Friday Reflection

Hi BOTTers,

Boredom is a big problem for me and my eating.  When I say boredom it doesn't mean I don't have anything to do.  Actually, quite to the contrary, I have TONS of things to do but I don't want to do them (hear the two-year old temper tantrum tone in that statement?).  When that occurs, the head hunger gets going and I have that internal tug of war with emotionally eating. 

I've pretty much learned to deal with my emotions without the crutch of emotionally eating.  I haven't quite mastered the boredom or postponing things I need to do.  This came up for me this week.  I've been really busy and with things I've loved to do.  I've been involved in things with my job that have been very preoccupying and the time has flown by especially quickly. 

I thought this was possibly an issue for others.  If so, how do you combat that feeling of boredom or just feeling uninspired by all the things you have to do?  What do you do if you feel bored without using the escape or time consumption activity of emotionally eating?  It is a very strange cycle to me.

Thanks for your support and responses to our Friday Reflection.  Even if you struggle with this too, please add to this thread so all of us know that we aren't alone in this issue (unless it is just me ).

Cathy

Well, unfortunately I haven't given up procrastinating.  LOL   My reasoning used to be "how can I be expected to >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> when I'm so hungry.  I'll just eat something then I'll >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.  Where upon I'd eat so much and be so miserably full I'd have a new excuse for not doing >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.

Now, if I'm at home, I go to sleep.  If I'm at work, don't usually have the luxury (????) of not doing it - if a patient's in the waiting room there's not a lot of decision options! 

Heh, its a terrible thing. At night, since I'm BROKE.... I would sit around and watch TV.... and have wine. Its a terrible thing. And when I realized what was happening I decided to find a new outlet. My sewing is an addicting and inexpensive time consumer. I find myself accidentally skipping meals to work on my current projects. While bad in essence, I do end up eating when I quit for the night. (Last night was 11:30, but we're not discussing that! )

When its the weekend and there's piles of chores and errands ahead and all I'd like to do is sit on the couch and watch nostalgic saturday afternoon flicks.... I open the windows. Rain, shine, wind, hot or cold, I open the windows. For some reason, the influx of fresh air really seems to rejuvinate me. That and it hypes up my cat, which instantly cheers my spirits. That, and a big ol ice water. When its time to hit the road to go shopping for blank, blank and blank.... I first go do something for ME... which is usually a venti iced coffee with SF caramal flavor shot at Starbucks.  Gets the engines revving and I can sip on it all afternoon while I do my thing.

Works for me anyways.

Hi Cathy

thanks for raising the thoughts on this topic.  I too have more or less conquered the emotional eating - well at least now I make a concious decision that I am eating something for emotional reasons when I chose to rather than it being a subconcious eating habit.

Anyway, I have the boredom eating thing going on too if I'm not careful - it's easier to sit and eat than it is to face up to the things I should be doing.  I wonder in my case if I'm just lazy!!!  To stop myself eating, I try to drink - hot drinks, either tea, chai tea, or ho****er.  If I have ho****er (yes, it does taste nice once you get the head around it) I feel virtuous afterwards and more inclined to then go and do what've been putting off!

Sometimes it's a case fo feeling overwhelmed by all the things I have to do.  I know all the techniques to get around it - break it all down into managable tasks etc, but sometimes I still dont do what I should.

Maybe sometimes we need to be kind to ourselves and allow some me time where we just sit and do 'nothing', where that nothing is taking care of us.  Allowing us to sit and ponder, dream, let our thoughts go where they chose, without any direction.  When I let myself do this without the distractions around, it sometimes amazes me where my thoughts go and often they will find very creative solutions to problems that I hadn't even realised I needed to think about.

Ruth