Holy Emotional Eating Batman!

Wow. So the other day I had a bad day at work and ended up having to stay late unexpectedly. Given I already work 12 hour days a 14 hour day was even worse because I wasn’t prepared. I didn’t have my dinner, I didn’t have plans that evening but I did have lots to do that night that I had to do when I got home.

Well what happened you ask!? I got home in a foul mood, I had started snacking badly at work because I wasn’t prepared with a healthy dinner or snack to tie me over so when I got home all I wanted to do was to eat, eat, eat. And that I did! I huge soup topped with lots of cheese and bread on the side followed by a big bowl of popcorn as I settled in to stay up late to get to the work I had to do.

It was such a clear case of emotional eating! I sometimes wondered if I was an emotional eater or not. Or if really at the heart of it of it all I just eat big portions. I know for sure I eat when I’m bored, other than that I had never really noticed if I ate when I was feeling  particularly happy, sad, or angry. But I am definitely noticing the connections now. Sheesh! How many years have I been at this?!

It’s good to see the connections though as it can only help me to plan ahead and fight it. I can talk to myself and be clear that I’m only eating because I’m tired or angry or upset. The first step is acknowledging the problem right?

Weigh-in Week 40: I am Not an Emotional Eater

Another week has come and gone and I’m happy to report I am down 2.0lbs! Yay! This makes my current weight 192.8 for a total of 58.8lbs lost so far 🙂 Here is a photo of the weight I’ve lost so far as usual. Boy, let me say that I can’t wait until I can post something else instead of those pounds of butter! That 60lbs lost is just around the corner…eeek!

This was an okay week, pretty standard on the eating front. I didn’t have a big meal or splurge over the week, but rather ate pretty well all week. In addition to my daily points I ate about half my weekly points. Exercise-wise I got in 4 days: two at the gym and two at-home video workouts.

If something particularly out of the ordinary happens in a week I like to try to use it as learning experience about my relationship to food. I used to always think I was an emotional eater – mostly because it seems everyone else is! To be honest I didn’t really know what that meant – I just always ate a lot so I assumed that meant I ate based on my emotions. I learned this weekend that that is in fact not the case. I had suspected this before – for example after a particularly horrible break-up years ago I didn’t know what to do with myself and actually thought “hey, most people eat ice cream after a break-up, that’s what I’ll do”. Seriously.

This weekend was a particularly emotional roller coaster – I have a friend who is a recovering drug addict who relapsed over the weekend. I was woken up at 6am Sunday morning with a desperate text message. I rushed to help and what followed was a tumultuous Sunday and Monday. (side note: the dust has settled; lots to deal with, but everyone is safe) I did not overeat either of these days, in fact I ate less then I normally would.

So what type of an eater am I if not an emotional eater? I am a bored eater. I eat when I’m bored – at night especially, when I’m working at the computer (let’s be honest – reading/replying to emails, reading/writing reports, budgets etc. is not the most thrilling work out there), when I’m alone, and when I think I can get away with it (usually when I’m alone). This is the reason I work out at night during the week – my two gym dates are both at night. The reasons for this are: 1. it’s cheaper (I do pay-as-you-go, no membership – it keeps me more accountable surprisingly enough) and 2. it occupies my time at night.

At this time I find that physically removing myself from the temptation seems to work. So that’s where I’m at this week.