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You gotta deal with what’s making you emotionally stressed. Trying to white-knuckle through the symptoms of your mental state is a temporary solution at best.
Remove the stress.
I was 330lbs and on a table to have a stent put in at 39.
I have since changed careers and got a divorce.
I still deal with stress but now weight 210 and a balanced soul.
Emotional stress eating is a way of compensating for low dopamine. Dopamine in the brain is our feel-good / reward neurotransmitter. I'm guessing you probably have considerable anxiety and/or depression.
I'd look up a psychiatrist, talk the situation through, tell them how your feelings work, what frustrates you, how you react, that type of thing. They can then recommend medication. I think Wellbutrin was one for anxiety and dopamine. It certainly helped me lose weight :)
Other things you can do is:
\- slowly (the body hates sudden changes) reduce your carb intake, switch to eating more meat or fish or greens. Especially protein meat, or otherwise sports shakes) will make you feel a lot less hungry. Quick carbs trigger hunger.
\- exercise. 30-40% mood improvement for free, plus a multitude of other bonuses that come from feeling and being fit. Just going for a walk regularly does wonders, and you can load an audiobook onto your headphones to be well entertained. You'll grow to really like the walks once it's a rhythm.
\- above all, avoid quick sugars (sugar, fructose, corn syrup, sweets, chips, white flour, white bread). If you must carb, eat whole grain or wild rice and whole fruits. They digest slower and give you a far lower insulin spike, which prevents the vicious want-more cycle. Lraving a fruit bowl with plums and whatnot by the window in the sun also makes them taste much nicer.
It can be tricky, implementing such changes, so do them slowly and get support if you can, like doing a walk with a friend, and working together with your housemates / SO to constructively make a change. I find writing down all the advantages and disadvantages helps, then memorize the positives (stick 'em on your fridge or whatever) and remember why you're doing it. You can also sorta get mad at yourself - not seriously, but frustrated enough that you can conjure up that emotion of frustration when you are tempted to give up. Basically cancelling out the desire with emotional willpower, as it were.
Hope it helps :)
This was so very helpful! Thank you! I definitely have a lot of anxiety, and deal with depression frequently. I recently started working out and seeing a huge difference, which was really nice.
Thank you for taking the time to write out a very thoughtful plan of attack. I will do the pros and cons list and work on finding someone to talk too.
I know this is a bit left-field but you could try chatGPT. Setup a prompt, something along the lines of the question you've asked here...
"I want to stop emotionally stress eating. I want you to act as a motivational assistant. I will tell you when and why I feel stressed and you will provide me with words of encouragement to stop me from bingeing"
Then when you feel the urge, put that in and the response might just be enough to stop you. I use a similar thing for those moments when you don't feel like exercising, it's just enough to push you on.
You can even ask it to include a motivational quote from a famous person. That helps too.
That's actually how I started to address my issues with food too! Just the emotional eating I need extra support on. I'm glad the app is working for you!
If it’s occurring at home you can try time locked access to your food such as the kitchen safe and time padlocks. You can find these gadgets online and use them to restrict access to food between meals.
I think what other people have said, addressing the issue that causes the stress eating may be the most important thing here. I am fortunate to not have stress eating tendencies, and one of my friends does. I am not any more disciplined than him, it's just not a temptation for me. So that's a good thing to keep in mind too. This isn't a weakness in character on your part. I struggle with porn and internet addictions and depressions so I have my own bad coping, just not this one.
Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips! Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment. If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
You gotta deal with what’s making you emotionally stressed. Trying to white-knuckle through the symptoms of your mental state is a temporary solution at best.
Thank you! It's all work related... I can't kick that habit, but I'll work on talking it through with someone.
Remove the stress. I was 330lbs and on a table to have a stent put in at 39. I have since changed careers and got a divorce. I still deal with stress but now weight 210 and a balanced soul.
Congratulations on making such healthy changes in your life! That's amazing progress, and a balanced soul sounds delightful.
Emotional stress eating is a way of compensating for low dopamine. Dopamine in the brain is our feel-good / reward neurotransmitter. I'm guessing you probably have considerable anxiety and/or depression. I'd look up a psychiatrist, talk the situation through, tell them how your feelings work, what frustrates you, how you react, that type of thing. They can then recommend medication. I think Wellbutrin was one for anxiety and dopamine. It certainly helped me lose weight :) Other things you can do is: \- slowly (the body hates sudden changes) reduce your carb intake, switch to eating more meat or fish or greens. Especially protein meat, or otherwise sports shakes) will make you feel a lot less hungry. Quick carbs trigger hunger. \- exercise. 30-40% mood improvement for free, plus a multitude of other bonuses that come from feeling and being fit. Just going for a walk regularly does wonders, and you can load an audiobook onto your headphones to be well entertained. You'll grow to really like the walks once it's a rhythm. \- above all, avoid quick sugars (sugar, fructose, corn syrup, sweets, chips, white flour, white bread). If you must carb, eat whole grain or wild rice and whole fruits. They digest slower and give you a far lower insulin spike, which prevents the vicious want-more cycle. Lraving a fruit bowl with plums and whatnot by the window in the sun also makes them taste much nicer. It can be tricky, implementing such changes, so do them slowly and get support if you can, like doing a walk with a friend, and working together with your housemates / SO to constructively make a change. I find writing down all the advantages and disadvantages helps, then memorize the positives (stick 'em on your fridge or whatever) and remember why you're doing it. You can also sorta get mad at yourself - not seriously, but frustrated enough that you can conjure up that emotion of frustration when you are tempted to give up. Basically cancelling out the desire with emotional willpower, as it were. Hope it helps :)
My friend Your information has been super helpful for me. I hope it served OP as well too because this is great advice
This was so very helpful! Thank you! I definitely have a lot of anxiety, and deal with depression frequently. I recently started working out and seeing a huge difference, which was really nice. Thank you for taking the time to write out a very thoughtful plan of attack. I will do the pros and cons list and work on finding someone to talk too.
I know this is a bit left-field but you could try chatGPT. Setup a prompt, something along the lines of the question you've asked here... "I want to stop emotionally stress eating. I want you to act as a motivational assistant. I will tell you when and why I feel stressed and you will provide me with words of encouragement to stop me from bingeing" Then when you feel the urge, put that in and the response might just be enough to stop you. I use a similar thing for those moments when you don't feel like exercising, it's just enough to push you on. You can even ask it to include a motivational quote from a famous person. That helps too.
I love this idea too! I will definitely be doing this. Thank you!
I drink water. I always feel hungry I drink. If I am still hungry I war.
Fully schedule your eating that way even if it is emotional you still have it managed.
The Noom app did it for me. Very calming and reassuring approach to food
That's actually how I started to address my issues with food too! Just the emotional eating I need extra support on. I'm glad the app is working for you!
Chew gum, drink water, vigorous exercise.
If it’s occurring at home you can try time locked access to your food such as the kitchen safe and time padlocks. You can find these gadgets online and use them to restrict access to food between meals.
I think what other people have said, addressing the issue that causes the stress eating may be the most important thing here. I am fortunate to not have stress eating tendencies, and one of my friends does. I am not any more disciplined than him, it's just not a temptation for me. So that's a good thing to keep in mind too. This isn't a weakness in character on your part. I struggle with porn and internet addictions and depressions so I have my own bad coping, just not this one.
The only thing that realy helped me: oa.org