Yesterday I was stressed at work. I actually caught myself thinking, "I wish I was eating right now." I wasn't hungry at all, and it kind of shocked me to find that I so blatantly wanted to eat to deal with stress.

Do you guys have these kind of thoughts? I mean, I have often thought, "I wish I had chocolate right now," but it really surprised me to find myself thinking just "I wish I was eating right now."

Unfortunately yes But I try to use the techniques I have learned to get those thoughts out of my head.

Um, yes. Often. It helps I know it's stress and can usually stop myself. But why don't I think "Gee, I wish someone would hug me." or "I wish someone could help." instead of wanting to eat.

Well, I often have thoughts like "I'd rather be in bed now" or "I'd love to take a nap now". Rarely do I ever think "I'd rather be exercising now" though (except just now when I realized I'll get my new treadmill today!!). But when it comes to food, I'm usually trying to figure a way to not eat--postponing to the last moment before I get to that "so starving I'm going to over eat" place.

I heard a speaker once who tried to explain the stress/eating connection. He stated that the main problem humans (and other animals) face is lack of consistent food (as a species). So our urge to eat is a way to deal with stress and our body reads stress as a potential threat of lack of food. I'm not explaining it very well....It's kind of a quiet stress versus the panic of fight or flight.

I do want to eat when I am stressed. I also want to eat when I am overwhelmed, cause it gives me something else to do besides cope with the issues at hand. Why isn't my natural coping mechanism cleaning??

Many times I will think. "I need to eat something right now - or else."

And sometimes I will eat something. Not necessarily off plan though. It could be a sugar free ices, an apple, a grapefruit, etc...

Other times I will do something else to "calm me down". Cause that's usually what it is I'm looking to do. Calm me down. Funny. I turn to food for that.

Me too -- the problem is that food actually does calm me down. I do feel better after eating a candy bar. When I'm really stressed out, having something to munch on makes it easier. I have yet to find anything that will work as well as eating.

Mostly I find it surprising that after being heavy for years, and having maintained for nearly three years, it was only yesterday that I thought "I wish I was eating right now" for the first time ever.

I think I need to go buy some sugarfree gum or something, just so I will have something to chew on. My tic-tacs work pretty well usually in low-stress situations.

Totally.

The last couple of weeks in fact, I've found myself standing in front of the fridge at night and thinking to myself ... what do I want to eat? And as I think about it I *know* ... I clearly hear myself saying ... I'm not hungry, I just need something to eat.

And then I have to stop and mentally smack myself!

Sometimes I just feel like I "need" to eat. It's really frickin' annoying!

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I don't think to myself "I wish I were eating" but I often find myself rooting around in the kitchen for food when I'm not actually hungry. Either I'm bored, I'm trying to avoid an unpleasant task, or it's time for a snack and I'm just on autopilot.

Just yesterday, it hit 6 PM, which is time for one of my PM snacks, and I went to the kitchen to get something to eat, even started preparing it, before I realized that I wasn't actually hungry. I had been hungry earlier and had eaten an extra snack, so I didn't really need the 6 PM snack and skipping it or cutting back on it would help keep my calories on plan. But I started to prepare the snack without even thinking about it--it's 6 PM so it's time to eat, whether I'm hungry or not. I caught myself this time, so I skipped the snack and ended up eating half of it later, when I was actually hungry. But how often does this happen and I don't catch myself?

Boredom totally does it to me. I can stand in the doorway of the pantry or the fridge looking and looking and looking and knowing full well that I am not hungry. I just want something to do. I usually have to remove myself from the kitchen (and go play a game of computer solitaire) to get away from sticking something in my mouth.

I don't know as I think quite like "I wish I were eating now", but I do have those feelings of "Gee, I wish I could eat the way I used to eat and not care".

Sometimes the discipline of eating right - even when that includes planned indulgences, gets tiring.

I definitely hear you on this. I have that thought all the time.

Fiberlover, you really hit on something there. I think everyone who has been more than a little overweight probably faces that issue from time to time.

Jay

Hmm - part of my maintenance plan is to allow myself to have a snack whenever I feel like I want one, so I am not depriving myself - which is psychologically destructive.

My problem is that I only buy healthy snacks, so the thought I find myself having sometimes is "I wish I could eat something really bad for me!"

I used to eat to stuff feelings and avoid life. I've drastically changed my eating habits, and exercise, and it feels great and feels permanent. *Almost* easy But I haven't applied as much change elsewhere in my life, and it also really needs it. So, I still sometimes want to eat and stuff feelings. But not as often, and while all my food choices aren't "perfect" (whatever that is), I never binge. Some part of my brain still has that inclination, but really, I don't even fear doing it. I just don't anymore, and that feels great. Not that the nibbles (or way healthier than before but still not on plan eating) won't eventually overtake you too .