When I read this, I literally laughed out loud. When I'm at work and bored, I start doodling little cartoons.

And emotional/boredom eating was my problem, that I did overcome. It took me a while to master this. It's still a little hard sometimes. But you really do have to change your life and your mentality or you will never keep the weight off.

I think emotional eating is large part of the problem for many people.  I know it certainly was for me.  While I was overweight food was thought of as a reward or entitlement.  Now I have learned that food is just fuel for the body.  The better fuel you feed it, the better you will look and feel.   To reach this point though, I had to decide did I want that brief satisfaction of eating something unhealthy or did I want a lifelong feeling of being healthy. I chose the latter.

This one I'm going to really ponder one.... I am 27 and have yo yo ed +/- 30 kios for the last nine years... I/m afraid I'm on my upward swing again....... Maybe this is a more permanent solution !!

:-(

I like to remember a phrase my father would use from time to time:  "a moment on your lips, forever on your hips!"  

I need to think on this too.  For me I can control behavior for about 3 days when outside my day-to-day environment.  After 3 days I seem to wear down.  That said, having maintained a loss of 75lbs for 2 years now I know I am doing something right.  Stop, Rest, Assess has never worked for me, but being prepared and planning has.  I also post little notes to myself like "would an apple do?"  If the answer is no - then I go the next step on why I feel I need to eat.  It was key to getting to my goal weight and figuring out how I would deal with food for life.

This may be just what I needed to hear today after another evening of eating when I wasn't really hungry.  Putting a name to it and understanding my uncontrolled eating as disinhibition might help me now look at the tools to break myself free from this craziness.  I've heard the suggestions before but night time eating has been a problem for me.  I'm going to use these ideas tonight to start a new strategy to kick the habit of night time eating.  Tonight I'm going to use the timer, do the breathing, maybe journal some too...

Frustration is my biggest set-back to staying on target...the minute I get frustrated (and we're talking major life issues right now-like caretaking for terminally ill friend, and job hunting)....righto--go for a walk-calm down-still, when my needs are NOT being met by external world, I rely on my mouth to feed the internal one! lol. HELP! In the last 1.5 yrs this has cost me 45 lbs of gain...before that, always thin...my back, knees and feet injuries aren't helping me stay on track with massive exercise I used to partake in.

I like the timer idea.  Emotional and compulsive eating is definitely my issue. 

Going to start trying that today.

My biggest problem is when I am driving.  I drive about 150 miles a day and I just quit smoking after 27 years.  I want to snack but I am having a hard time finding something to snack on that doesn't equal a "D" on my nutrition scale and 600 calories on my meal chart.  It is so frustrating.

tstr

I don't do regular driving, but when I do have a long trip my snacks of choice are:  grapes, baby carrots, other raw veggies.  Helps to keep me awake to be chewing on something, but if that something is high calorie it definitely does a number on the weight loss/maintenance.  Last year I lost 40 lbs. with the help of Calorie Count(logging everything I ate, daily weighing) and I've been maintaining now since last September.  Not logging at this point but still weighing daily to avoid slipping back.  Not easy, but worth it!

i am so bad with impuslive eating I no lonffer keep food in my house that is not frozen or will take a lot time to cook. I wish i could learn to avoid the food, but when its in my house all I can do is think about eating. I will even wake up in the middle of the night and eat food if it is easly handy.

I highly recommend the book "Mindless Eating". It's a quick, easy read that basically details several studies by academic institutions that bring to light a bunch of stuff that causes people to unconsciously consume more calories than necessary. In reading it, if you're like me, you'll have a lot of "Oh, I do totally do that" moments, and will have specific, targeted strategies for avoiding the situations, feelings, even people that cause you to eat extra or unhealthy. I read it one spring (It was recommended for a class I was taking), and by literally tricking myself into not eating as much and not being hungry, I dropped 15 pounds in three months, and noticed only when my "skinny" pants fit. The book advocates gradual weight loss, in the realm of 10-20 lbs per year, but the strategies work for quicker fixes as well. But, since they work for the long-term, maintenance is a given.

I sometimes find myself eating while driving - usually I've just bought nuts from a serve-yourself place so they aren't in sealed packets. The solution is not to put them in the front seat with me. (What was I thinking to put them within reach - of course I was going to have a few!) I have to think - Hey, I'm driving, eating isn't appropriate, and isn't even safe while driving. Can you make a rule that you only snack when you stop for a well planned snack/meal? Then if you have to stop, and waste time, it's usually easier to just get on with the journey. Make eating like use of phone and texting - not allowed when driving no matter how much you want to.

We've stopped impulse-eating for the most part by removing snack foods from the house.  You're much less likely to impulse-eat if you have to physically cook something before you can snack on it.  Of course, the exception is that phenomenon which happens every fortnight or so, when we have a few and decide, as a direct result of having a few, that we want to cook up a treat.  ;-)  Usually some sort of pasta with fake butter and parmesan cheese.  Or butterscotch brownies.  :-)~

I notice that if I eat five or six small meals that add up to 1200 calories I am never really hungry and this will keep you metabolism going, I also work out for 30 mins 3 days a week and 1 hour the others this I add a protein snack.

For an emotional eater like me, advance planning is really the key. I make sure that all the groceries I need for the week are there, and that most of my food is cooked in advance so that I wouldn't have a choice in what I eat. I bring to the office all my food for the day so I won't be tempted to go to the nearby mall for lunch to eat "bad" things, or just plain overeat. I log my food in CC before the day starts, so I know that I have a plan to stick to and all my nutrient goals are met.

So, yeah, it's a lot of work, but I've lost 40 pounds because of all this. I'm still looking to lose maybe 20 more pounds but I'm not in a hurry anymore because my BMI is already in the healthy range. It would be nice to just wing it and leave it up to my inner self to say, oh no thanks I'm not yet hungry. But I can never say no to food that's offered to me by a well-intentioned (I hope) co-worker. My packed food gives me an excuse not to take what's offered (Sorry, I don't want to waste my packed lunch). Also, there's no eating because of boredom -- simply because there's nothing to eat except what I packed and brought with me.

I guess, my problem is that I've equated food with love. The person who cooks for me and feeds me loves me, is the way I think. Goes back to childhood, probably. Now that I'm an adult and cooking and feeding myself, I have to love myself by cooking, preparing and choosing healthy food for myself. I have to love myself now instead of waiting for others to give me love through food.