and bingeing. I'm going to keep trying to live.

You are assuming that restricting leads to binging but you are already binging and just haven't acknowledged it.  One cannot always avoid trouble but don't give it a chair to sit in! Get the crap out of your house.

"PS: I never eat artificial sweeteners because my mama raised me right. I also hate the taste (and the thought) of artificial "calorie free" sweets."

With that attitude, you are lost.  Thousands of diabetics would be too if they thought such.

I have a similar problem in that I suddenly have a craving for a specific type of chocolate/sweet.  I have started to overcome this by allowing myself a certain amount of money per week to spend on such things (£1.60).  I keep the money in a separate purse and buy what I want when I am craving it.  I have actually found myself wanting less now that I know I can have it.  I often have money left over at the end of the week and that goes back into my normal purse to prevent a build up and  binge.  I have found that £1.60 is a good price because I can't get too much with it, either 3 small things or 2 larger.  It is up to me to ration out for the week.

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Don't worry...you are not alone with this. And there is a solution to this emotional eating...you just have to find it or simply create one yourself. But, I will give you one possible solution. This may sound weird but hey..it worked for me. Talk to your food! Emotional eating like you said is rarely controlled by hunger and your desires...it's controlled by your mentality. Whenever you see that very enticing piece of chocolate...remember this: you will not be able to achieve your personal goals-whether its weight loss or whatever it is-if you continue to let food and cravings win. Say to your chocalate, in you mind or outloud ( call me crazy but I speak outloud to my food sometimes...) " I will not give into you.....you will not have the victory....this emotional eating ends today!" you will find that you have thrown the chocolate away and picked up a healthier choice of food. Basically, there's a war bertween you and your cravings. You are mentally stronger and capable.. once you find that you've won over your chocolate  for a week or so, you'll like the feeling of power over your food, and you'll want more of that power. and you will continue to trash the cravings. before you know it, you would have ended your emotional eating for good. Good luck! I believe in you. Let me know how you're coming along with your emotional eating, no matter what advice you take.

I used to do more emotional eating than I do now.. the cure for me was just getting snacks out of the house because when I feel good, I want something healthy for a snack so it works, but when I don't feel good, I won't want a healthy snack and when I'm feeling sad, I don't have the willpower to leave the house and get something to eat since my parking space here is about a 5 minute walk.

I also get "hungry" when I'm bored.  I don't feel hungry but my mind tells me I'm ravenous.  However, I think this is just a symptom of literally having no money and not being able to ever go out and do anything and the fact that I was suffering from emotional abuse for the last year or so.

You discarded peoples advice before said advice was even posted.  What is it that you are asking here?  There's no magic trick to not eating something.  Not to sound harsh, or like an ass*&@#.  It is your brain telling you to pick up the chocolate.  You must train your brain.  Personally, I put more importance on the long term goal of weight loss rather than that of the instant gratification of eating junkfood.  Train your brain to feel better if you don't eat it, rather than eating it.  The reward will be to not actually eat it.  Does that sound too simple, or unrealistic?  I don't know.  With me, once I made a committment to stop eating candy bars and such, the choice to not eat them came very easily.