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Vishal
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#1 · Posted: 9 Jan 2009 23:50 · Edited by: Vishal
One of most common things people reach out to when they are stressed is food, especially sweets and fried foods. Be warned that although both give some form of satisfaction, they are highly addictive and can further escalate stress.
One of the best ways to control mindless eating whenever you are stressed is to first identify that there is some sort of craving in you and you're really not hungry.
How do you do that?
Here's a simply technique...
Take a deep breath, smile and slowly exhale. Next, be aware of your body, especially the abdomen. Is it grumbling? Is it craving for food? Majority of the time it'll give you the right answer. Your body cannot fake. Games are played only in the mind.
Once you connect to your body, you'll immediately know whether your desire for food is from your mind or from your body.
You can use this simple practice even at the time of regular eating. Keep connecting to your body every now and then and it'll give you the right indication of when your body is satisfied.
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Newbie Shield
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#2 · Posted: 15 Jan 2009 09:34
Hi Vishal,
That's an interesting solution, I'll have to try it.
Destructive patterns arise for various reasons. Sometimes they are part of a social or familial tradition. At other times we create them because we need an emotional crutch.
We might even develop a bad habit simply because we started doing something for no reason and just continued to repeat it so it became routine.
What ever the origin may be, we have created patterns that we repeat over and over so that they continue to run each day.
Stress eating is an emotional crutch. We do it to manage stress, reduce fear, or to relieve boredom. It's like a chemical addiction except that we use food as our drug.
But it doesn't actually solve any problems, does it? It's really just a reaction rather than a solution and it causes us to avoid what is really troubling us.
You've taught us that becoming aware of out patterns is the first step in managing them. I think that your technique you've mentioned would be a good way of achieving awareness.
The next step, in the case of stress eating (or any other mindless pattern) is to stop eating when we aren't actually hungry. At the same time, we should determine why we have the urge.
Is it because we have nothing better to do? Is it an emotional crutch? Do we do it because others in the room are doing it? Do we associate it with another activity such as watching movies?
This will help to see the frivolous nature and worthlessness of the practice.
If we can show ourselves that the habit has no value, it's much easier to give it up.
We also need to determine what sort of consequences the behavior is creating. Are we gaining too much weight? Is it becoming an expensive habit? Does it make us fall asleep though we still have work to do? Does it cause us to avoid the true cause of the behavior such as stress, boredom, fear, or self-loathing?
This will help us avoid the behavior.
Once we are aware of the lack of good reason behind engaging in the habit and that it has undesirable consequences, we have good reason to break the habit.
Next, we need a method for breaking the habit.
Perhaps someone can offer some tips on dealing with stress eating.
~Newbie Shield~
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Vishal
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#3 · Posted: 16 Jan 2009 05:48 · Edited by: Vishal
All good points Newbie!
Quoting: Newbie Shield Perhaps someone can offer some tips on dealing with stress eating.
Habits are really difficult to break if they are rooted deep inside the psyche. For example, it might be more difficult to break a habit that you have been doing it since childhood than something you picked when you were young.
However, once you develop awareness and insight that a habit is bothering you, it is just a fight between the mind and the consciousness - A fight, if taken as a fight, you are bound to lose.
You can never win over the mind with force. You have to gradually weaken the mind and strengthen the consciousness with practices like meditation and mindfulness. Once the mind becomes weak, all unhealthy habits will automatically fall down, like dry leaves on a tree.
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Newbie Shield
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#4 · Posted: 17 Jan 2009 17:16
Hi Vishal,
I'd quote your reply but I'd end up quoting the whole thing.
That's great advice and well put. It really rings true and I'll be sure to remember it. Hopefully others will benefit from it as well as have something to add to this thread.
I'm sure that most everyone has this problem in one way or another and this is a valuable entry.
Thank you,
~Newbie Shield~
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SKenaston
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#5 · Posted: 20 Jan 2009 17:12
These are great suggestions!
It's also a good idea to remove any form of tempation from your home that can lead to stress eating. Studies have found that people will eat if there's food in front of them even if they're not hungry (and even if they don't like the food).
Many people have some sort of snack out (nuts, candies, chocolates, mints, etc...) on their coffee table or other area of their home, especially around the holidays. It's hard enough to resist the temptation to eat when you're stressed or bored, but it's even harder when there's food looking you at you.
Another thing to do is to ensure you don't have any really unhealthy snacks, such as potato chips or chocolate, anywhere in your home. Keep healthy options, like veggies, around so even if you do eat, you won't feel as guilty and you'll decrease the chances of any kind of feed-back loop that might arise from eating unhealthy foods.
-Sean
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Vishal
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#6 · Posted: 20 Jan 2009 23:10 · Edited by: Vishal
Quoting: SKenaston It's also a good idea to remove any form of tempation from your home that can lead to stress eating.
Absolutely true Sean!
If you happen to stock unhealthy foods in your home, you'll invariably fall to the temptation, forget keeping them on Coffee table 
Having a common ideal/principle in the home also helps a lot. I mean one member can't just nibble on a salad when other is feasting on an ice cream! At least initially.
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Newbie Shield
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#7 · Posted: 21 Jan 2009 10:24
Hi Sean,
Good tip - preventative "medicine" goes a long way in avoiding troubles with the "Out of sight, out of mind" strategy.
It may also be wise to avoid activities (triggers) outside the house that tend to encourage stress eating. Some of those activities might include movie theaters and restaurants.
In the beginning it may also be wise to avoid stressful situations and people that tend to stress us out.
Does anyone else know of any other strategies or methods? Do goals or journals help?
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stressjudo
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#8 · Posted: 7 Feb 2009 19:00
Stress eating has been the downfall of almost every time I have tried to get in shape. It's been the stress of time crunch and deadlines from work, or sudden emergencies. So I have done what Sean suggested - remove the temptation - and have substituted healthier alternatives. My personal favorite is frozen grapes or pretzels & hazelnut spread (in limited quantities).
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crystal
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#9 · Posted: 22 Jun 2009 05:04
I have a friend who also eats a lot when she is stressed out and she can't help eat but when she found out that she has a disease that requires her to be in a diet, she was so afraid that she really forced herself to diet.
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nidhisharma
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#10 · Posted: 1 Jul 2009 08:01
I am agreeing to all of you but if i say i am craving for sweet or anything, i can go and purchase the same at the time of my crises, if any body you could help me out how can i just overcome that crises
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Vishal
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#11 · Posted: 3 Jul 2009 07:06
Quoting: nidhisharma I am agreeing to all of you but if i say i am craving for sweet or anything, i can go and purchase the same at the time of my crises, if any body you could help me out how can i just overcome that crises
Only you can help yourself! You just need to have a strong determination to be able to stop yourself and that can only come from within you.
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mithun99
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#12 · Posted: 20 Oct 2009 03:51
nidhisharma: Posts: 3 Report # Posted: 1 Jul 2009 08:01 Reply Quote I am agreeing to all of you but if i say i am craving for sweet or anything, i can go and purchase the same at the time of my crises, if any body you could help me out how can i just overcome that crises
Think of something alternative and distract your mind out of it. Like play games, eat a fruit, go to a friends place etc. Just distract yourself from buying the sweet.
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Strictly_Stress
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#13 · Posted: 2 Nov 2009 23:15
The true reason for emotional eating is physiological, not emotional at all. Most of us have a severe carbohydrate addiction. It comes from regularly spiking your blood sugar levels with highly-processed, high-glycemic carbs. Different carbs have different absorption rates in the body and some convert to sugar much faster in the body than others.
After a rapid rise, your blood sugar will very quickly drop down into the low blood sugar range (you become temporarily hypoglycemic) . This causes your brain to send a message to eat another high-glycemic meal. Your brain literally screams this at you. This is why you feel like you're going to die if you do not eat right away. This dynamic is called Hyperphagia. Sugar is more addictive that Cocaine or Heroin.
It's kind of like survival eating. The body needs sugar to function and if the brain senses that sugar levels are low, it will do everything in its power to get more sugar or glucose. Then we repeat this pattern over and over, day after day. For the last 35 years, this carbohydrates party has kept us on the blood sugar roller-coaster ride.
To get rid of Hyperphagia (what most people think of as emotional eating), you have to break your carbs addiction. You have to stop spiking your blood sugar. You should even go cold turkey off carbs for 2 weeks to a month. This includes all sugars and all high-glycemic starches (bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, white flour and whole wheat flour products).
After you have broken the addiction, you can slowly reintroduce sprouted and fermented whole grains back into your diet in small amounts. It's a lifestyle change though as out bodies were never intended to consume grains as our primary staple group.
After that, emotional eating just becomes a matter of breaking old habits and the Bach Flower Remedies can help with that. The emotional eating kit includes three remedies (Cherry Plum, Chesnut Bud and Crab Apple).
Good luck with emotional eating and breaking through hyperphagia. I don't have cravings anymore and people who are not addicted to carbs eat 80% fewer calories, which ends up being great for your waist line and your pocket book. Your skin will thank you too and your energy level.
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jwalter
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#14 · Posted: 19 Mar 2010 05:56
The best way to stop eating due to stress is to Meditate as Vishal told. The eating due to stress has more adverse effect on the body than you could have after you have an irregular diet. Learn to control your mind with the help of meditation, the only way out but would surely provide some astonishing results.
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Stressless06
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#15 · Posted: 14 Apr 2010 00:35
I agree to what Vishal has said, I think too that Meditation can also help out to lessen the habit of eating when stressed.
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#16 · Posted: 22 Apr 2010 01:52
I would like to add, meditation also requires discipline.
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Jennifer
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#17 · Posted: 16 Apr 2011 16:46
I was able to stop stress eating - and overeating in general - by cleaning up my diet and eating according to my body's signals. I minimized the white flour and sugar in my diet and never allowed myself to go hungry. I did not restrict how much I ate just anything of poor quality. Dieting is just another stressor on the body that the body tries to correct in time with overeating. Anyway, in a very short period of time, I noticed that most cravings went away, I wasn't that focused on food and I got through stressful situations without turning to food at all. And not using food as a crutch during those challenging times lessened my overall stress. And as an aside, I gradually lost weight because I stopped overeating. Wholesome eating is really key to winning the battle against stress. Hope this helps!
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choiceimprint
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#18 · Posted: 6 Jun 2011 16:27
Thanks for the tips.
I just try to eat every couple of hours so I don't overeat. I stick with a plan 90% of the time and that seems to work. I can even have the occasional treat too!
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Zara Mari
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#19 · Posted: 13 Jun 2011 05:42
Take a deep breath, smile and slowly exhale. Next, be aware of your body, especially the abdomen. Is it grumbling? Is it craving for food? Majority of the time it'll give you the right answer. Your body cannot fake. Games are played only in the mind. Once you connect to your body, you'll immediately know whether your desire for food is from your mind or from your body.
Given the information above why is it that busy people tend to forget that they are hungry? I mean, from my personal experience, if I'm too busy doing things/working, my body doesn't really crave for food. It doesn't make any sound so I am not aware that I am already hungry.
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#20 · Posted: 17 Oct 2011 10:03
I noticed my craving diminishing drastically with yoga and meditation. Something about connecting to your higher self and calming down. After I was doing yoga for awhile, my carb craving disappeared.
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