mindless eating as comfort

[Guest guest]

Hi, ,

First of all, congratulations on having the courage to take a look at your mindless eating habits! It's not always easy to break the habits, but how about after an episode, asking yourself what would have happened if you *hadn't* done the eating? Sometimes this helps me to get to the bottom of issues I'm avoiding that make me really want to eat, regardless what I know about it not actually helping me in the long run. I've discovered some pretty hard attitudes about myself under my nighttime eating, things that come from what Geneen calls "the voice" that tells me I'm, well, just not quite good enough. When I face up to that voice, I can examine how false its claims about me are, and can recognize that it's a very old tape, mostly from my father, who, god bless him, had a boatload of problems himself.

Geneen suggests that we make a list of how we hide eating from ourselves, and decide to stop just one of those kinds of eating at a time, and then get curious about what comes up when we don't do that eating. Take baby steps. Don't try to stop every kind of mindless eating you do, just one: maybe the eating you do when on the computer. Let yourself eat in front of the TV. But don't eat in front of the computer, and see what happens. Write down the things that come up for you when you don't eat, and look at them the next day when you're a little removed from it.

And remember, you have exquisitely good reasons for the eating you're doing. And there's nothing wrong with you, just the way you are.

Have you checked out the free chapter of Geneen's book that's available online on her website?

All best,

Laurie

wrote:

>>>Hi,

I would like your ideas on how to reduce the kind of eating I do where eating is not the focus - TV eating and computer eating at night are the worst events.

I have tried not having trigger foods, and having them.

I have put notes in the basket where the food is, to check in with myself re: the purpose of the eating.

I have eaten more, and less, at dinner.

I have changed my routine.

When I am in the moment of it, I find I am not able to question my old thinking of how I deserve this binge, or how it doesn't count. Sometimes I think it is simply the power of habit. Other times I blame perimenopausal hormonal chaos. Sometimes I know I am lonely or disturbed in some way, and am actively avoiding facing that.

I have listened to the IE CDs and am reading the book. I've listened to a G. Roth interview, but am 61 on the hold list at the library. Popular book! I appreciate the posts I read here, and the recent links to other blogs. Thanks much,

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