Comfort eating....

lizzi

Full Member
Who else does it affect and how have you/are you trying to break the cycle?

I've tried sticking "motivational" posters up in my room .... which has sort of worked - ish...
 
I have been guilty of comfort eating. You have to find new feel goods that will help you when you are feeling down or a bit stressed. I love going to the gym now as I feel great afterwards and not at all hungry. It's not always easy to get there but when I can I do that rather than eat.
 
all u have to do is put loads of fruit and grapes in your table...and u wil eat good food always...

i havnt really tried it, but i started it now. all this time i had crips and sweets on my table, now i have the goood stufs. lets c how it goes.
 
Oh dear, no I tried that with grapes, ate them all and....wellll let's say I'm not eating grapes again for a while! Whoops....
 
looool omg...

comfort eating is a big problem for me. because i always ate what i wanted in my life, because i was very active and my metabolism was probly very good. so now that i finally have a belly i realise i have to stop.

the motivation has to come from within you, no matter what people say, nothing can change you unless you really want to inside. my friends have all been taking the mik out of me for the last 1-2 years because they saw what i used to look like, and what i have become now. but that didnt motivate me.

im getting far far less female attention that what i used to, my skin looks worse, tight cloths on my now looks kind of stupid, i get very hot easily (probably because of all that flab inside), my stamina is very low even for walking, i have 2 flab rolls on my stomach which is awful and all this happened in the last 4 years.

its a really a combination of all those reasons why i want to loose the fat.

another problem could be...most of my life i was skinny/nice figure type, and i was used to getting compliments from everyone and maybe those compliments were fixed into my head, and i didn feel fat.

either way you need to find out what makes you tick. the benifits of having a good figure will help in you every area of your life. im not talking just about the oposite sex like you. so maybe you want to tell us how you used to be, what u want to achiev etc, y u want to achieve it.
 
Wow, well, here goes!

As a kid I was always really skinny- I remember in year 7, when the girls in my year started to become aware of their weight and figures, people used to say I had an amazing figure and that I was really lucky. The next year, one of my friends became seriously ill (she sadly died a year and a half later) and I guess from the start of year 8, I began the cycle of comfort eating. I suppose that ws the first trigger - and the fact there was a tuck shop selling all sorts of chocolate, sweets and crisps very cheaply ever lunch break definitley didn't help matters! Before then I had little access to sweets, apart from the occasional treat my mum would buy me. I piled on the weight, and don't know how heavy I ws, at my heaviest, but i was huge by the age of 15 (probably over 11 stone by the time I'd stopped growing, but I never checked). I managed to lose a bit of the weight, then before 6th form I lost a load more. By the time I got to university, I'd reached just under 9 and a half stone and was feeling pretty confident about myself. I was getting loads of attention from guys - I was asked out three times within my first term of uni -- this is coming from the girl who had one boyfriend, who I never had a proper relationship with at all.

Of course, university = bad eating for most, and although I can cook fairly well, and know a fair few healthy recipies from my mum's amazing teaching, I lived with a flat of junk food lovers, and ended up living off chicken kievs, chinese takeaways, ben and jerrys and similar sorts of food. When I did cook for myself, I'd cook too much - but had nowhere to store it, so would overeat insead of throwing away or saving the remains. My weight rocketed up and up - and for some reason, even though I could see my weight going up on the scales to 10 stone...10 and a half...then nearing on 11 (although I never quite reached it!) - I didn't do anything. I guess the temptation of all the other food around me was too much - ten people eating all this sort of food is lot of pressure!!

Anyway - I want to get back to the weight I was before uni, and lose a fair bit more on top of that because I still wasn't entirely happy at that piont! I've been single since that ex, back when I had just turned 17, and haven't even been on a date since (or even kissed a guy since the summer before uni) - I know that shouldn't be an issue, but it is!

More importantly, I want to get my confidence back. With that, hopefully I'll be able to have a successful career - because let's face it, the more confident you feel, the more convincing you are.

The weird thing is, I can look in a mirror and not see a fat person. It depends on the day. Sometimes I look in the mirror and think..yes, I could lose a few, but I'm not too bad. I'd guesstimate my weight around 10 stone on those day - but then hop on the scales and they'd say something completely different (often these are the weeks I've put on weight).

I know my biggest vice is sugar. Through eating so much chocolate and sweets, I've developed something of an addiction to it and need to curb that. I've managed to lose 6lbs in a week through just stopping eating sugary foods (and fatty foods) - but as soon as I start again, I'll put it straight back on.

So thats my story in a very long winded and boring way (congrats if you managed to get to the end!)

p.s. Taz- raisins are also very very much out!!! Hahaha! NEVER again!
 
Crikey, that wasd longer than I thought it was going to be! Oops, I do tend to talk for England at times!
 
can i reccomend a book- the beck diet solution. its not a diet book as such but its based on cbt and aims to help you change your relationship with food.
i am a big comfort/stress eater and whilst i'm not completely there yet it has helped my hugely.
 
ah yes, being around people with their eating habbits definitely has impact on what you eat.

im at uni 1st year as well, and i started this training dieting last week, and when i went home, i had a little too much than i should have. i definitely can see the problem.

you know what id recomend, you join something like karate or kick boxing or some sort of sports club.

when about 5 years ago i used to go kick boxing. it was a 2 hour lesson every week. the first 1 hour was just running around the big room (and stretching) and the 2nd hour was the actuel kick boxing. but im telling you, that 1 hour of running per weak was so intense, i definitely remember the health benifits.

if u join some sort of sports club, then you will definitely enjoy it 100%. there will be people there you get to know, u will socialise with them and you will enjoy it.
 
Very guilty of it! I've stuck up some photos on the fridge one of me as I am now and a computer generated image of how I could look that my wonderful hubby did in photoshop for me. It works *most* of the time .

:sign0144:
 
In all honesty I haven't got time to join a gym - I did last year, but I didn't end up going. I would join a society, if my uni had any - but there's nothing decent at my uni! I do get a half hour walk to and from college - and try to do it every day (Except if I'm late!)

Problem is, without a car, it's hard to get to anywhere that's not in the city center! Still. An hours walk's better than nothing!!
 
Agree with jane about the book, although I still haven't got round to getting it! I comfort eat and I have had CBT. I still have something when I feel down or upset but I don't have the guilt about it anymore. it was always the guilt that drove me to do it even more, if that makes sense. I no longer think "omg what a pig you've blown it may as well eat some more" I kinda stop and think "ok I have had a wee bit of something cause I feel like mince, stop here, brush it aside and move on to the next day" Best of luck with your journey :) xxxxxxxxx
 
This is what I find difficult. But as people have said, all you can do is just say NO to yourself. It's the ONLY thing that works for me. Posters, lists of reasons, people mocking me, not being able to get into clothes I want to, you'd think stuff like that would make me stop but it doesn't. The only thing that really works for me when I want to snack is just counting to 5 and saying. NO. It's so simple but takes SO much will power!
 
Aaah so true, sometimes it gets to the point where no matter how many pics, posters, people teling you not to, you just can't avoid it. Counting to five trick...I might try that...
In the meantime, I've had a bit of a bingey day today so cutting back tomorrow. Sigh...
 
=D the counting to 5 thing works cause you lose the initial. OMGIWANTFOOD and think about why you SHOULDN'T eat!
 
I was guilty of quashing emotions by comfort eating and also eating out of boredom and eating when I was thirsty rather than hungry. I have learnt to listen to my body more and eat to refuel rather than feel something going down my throat. Half the time when comfort eating you don't even taste the food, it just wings its way down there until you feel sick or full or both...

I don't have any strategies beyond eating fruit instead of refined sugar products and I steer clear of triggers like white flour and the usual processed foods (biccies, sweets, etc)...still have biccies in the house for the kids but I don't tend to eat the whole packet anymore...usually too full of healthy wholefoods now, which DO fill me up more than processed stuff used to.

I guess changing my diet nutritionally helped lots. Cravings stopped and also dealing with anger and grief properly a few years back has taught me that food isn't a tool to make me feel better, in fact it makes me feel way worse when I have binged (guilt, fear, failure, overindulge cycle)...

I first comfort ate at 5...and my problems with food and body image only fully surfaced when I was 16/17 and then full blown eating disorders began even though I wasn't ever overweight as a child...or a teen...
 
Will do! Thanks you guys, you're all awesome! :eek:)
 
This week I am going to try the stop and think method. If I reach for some junk I am going to try to stop and think about why I want it and if there is a healthier alternative that would hit the spot
 
Back
Top