Are you an emotional eater?
::raises hand::
Well, I was. The only emotions I have about eating these days are joy and exultation. I really like eating. I had a problem though. I was eating whenever I felt stressed, frustrated, or anxious. Get this, I even ate when I was disgusted with myself for losing control over my body and turning into a mega chubster.
Talk about a vicious cycle!
I needed a solution. I found it in exercise. This should make sense to you at a very basic level because most of us, at one point or other, have expressed our feelings about a stressful situation in a physical way. As kids we were pretty good about letting our stress out. We screamed, slammed doors, knocked things over, lay down and pounded the floor with our fists (my favorite), or just sobbed wretchedly.
Then we grew up. We learned that if we wanted to be like Mr. Knightley we’d have to stop knocking things over and screaming when things didn’t go our way. (Okay, that may have just been me?) We learned to internalize everything. Nobody told us that we could let out our frustrations in a productive way. If they did, we were already too deep in the double fudge chunk ice cream to hear them.
You don’t need to be overweight for this to apply to you. I have quite a few slim friends who eat, drink, or smoke when life is jerking them around.
It’s easy to be an emotional eater. Life is stressful, you have to eat anyhow, and the process of eating gives you something to do while you’re thinking about life. Sitting down with a big dish of ice cream to watch Love Actually for the 35th time might sound good at first. Do you really need a high cholesterol catharsis though?
I decided I no longer needed Taco Bell grilled stuffed burritos in order to feel better. I was getting super fat. I needed a change. But what was I to do? How was I supposed to handle stress if not by eating?
I still had three options:
1. Cry – Oh yeah, sob like a big angry, frustrated baby. There is no shame in tears if things are bad and you need a physical release. It’s not socially acceptable for dudes to cry so gentlemen will want to grow lachrymose behind closed doors. Ladies, if you like to cry a lot, please invest in some quality waterproof eye make-up. A beautiful woman shedding a few tears isn’t frightening. A sobbing raccoon is terrifying.
2. Scream – You’ve probably met at least one screamer in your life. Something about the restaurant industry tends to attract screamers in droves. Screaming at people isn’t cool. Screaming in an empty building, at a sports event, or in your bathroom because life sucks–all quite cool.
3. Exercise – This is my favorite solution to pent-up stress. Want to feel better with just a few minutes of effort? Get your heart rate up and keep it there until you start to break a sweat. Emotional exercising has a few benefits:
- It won’t make you fat – To the contrary, you might get quite fit from this if your life is very stressful.
- It gives you control – You’re no longer the victim of uncontrolled eating. You are choosing health. You have the power.
- It makes you smarter – Increasing blood flow to your brain has a way of helping make sense of priorities and difficult questions.
- It makes you sexier – Instead of being angry and snapping at people, you’ll now have a glint in your eye and a glow to your face. Yum!
- It makes food taste better – When you stop using food as a medication, it regains some of the joy that made it so attractive in the first place. Mashed potatoes with tears in them are too salty, man!
It’s working for me. Food tastes better, I’m losing weight, and my general mood has improved. You see, I’m a rather lazy chap and if I know I’ll have to go for a run if I stay grouchy… I choose happiness. =)
I hope you’ll try it. If you struggle with emotional eating (skinny people fess up!) I hope you’ll take a moment to share your thoughts? I’d love you for it!
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A Grilled Stuffed Steak Burrito from Taco Bell is something like 16 points if you do Weight Watchers – many people should only eat 22 or so points in an entire day – I used to love those Burritos – I think I have had one in the last 3 years but Ohhh do I remember them…..
Really? No way! I have no interest in weight watchers. I want the weight gone! I don’t want to stare at it! =P
I had one a couple weeks ago. I wasn’t impressed. Freshly baked bread is much better. Kinda weird how one’s tastes change when eating is no longer about feeding the monster.
As I move forward with all this, it seems more like I was overweight because I was unhappy and not the other way around. Odd how things make more sense once you’ve beaten them down a bit.
Spot on about exercise. You gave me the idea to do sit ups next time I get the urge for some snacks. One of the big problems with working at home is the closeness of the fridge and snacks. We only keep healthy snacks at our home such as nuts and fruit – but it is just as easy to over indulge in healthy food as well. Time for some sit ups!
I’m pretty sure I can eat WHILE doing sit-ups!
As for nuts and fruit… I eat as much as I like so long as I’m certain my body isn’t saying I’m hungry when it’s trying to tell me I’m thirsty. I get what you mean about working at home. Just this past week, I walked into the kitchen thinking I was hungry and ended up sweeping the floor and having a glass of water instead. Why? Because I realized I wasn’t hungry. I was just a bit thirsty and feeling bored!
It’s fun to have things like that happen and realize how all the little changes we make can stack up to make a tremendous difference.
Be well! =)
Good for you Seth! This is great advcie. I had taken up yoga to de-stress & quit smoking (few months now
You attitude is great & so are you
Hi! I’m still at the point where I see all the cool positions in yoga and think, “oh yeah, I want to be able to do that some day.” For now, I’m trying to content myself with lots of stretching & exercise. The town I moved to doesn’t have a grocery store… but it has a yoga studio. Luck? I think not!
My fabulous ferocity pales in comparison to yours. Good thing my mother taught me not to compare myself with others or I’d feel just terrible. =P
::raising hand::
It is hard for me to even think I could have enough emotions to make my butt this big! But I do, and they are hungry little devils.
Recently I was discussing my nightly teeth grinding problem with a friend who knows how much I struggle with my weight and she made the very astute observation that maybe I keep too many things inside. Which also relates to the emotional eating thing. In fact, I’m just clamping my teeth down all the time instead of saying the things I want to say. And I didn’t even (consciously) realize it until that moment.
So my thought going into 2010 is to not only keep up with the running but to just SAY IT, dammit. Whatever “it” happens to be.
Nice to be on this journey with you, Seth (and what a great smile you have in the video!)
I like it when you say things!
I’m glad you like my smile. I’m working on making the face around it a bit smaller. =)
We will win this! I’m excited for your 2010!
Emotional eating? No way, at least not for me.
Recently, I briefly tried keeping a different kind of diet blog. Instead of trying to record WHAT I ate, and trying to do better, I chose to focus instead on studying WHY I over-ate. I passed no judgment on HOW I was doing; I just wanted to figure out WHY I over-ate.
The experiment didn’t take long to show some results that really surprised me.
I found that I was eating because I was bored.
BORED, not emotional!
Now I just need to find some activities to keep my mind off food.
Maybe reading stuff on my new Amazon Kindle? Of course the first e-book I bought for the Kindle was a diet book. I’ll see how that works out.
Isn’t boredom an emotion? Lack of one? It’s definitely a “feeling.”
Once you’re done reading the diet e-book, you’ll have to download one about running or perhaps a new hobby?
Have a great 2010!
Hi Seth! Just found you from MizFit’s site and I really like what I’ve read! “A sobbing raccoon is terrifying”!! You crack me up.
Thanks for the post about emotional eating – that’s totally true for me and I’m a thin(ish) woman. I’ve always struggled with the reasons why I eat – or don’t eat, even! It’s nice to know that men struggle with this too.
I’m glad you stopped by!
Isn’t it odd that, while we are very different weights, we still have something in common because we tend to treat food in the same way? I find that sort of thing fascinating.
Your blog is fantastic. I need to get me some giant argyle socks! =)
I’m so glad I found your blog off of Mizfit’s site. I love your message and I can relate the emotional overeating. I eat when I’m happy, sad, mad, pissed, etc., etc., so I can totally relate. I don’t know if there’s a magic way to break the spell for me. I’ve just learned I have to be more conscious on what I put into my mouth and stop living in denial. That’s worked pretty good so far. Best of luck. I’ve put a link to your blog off of mine and hopefully you’ll visit me too. Cheers!
Exercise! =)
I’ll definitely check out your blog. Thanks for stopping by!
Found you from Miz- great site! Hope you don’t mind if I add you to my blogroll.
And you’re right, exercise is the best way ever to deal with stress. There’s so many benefits from it. I like when we can work with emotional and physical issues simultaneously.
As if I’d take issue with that. =P
Yes! Working out the emotional and physical together makes for an experience my friends refer to as “spiritual.” I think they might be onto something there.
Hi Seth,
I found your website though MizFit and I’m looking forward to following your journey. Loved the photo of you jumping up on Mt. Washington – I can see the White Mts. from my porch! 2010 will be year #3 for me in my own journey to health and fitness. I am roughly 25 pounds away from my goal (scale number) and I am currently making a list of what non-scale goals I’d like to achieve in 2010. Baggng a few peaks in the White Mts. is one of them
Cheers! Next year will be incredible!
Oooh, you’re so close! I hope the last 25lbs go smoothly and without any unfortunate hang ups!
I’m a huge fan of goals that have nothing to do with weight. Judging success across multiple measures makes the occasional misstep much easier to deal with.
2010 is looking pretty nice for us, isn’t it! =)
Hey Seth, I found you today via Mizfit – it looks like you have a great blog here. I’ll be checking back in often.
Hi Seth, I’ve just read what you wrote about emotional eating, it’s so inspiring and it all makes sense. Thank you so much, I really feel I can lose my weight now (about 40 lbs to lose – but I know I can do it). I’m off to read the rest of your site now
)
Yes you can! 2010 is going to be awesome for us! In the meantime, I’m trying to make the most of what’s left of 2009.
Hi Seth, another MizFit find, here. Love your blog and your topics, and your voice.
Danggit! Another blog to follow!