27F, I've been an emotional eater since I was a kid, and it's the biggest cause of my weight gain. I struggle with feeling a lack of control in my life, and I also spend a lot of time at home. Employment has been a huge issue for me, and I got trapped in a cycle of depression where I stopped even trying to get a new job. I would just sit at home, feel sorry for myself, overeat, and then feel worse about myself. I also had a tendency to pair overeating with binge drinking, though I'm proud to say I haven't touched alcohol in three months now.
It's been a rough journey, and I've fallen off the wagon more than once. Currently, journaling is helping me a lot. I use it to supplement my calorie counting. While the calorie counting is necessary for my weight loss, I find that unless I'm also being accountable for what I eat in a more specific way, I get too tempted to abandon the counting app and start guesstimating--or worse, I start lying to myself and the app about what I've actually eaten.
Handwriting a daily journal entry about how I felt, what I ate, and why I ate that way has been a massive help in unpacking why I do the things I do. It also adds a psychological block that stops me from making worse food choices. If I know I'll have to explain to myself later that day, in writing, why I ordered takeout and ate 2500 calories in one sitting, I'm way less likely to do it.
I've uncovered a lot of things about my habits while doing this, too. I'm so obsessed with food that I'm the kind of person who will spend over 20 minutes at a time just scrolling through a delivery app and staring at the pictures, not even planning to order anything. There's absolutely no reason for me to be doing that! I feel like a complete addict. Journaling about it helped, because I'd much rather look back on entries about how I spent those 20 minutes taking a walk, applying to jobs, or looking for activities to do in my city.
Yesterday, I was feeling frustrated because one of my plans for the day fell through, and I was wandering around the mall food court feeling totally convinced that the only thing that was going to get me through this would be an M&M McFlurry. I'd almost completely resigned myself to the fact that I was going to buy one, but then I thought about how I'd feel later in the day writing about it. I also thought about whether it would even make me feel better about what had happened, then decided it wouldn't. And I left the food court to take a walk instead! It seems like such a small thing that so many people are able to do without even thinking about it, but it was a huge breakthrough for me. Instead of having to write about an embarrassing slip-up, I got to go home and write about a win.
The journal entries have definitely been the biggest factor for me in keeping my emotional eating to a minimum, and I've dropped 18lbs since I started a couple of months ago.
Has anyone else tried this? Fellow emotional eaters, what techniques have you found that helped you get to the root of your food issues?
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from loseit - Lose the Fat https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/1p9kioy/emotional_eaters_what_are_your_best_tips_for/
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