Emotional Eating

[sooner_ed]

Not to beat a dead horse because this has been the topic of many a post, this could very well be simply needing to vent or just to let others know that life happens.

I'm just coming off of a three day eating binge. Now you might ask, "Ed, what's up?"

Well, simply put, I suffered a tragic event in my family last Sunday. Fortunately, I had the work week to keep my mind off of it. But last Thursday, I told my wife to go ahead and grab some pizza on the way home from work so we wouldn't have to cook. Hence, the beginning of the three day eating binge.

I got off work at 2:30 last Friday and didn't have to be back to work until 6:00 this morning. That left about 2-1/2 days to be totally depressed and not leave my bedroom all weekend except for my wife taking me out for breakfast Sunday morning for Fathers Day.

You can bet I really didn't care what or how much I ate, so I ate...and ate...and ate...well, you get the picutre.

It appears the worst damage was about 5 pounds of water weight gained. Hopefully that's the extent of the damage.

So why do I tell you this? I've read many posts concerning emotional eating. Many sources will tell you that you need to find the root cause of the emotional eating and when you recognize that, to substitute an activity other than eating.

I believe that sometimes, it's ok to have an emotional eating binge. Sometimes there are just things on your mind that you're dealing with, that what or how much you eat is the absolute last thing on your mind.

I think the most important thing, though, is to make sure your emotional eating binge doesn't last too long. Then you have to jump back on the horse and ride again.

Life happens. Sometimes for our emotional well-being, I think it's ok to forget about our food choices. Chances are there will be some people that will disagree with me and that's ok. Everyone has their beliefs.

Fortunately, I had lost about 17 pounds in the last 6 weeks. So I think I'm still in pretty good shape.

So for those of you who deal with emotional eating, I would say that sometimes it's ok. Don't feel guilty about it. Just jump back on your horse and ride. After all, we're human.

Thanks for listening.

Hello Ed, my condolences for whatever happened in your family. My prayers are with you and your family.

I think emotional eating is harmless when it's a once in a while thing. The problem is that for many, it becomes the way they deal with every problem in their life, every stress, big or small. And that when it becomes a true, big problem.

[sweetdream]

Thanks for sharing that Ed! I am sorry for the tragedy that has occured in your family recently but can definitely relate to the "binge" I think we all have our own ways out, our own ways of dealing with thigs and you are so completely right, yes it's ok and we shouldn't feel guilty about it but we need to recognize it and realize what has happened and get back on the train as soon as we can!

That's exactly what I needed to hear! get back on the train as soon as you can or it might leave you behind and in really "big" trouble!

[ihatepeas]

My condolences for you and your family. I hope things are looking better today. Thank you for your post. Very educational. And, hope this doesn't sound bad, but its nice to know that people that know about nutrition still falter. It makes me want to be a little less hard on myself when I slip up. As long as my slip ups are occasional and not habitual, yknow?

[pierini]

Hello Ed,

My prayers and thoughts for you and your loved ones.

A great rigorously honest discussion in your post Ed with many lessons to be learned for all who take the time to read it. Thanks!

[sooner_ed]

Thank you for the kind words LiftGirl, Talia, peas and pierini.

Life happens and sometimes in a big way. This last Tuesday, I was at work and hit my head rather hard on some warehouse racking. Didn't knock me out, but it did knock me a little loopy. Decided to play it safe and go to the doctor. They ran a cat scan. The cat scan did reveal that I have a hard head!! But, as is company policy, the urinalysis was ordered and kept me out of work for two days. So I decided to take it easy until the results of the cat scan came back.

Now we're back on the horse (again!).

I have had to learn over the last couple of years that when we can't eat and work out the way we want to all the time, don't get discouraged! Set-backs are a part of life. You learn from them and move on. Sometimes there's nothing to learn. You just move on.

Just look at it this way. In every sport, very few, if any, players stay in the game the entire game. They will go sit on the sideline from time to time to rest and get recharged to get back into the game. When they do get back into the game, they are well rested and energized and perform at a high level.

So when life happens and we are sitting on the sideline, just take it as an opportunity to rest and recharge so when you do get back on the horse and ride, you're riding harder and faster than if you had kept going in the first place.

Well shoot, enough of my book! Just wanted to thank you guys for your kind words.

[pierini]

Two steps forward and one step back is a net one step forward.

[minime]

Nicely said, Ed.

Sorry to hear about your tragic circumstances, I hope things are looking up for you and your family.

We can all learn from your words.

[bodyshop20]

Hi Ed im hoping the sh-- was not to bad.
Emotional eating a can dance that tune with you except mine is drink (now no one knew this on here)
But here goes, i come from a family of drunks mum dad sisters brothers gran grandad and so on.
I was a drinker, and now and again fall back to it.
If its any help ed i think we need this dump valve in life, no matter what way we deal with it.
I might binge drink for a few days then the real me kicks in and says "come on Mick" "yr better than them and this"
Next day im back with a vengence, my **** has been flushed.
We need to let off steam every now and again.
And steam cleaning is the best cleaning x