emotional eating support thread

[umami_mommy]

i posted a thread about emotional eating a few days back. lots of views. no real replies. i wonder if a support thread might be helpful. anyone else wat to join me in discussing overcoming emotional eating? i already eat healthy and exercise. so this is my huge stumbling block.

i am weighing myself every 2 weeks. (as per the program i am using) i was 2.5 pounds lighter than the last time i weighed myself, so something about this NPL program is for sure working. here's the book and CD i am using

http://www.amazon.com/Can-Make-You-T...7213941&sr=8-1

more about NLP:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-l...ic_programming

[HeliMom]

I too am an emotional eater. I've never seen a program for it I'll have to check it out

Oh and btw umami is my favorite flavor too!

[umami_mommy]

i am surprised at the issues that have come to the surface. unconscious eating is really complicated.

[umami_mommy]

anyone else want to discuss emotional eating?

in your experience does exercise help control emotional eating?

[nola79]

Originally Posted by umami_mommy

anyone else want to discuss emotional eating?

in your experience does exercise help control emotional eating?

IME, no. Unless I go for a walk or to the gym instead of when I want to eat. But generally, just exercising regularly has no effect on my emotional eating.

[HeliMom]

Yeah exercise helps only if I get so upset that I have to bike till it hurts. General depression? not sure

[umami_mommy]

find that i feel better emotionally when i exercise, and so i have less reason to eat in reaction to stress.

[subtlycrunchy]

Have you read Geneen Roth's latest Women Food and God. Excellent! She explores new territory from When Food is Love. Highly recommend. Also, here's a good article on emotional eating from the W2W holistic site: Emotional eating — healing starts with awareness

[umami_mommy]

what are your thoughts on the article and book?

[umami_mommy]

i do think there is a difference between compulsive over eating and emotional eating, though they do share a lot of the same features.

i do think that emotional eating *can* become an eating disorder... maybe that it's "disordered eating" but not an actual eating disorder. KWIM?

[tanyam926]

I second the recommendation of Women Food and God by Geneen Roth (it's not a "christian" book and really applies to all emotional eaters).

That book really changed my life. I read it a couple of months ago and have lost 15 lbs since then and am still losing (15 to go to get to pre pg weight).

The book is really about stopping the dieting cycle and about trusting yourself to be able to experience and deal w/your emotions and to be able to trust your body to tell you what it needs.

It's simple but it's profound and I found that she has some really good insight into the "why" of emotional eating (binging included, but all emotional eating is addressed).

I don't obsess about food anymore, I don't feel that food has power over me or that there is a power struggle at all, I feel more able to trust myself, and I feel very empowered by her message. I am planning to read the rest of her books soon.

Also wanted to say that I had tried distraction, excercise, etc to deal w/the urge to eat when I felt overwhelmed but what really helped me was following the book's suggestion which is to really give into the feeling for a moment so it can pass instead of pushing it down so it keeps bubbling up.

[umami_mommy]

has anyone read "intuitive eating?" a friend loaned it to me, but it's very similar to what i am already doing, so it didn't grab me like it did her. she really liked it, but she is very restrictive in what she eats. i am more interested in being able to eat small amounts of what i like... even if it means BBQ ribs or pasta alfredo.

[umami_mommy]

how's everyone doing? i am doing pretty good despite being insanely busy this and last week.

i grilled last night and had a small helping of potato salad. half my plate was sugar snap peas, blueberries and watermelon. i had a *kiddie* cone when we took the kids out for ice cream.

so far night has really been tough, i apparently eat mindlessly when i am tired.

[lovetheheights]

This is a great thread- Roth is good- the book I first read by her was "breaking free from emotional eating" which is (I think) an even better start than Women, Food, and God - which I am reading now. I love it, I just think the breaking free book was a better helper.

I am an emotional eater who has lost weight and I feel slim and tone, but my eating is disordered. I eat a lot of binges, or snacks...even if the calories keep me trim, the inside is not well---which is what Roth often talks about.

thanks for this thread