Just realised my hunger is emotion related

I have just had a revelation brought on by a very stressful day. I have been on this diet for a few days now and lucky enough I have no struggled at all - in fact ive had the opposite, my hunger has disappeared so much I struggle to make myself have the 3 packs a day.

Then today happened, followed by this evening and I found myself thinking about food not because Im hungry (because im still not) but because Im so stressed out - the question is how do I break this emotional tie to make sure im successful in the future?

erm something for me to really think about

x
 
I really sympathise with your situation

I am SUCH an emotional eater - every emotion sets me off though

I need to tackle the big issues lurking (which I have been avoiding like crazy!) but the thought scares me. Think that might be the only way of breaking the cycle (for me) though (GULP!)

Anyway, I kind of see this diet as a way to break habits associated with emotional eating - Im craving something sweet like crazy tonight - before I would have just gone out to get a ton of biccies and sweets, but know I am sipping a green tea and thinking its not worth ruining the good work with sweets (I never feel like that!)

They say doing something 40 times forms a new habit - so maybve trying to conscously do something else (instead of thinking about food) will help break the cycle? Might be a bit daft but its a thought?

Stay strong honey! I'm trying to as well!

Linzois
 
Im cool just never real thought of it like this before..

Luckily Im not at risk of cheating because I couldnt face food now even if I tried :)

You keep strong too - you are doing great x
 
Same. It sucks working in a stressful job on a short term contract having not been paid for 2 months!!!!


Food food food!!
 
I think for me its a habit, but habits or emotions its a conditioned response to a situation.
I like the idea of 40 times to create a new habit, would not doing something 40 times break a bad habit?
I need to stop my evening time grazing (done often on full stomach)
 
My CDC told me about HALT- it represents when emotional eaters want to eat. When they are hungry, angry, lonely and tired. Certainly rang a bell with me, but no idea what to do with it!

Everyone tells me I need to replace food with something else. Just trying to work out what right now

xxx
 
HALT. Very true. BUT!! what the hell do u do about it? Did CDC tell you?!? Xx
 
I think your supposed to register those feelings, feel and acknowledge them and then move on. With the moving on part I think a distraction is needed so I do something to pamper myself, like paint my nails, put a hair mask on or have a bubble bath.
 
Oh I like the HALT acronym! Think as you say it's just to make you think, register then do something else. I suppose it's just having things on hand to do - bath, nails, needlework, sudoku, whatever. I have been playing solitaire (saddo!)

I kind of used that acronym last night without thinking about it - I usually just go get what I want whenever I want it, but last night I had an internal 'chat' with myself about it just being habit, not really needing it etc and it seemed to work (for now anyway!)

Linzois
x
 
I'm convinced the emotional eating thing is more of an issue with women than men, btw.

Anyway, I know that my headspace is the biggest problem. I was going to do Lighter Life, but I decided that with the money I'd save doing cambridge for the seven months it'll take or whatever, I'll pay for a proper psychologist when I get to goal. But then my head's a real mess in other ways too, so my solutionis a bit extreme.

There are lots of books available - I've read dozens - and the one I really recommend is Gillian Riley's Eating Less - Say Goodbye to Overeating. Everyone I know whose read it says her understanding of and strategies for dealing with overeating are really do-able, and show proper insight into the causes, and what it's like to live like that.
 
Me too! And I haven't manage my breakfast shake and I'm MISERABLE!!!!!
 
There is another great saying - 'hit the pause button'. Before you become overwhelmed with feelings, before you crack and hit the biscuit tin, before you break down in tears of frustration. Just imagine yourself hitting the pause button, and temporarily stopping that rollercoaster. We do indeed acquire bad habits; they are learned behaviour and they can be 'un-learned'. Over time we can replace bad habits with good ones. We took years and years to get heavily overweight and to become chaotic around food. But the good news is that we can learn to change all of this.

The food was a crutch. We ate to express joy, excitement, sorrow, anxiety, pain, regret, guilt, fear... You name it, we ate over it. Now we must learn not to do that any more. So it's tough. But it can be done.
 
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