Overcoming an Emotional Binge

I'm not only a leader at Weight Watchers, first and foremost I'm a member.

I have struggled with my weight for several years, and have found the tools and the inspiration I needed at Weight Watchers.

Since I'm well known in my area, I find it difficult to attend meetings without feeling like a "leader". People look up to me as someone who's got it all figured out. If only it was always true!

Weight Watchers.com has free message boards where the members can exchange tips and ideas and support each others. I have found there a place where I can be a member. The fact that I am a leader is known, but irrelevant. I'm a member like everybody else.

I've found many things on the boards and a lot of inspiration. I wanted to share with you something I've found a while ago, but was re-posted this morning. I don't know who originally wrote it, for that I apologize, if you know, please let me know so I can note it in here!!



3 Minutes to Fight Off an Emotional Eating Binge Right Before it Happens
(Posted by EditorCarol)

Minute 1: Stay Grounded

Emotional eating happens when you lose your connection to your
grounded self. Stress itself is not what makes you reach for something
to eat. In fact, stress is often a good thing and your grounded self
knows this! We need the physical stress of exercise to keep our bodies
in good shape just as we need the stress of intellectual and emotional
challenges to keep our minds healthy.

Nine times out of ten, what really leads to emotional eating is
getting caught in a "mind storm" of worst-case scenarios, projections,
misinterpretations, and all the emotional overreactions that come with
these thoughts. This "storm" turns a manageable challenge into
something that makes you feel helpless, overwhelmed, ashamed or
afraid—and sends you to the kitchen to find something to stuff those
extreme feelings. When you can stay grounded in the moment of stress,
you have many more options.

Here are some simple ideas to keep you grounded when something (or
someone) pushes your buttons and your feelings start to spiral out of
control:

1. Take a few deep breaths. (You can also count to 10, if that helps.)
If the stressful situation involves someone else, take a timeout and
agree to continue the discussion in a few minutes.

2. Remind yourself where you are. Take a look around, noticing and
naming the colors and shapes in the space around you.
Notice the physical sensations you are experiencing. Whether it's a
sinking feeling, turmoil in your stomach, tension in your hands or
jaw, restricted breathing, or heat on the back of your neck, try to
name the feelings that go with the sensation. Is that sinking feeling
fear, or dread? Is the heat a symptom of anger?
The idea here is to stay in your body and in the moment—with what's
real—instead of going inside your mind where all those unreal
scenarios are just waiting to get spun out-of-control.

Minute 2: Reality Check
Once you're calm enough to start thinking productively, put all those
thoughts that are clamoring for attention inside your head through a
quick reality check. Here are several very common thought patterns
that have no place in reality. Do any of these apply to you?
1. All or nothing thinking
Example: You go over your calorie limit or eat something on your
"forbidden" list, and then decide to keep eating because you've
already "blown it" for today. Reality: Weight loss is not a one-day
event. If you stop overeating now, you'll gain less and have less to
re-lose later. That's something to feel good about!


2. Reading your own thoughts into someone else's words
Example: Someone made a mildly critical or unsupportive remark to you,
and you feel completely devastated. Reality: The more bothered you are
by such remarks, the more likely it is that you are being overly
critical of yourself. When you treat yourself with respect, what
others say won't matter nearly so much.


3. Either-Or thinking
Example: You make a mistake or have a bad day and feel like a complete
and hopeless failure. Reality: No one does well all the time. Mistakes
are a necessary and valuable opportunity to learn—if you don't waste
them by getting down on yourself.


4. Taking care of other people's business
Example: Something is going badly for someone you care about, and you
feel responsible, or pressured to fix it. Reality: People need to
learn from their own problems. You aren't doing anyone a favor by
trying to fix things just to make yourself feel better.

Minute 3: Putting Things in Perspective
Most common problems that you face in everyday life are much easier to
handle when you keep them in perspective and avoid making mountains
out of molehills. Here are some questions you can ask yourself to make
sure you aren't in the mountain-making business:

1. How big a deal is this, anyway? If I knew I was going to die in a
week, would this be something I would want to spend this minute of my
remaining time on?
Will any bad things happen if I postpone thinking about this until I
have more time to figure things out?

2. Do I have all the information I need to decide how to respond to
this? Do I really know what's going on here, or am I making
assumptions? Am I worrying about things that might not even happen?
What do I need to check out before taking action?

3. Is there anything I can do right now that will change or help this
situation?
Am I trying to control something I can't, like what other people
think, say, or do?
Have I really thought through this problem, and broken it down into
manageable pieces I can handle one-at-a-time?


Use this approach whenever your thoughts or situations begin to feel
overwhelming, and you'll quickly find that the mountains that seem
impossible at first can quickly morph into what they really
are—manageable hills that you DO have the ability to climb. All it
takes is three little minutes of your time.

So there you have it, in 3 minutes you can turn around a situation and make it work for you. Only 3 minutes!

Be good n stuff!