Handling stress without eating!

  • Ohhh what a can of worms! We all know that we shouldn't be stuffing our emotions, but hey! We're human! Hope you don't mind sharing some of your "stuff" and how you handled it. I think this thread can be a great resource to us all! I have learned so much from all of you.

    My emotion: Boredom --- by the time I get home, I am very tired and I end up just grabbing anything. It's not that I'm hungry, maybe I am hungry? I have made some great changes in the past month -- making the soup to have as soon as I walk in the door -- having some low cal snacks that I have "allowed" (i.e. a small cut up apple with low fat yoghurt -- filling and tastes like a treat, low cal popcorn - 1 pt per snack bag) and of course I have been trying to keep BUSY so I'm not bored. NEWEST...changing the channels on the tv as soon as a food commercial comes on -- or getting up and putting in a load of wash etc. Feel free to add suggestions or ideas -- and of course share some of the challenges you have in your life (I remember it changes as I age.....now some of the emotions I experience are totally related to TEENAGERS...I TOTALLY understand why some animal mothers eat their young! )

    so? next?????
  • Omg, yah, I have the same problem u have. I eat when i'm bored/sad. And yes, there are way too many commercials for food. I flip the channels asap, too! When i'm bored, instead of eating, i drink juice instead. One of those 5cal/serving crystal light juices. They're so good, my fave is kiwi strawberry. Also, i chew gum, and do my hair, do hmwk...
  • There are days H.A.L.T. clicks in H-ungry, A-ngry, L-onely, T-ired. and I have to ask myself if I am feeling any of these when the apparant need to feed hits and resolving that issue first. Halting is two-fold. The very first thing it does is make you Stop or Pause before you eat. The second is it makes you Think. It makes you think about yourself and why your doing this. After all is said and done, bottom line is ( and it always follows H.A.L.T for me) Action not Reaction. I will enjoy it far more if its a choosen Action then a mindless Reaction. If it isnt Hunger, then food Won't fix it.
  • ok....the three of us must be the ONLY one's on earth that emotionally eat! ha ha!
  • oh good ... emotional / stress eating is how i got to this size in the first place

    i really got to think before i eat now .... is it physical hunger ? or most likely boredom, depression, STRESS and the like

    i am in that boat as well

    my body is by ben and jerry's and that is definitely emotional eating
  • Wow. I really like sweetnsassyfied's post about H.A.L.T. - I think I need to print that out and hang it on my cupboard door.