What do you do to fight boredom eating?

LovelyLeah · 10-28-2011, 09:35 PM

I'm thinking of making a list of activities or things to do to prevent boredom eating (my personal biggest trigger for bingeing). I struggle with it as well as some of you, I'm sure. I think they should be fun ideas. I've always heard of things like go clean something or go for a walk. Those don't seem fun enough to convince me to step away from the fridge.

What are your ideas? I'll try to keep editing this list with the ideas you give. Hopefully this will help everyone come up with a way to distract yourself.

Paint your nails
Color in a coloring book
Paint/Draw/Sculpt
Garden
Scrapbook
Write a very strange story
Call a friend
Knit/Crochet
Learn a new hobby
Crank up the music and DANCE
Clean/Organize
BIG puzzles
Play with your hair. Try new hairstyle.
Learn new make-up techniques. Go wild, you can always wash it off.
Shop! Mall, Goodwill, thrift stores, garage sales, ebay, you name it.
Go through you're stuff and sell or donate what you don't use or need anymore. Ebay and craigslist are great places to start.
Shop for others. This always put me in a great mood. I'd go shop the clearance racks for cute, new baby clothes and donate them to charities that help teen moms.
Volunteer!! Set your mind on someone else and forget about your own wants for a while.
Read.
Listen to music
Surf the internet.
Play a game (Phone/Computer/Board/Card)
Text someone
Go for a drive
Drink something that tastes sweet like a light version of lemonade
Brush my teeth
Go to the library
Video games that keep you moving, not sitting. IE: Wii, Kinect, DDR
Do something sentimental or reminisce
Go bowling. (have not done that for years)
Go out and sing Karoake. (did that this weekend!)
Take a class at AC Moore or Michael's.
Learn to sew!
Aside from trying a new hairstyle--how about a new hair color?
Walk the dog.
Summertime--go for a swim.
Go to the gym???
Clean the "fat" clothes out of the closet/drawers?
Take a nap
Photography Scavenger Hunt. Go for a walk, take a journey and photograph everything.
Make a collage. Go through old magazine and cover a posterboard with what OR WHO is meaningful to you.

HikingChloe · 10-28-2011, 10:19 PM

Believe it or not, cleaning house tends to be effective for me. In part I think I am "clearer" with a clean house so that helps me feel energized rather than down and wallowing.

I work on big puzzles as well.

LovelyLeah · 10-29-2011, 12:16 AM

I like the feeling after cleaning, when everything is all nice and orderly. It's the cleaning part I dislike. Unless I'm working. If I'm some place else I actually love to clean up.

Puzzles are a lot of fun but they can be horribly addicting!! Sometimes I get so determined to figure out a section that I forget what time it is.

HikingChloe · 10-29-2011, 12:54 AM

Yes, I have the same problem with puzzles myself.

They can be a time suck!

ShanIAm · 10-30-2011, 01:06 AM

Oh yeah, I'm a big house clearer and organizer too. I'm pretty much scraping the bottom of the barrel though as I found myself organizing my clothes hangers today. Some stayed, some are in the garbage. LOL But anyway, here are a couple other things I do --

1) I will try out new hairstyles. I'll wash and rewash a few times in a day if I am REALLY bored!

2) I'll try out new make-up techniques.

3) If I have extra funds, I go to the mall. If I don't, I enjoy Goodwill or find other 2nd hand stores in the area I haven't visited yet.

4) I've become an active Ebay seller. I have a ton of clothes, rings, belts I can't wear anymore so taking pics, posting items and going to USPS to mail -- it keeps me VERY busy and gives me spending money for #3. And it's SO addicting!

LovelyLeah · 10-30-2011, 10:10 AM

Thanks! Those are great ideas. I added yours as well as some more I thought of.

SlateGrey · 10-30-2011, 11:40 AM

Paint my nails.
Read.
Listen to music on my iPod.
Surf the internet.
Play a game. (either on my phone or on the computer or a card game)
Call a friend. (This REALLY seems to work!)
Text someone.
Go for a drive.
Drink something that tastes sweet like a light version of lemonade.
Brush my teeth.
Go to the library.
Download music online.

LovelyLeah · 10-30-2011, 11:21 PM

Awesome, thanks for your input!

spaghetticat · 10-31-2011, 12:46 AM

Im thinking of getting a kinect and dance central- i used to DDR all the time, I think this would be a really fun way to kill some time, do something good and just have fun and distract myself!

bellastarr · 11-05-2011, 04:01 PM

Paint my nails!!!

LovelyLeah · 11-06-2011, 01:04 PM

Painting your nails is a great idea because you can't do much of anything with wet nails including eating.

dazzlemee · 11-14-2011, 04:35 PM

I am horrible at this! I find that the only time I eat out of boredom is on the weekends. To combat this, I pick up a book and read. By the time I look at the clock again, it's either lunchtime or dinnertime so I'm good to go~

Lili411 · 11-15-2011, 01:23 PM

I'm interested in trying out crochet. My grandmother used to crochet and I would like to take it up to honor her memory but also to keep my hands occupied! I'm also downloading bad reality TV from itunes :-)

124chicksinger · 11-15-2011, 08:01 PM

I'm laughing as I write this----take a nap.

I knit and crochet. I also teach people both. Getting out of the "food environment" with someone who wants to learn...and seeing the "voila" moment when I know she "gets it" is amazing.

My husband says being online here keeps the eating down too--he's right!

Go bowling. (have not done that for years)

Go out and sing Karoake. (did that this weekend!)

Take a class at AC Moore or Michael's.

Learn to sew!

Aside from trying a new hairstyle--how about a new hair color?

Walk the dog.

Summertime--go for a swim.

Go to the gym???

Clean the "fat" clothes out of the closet/drawers?

LovelyLeah · 11-16-2011, 03:14 AM

Updated with all your wonderful ideas.