Learning not to eat your feelings

One of the top reasons why obesity is on the rise and mental health issues are becoming more and more mainstream is because we, as people, are losing control.  We also have picked up bad habits with regards to eating.  I'm talking of course, about binge eating.  Whether it's eating chips-ahoy by the sleeve, or wheat things by the box, or peanut butter by the spoonful (which all sounds delicious), there is a certain mindset that a fat person will have while consuming said food.  It's not a good one.  It could involve guilt, a feeling of not being loved or wanted, restlessness, or depression (usually the case).

One of the best things I did when I was on my first weight loss goal, was to eliminate all junk food snacks, which is harder than it seems when you live next to a 7-11.  I would instead snack with Almonds, celery sticks, baby carrots, raisins, sunflower kernels, and maybe sometimes a cup of tea just to calm my nerves.  One of the things I caught myself doing recently was going out of the way to eat fast food because my brain kept saying over and over "Feed Me Fast Food!!!!".  So, I did.  I succumbed to my brain telling me what to do.  But what I also am doing to curb my fast food/bad habits is keeping track of how many times I've done certain things.

I use a basic counter app and just press the + button whenever I've had fast food, drank a beer, ate pizza, ate at a restaurant, drank a soda, or eaten Chinese food.  It's helped immensely in controlling my urges and also given me a clearer point of view on how many times I've done something compared to something else.  You can do this for anything because the app lets you create a label and you just have to remember to press the + button before you go and do something.

Now if you get the app, there is the clear understanding that there is a plus and a minus sign.  You might be thinking, "I can get this app, and just lie a couple of times about eating Chinese food, drinking beers and sodas for a couple weeks, it's no big deal." WRONG.  I don't use this app to show off to people.  There is no sharing button; you can't brag about your lack of drinking Cokes to Facebook or Twitter.  This is for me.  The biggest difference in my healthy quest was that I had to be honest with myself the whole way through.  Otherwise, I'm just wasting my own time for the benefit of no one.  If I ate fast food late at night, I was honest with myself the next day and went to the gym and sweated until the back of my shirt was soaked.  I'd turn away friends' offers who wanted to go out for a couple beers to watch a game or do trivia, just because I wanted to get a little healthier.

So go ahead and moderately snack on something NOT from 7-11.  Just be honest with yourself about what you want to accomplish.