Quote:
Originally Posted by Saraneedstolose200
I am an emotional eater, have been for as long as I can remember. No matter if I am happy/sad/depressed etc. I eat more than I need to. I have been trying to figure out ways to stop it though. I just need help with it. Any ideas?
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Hi Sara - it's great that you recognize exactly what is causing you to eat when you're not hungry. It's difficult to stop, particularly for those of us who have used food for comfort. But it can be done.
I know you've probably heard many suggestions about finding other things to occupy you, such as taking a walk, finding a hobby that keeps you occupied, etc. They are all good ideas, but unfortunately it's just often so hard to follow through.
Perhaps you could start by identifying any particular time of day when you find yourself eating without hunger? For many people (including myself) the time they are most likely to do this is in the evening, particularly while watching TV. It was my worst time for sure.
Baby steps are the key to success in weight loss. So if you could do something like try to stop your emotional eating initially at the time of day it is most severe, that would be a place to start. By doing that you can set yourself a realistic goal - something like "I won't eat between the hours of 7pm - 9pm" or something like that. It's said that it takes 30 days to break a habit and form a new one, so if you can get eating out of your life for just a few hours a day that's a good start. Of course you need to make sure you've had a good, nutritious meal and are not hungry so you are not tempted to eat during the time you've planned to eliminate your emotional eating.
Then, when you've mastered that, you can move on to making other changes to improve your eating habits.
Hope this is helpful.