Emotional Eating

I got an article from SparkPeople about emotional eating. I know that it's been an issue for me in the past... not so recent past to be honest. As many of you know, I've been under an enormous amount of stress lately... Well, actually for the last year or so, but it's really ramped up during the past 3 months. During the past year, I noticed that I was succumbing to emotional eating and put on 15 to 20 lbs... I had dropped a little low before, so i was only worried about the last 10 to 12 lbs, but I was comfort eating. I recognized what was happening that was able to identify the problems and trim off the extra 10 to 12 lbs. I found that if my weight is going up, I seem to be able to get a handle on it by logging what I'm eating. It allows me to 'see' what I'm doing and make the appropriate corrections. I didn't really have to 'diet' to the excess weight off, I just made sure that I was leading with protein and keeping my carbs under control. For me, it seems that when I let my carbs get out of control, meaning more than 30% of my total intake, then I gain, but when I can get back in line, the extra pounds just trim right back off.

Being able to see it in terms of balance rather than having diet has made a huge difference for me. 

During the past 3 months, I've actually dropped another 12 lbs and I'm a little too thin. Now that I'm REALLY STRESSED, believe it or not, I've found that I have to force myself to eat. Who would have ever thought that would happen. 

If you'd like to see the article that SparkPeople have on emotional eating, click here. 

Please share any thoughts and/or experiences you have surrounding emotional eating.

Thanks,

Thanks for sharing :)  I don't think that anyone who is overweight doesn't have some kind of an emotional connection to food.  I know I sure do.  When I got my lap-band put in my insurance required a round of psych visits to help with the emotional eating aspect.  I can say it did make me much more aware, but still didn't solve the problems. 

My lowest point in my life (in terms of emotional eating) was when I was depressed out of my mind that I couldn't get pregnant due to my weight and resulting PCOS...so there I was on my way home from the Dr's after finding out that I wasn't pregnant when I really thought I was, and I stupidly decided to stop at the store.  I loaded my cart up with ice cream, candy, baked goods, etc...everything bad that makes me feel so good.  And there I was 20 minutes later sitting on my couch in tears, sobbing, staring and this bag of chocolate covered mini hostess donuts and staring one down saying out loud "Stephanie, if you eat this you will never have a baby" and then still proceeding to eat the entire bag of mini donuts. 

Emotions rule our lives, and when you eat to your emotions, then food rules your life.  If you're happy...awesome, let's have some food!  If you're lonely...don't worry, food will keep you company.  If you're sad....food will be there for you to cry to.  If you're excited or anxious....food will distract you.