Comfort eating stress induced - what do you do instead of eating when stressed?

[catpoppet]

I have come to the realisation that I comfort eat to "hide" away, as a bad reaction to my stressful life (LP, not likely to get easier). I also do it with social drinking - not an alcoholic but sometimes go a bit overboard - I think it's to cope with the social stress! I suspect I am a bit of an introvert who needs quiet time and finds demands of parenting / work / socialising a bit full on.

If you have been in the situation of overeating to hide away, how did you overcome it? What did you decide to do instead to calm that need to do something in the face of stress? Coping mechanisms that I could do instead to help me feel better in the moment?

I can't likely reduce stress much but I can change how I respond.

Interested in this too. I'm stuck in a lot with two little ones and often snack out of boredom or feeling fed up. Can't leave the house when they're in bed and playroom and garden are off the kitchen so i'm hovering there for large parts of the day whilst supervising them.

The one thing that I do is run a nice bath after my kids are in bed, but my daughter is going through a phase of repeatedly getting up at the moment so I can't reliably do this. I also retreat to my bedroom a lot, but this annoys me a bit as I feel like a teenager and don't seem to enjoy my own living room!

A short walk, alone. May turn into a long walk if you've got somewhere nice like a nature reserve by you.
Crafting, something I get totally absorbed in. For me, that's sewing and textile art.
Reading.
Gardening, even just dead heading.
Heading to the library to choose new books.
A yoga or pilates class, on YouTube.

Some good tips. I am watching with interest as I turn to crap food as soon as I get stressed or anxious.

I’ve found mindfulness meditation useful for this.

I use the HeadSpace app for guided meditation, but when you become a bit more practiced the idea is that you can also apply it to everyday situations. It’s not necessarily all about sitting still, you can also apply it when going for a walk or doing other everyday things and basically create a bit of space in your head where you’re not completely overwhelmed by feelings & thoughts.

exact same here! i have struggled with boredom/stress eating all my life but since covid lockdowns it finally caught up with me and i gained 3 stone.

i'm reading quite a few books on it (overeating) at the moment and am trying to re-train my brain. from what i've read, it's a habit and can be un-learned. it's very hard and is taking a lot of persistence and i'm still not out of the negative habit loop.

yesterday, we were all watching the jubilee concert in the afternoon ad we had a few snacks of a massive pan of plain popcorn drizzled with choc sauce, cheap'n'cheerful maryland cookies and quite a few packets of fizzy sweets and laces. i'd bought extra fizzy laces as i thought they'd last a few days... no! i swear i ate 10 cookies (600 calories) and 3 packets of laces (around 450 calories). I'd had normal breakfast, lunch and dinner too, so it totalled 3000 calories.

in the end, i had to physically leave the room and go upstairs to put a mound of washing away. i really had to put space between myself and the binge situation - i had to get out of the room and totally occupy myself with something else.

i felt all fuzzy and headachy afterwards. i felt disappointed especially as i've been immersing myself in books etc.

i keep saying it but i'm not going to buy the stuff anymore as i just can't trust myself to have a bit and then stop.

the books i'm reading are:

Never binge again by Glenn Livingstone - i find it a bit ranty but it's ok
Beyond temptation by Audrey and Sophie Boss which I'm finding very good

it's such a hard problem to solve 😐

thank you everyone - some great ideas here. :)

I love the idea re. it being a brain thing and needs to be unlearned. I guess the more you stop yourself the more that becomes the new habit.

Will try to bear in mind!!

I haven't overcome this yet but it's something I'm trying to figure out at the moment. I tend to want to hide away for a few minutes when the kids are loud or DP is annoying me and I hide in snacks. Snacks are a moment of escape - and they don't work at all!

The only times I'm already "safe" from snack cravings are 1) when I'm knitting (wouldn't want to get crumbs on my knitting) and 2) when the cat is sitting on me (don't want to disturb her). But then if the kids are being loud, I'm supervising them, not knitting, and the cat is hiding from them upstairs.