Hi All...

I thought that this would be an interesting thread to start. I had my 1st emotional eating binge in a long time today. I was lucky enough to catch myself before I did too much damage, and luckily there were no HC foods in the house. Actually the only true thing that stopped me was that I would have been very embarrassed in front of my BF.

My question to all of you is...

Now that we are committed to this new WOL, what do you do when the urge to run to the kitchen (cabinets, store, drive thru, etc.) hits you when you are upset (mad, sad, etc.). What safeguards have you created for yourself?

Hopefully we can share ideas and help each other out. The next time it happens, one of these ideas could come in handy.

~Michelle

Great thread idea. I've gotten better at avoiding falling into a pile of food when I'm stressed, bored, etc. "Distraction" is what you could call my main strategy. I have a short attention span, so if I just do something else for a while, I'll usually forget that I was about to go foraging in the kitchen. Some of the things I do:

- play free cell on my computer
- play Nintendo This works too well: I've gone hours on end without eating because I get too "into" games!
- hit this forum
- do a load of laundry, or tidy up the apartment
- make a cup of tea (although this involves going into the kitchen...)
- brush my teeth and rinse with mouthwash. Munching is less attractive when you have nice minty-mouth.

I think that this is part and parcel of the Self Sabotage thread. Distractions can work for the short term, but how do you learn to deal with your emotions in the long term without eating over them?

Karen

I myself have seen a hypno therapist.

We have determined what emotions make me over eat, indulge or just plain lost all focus on what I am doing.

Self sabotage sums it all up!!

I have been given some tools to work with to try and spot the begining of over emotional behavior and try to deter the eating situation well before it happens.

UAGirl...how's the hypno working? I'm curious...

I hear you Karen, about the layer underneath...so far, all I have is distractions too, but the other stuff creeps up these days too, and makes it very clear that there's some work to do!

Emotional eating has been such a hurdle for me. When DH recently underwent emergency surgery for a ruptured appendix, I so wanted to fall back into my old patterns of behavior. I spent HOURS the first night in the surgery waiting room facing an entire bank of vending machines. I actually pulled out the $$ for the chips followed by the candy bar followed by the peanut butter cracker sandwiches, followed by the peanut butter cups. It took me a while to really identify why I was fully prepared to eat all this crap when I have been faithful and happy for so long with this wol. I came to terms with it and got a diet coke-----it was very scary how quick I was to fall back on the old familar "self medication" of food.

DD it is amazing.

I have learned why I do all sorts of things now.

He has given me some tools to use when I'm feeling emotional, to sort of deal with the emotions and how to steer them in a positive healing direction instead of healing through food.

I never realized how emotional I was.

It's funny. I think I eat bad things out of habbit and I have to catch myself. Tonight i was taking back my wifes plate to the kitchen. I stuck my finger in her mashed potatos and stick it in my mouth, then i stopped and realized what i was doing and spit it out. then i hurried and dumped it down the garbage disposal. Most of the time i find myself treating her food like a bomb. I run to the kitchen with it extended at arms length and dump the left overs in the trash or disposal. Sounds funny but it works. anyway that's my 2 cents.




Jon

I recently hit a milestone birthday. I went through some extreme emotional days leading up to my actual birthday. To make a long story shorter, I wrote a Letter of Apology to my Body . It's too soon to say definitively... but I feel that was a real turning point for me. Time will tell. I have a new commitment to LC'ing.. and, mostly, to my Body. By sort of dissociating my emotional self from my physical self, I feel more of a sense of accountability. Today, for instance, I caught myself going through my kitchen cupboards in search of something sweet to eat. When I realized what I was doing, I thought about my Body... and how I'd promised I'd make these years of neglect up to her. It was remarkably easy to close those cupboard doors and do something else. The feeling soon passed... and I felt very empowered.

I have read a book that has helped me with that tremendously "Breaking free from compulsive eating" by Geneen Roth. It has exercises in it to help determine why you are eating, and helps deal with your emotions. I recommend it highly.

These are all great posts!

UAGirl...Can you share some of the "tools" that you learned? That might help others...

April...I have Geneen Roth's book...I read it ages ago. I also have "When You Eat at the Refrigerator Pull Up a Chair". Maybe I should pull them out again and see if they help.

When I set up this thread, I was looking more for "tips". DOes anyone have anything like that to share? I LOVE the post we got, dont get me wrong...just looking for those type of things too.

~Michelle

I think when we're really ready to change, we take information in in a completely different way. I used to read all kinds of self help books, do affirmations, visualization and meditation but nothing ever really changed until I was ready to make a change. Realizing and accepting that I had a problem did it. Up to that point, I was just paying lip - or head! - service to it all.

Karen

Thanks Karen...I agree! I am going to dig them out and let you all know how it goes. If I get ideas, i will post them here

~Michelle

Michelle-I love her books, havent read the latter you mentioned though, I'll have to check it out. I hope it helps you this time around.

Karen- I agree wholeheartedly, you have to be ready to accept it and to change for it to fully work for you.

For me getting on the forum and helping others really keeps me motivated.

Like now... in a FRUSTRATING STALL and wanted to have a high carb day to shake things up. But I realized I had a high carb day on Valentine's day and that didn't shake things up. So i'm just staying the course because I know things will happen.... E...V...E...N....T...U...A...L...L..Y.

And to stay positive I am reading about doing the right thing, and advising people to do the right thing and so today (TODAY) I am doing the right thing.