Strategies for overcoming emotional eating

karate and kick boxing are great for focusing emotions. I also write a lot.

My body decided to stop cooperating with my crazy activities and is currently on strike. Im stuck with swimming for now, but once my body gets back up to par, I will definitely have my outlet back for burning a lot of negative energy. 

I've been wondering what happened. Did you get an injury? You don't have to say on the main forum. Just know that I completely understand about how mental a physical injury can be. Dealing with an injury can REALLY be a brain ****

I'm also a list maker. LOVE my lists. They help me to take the emotion out of the things I need to accomplish. That way I don't get over-whelmed.

I dont really know what happened but i woke up one day in February with the worst back pain ever that spread to my hip...doctors just called it hip bursitis...blah blah. I thought that it would go away but it didnt. I started physical therapy and they are saying its my piriformis muscle and some issues with my pelvic bone being rotated in the wrong direction straining some other muscles and tendons...i dont know...im not sure I totally understand it all. They started talking about slight scoliosis...and other stuff. 

All I know is I cannot run, I cannot hike, I cannt walk up a freaking hill without searing pain in that muscle. Fortunately, ive been swimming and enjoying it and ive been able to get back on m bike in the last two weeks without too much pain. 

Thanks for sharing.  So many of us have emotional eating issues and the more we can share with one another maybe we can open up these doors and figure this stuff out.  (Of course a good therapist always helps tool).   And congratulations on your accomplishment - THAT IS FANTASTIC and inspirational to us newbies on this journey.  Take care of yourself - you deserve good things.

I used to do ALL types of positive reaffirmation things in my teens.  Guess that's part of what has made me the positive life affirming person I am today.

You'll get through this!

I posted a few weeks ago that my new therapist (I have been to five 'food addiction' specialists in the past 2 years, including a Center for Eating Disorders) has me with a journal, too.  He asked me to do something similar, which is JUST TO WRITE....anything....anything at all, like "blah blah blah I don't want to write".  Just to purge my feeling, he said it was an outlet for all the emotions I have inside -- the same emotions and feelings and swirled up rage that compels me to eat / ate buckets of ice cream and a dozen cookies...

I can take your idea and add this to my writing, so thanks for sharing.  It reminds me of Oprah, and her nighttime gratitude lists. She apparently has a journal and before she goes to bed sits and writes 10 things for which she is grateful.  Even a word like the name of her dog, or something simple like that (a person, a place, a thing).  I did try this for awhile and should get back in the habit since I have dark thoughts as you do, too, and battle depression, and came from a messed up childhood, too, with rampant alcohol and drug addiction (this is why I turned to FOOD - I was too scared of drugs and alcohol).

I love the expression I heard in my 12 Step Programs, "A grateful heart doesn't eat (addictivly)".

Lastly, one book I have been meaning to get is about positive thinking and cognitive behavioral therapy.  I really need to get it and start doing the work, you may like it, too, seems to fit in with exactly what your good therapist has you doing:

http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Good-New-Mood-Therapy/dp/03808 10336

http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Good-Handbook-David-Burns/dp/0 452281326/ref=pd_sim_b_1

Sounds like a great therapist.  Negative thinking is so easy for me, I am a natural.  :O)  So I know a bit of your struggle.

A blessings list is perfect!  I am going to start a book too, so far I just do it here and there, but now, I want a little book to write in, with fun pen colors too!

I love the children's Bible song:  Count your Blessings  It reminds me that life is more than what I eat, what I weigh, how I look or even what I accomplish each day, it is about hope and a love of life.  

1. When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
   When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
   Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
   And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.
   • Refrain:
     Count your blessings, name them one by one,
     Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
     Count your blessings, name them one by one,
     *Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.
     [*And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.]
2. Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
   Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
   Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,
   And you will keep singing as the days go by.
3. When you look at others with their lands and gold,
   Think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold;
   Count your many blessings—*money cannot buy [*wealth can never buy]
   Your reward in heaven, nor your home on high.
4. So, amid the conflict whether great or small,
   Do not be discouraged, God is over all;
   Count your many blessings, angels will attend,
   Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.