Stress Eating

I honestly think I might be a stress eater.  I take technical calls for a large company and I find that I tend to snack on calls and between them.  However when I'm at home I barely eat, but I feel like I eat a lot even though I'm not at work.  

Anyone else a stress eater and if so how do you stop??

The simple answer: don't have food around. No food around, you can't snack.

The longer answer: replace food with water, tea or decaf coffee. Sometimes it's just the compulsion to put something in your mouth. Smokers who are trying to quit often say the hardest part is not having something in their fingers to put to their mouth. Their solution is gum, e-cigarettes, etc. For people struggling to lose weight, you need to stop yourself and think, "I'm not really hungry. I'm just bored/stressed". Keep a drink near you at all times, and keep sucking that down. It's a big no-no for us to drink when we eat, so fall back on that good habit and just keep yourself busy with drinking. If you're drinking, you're not eating.

And most importantly, like I said earlier, just don't have food around. If other people are bringing food near you, be stronger and ignore it. If someone offers you food, thank them but tell them you're making an effort not to snack at work. They won't offer any more. It's entirely on you and your will power to make it so food is not available to you.

Great job on recognizing your triggers. That's a huge start.

I agree with the advice above - don't keep things around that will enable you to continue when you eat. Keep a journal to keep track of your feelings/thoughts/emotions and correlate that with what and when you eat.

I am a big time stress eater (was?) - I feel like im sort of in "remission" for now. I know when Im stressed and make deliberate attempts not to eat in response, but I have a pretty good game plan that works for me.

I pack a lot of little snacks to take to work as opposed to just one meal or whatever. That way my eating is planned, but it helps me mentally. I eat every 2-3 hours. In between, I'm drinking tons of water (usually propel or powerade or coffee) and lots of gum. I rarely keep food at my desk because otherwise I WILL eat it. Even when I do keep something in my office, its roasted edamame which "oh well" if I eat it, but it also fills me up quickly and kills my urge to eat.

I try not to keep snack foods around - well, I never buy snack foods for home. I usually only get stuff that involves some preparation because (my laziness benefits me !) I will not go in the kitchen unless I really need to eat :-p If im hungry enough to cook or prepare food, then I know i'm good to go. I dont keep things around to feed my hand-to-mouth obsessive compulsive eating. No popcorn, chips, things of that nature.

Honestly for me, its a disorder. It is something that I will have to deal with for the rest of my life. It's just my cross to bear I guess. I just have to remain vigilant every day, and be prepared with a plan.

I agree with the previous posters.  I will also add that I went to counseling (still going) to get to the root of my food issues.  It's hard work to focus on the mental part of hunger, but well worth it in the long run.  I found my triggers were boredom, habit and stress.  I found that I was way too hard on myself... expecting perfection from myself... and beat myself up when I wasn't... which lead to stress eating.  Now, I focus on being realistic as opposed to overly hard on myself, which also consciously deciding not to turn to food (because it doesn't fix anything!).  So far, I'm really changing.  I like the new, nicer-on-me, me!

 I agree with the others and especially Silly Sweet. I noticed you on another post, where you mentioned you are 6 months out and only lost 35 pounds? I think you definitely need to look at why you are not losing weight, and you probably just answered the reason yourself! If you are snacking, or stress eating, that is going to really  hinder your weight loss, and after going through this procedure, isn't it worth giving it a fair shot? I think you should talk to a therapist.  I love therapy, and like Silly Sweet, also beat myself up over not being "perfect". Learning to love ourselves and find other outlets besides food is so important in this journey.

Good luck!

Leah

Hi Tinkerott!

I am an emotional eater, meaning that eating is the first thing that comes to mind when I have an emotion.  It can be stress, happiness, anger, anything.

Are you willing to keep a log of the food you eat?  I think it will help you see where and when you *are* eating, and you won't have to guess or rely on your feelings or memory.  Mine are totally unreliable around food.

No lie, it's not easy to stop eating over emotions.  But it *is* possible, and you can learn to do it, too.  I learned a lot about dealing with food in Overeaters Anonymous.  It's not everyone's cup of tea, that's for sure, but it is always good to have support when you're trying to change these behaviors.

If you start journaling your food and post about it, the people here can help you with more specific suggestions about what and when you're eating.

I want you to be successful!  Everybody wants that for you!  We're here to help!

So here is a list of all the food I ate so far today.

Breakfast
English Muffin
2 Eggwhites - 7g of Protein
1 Slice of Cheese - 3g of Protein

Snack
Grapefruit Cup from Costco - 1g of Protein
Nordica Cottage Cheese - 12g of Protein

Lunch
Extra Lean Kobassa - 11g of Protein
Cheese - 7g of Protein

Snack
Jack Links BeefSteak x 2 - 24g of Protein

Supper
Chicken with Lettuce, Mushrooms, grated carrots, cucumbers, green onions - however I didn't eat much probably about 1 1/2 cups

Snack
Kozy Shack - 4g of Protein

Throughout the day I have had at least 8 glasses of liquid between Coffee and Water

When I get home I'll be having 2 glasses of milk before bed so that will give me another 16g of Protein or so.

I dont know if you were looking for feed back on your diet, but if you want to lose weight, you'll need to make some serious changes -

I'd start by cutting out the carbs - the english muffin, the grapefruit, i dont even know what some of the other stuff is. Stick to 2 oz or 1/2 cup servings for your meals.

Milk is good for you, but you are drinking a lot of calories that way, and getting a lot of carbs along with it.

If you need help with what to eat in terms of ideal nutrition for this particular phase of your WL, post for help. If you know what you need to do but its an issue of emotional eating, then start addressing that.

You can do this - posting for support/help is a good start.

Good job!  I write down everything I eat, every day.  It really helps me.

Have you tried using myfitnesspal or another tracking software?  I have to count 3 things - protein, calories, carbs.  I need to keep calories low, carbs low and protein high.  It's a juggling act, but very do-able.  What I would do to start out is to track those three things (calories, carbs, protein). 

I have to keep my carbs low-ish because they make me start craving more of them.  I probably wouldn't eat any kind of wheat right now.  I do eat beans maybe once or even twice a week - that's where most of my carbs are.

One way I get in my protein while keeping my calories lower is to drink a protein shake made from a lower-carb powder, like the Syntrax Nectar Chocolate Truffle flavor.  You could get the same amount of protein you get from those two glasses of milk (which have a lot of carbs) by adding protein powder and almond milk to one of your coffees, first thing in the morning.  I got some good advice to get in a slug of protein early in the day.  So maybe have your egg whites and cheese, skip the muffin, then have a protein coffee once you can start drinking again.  That would give you 30 g to start the day, and the protein in the coffee holds me for a while.  Just try and see how you feel.

Then, I eat every 3-4 hours, but not in between.  So I eat at noon, at 4:00 and then at dinner, which varies.  This is where making a plan at the beginning of the day can help.  Plan out just one day, even your snacks. 

The hard part comes when you want to eat and it's not time yet, right?  Well, what I have to do is talk to myself.  I have to tell myself that it's understandable that I want to eat, but I don't have to!  That voice that tells me to eat is part of my food addiction and all it cares about is getting fed.  So I have to tell it to shut up and then imagine it as disembodied and far away.  Then I drink drink drink because I know I can't do both at the same time.  I promise myself I can eat when it's time, food won't fix my problems, I can do it, the feeling will pass if i don't act on it.  You can also journal about how you're feeling.  Sometimes anxiety can feel like hunger to me.

Before you know it, it will be time for your next scheduled feeding!  Seriously!  Eat what you planned and enjoy it.

For lunch, I'm not sure on the stats for the kielbasa, but I might try 2-3 ounces of chicken breast, like the strips you can get pre-cooked.  See if you're still hungry after that, then add a little cheese if you are.  Chicken fills me up better than anything.

I love those Jack Links beef sticks.  They have lots of protein, and they're filling.  They're salty, though, so you might want to just try having an ounce of chicken breast instead.

I like something sweet to end my day, and I usually have a piece or two of SF cinnamon hard candy, sometimes a SF Jello pudding, sometimes 2 oz of Greek yogurt with some Spenda.  I don't eat the sugared kinds.  The Kozy Shack puddings are good, but are carby.  You might find something else that satisfies that sweet tooth without so many carbs.