08 October 2011

Emotional eating


I've always known that I eat when I'm bored. I've ALWAYS done it, I'm a late-night snacker, and I have a HORRENDOUS sweet tooth. (I am very into holistic nutrition, and I have NO DOUBT that I have some bad yeastie-beasties in my gut. :/ )


And, I've SUSPECTED I was an emotional eater, but really haven't taken a close look at when I eat, besides the time of day.


Last week I had a *ROUGH* one. My little one is teething and growing, so his immune system is down, and he caught a cold. Stuffed up babies don't sleep so well. Meaning? Mummies don't sleep so well either. Daddy ended up on the couch for 2 of the nights this week, and me and Ri ended up getting not enough sleep. When I'm tired, I'm grumpy, I'm cranky, I truly am a bear. And I can be mean. It makes me sad and depressed, I feel guilty, and guess what? I eat. :(


As you may know, I have been experimenting a lot with baking bread and snacks for the man. Store-bought bread and snacks that are gluten free are heinously expensive, and usually taste like a$$. We spent $8 on a box of 5 nutri-grain-type bars 6 months ago, and we each took ONE BITE and threw the whole rest of the bar and box in the rubbish - they were THAT BAD. O_o But I digress. 


I had bought a package mix (very unlike me, I'm a from-scratch kinda girl) of brownie mix, by Bob's Red Mill, to bake for him. The brownie on its own is actually very benign, but of course, chocoholic that I am, I HAVE to make the topping. Did you know that sweetened condensed milk is ALSO actually quite benign on its own in moderation? But that chocolate chips are, like, 3/4 FAT???!??!!! Anyway, I had these grand intentions of having one a day, to allow myself something sweet (so I don't binge)... but because of the rough days, I OF COURSE ended up having MORE than one each day. And EACH TIME I had more than one, the 2nd went down the hatch RIGHT AFTER having a blow up at my kids. :(


I bought myself some carrots and some other veggies to snack on, but when I'm sad/depressed/bummed, it's not the actual ACT of eating that consoles me - it's the sugar. It is my only vice. And when I'm down, I need a "hit." (LOL!) I have to deal with my sugar addiction, but... baby steps. In the meantime, I need to think of achievable ways that I can circumvent my cravings, by maybe tricking my body into thinking that I'm having some crazy rich awesomeness. I have thought about buying a flat of coke zero too, but not for an always thing, just for those days of craziness: a coke zero is MUCH better than 640 cal and 14g of fat in brownie.... O_o


Do YOU have a bad sweet tooth? How do you, besides cold turkey, ;) deal with it without going into DETOX? Are you an emotional eater? 

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