First, we left Wednesday night in a snowstorm that was decently dangerous. We ended up in the car for 4.5 hours, working hard not to spin off the road and avoid other drivers (who weren't always making the safest decisions as far as driving in the snow).
We got to my sister-in-law's house late at night, quite stressed, and hungry. Chris had made us a big salad with ground turkey and beets for dinner, with a side of roast sweet potatoes, but we had eaten it hours before. I mindlessly started eating out of a bowl they had out, while dealing with a little family stress and trying to come down off of the stress of the drive. A couple minutes later I realized I had been eating M&Ms!!!
Talk about mindless eating!
I didn't mean to eat chocolate (if you remember, I was doing a No Chocolate November to detox a little from overdoing it on chocolate for a while) but I went into a weird zone where I didn't even think about what I was eating, or that I had decided I wasn't going to eat chocolate this month. I was just so stressed out and hungry. Not good at all.
Well, I went 26 days without chocolate. Definitely long enough to break my habit and dependence and to open my eyes about my behavior with chocolate. I'm going to continue not to eat chocolate for the last couple days of this month, and I'm not going to immediately buy any as December rolls in, either!
I was pretty shocked at myself for so thoughtlessly putting something in my mouth. It gave me a lot to think about. It was emotional eating at it's worst for me - where I barely realized I was eating and didn't give one thought to what I was eating!
I've worked hard to address emotional eating in my life - more work needs to be done.
Thanksgiving was decently stressful, as well. I ate a very large dinner, but didn't overeat throughout the day. We drove home a few hours after dinner and only brought home a little turkey and stuffing (stuffing is my faaaavorite, and this is the only time of year I eat it!)... Leftovers were enough for lunch, so we're not going to overdo it on that!
Overall, I'm just glad to be home and back to normal.
Thankful for my husband and my animals and home :)
Do you think you were numbing the stress of the drive with the choice of the food? Thanks for sharing your day with us.
ReplyDeleteSafe travels with the snow!
Karen, it definitely was in response to the stress of the driving, and the family situation I was walking into, I was just surprised that it barely registered in my consciousness that I was even eating in the first place!
DeleteEmotional eating in particular stress and grief eating are the worst. Please don't beat yourself up about too much... it's a lesson learned for next time. Personally I think that emotional eating is something I can never cure myself of; it requires constant check-ups. Some situations that you know can cause that reaction, you can prepare for in advance, but it's the ones where the emotions come up unexpectedly that are the most difficult.
ReplyDeleteGlad you arrived back home safe and sound.
Yeah, it was a good reminder to me that I have a long history of disordered eating, and I should always maintain a level of vigilance!
DeleteJeanette, I've been reading you here long enough to know....it was just a bad situation, not a habit for you. You'll be fine. Not a doubt in my mind. I know it can be scary when we see a sign that yes, we are human, but I truly believe that is all it was in this case.
ReplyDeleteI'm just so thankful that you guys survived the scary, dangerous drive. :: hugs ::
Thank you! I'm not super worried for my overall health, but I was just very surprised at the slip up I made, I didn't see it coming and didn't really know I had that kind of a mindlessness in me. But I guess it was just too much stress all at once!!!
DeleteIt was. You are fine. :)
DeleteI'm curious: how did you/your body react to the chocolate after not having had it for a while?
ReplyDelete