Emotional eating

Betty · Post by **Betty** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 4:25 pm

All week long (after a number of weeks with vey little impulse to eat when not hungry) Ive had the urge to nibble. It's 10 o'clock in the morning and I know I'm not hungry. I stop and feel that I'm not hungry, and yet I watch the clock: 2 hours and 30 minutes till I can eat lunch. 2 hours and 20 minutes, 2 hours and 15 minutes. Seriously, all week it's been a terrible minute by minute struggle not to snack. Most days I didnt give in, though yesterday I did crack.

I think at this point my body has a habit (I used to actually get hungry at 10 o'clock) but my mind hasn't.

I'm looking for any tips, any advice, any support for this. I will never be truly successful at no-S until I tame the emotional eating beast, but boy does he have big teeth, and boy are his claws sharp

.

Betty

marygrace · Post by **marygrace** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 5:11 pm

While I never had a problem with morning snacking, I had become VERY used to having an after dinner snack. No matter if I was hungry or not, no matter what time I'd eaten dinner or how much I'd eaten, I HAD to have my nighttime snack.

I only started No S a couple of days ago, but have been successful in not snacking at night. Sometimes I chew a piece of gum or drink a diet soda, but I think the real key is to get yourself busy doing something where you aren't thinking about food, like taking a walk or even just calling someone on the phone.

clio · Post by **clio** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 8:00 pm

I really sympathize, some weeks are just better than others. I sail along thinking this is a pretty easy way of eatting and then, sometimes, for no particular reason, it's just not. I guess the longer it becomes habitual, the better it gets. The only thing that helps me is to distract myself if possible. For me it's getting out of the house to run errands or something. If I'm home I just tend to think about food more. Good luck & just hang in there and it WILL get better again.

blueskighs · Post by **blueskighs** » Sun Aug 17, 2008 9:22 pm

I will never be truly successful at no-S until I tame the emotional eating beast

Betty,

nov 2007-feb 2008 i did on-line program www.shrinkyourself.com it is very deep/intense and well put together but hard, HOWEVER the longer I am on NO S i really beleive it helped me address some critical emotional eating issues so that i am able to stay green on N days,

good luck, all of this is quite a journey and in the end, I think being permanantly slim is really just about being who we really are,

Blueskighs

3aday · Post by **3aday** » Sun Aug 24, 2008 7:02 pm

I have the Shrink Yourself book.
It's a great book that helps give you the whys of emotional eating and has some great coping strategies but for me, No S really nails emotional eating on the head.
You just don't eat even though you want to.
Eventually, you reach a point that you have to deal with your emotions.
It's hard.

When I have the urge to snack, I drink some water and take some deep breaths and I remind myself that my body does not need food for another 4-6 hours after a meal. I gently remind myself that what I am feeling is an emotional craving and not a physical one.
I say to myself that is it is not "me" that wants the snack but "it" wants to.
I like to think of "it" as the part of me that only wants to eat to feel good.