Emotional Eater? ... ME?! Nahhh ...

So yesterday was a tough day for me ..


It was one of those days where just NOTHING goes right. Add them all up the the equation = terrible day. And I'm an emotional eater. See where a diet lifestyle change can be hard here?


Emotional eating has played a huge part in my life. When something worth celebrating comes along, let's order a pizza and chicken wings! When something bad happens, I cheer myself up with, well, whatever I could find in the fridge / cupboards / secret stash .. (don't give me that look, you know we all have or had a secret stash of goodies at one point in our lives!!)


Happy or sad, I know I can't control my emotional eating. When I decide to splurge, I do. Man, do I ever splurge. I have two tactics that I now use to attempt to keep my eating in check when things are getting me down:


1. Try to find an alternative way to dealing with the situation. If something is upsetting me, I have to deal with the issue so that it doesn't continue to get me down (or find a great shoulder to cry on .. thanks Derek!) If I feel the need to reward myself for something, or celebrate a special occasion (like paying off a hefty cable bill! and we've all been there!) I'll do something that makes me happy - take a long walk, keep the kids up past bedtime for a family movie night, shoot some zombies with Derek (we're gamers and proud of it!) At the end of the day, binging one night to satisfy the emotional eater within me leads to a morning of regret and extra pounds .. which would then get me down and guess what I would do? Eat again. It's a vicious cycle. 


2. Don't keep the tempting foods in the house. That way, when something does happen, I don't have foods to fall back on. I'm pretty well forced to go with the above listed option #1, which is the better way to go about things anyway. I'll keep my sanity and keep the pizza away from my hips!


So, as bad as the day was, I kept my glass of water next to me for the entire day, and every time I was tempted to indulge the round girl in me, I took a sip (okay, I gulped) .. And my amazing husband helped with the rest. Also: how could I stay down when I have two adorable faces smiling at me, and I'm their mommy?


To sum up what my blabbing is about: I can't stress enough how important it is to have proper emotional support in your life. And no - the nice people at pizza pizza don't count.