So....here's my biggest obstacle!! Trying to overcome the fact that food is not meant for comfort! When I'm stressed...I wanna eat. When I am hungry I wanna eat till I'm so full I can't move!! I turn to food when I'm sad...
Can anyone give me some tips on how to reroute my thinking to comfort myself with food and turn it into something positive?? TIA
I struggle with this too. I always have to remind myself that in the end I feel no comfort from the food, only misery.
I try and find other things to enjoy, or to comfort me. Sometimes it's a cup of tea or coffee. Sometimes it's a bubble bath, or a movie I like. It is certainly a work in progress, and I have slip ups! I have definitely become much more aware of how quickly my mind goes to food automatically, when feeling stress, or sadness, or any other emotion pretty much!
A glass of water and a refocus for me... I keep my exercise ball in my living room and when I'm snacky or anxious and just want to eat for comfort I sit or balance on the ball until the feeling goes away. The exercise spurt gives me a little endorphin boost and it keeps me away from the kitchen.
In the end, you need to figure out what the trigger is and address it in a way that resolves the issue instead of soothing it with food.
Just a thought, I've redesigned a lot of my fave comfort foods to be more healthy. The problem with that is, it's a lot of work. So make it healthy or grab a glass of water or a cup of tea, or just forget the whole thing and eat an apple or some carrots, and save all the chopping and slopping and dicing and slicing and dishes and so on and just forget it. Take a bubble bath, walk the dog, pet the cat, scrub the john, sweep, vacuum, fold laundry, call a friend, etc., or just go to bed.
Having a healthy diet doesn't mean you need to give up everything you love. I use to eat chips and stuff all the time. Now I've just found stuff that I like that I can eat that I can snack on. I'm on the South Beach so my snack of choice is Cream Cheese and Triscuits. When I want something sweet I eat carb smart ice cream bars. When I wasn't allowed these things I was eating Blue Diamond Smoke House Almonds like they were going out of style.
Last edited by itzadreamer; 05-30-2012 at 01:07 AM.
I am not low-carb, but reducing the amount of carbs helped me a lot. Also, I just "faced the pain" I tend to feel a lot of misery and anxiety very easily, but now I find that if I actually just allow myself to face all those bad feelings, it goes away. Its def the harder route, but at the end of the day, I am better at facing my problems. Misery isn't all that scary when I just deal with it head on.
I also struggle with this- this is the primary reason for my weight gain. i eat when stressed, tired, upset and happy... i am thankful for the responses and advice and will definitely try these solutions!
I have found some new comfort foods. Black bean soup or lentil spinach soup have become my cold weather comforts. My regular breakfast of homemade granola or steel cut oats or red river cereal with berries and plain yogurt is comforting to me too, and I feel a bit off all day when I can't have it for some reason.
No more comfort food!!!!
