Cplus wrote:

After dinner breakdown. Had family mini crisis, got very upset, lots of
yelling, sore throat, exausted didn't think. Felt awful afterwards. I'm
cured for awhile. It was still much less than I would have normally eaten.
I was looking for something to make me feel better (happier) but it really
was a bad thing. I'm not sure how I'd tackle that again. I do know it
wouldn't be with food.

Some comments. I like that you're thinking about *why* you turned to
food and what need it was filling and how you can fill it otherwise. I
think the mood pick-me-up is why I keep a stash of dark chocolate in the
house. I buy the large bar and just break off a chunk or two when I
need it. I call it my "medicinal chocolate."

I agree with Chris in questioning why you even had all that crap food in
the house. I've got some very stale Fig Newtons in the kid's snack
cupboard, but even with three small children in the house and a husband
whose got a sweet tooth we don't have anything resembling what you
knoshed on. Just dump it all is my advice. Those things are "eating
for entertainment" and there's certianly no problem for the slender
people doing that, but we don't have to let them do it at home!

Another mood altering thing I do - sometimes I'll grab a glass of wine
and go sit by myself. This works for me because I don't have a problem
with alcohol. (I do this maybe once a month.) I hesitate to tell you
to pick up drinking, but it really does relax me somewhat.

I'm looking into hormone replacement therapy to help with mood swings,
too. Losing all the fat I've lost (and you to) has had an unpleasant
effect on my estrogen levels I suspect. I haven't had them tested, but
I seem to have been thrown solidly into perimenopause. It turns out all
that fat was DOING something in my body - producing estrogen. I don't
know your hormonal landscape, but you might want to do some reading up
on this, too.

Dally