Replacements for anxiety/stress eating

Ooh ooh ooh can I join in?

"Steve," I began patiently, tapping my foot against the bare concrete floor, "we've been over this at least three times before."

Sweat dripped from Steve's forehead. It ran down his upturned brow, trickling into a small puddle at the bottom of the pit of spikes. Several puddles, actually-- he'd created several as he swung from his ankles, tied to the rafters. "I know! I know! And it'll be different this time! I SWEAR I'll save the documentation to the network and not my desktop!"

I nodded. "Yes, it WILL be different this time. I'm sure of it. And you're sure of it too, aren't you, Waffles?" There was a satisfied rumble from behind the iron bars of the tiger cage, its gate held close by a precariously rusty lock. "In fact, I'm so certain it will be different this time, that I've taken precautions that will surely be unnecessary."

Steve craned his neck towards his cubicle. His face became increasingly red as he did so; apparently, forty minutes upside-down had put a strain on his circulatory system. Atop his computer monitor was a laundry basket filled to the brim with juicy ribeye steaks. A hand-lettered sign on the basket identified it as "FOR TIGER CONSUMPTION ONLY," and indicated it would remain upright as long as protocol was observed.

I tapped an icon on my phone screen and Steve landed in a heap, face-first, at my feet. He ran to his computer, sat down, typed in a few commands, and sighed with relief. He paused. Then a double-take.

The laundry basket toppled into his lap. He screamed.

What! You stopped?, it was just getting good! Lol 

Oh, and also cross stitching if you're looking to pick up a craft.  If you can thread a needle and count, you're golden.

Jen

Great idea! Etsy has some adorable snarky patterns, I have some lovely explicit samplers :)

Eliptical while watching Netflix.

I started to do hard drugs to curb my hunger post op

worked for me

I read now. It does help.

This is a much harder alternative but learn to live in the moment. Almost all stress/anxiety is caused by living in the past or the future, worrying about things that have already happened and can't change or worrying about things that might be...

the present moment is almost never unbearable. It's all the other **** that gets dragged in. 

I was a strong objector to the "mindfulness" movement, but as I finally surrendered to the fact I never live in the moment, I realized how important mindfulness was. 

I decided to commit myself to the OA program and its nipped my stress eating in the butt and I don't deal with it very often. I use several tools

• go to meetings frequently
• use my support network of friends to talk me through a moment 
• have a plan of eating and commit to total abstinence of my trigger foods
• Reading OA literature and writing - writing is amazing tool where I get an outlet to what's going on but also allows a deeper exploration of what's going on

There are others that are specific to OA but that's the bulk of it. 

Rather than just find distractions, figure out and deal with the why of it. I hated the thought of doing a 12 step program but it actually works wonders for me. 

I don't have any more suggestions that wasn't already said. Shopping is good but I'd go broke really quickly so I just add stuff to my wish list.

I think AcBrown is onto something with living in the moment. It sucks to have to be anxious or feeling emotional but I think you just have to white knuckle it thru. I've gone thru too many times to find ways to distract myself that wasn't eating related but going thru the emotion is a different ballgame.

Like I was feeling sad & I couldn't figure out why & usually in the past I would've comforted myself with food, now I just have a good cry & write **** down, it doesn't work all the time but it does help.

I just can't distract myself from the emotion, just gotta find ways to deal with it no matter how much it sucks.

I'm liking my Lotus Designs coloring book by Creative Haven. It's abstract. I just pick up a color and go. I have a new fancy elaborate book but just looking at it makes me tired.

Swimming helps.

Going to the Ladies Spa helps.

Reading about Royal babies helps.

Forced intimacy with my reluctant devil dog Lucy always helps. She just loves lap time!

Things that don't help..cleaning or eating corn chips.

Deb