Eating is supposed to happen only when one feels hungry, but these are miscellaneous reasons why I eat, excuses which made me pile up the kilos over the years, put my health at risk and alter my body.
I've been thinking of making a thread like this for a long while now. It's important for me to identify the things that make me eat without feeling hungry, overeat or binge on a daily basis.
Sometimes, writing it down uncovers the ridiculousness of it, instead of just meditating over it bit by bit everyday.
I'll write them down as they actually happen or simply occur to me so they are in no particular order. So here are the reasons why I (used to?) almost everyday.
1- I overeat because, if I live the food for later, it will get cold and I wont enjoy it as I did when it was smoking hot
2- I eat because I'm watching a show on T.V and somehow I believe that eating/ snacking while watching will "enhance" my viewing experience.
3- Sometimes I eat because I see the picture of a particular type of food (eg, pizza) in a magazine, on T.V or on the internet.
4- I overeat because I might feel hungry at a time when I wouldn't be able to eat. For instance, I'll be in class at 4 PM, so I'll overeat at 2 PM so I wouldn't be hungry in class.
5- I eat because I'm reading/travelling/receiving friends and I feel that eating while doing those things will "enhance" my reading/travelling/receiving experience.
6- I binge eat/ drink because I'm mad at something or someone.
7- I eat because I don't have anything interesting doing, or I'm bored.
8- I binge eat/ drink because I'm feeling blue.
10- I eat because I get depressed while thinking about my overating/ binging habits.
11- I eat to prepare myself for a challenging or stressful situation.
12- I eat in the middle of the night because I can't sleep.
13- I eat because I want to sleep and heavy meals tend to make me feel sleepy.
14- I don't have a car, so I overeat so I wouldn't have to carry to carry the rest of the food around.
15- I eat because there's food in the house.
16- I eat because I'm feeling happy or excited over something.
17- I eat because I'm proud of myself for a certain achievement.
18- I overeat/ binge because I want to "feel" my tummy.
19- I overeat because the food tastes so good!
20- I binge/overeat because "after all I'm working hard to earn my money so why won't I indulge myself"?
21- I eat because the food might go bad by the time I feel hungry again.
22- I eat because it's time to eat.
23- I eat because I'm waiting for something/ someone.
24- I eat because I don't want to throw the rest of the food away.
25- I eat because there's a lingering smell of good food in the neighborhood.
26- I eat because I'm feeling nervous.
27- I eat because I feel relieved after accomplishing a feat or something which I was very stressed about. Eg, a quaterly meeting, a test etc.
28- *TMI alert* I eat because I'm constipated. I use food to put pressure on what you know so that what you know could find its way out. "Misapplied technology"
29- I eat because there's food within my arms' reach.
30- I eat because I'm working and I need inspiration and I feel I can get that from food.
Last edited by thirti4thirty; 04-26-2015 at 09:59 AM.
Having once been a smoker that sounds a lot like an addiction.
I always used to restart smoking after quitting after something good or bad happened in my life.
It took me a long time to realize that life is full of things that go good and bad and having identified those triggers I successfully kicked the habit by being on my guard at those times.
Thankfully with eating, I just used to enjoy eating a lot of cr@p. No emotional attachments or baggage.
I started my journey by eating less cr@p.
Then changed what I eat to healthy stuff, which I now enjoy eating quite a lot of.
And then adding in exercise.
In fact exercise has become quite addictive for me and ticks quite a few of the things on your list especially the stress and emotional stuff.
#1 on your list explains a lot of my overeating----and I have variations of it. For instance, "It's fresh now, and won't taste as good later, so I'd better eat it now." Also, your #21 goes into the same category. It's the idea of having to eat something right away because somehow it won't be as great when I am hungry. If I really think it out, though, it's usually not true. Even if it is true, though, so what? Unless it's some special circumstance where I'll never get to eat that food again in my life, what difference does it make if it goes bad, gets stale, etc.? I wish I could think this logically when confronted with the food in question.
#1 on your list explains a lot of my overeating----and I have variations of it. For instance, "It's fresh now, and won't taste as good later, so I'd better eat it now." Also, your #21 goes into the same category. It's the idea of having to eat something right away because somehow it won't be as great when I am hungry. If I really think it out, though, it's usually not true. Even if it is true, though, so what? Unless it's some special circumstance where I'll never get to eat that food again in my life, what difference does it make if it goes bad, gets stale, etc.? I wish I could think this logically when confronted with the food in question.
Or sometimes you just eat something because you don't want to throw it away. I made too much lasagna for a party last weekend so I've had a lot left over. I don't want to throw it away because I put so much effort into making it and don't like to waste food that I absolutely love to eat. But at the same time I'm eating a piece of lasagna every day which does not feel good on my body. What to do?
Or sometimes you just eat something because you don't want to throw it away. I made too much lasagna for a party last weekend so I've had a lot left over. I don't want to throw it away because I put so much effort into making it and don't like to waste food that I absolutely love to eat. But at the same time I'm eating a piece of lasagna every day which does not feel good on my body. What to do?
I'm getting slightly better at this because the freezer has become my friend when it comes to leftovers. Dieting aside, my husband (a "naturally thin" person) and I have very different taste in foods, so I often find myself cooking something that I really want but that he will not eat (e.g. I love vegetables, baked pastas, eggplant parm, etc., and he doesn't even though he's Italian!). That means I have leftovers. A few weeks ago, I made a pan of eggplant parm. I cut it into some nice-sized pieces and froze all but one piece. I have just one piece left now. The only time this doesn't work for me is with pecan pie, my all-time favorite dessert. It tastes better frozen! I haven't made it in a very long time because when I make it, without fail, I'll eat the entire pie within two days, max.
How I wish I could freeze food for later, something so simple! But nope. My willpower would last for only a few hours. I'd go back, take it out, heat it and shovel it in my mouth ,all this without feeling hungry...just because it was lying there.
I stopped doing the once a month grocery shopping years ago, because I'd finish the "provisions" in less than a week.
The one desperate measure I had to take was to unplug my fridge 2 years ago. *sigh* Addiction...
There's a lot of food I do freeze but not all cooked food freezes well. Soups and stews yes to some extent. But this lasagna dish I've tried freezing pieces before and it was horrible when defrosted and reheated. I may not be freezing it correctly though, how do you freeze?
I find when I don't eat processed foods, sugar, or wheat, it is a LOT easier to stay on track. Once I have just a little bit of the crap food, it spirals! I cannot moderate the crap food. Period.
And, after much experimenting, I sure feel TERRIBLE when I eat crap food. It really is astounding how much it affects the way I feel. Plus I get bad heartburn which is miserable.
There's a lot of food I do freeze but not all cooked food freezes well. Soups and stews yes to some extent. But this lasagna dish I've tried freezing pieces before and it was horrible when defrosted and reheated. I may not be freezing it correctly though, how do you freeze?
Wow--I wonder why it's not freezing well for you. I've made various types of lasagna before (e.g., traditional Italian, butternut squash, etc.), and they're all fine as long as I give them time to fully thaw. They don't taste quite as good when I nuke them.
I tend to be a bit manic with wrapping foods for freezing. With my eggplant parm, I first let it cool completely. Then, I wrap each piece in wax paper, and then wrap it again in tin foil. I freeze them on a cookie sheet (so they won't all smash together if I put them in a bag). When they're frozen, I put everything in a large freezer bag.
That's exactly how I freeze it too. But I do put it in the microwave. It takes a long time for something to thaw properly and I froze it so I could have a quick meal in the first place.
1001 Reasons Why I Eat Needlessly
something will be in my mouth before my brain catches up to say "stop!"
