Emotional eating/grazing problem?? There's an APP for that!

I have always had a hard time with grazing, eating when I'm not hungry and eating because of every emotion possible. It got me to 420 lbs and it led to an almost 90 lb regain after surgery. (grazing on sugar = total failure of WLS). I was able to give up grazing 5 months ago, and eat strictly 3 meals and up to 2 snacks a day, and I never eat after dinner. I have so much more peace around food, and the weight loss has been exceptional (mostly all thanks to OA - it works for me)

A couple years ago, I did an eating disorder recovery program, and one of the tools suggested to me by a counselor was an app called "Recovery Record" - This app allows you to record a lot of info with each meal or each time you eat.

(side note: another really really great app is called Pocket CBT - if you have ever had any CBT therapy, you will love this app. It allows you make thought records, identify the problem with your thinking, and challenge irrational thoughts, measure the mental changes after you look at the problem, etc)

Back to Recovery Record

List of Qs it asks: (just be mindful it is designed for several types of eating disorders)

Did you skip this meal?

How are you feeling overall

Which feelings are you experiencing?

Which meal?

Who did you eat with?

Where did you eat?

How long ago did you eat?

What did you eat/drink/

Portion size

How mindful was this meal?

Did you restrict food intake?

How strong is your urge to restrict?

Did you binge?

How strong is your urge to binge?

Did you purge?

Have you exercised since last log?

Did you use a coping skill?

Thought diary (enter your thoughts)

Aside from the meal entry, there are logs for thoughts, feelings and behaviors. I have this app set with timers so it tells me when it's time to eat or time to log my meal. I don't use it nearly as much anymore but when I was going through the eating disorder program, I logged every time I ate for a couple months. It doesn't allow you to log calories because it's not a "diet" kind of app - it deals with the core issues of why we eat instead of focusing on a symptom like weight. It has a social feature to connect with others, and also allows you to connect with clinicians (finding one that actually uses it is though is difficult)

That's seriously amazing and exactly what I need.  Thank you so much for this post!

This is interesting.  It would be helpful to track the thoughts and feeling around our emotional eating. 

Thanks for posting this.

Carol

Thanks for posting! I noticed there was another app rise up & recover: An eating disorder monitoring... (I saw it in the apple app store), it looks pretty good too.

Thank you for posting--I am downloading the app now.