Question about emotional eating

I am new here, but I read a lot of posts where people talk about eating to feel better, or eating to suppress emotions.  I really do not understand this, and I would like to have it explained a little if possible.  I am pretty sure that I am not that way.  I think I eat too much because it tastes so damn good.  When I am dieting I do great as long as I eat foods that I do not like.  I mean really.  Who wants to eat vegetables?  I think that if there was no such thing as pizza, prome rib, and fast food burgers, I would weigh 120 pounds.

Basically it is just like it sounds. A lot of us tend to eat based off of how we feel. For me it is not necessarily to feel better or suppress emotions it can be because I feel good or want to celebrate. When a person doesn't have a healthy outlet for dealing with stress, depression, loneliness, etc they will often eat as a means of dealing with it. Boredom is a big one for many people. Obviously the eating doesn't actually solve anything but we do it to distract ourself or to have control over something. Do you ever eat just because you have nothing particular to do and you think hmm that sounds good? That is eating out of boredom and is very common. Another good example is this past weekend when I had to take my toddler to the grocery with me and he was behaving horribly. When I left the grocery I wanted a pop SO BAD and when you break it down it is because I can't control him completely but I can control that and it is something that will make me "feel better" There is no real good way to explain it but if you don't do it you are truly blessed. I like the taste of many foods of course but majority of the "bad" things I eat are due to some type of emotion and not actual hunger and as good as they taste I could resist if I could remember that I don't have to eat it just because I feel like it.

I love veggies. I love food. I love to cook and eat :)  That hasn't changed since surgery for me, I'm just content and satisfied with significantly less. I just make sure that the bites I put in my mouth are as delicious as possible, since I don't have space (or desire) to eat suboptimal food. 

I ate Ben & Jerry's until I either exploded or had wls, my future was a russian roulette of  heart attacks, strokes or  limbs cut off.  I opted to have wls at 283.5lb and currently weigh 130 and can honestly say I have never to this day and its been over 9 years eaten one drop of Ben & Jerrys nor will I ever again.  It nearly killed me.  Nothing tastes as good as sliding on size 4-6, nothing.  I have no desire to eat anything really.  I still like to eat but no real preferences, most things make me sick if they are filled with sugar or fried, so they are out.  I had chicken scampi over the weekend and it was good but it made me feel miserable because I cannot eat pasta.  So I picked out the chicken and ate that.  Food holds nothing over me any more, nor will I ever let it again. 

Oh my.  That is me to a T.  I am an older woman. Sorry.  Never had an issue with weight till I took antidepressants. And the killer for me was Ben & Jerry's.  For the past 16 years I have been a blob.  I will have WLS in a few weeks.  But reading your post, I laugh because Ben & Jerry's was my crack.  Antidepressants cause craving for simple carbs in many and in my case it was chocolate anything B&J.  Good for you for breaking the habit.  I congratulate you. 

You know that sense of enjoyment, satisfaction, and pleasure that you get when you take the first couple of bites of something really yummy?  Well, many people turn to that feeling to overcome feelings of loneliness, sadness, anger, fear, or even boredom.  They use the positive emotions they get from eating as a coping mechanism.  

Many people KNOW that they do it, but -- based on my professional mental health experience -- nearly as many people who do it aren't even aware that they do it unless they start paying attention to, or logging, how they are feeling and warp hat they are doing right before they eat something.

What do you do when you feel sad?  What do you do when you feel angry?  Many people eat.

Lora

edited for typos 

Lora that is a great way to describe emotional eating. I am totally an emotional eater. I wish I wasn't but I am trying to pin point when it happens. I do log everything I eat so I have to stop before eating something.

I do enjoy eating. I enjoy cooking to. I make things now that are healthier for everyone. I try to make my family come together to the table to eat. Mostly to see each other and how everyone's day was. 

Every day I try to keep an eye on my emotions.Thank god for my therapist.

I was also an emotional eater (and that is still often my first thought), so I was obese to begin with and then went from obese to SMO after two traumas.  I am as proud of my ability to recognize when I start to reach for food for emotional reasons as I am of having maintained my weight loss for so long.  Those two things are definitely connected for me.

Even after so many years, I still sometimes struggle to make the right decision and NOT eat when I am upset, but I win the battle far more than I lose it, and there have been a couple of times when I consciously allowed myself (at the urging of friends who also have mental health backgrounds) some leeway to "give in" when going through a REALLY difficult time.  At those times, though, it definitely takes willpower to make it a limited thing and not allow it to become a crutch again.  Sometimes things are simply so stressful that ANYTHING that helps is useful when almost nothing DOES help.

Lora

I would actually kill for a salad!

I was very young when I realized that a slice of chocolate cake with fudge icing would take away any emotional pain. 

Some people cannot eat when they are sad and depressed and some people cannot stop eating.