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over eating
Iam a 22 female and sometimes I find my self eating when Iam not hungry. I eat when iam bored and depressed why do I do this is this an eating disorder or am I just a glutton?
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You are neither a glutton or do I believe you have an eating disorder. We, for reasons I cannot explain, equate food with comfort or comforting. When we are bored or depressed we eat for comfort. We also use food to reward ourselves for similar reasons.
If you find yourself depressed more often than you are in a good mood you may want to have your family doctor screened you for depression. It is normal for people to feel depressed some of the time but not all of the time.
Sometimes we eat just because we need an oral fixation, just as smokers reasons for smoking. You may want to try some of the things that are recommend to do other than cram junk food. When you feel the need to eat something, make it something with empty or little calories, such as fruits and berries, carrots and celery a bowl of jello works too just try the sugarless type.
Have you ever seen a smoker substituting a carrot or piece of celery for the cigarettes. They hold the it like it was cigarette but chew on it as the vegetable it is. The vegetable is satisfying two cravings; the oral fixation and the something in their hand need.
This substitution method works very well for those people that have the fortitude to stay with it. If you choose healthy alternatives that you like instead of junk food it makes it easy to make the switch. Economically the cost difference between the unhealthy snacks and healthy snacks is nominal.
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Here's a good idea. Take a permanent marker and write on your hand STOP! then when you're tempted to reach for food and eat, you will read this STOP and it will remind you to stop.
instead of eating food when you're bored, think of other things to do. It sounds like to me that you're a "hands-on" type of person. I'm the same way! I have a bad habit of biting my nails. I do it when i'm bored. My doctor told me its because my hands always need to be moving and busy. He said the best way to get rid of the habit is to keep my hands busy so that I'm not tempted to bite my nails. So you should try that. You eat when you're bored. Try doing things to keep yourself moving and busy. Like knitting, coloring, playing with your hair, giving yourself hand massages, holding onto a stress ball and just playing with that, texting etc. Anything that will keep you busy.
You can also write yourself a little pep talk on a piece of paper and then hang it wherever your food is. For example- Don't eat unless you're hungry! Maintain the same weight and feel better about myself! I will feel so much better if I achieve this goal! Then whenever you're tempted to eat when you're bored, you'll read this and you will be able to walk away.
1 more thing.. reward yourself whenever you give it up. For example, If you're bored and decide to eat, go to the cabinet but get the strength to say no, walk away and do something else.. reward yourself after that! you acheived your goal and now its time to reward yourself. But don't let this reward be food.. let it be something else like splurging while you go shopping. Buying yourself something more expensive than usual. Or watching your favorite movie, or calling in sick to school or work and just staying home all day. any kind of reward you'd like (minus food)
good luck!
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Many of us can testify to unnecessarily eating or even binging simply because we're bored or the food is so good you just don't want to stop!
This is extremely common. Just be aware of when you're over eating and try to make more sensible and healthier choices.
Exercise is a great tool for controlling unhealthy appetites. Combined with a balanced diet including protein, soluble fibre and whole grain foods, you should have no problem in making sure you stay fuller until your next scheduled meal.
There is nothing wrong with eating snacks between meals as long as they're healthy such as fruit, handfuls of nuts, crackers etc. Dont overdo it.
Otherwise perhaps make more of an effort in having more things to keep you occupied and distracted so you don't eat simply of boredom.
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