What do you do to curb boredom eating? For me, this is new. I have never ever been a boredom eater, but now that I have a baby, I find myself doing it a lot I have 4 hours a day (naptime) that I can't leave the house and I can't make too much noise (clean) because it's a tiny apartment and it wakes him up. So what do I do? I eat. And I'm so used to eating whatever I want, whenever I want, because that's what I did for the last 9 months before.

Can someone help with ideas? I really don't want to come here necessarily during that time because I don't want to think about or read about food/weight, etc. I do go to the gym 4x a week and I do walk the dog when the baby's awake, but when the baby's asleep, I find myself snacking constantly! I am not *gaining* from it but I am certainly eating my planned deficit daily (my goal is 1600 calories)

Any book suggestions that refer to boredom eating? Thanks

Get a hobby.

Take up knitting. Do yoga for one of the hours. Lift weights. Prepare healthy meals. Start writing. Read.

I am a huge boredom eater also. So I keep lots of fresh fruit in the fridge. Also, my new thing is green tea that I sweeten with Splenda. I never knew how potent that stuff is. only takes a little to sweeten, and to be honest I dont need it that sweet. just so it won't be tart. I have found, that tea works very very well for me. Between tea and water, it really diminishes my craving for munching. I boil a pot of tea (enough for several cups) and as I finish one, I just go re-heat and pour more.

If that doesn't help. Maybe find some online exercise videos? you don't have it keep it up loud. put in mute? I mean you can follow along by watching right?

But try tea.

Yeah, as a (reformed) boredom eater, I would suggest one of three things:

1 -Replace eating higher calorie stuff with low/no cal stuff: gum, tea, raw veggies, etc.
2 - Replace the eating with something NOT food related. Someting that keeps your hands and mind busy: knitting, painting, writing, reading, cross stitch, sudoku, volunteer to stuff envelopes for a local charity (you can do this at home), etc.
3 - A combination of the two.

My personal vote is for #2. For me, as much as possible, I try to never eat out of boredom or any other emotion. I eat when it's time to eat what I've previously planned. It sounds harsh, and it hasn't always been easy, but I struggle with emotional eating and feel like it's the best way for me to stay OP. Negative reinforcement and all that stuff.

Clean anyway, your house should not be silent when the baby is sleeping. You will end up with a kid who can't sleep unless everything is silent. When my twins were babies, I vacuumed, cooked whatever needed done, they learned to sleep through it.

Put on an exercise dvd and get a workout.

Find workout routines in magazines and do those.

Chat with someone on the phone.

Fold laundry, scrub your bathroom, wash walls, wash windows, learn to knit, crochet, embroidery, cross stitch, tat.

Call around and see if any businesses would need help putting together gift baskets. You could do that at home, and get paid. Maybe some local organizations could use some help with something you could do at home, churches, Jaycees, Salvation Army, Abate, Toys for Tots, etc. Scrapbook, design Christmas cards with your new family on them.

Take an online class, Ed 2 go has some that aren't to expensive, and just to learn something for yourself, or they have whole programs.

That's a few off the top of my head. Good luck.

I know how it feels....I had one child that was a very light sleeper day and night. I really recommend gum. How about you start painting or scrapbooking? Put on some yoga type meditation music (that might actually help your baby sleep more) and maybe you can practice some meditation (you can probably read about it online and try it). Clean out your closet. That doesn't make a lot of noise but it might actually inspire you to want to stay focused on your weight loss goals. Read a lot. Go to the library often so that you always have a lot to choose from. Can your baby sleep while you take a walk in the stroller? Or if you put your baby in a carrier? That way, you'll burn even more calories. If you an afford it, you can get movies to stream on Netflix and just watch it with headphones on (have your monitor next to you so you can see it if he/she awakens). Either way, it would be great to stop this particular habit before it gets any worse.

chew gum or brush your teeth anytime you start to get the munchies

you could also just be thirsty, so drinking something never hurts

Knitting is a great distraction since you have to pay attention to the stitch count, pattern, etc.

That and tea and gum...all good things.

Tea and reading or knitting & listening to music are just about the greatest combination to me.

Loud alarm on kitchen cupboards so that opening the kitchen cupboards will also wake the baby?

I think you need to plan a snack, maybe even 2 snacks that you can eat during this period of time, and take your time over them. Put your feet up with a giant bowl of air-popped popcorn and a cup of tea, for example, and you can snack without going off-plan. Other options are water crackers, cottage cheese, salad bowl, etc. Just make sure there are low-cal boredom eating options available, and then find something to fill your time with too. If you have a realiable sleeper on your hands you can do all sorts of things like indulge in a long bubble bath if you don't fancy taking up a mentally challenging hobby. Painting your nails is often recommended, it's really hard to eat while your nails are drying! There's no need to do the same thing day in day out, make a big list of possibles and make sure you have the food and the other equipment (puzzle books, crosswords, knitting patterns, etc.) necessary to indulge any one of them.

If it's any consolation, this period will soon pass! You'll be moving onto "how on earth can I stay awake and on my feet as long as my toddler can?" before you know it. Bank these nap times, you're going to wish you still had them in the years to come.

Learn to knit. You can make lovely baby garments, socks, baby blankets, gifts. You will have both your hands and mind occupied and have something productive of the quiet hours. I use to make 3 full adult sweaters a year just by knitting on the bus to and from work everyday. The time was not wasted.

I second the suggestion to put music on. I found that if I had music playing in the living room while baby slept in her room, I was able to make more noise without waking her.

Are you getting enough sleep? Can you nap during one of his naps?

You could put together a dumbbell routine + pushups + crunches + exercise ball to do quietly during naps. Just don't drop those dumbbells!

Can you save up quiet chores, like folding laundry, paying bills? Keep a list next to the computer of things you need to research and do them all then instead of here and there? Give yourself a mani/pedi? Ok, I guess doing that every day would be overkill...

I have been trying out some tea as well. Earl Grey with lemon and splenda , Green tea, ect.... It's hot so you can't drink it fast. So it gives you something to do for a while. Something about getting something warm in you feels good too.

Thanks eveyrone for the great ideas (oh and RoseRodent, after 4 months of colic, I already truly appreciate these lovely naps, LOL!!!)

I'm going to try the tea thing first. I do have kettlebells for a workout but I do lift very heavy weights in the gym 4x a week so that will inhibit my recovery.

Thank you everyone for the great ideas. I'm going ot leave a bag of broccoli in the fridge too, lol.