How many times do you eat something for reasons beyond being hungry?
If you are like me...fairly often.
For me, I have many triggers, but my main ones are being bored or stressed with the kids. The worst thing is, even when I am doing it...I KNOW it's the reason! But for some reason, I think it will make me feel better.
I am lucky in that I am not a night time eater usually. I remember growing up, spending time with my Gramma and she would force me to have a bedtime snack. On the nights I do crave something after dinner, it's for one of two reasons, I didn't have enough supper or more often, didn't have enough protein at dinner.
I am trying to "embrace the hunger". An article I read awhile ago, encouraged people to eat at only 3 set times a day. Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Last week, I did this at work and my weight loss was successful. It's tough though. Work can get slow sometimes and that is where my boredom eating kicks in. Fortunately, I only have so much food at work and if I go through it all by 10, then I am pretty hungry the rest of the day. It can be a long stretch from when I have breakfast at 8, until I let myself have lunch at 12. There can be a few of those moments when you look at the clock and say "SERIOUSLY!!! It's only been 2 minutes since I last checked the time?"
Friday was a prime example of eating for a reason other than hunger. I was a good girl, packed a nice lunch, but forgot something to drink. Now, I could have stopped and got something or drank icky city tap water, but instead I persevered. By about 1 o'clock, I had a POUNDING headache. It's not odd for me to get a headache if I haven't had enough to eat. I knew this wasn't the reason for my throbbing head, but instead of struggling through the city water...I gave in and told myself I needed something else to eat. Something with sugar to boost things...I found a chocolate bar....one of those HUGE fundraising ones that could serve 12!
I ATE IT ALL MYSELF!!
It didnt' taste as good as I had hoped...I was choking on the taste of failure! I felt pretty crappy about myself after that and suffered the rest of the day. Instead of saying, "aw well, you slipped up, back on track you go" I had a few chips when I got home, some ice cream later, etc, etc, etc. I find after a slip up, it takes me a couple of days to recover.
How about you?
What are your reasons for eating? Do you eat ONLY when you are hungry or do you suffer emotional eating too?
Until next time,
Amy
My new thing is to eat only when I am hungry. It seems like an easy concept but it's so hard especially when you have kids! Kids eat all the time and I try to keep up with them but the difference is that they run around a lot and I like to sit. So, now I try to eat only when hungry and if that means skipping meals with them then so be it (other than dinner so I have to accommodate for that) and if I have to snack then I do that as well.
ReplyDeleteI also try to keep my fingers busy. If your fingers are busy than you can't eat. I do my paper crafts but at work you could knit or crochet (maybe?) to keep your fingers hard at work.
As for the slip ups, try to see one slip up as just a little accident not the road to completely destroying your day - trust me, you will feel better at the end of the day.
keep persevering - it will work!