Since I’ve been addressing my self-sabotaging and my return to calorie counting, I wanted to dig deeper and cover mindless eating.
To me, mindless eating differs from emotional eating. (Do I see another post coming?)
Mindless eating is when I eat out of boredom, not really tasting my food, and definitely not listening to my body. The worst part is that I know that I am not hungry, that I’m not really enjoying what I’m putting into my mouth, yet I eat it anyway.
The food isn’t drowning out any emotions.
It’s just…there. To grab, gobble, and gorge.
When I mindlessly eat, I could eat forever. There is no fulfillment or satisfaction. It is simply an attempt to shovel as much food into my belly as humanly possible. My body does not register the red light signal. It doesn’t hit the stop button. The hand just keeps reaching, and reaching, and reaching.
Even when I consciously recognize this habit, I can’t be bothered to restrain myself.
It’s as if the eating goblin has crawled out of its cave and taken hold of all my self-control.
Why does this happen?
I have no idea, which is why it is dangerous.
Unlike emotional eating, which I know the causes of, I can’t really pinpoint why I enjoying stuffing myself to the brim.
It’s not even an enjoyable, contented full. It’s one of those sickening, my stomach feels like it’s going to explode and die, kind of feelings.
Although I don’t know the causes behind my mindless eating, I have discovered some prevention techniques that have helped me make mindless eating an exception and not a norm.
- Drink at least one glass of water before eating.
I normally drink a lot of water, but if I’m feeling a bit out of control with my eating, I will drink a full glass of water before I start eating.
This helps me make sure that I am actually hungry and not just thirsty. Also, water helps fill my bottomless pit up just a tad.
- Do not eat from the bag.
If I have an entire bag of pretzels next to me, chances are, I will go through the entire bag without even realizing it. If the bag is next to me, my hand goes on auto-pilot and keeps reaching.
If there is nothing to reach for, I can’t mindlessly eat because I would have to mentally register that I need to get more of whatever I just ate.
- Drink one glass of water during eating.
When I can’t seem to stop eating, I take a break from it by going for another glass of water. A full stomach of food and water is usually enough to make me feel overly satisfied and stuffed to the brim (time to take a nap).
- Avoid eating while watching TV, Hulu, movies or online streams.
A big weakness of mine is snacking while watching TV. An hour of Being Human later and the cheese and crackers are all gone. I try my best not to eat while watching TV or movies, and if I do eat, I really try to remove things from the bag.
Am I perfect? No.
Do I mess up? Plenty.
But it’s a learning process. These techniques have helped me curb the number of times I mindlessly eat. There will be days when I falter. There will be days when I just can’t help myself. And that’s ok.
As long as the typical norm is mindFUL eating, I won’t beat myself up over one day (or even just one hour) of mindless eating.
Do you mindlessly eat?
Why do you think we mindlessly eat? Is it out of habit?
What tips do you have for preventing mindless eating?
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Female. 25 years old. Chinese. Cook. Foodie. UCLA grad. Traveler. Musician. Scuba diver. GWU Law. Runner.
I’ve started mindlessly eating. I think it might be because I don’t have all the distractions of studying. I’ve actually gained five pounds in like 3 weeks, which is a lot for me. I usually hoover around the same weight without a lot of effort either way. Now that my job involves sitting at a desk for 8 hours I think I’ll need to be more conscious of what I’m putting into my mouth. I’ll try to not eat out of bags, and the water technique.
totally shouting YES about the “as long as the norm…” sentence.
that is my tactic for life.
as long as my norm is how I want to live..how Im working to live…how Im STRIVING TO BE it’s all ok.
this whole thing is a process and a journey.
(Id love a post whenever you have the time. NO RUSH)
MizFit´s latest post: I’m a Formerly giveaway-video post
I like to remove as many distractions as possible when eating so that way I actually remember I’m eating it and feel more satisfied. I know I’ve been where I just snack because something is there. It stinks! What a waste. Good tips to prevent it. Especially the drinking water ones.
Aw man, you’ve struck such a chord with this one. I’ve spent the last year and a half working out my demons and so I feel like I’ve gotten a grasp on the emotional eating. But this mindless eating – I really don’t know how to tackle it. People say that the way to avoid it is to just get up and go, but sometimes you’re too tired to move. So what do you do when all you want to lay around, you’re mildly hungry and antsy enough to keep doing it out of habit and just to have *something* to be doing?
One of the best tricks for me has been: “If it’s not there, I can’t eat it” When I was living alone, I bought nothing but fruit and ingredients for what I was cooking that week. So when I was in the mood to mindlessly eat, I’d just end up wandering around my house and opening up open empty cupboards & refrigerator. It was extremely frustrating, but at least it prevented me from eating anything. However, now that I’ve moved back home and living with my family, I can’t use this method anymore and am now searching for the next fullproof method. I may have to start handcuffing my hands together or something –lol-
I’ve been following your blog for awhile, but I’m a little shy so I haven’t had a chance to comment until now. I only read a few health blogs, and yours is one of them. As a 23yrold asian female myself struggling with weightlose myself, your journey feels very close to home so I love rooting for your success (feels like there’s hope for me) –lol-
Btw – welcome to the neighborhood!! ^___^ I hope this doesn’t come off as weird, but I did a mini-squeal when I read that you were moving to the DC area (not many bloggers live here *pouts*). You mentioned that I’ve been here before so you probably don’t need it, but just in case you do need any recommendations/advice for the area, I’d love to help.
Oh, and you came just in time for restaurant week:p http://washington.org/restaurantwk/
Thos are great, practical tips. I’m always eating while I watch tv, not snacking, but I generally eat my meals while I watch tv.
To me, it seems to weird NOT to do something while I’m eating, but maybe that’s my problem. I always have to have some kind of distraction, otherwise, I’m bored, and eating bores me. Hmmm. I sense a breakthrough!
This is something I definitely still struggle with. I think a lot of it is still just from my old habits that I haven’t quite learned to break away from yet. As far as I’ve come, as much weight as I’ve lost so far, old habits die hard, and they still manage to creep their way back in any way they can.
Your suggestion of drinking a glass of water is one of my favorites. If that doesn’t work, I just try to do something – anything – that will distract me from eating, whether it’s playing with my son, taking a walk, whatever.
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I do mindlessly eat and, like you, don’t exactly know why.
I like your tips for prevention.
One thing that works for me is “Don’t eat alone”. I find I’m more conscious of how much I’m eating when I do it in the presence of other people. I feel like they’re watching how much I consume (even when they’re really not)
Since Mary visited me and I started photo food blogging like her, it has actually CUT the mindless AND the emotional eating by like 80%. It’s kind of amazing. And I do agree they are two very different things, both of which I’m prone to. My camera is saving me.
I feel the same as you exactly. I just eat and eat. I’m not sure if I’m depressed, bored, or lonely. I think I’m not feeling any of those emotions. I’m trapped. Trapped by food. I need help. I am not that overwieght but I hate having this weakness!