I hate complaining so much, and today I'm in more of a mood to just get on with life already, BUT, life has been hard lately. I complain sometimes about my husband's depression. While I'm always dealing with that (always, always, always) yesterday my mom pretty much wrote me a good-bye letter. She's giving up the fight. I do not want to dwell on that...right now anyway.
BUT, I couldn't handle making dinner last night, DH can't drive...and that left pizza. The man can't cook anything but spaghetti and we didn't have any. So we ate pizza and then I grabbed just a handful of chocolate chips...and then another...and then another. And I realized, I AM a stress eater. LOL!
And then I thought, but I'm not a stress eater, because I don't HAVE to eat those chocolate chips, or that pizza for that matter. I could have said no. I just chose not to say "no".
So what is stress eating? Is it the inability to say "no"? That can't be it because we ALL have the ability, we just choose not to.
For me there is eating just because it is there or because you are tired of cooking and stress eating.
I can tell the difference fairly easily. Stress eating for me has a triggering event. Something happens at work, day was rough, fight with kids or hubs to be and its an immediate thought of "UGH this sucks where is the (fill in the blanks)"
Eating because I am tired of cooking or just because it is there is something totally different. I get sick of cooking ALL the time. hubs to be works two hours away and gets off at 6, I work two minutes away and get off at 5. So 98% of the cooking for everyone is on me. Some days. I am done. Just smack me in the head done. Those are the days I go digging for pizza or Taco Bell.
I can generally fend off both desires with recognizing what is going on and forcing my thought direction to change. But, since I am human sometimes life happens and I give in.
I have said it a thousand times to myself and to others this last week, this for me is a lifestyle change, and life happens. There are always going to be stressors, holidays, birthdays, lazy days. It is not about being "on plan" 110% of the time, but rather, making the best choices at the moment. Sometimes Pizza is the best choice at the moment LOL. That just means that for the rest of the moments its salad. HAHAHA
You cannot let the deck be stacked against you. Part of the "lifestyle change" is that you strategize so that there is always a better choice than pizza delivery followed by chocolate chips. I mean, honestly!
Stress eating doesn't mean you "can't" say no, because a person can always say no. Stress eating means that when you are under stress, you don't care, and you just go with what's easiest. For people who are overweight/obese, that means eating fattening foods. After all, you don't see many ads for tuna delivery!
So going back to my first point, you have to make sure you have some quick and easy meal options always in the house. Lean Cuisines, Smart Ones, whatever frozen meals are your favorites and are still weight-loss friendly. (Are these the best food to eat? No, but given the choice you made, a Lean Cuisine would have been superior!) Frozen vegetables. There is nothing wrong with them. Fruits, kept in the fridge where they won't spoil. Lots of cans of tuna, salmon, other protein foods.
Where do these foods come from? Well, from the grocery store, where you buy them regularly as part of your PLANNING. Yes, you must plan ahead.
This doesn't always work, but you have a better chance of succeeding if you have more options to consider.
As for stress eating...I used to say this. But then eventually I recognized that I am also a happy eater, and an angry eater, and a [name your emotion] eater. And I concluded that if there was an emotion present, it always went well with a side of Oreos (or whatever tasty junk happened to be present).
It is possible to say no. The problem for me was something like you describe - it might be the third handful of chocolate chips before I noticed what I was doing. Nowadays it would be completely uncharacteristic for me to have a handful of chocolate chips at any time and so it would be pretty hard not to notice. That's the only way I can say no - is for the behavior to be so out of the norm that I can't do it unconsciously or carelessly.
Another , though, and plenty of positive thoughts going your way.
Well, my usual go-to meal is a chicken from Meijer. DH is really good about running just across the street to Meijer to pick up a chicken. I always have frozen veggies in the freezer so it's never been a problem. There's no need for quick meals like Lean Cuisines, and since adopting a whole foods approach, I haven't needed to do that. I'm quite good at throwing things together and coming up with something even at a moment's notice. But yesterday was just a day I wanted to be taken care of. I didn't even want to think about feeding all of us let alone having to do it. Since DH can't drive, the run to Meijer would have been up to me and I couldn't handle it.
Thanks for the hugs! They're appreciated!
So yeah...I never realized I was a stress eater and if you'd asked me yesterday, I'd have said no, I'm not an emotional eater. I am usually aware of exactly what I'm doing and yet do it anyway AND I could put away whatever it is I am eating. So it doesn't feel like stress eating. But that's what it is. And yes, I knew exactly what I was doing with the FIRST handful of chocolate chips, let alone the second and third, and yeah, I didn't care. LOL!
Eliana-I'm so sorry that you are going through this, I can only imagine the amount of stress you are under.
When I'm stressed I can't eat at all or else I feel like I'm going to vomit or feel like I will choke trying to swallow because I have a lump in my throat.
I wish I reacted that way! Sometimes I do...but that's only if a bombshell has been dropped. For the accumulating kinds of stress, I definitely have an appetite.
I think that you need a hug too. I am so sorry that you are going through all of this. I find stress eating the most difficult to say "NO!" to. When I want to stress eat, I do a lot of self talk. I repeatedly tell myself, "The only problem food solves is hunger." and "Eating xyz will not help this problem or situation. I will feel worse, more stressed, if I gain weight."
I have gotten pretty good at not stress eating or, at the very least, stress eating a very limited number of calories.
For me, stress eating is the habit of putting something easy and comforting into my mouth without regard to health.
I have found that it can be just as easy and almost as comforting to stick a can of tuna over some vegetables and eat that, but THAT is not the "mindless, habitual" eating common when we are stressed. I am trying to make THAT my default when I am stressed: easy, BUT healthful.
What a hard time you are going through!!! Give yourself a little slack, but also make a plan of attack.. next time you have to order pizza (we all have to do it once in a while life happens ya know), have that delivery boy bring you a salad You will feel way better about it afterwards!
Oh and for goodness sake, throw out those darn chocolate chips because everytime you mention them you make me wish I had some in the pantry..lol.
CAN you say no?
She's giving up the fight. I do not want to dwell on that...right now anyway. 
And I realized, I AM a stress eater. LOL!
. There, sounds like you need it.
That's the only way I can say no - is for the behavior to be so out of the norm that I can't do it unconsciously or carelessly.
