Using food as an emotional crutch. Good or Bad?

[Soprano]

I know we all want to break away from the binge habit where you turn to food when things go wrong and you just have a full on binge. Stuffing yourself until you feel sick and end up feeling worthless is not a good place to be.

But do you use food within the Nos rules to give comfort?

Do you think it wrong to want to fill your plate with something comforting occasionally instead of healthy?

Just curious

Jx

[Shells]

I have no problem with putting 'unhealthy' items on my plate. Otherwise it feels like I'm on another diet, then I feel deprived and then have a 'blow out'.
What time has taught me is that I go through cycles and that maybe for a few nights I might want hash browns or similar on my plate but then I'm bored and the longing for 'healthy' vegies pops up again.

[automatedeating]

Absolutely not wrong! No food is evil.
For years I put whatever comforting food I wanted on the plate in order to stick to NoS. Now I make different choices in what I put on the plate, but I don't regret learning moderation in quantity & timing of food through NoS. It also made it easy for me to pass up sweets when I decide it's not "time" for a treat. So comfort food is fine.

It kind of seemed like the first part of your question was about using food to cheer us up; and the second part was about just allowing any food on a plate....? But I'd like to talk about the first part, too. I think that for me, every once in a while I need to take an impromptu S Day in order to cope with the overwhelm of life. And so be it. Yesterday was this for me!!! And throughout the years it has happened from time to time - maybe 1 of these days every 3 months, I think (lol, because I'm a teacher, it's one day a quarter when I lose my s*&#). I don't know if this would work for others, though; for some people it might lead to a string of red days. For me, it hasn't - it's been the opposite actually and has acted like a safety valve for my habits.

I feel rambly but hopefully some of this made sense.

[Soprano]

Thanks for the responses, I feel it's ok to use food as a comfort as long as it's within boundaries and doesn't lead to manic overeating.

Even declaring an s day as a coping strategy is good in my book but I think you have to have the habits well established first. If one day doesn't stop the urge then it's not working and eating more won't help you. Realising and acknowledging this might be difficult for some.

I must admit I turn to food less and less these days which is pleasing.

Jx

[ladybird30]

Sometimes a plate of something starchy is just what I need. Recently I made a plate of fried sweet potato (chips sort of), a rare event because I don't eat much fried food. It was guilt free, because it was part of a meal and within the No S boundaries.

Diving into ice cream again because I had been under stress would be another matter, and it is something I hope to never do again.

[oolala53]

You have to look at it as an overall trend. Does it lead to wanting more? Over time, are you moving towards more traditional versions of these foods? And more reasonable quantities?

If you are in your first months, just try not to keep opening the oven to see if the cake is baking...

[jenji]

I have some foods that I consider comforting because they remind me of my grandmother or mother, or certain departed friends or favorite vacations, and yes, I work them into No S. They include chicken soup, fried clams, fried smelts, chicken marbella (I do cut back the sugar in the recipe), etc.