Not “I’m scared because I want to eat,” but “I am scared because of my upcoming cardiac catheterization on Tuesday and, for the first time on GLP-1s (Trulicity, Mounjaro, and compounded tirzepatide), I want to eat for no reason. Not no reason because it is certainly because I am stressed.
Is My Stress Eating a New Thing?
I don’t think I would have admitted that I stress ate before GLP-1s. Mostly because I didn’t realize it until now.
All these realizations are in retrospect.
Even after the Gastric Bypass, I was able to stress eat, just in much smaller amounts. For goodness sake, I have been in therapy for 40 years now and it isn’t like this topic never came up, but I was unable to see it.
I’ve spoken about feeling, again in retrospect, like I was in an hypnotic state when it came to food. I was called to it as if I was in one of those old movies where wizards lead damsels into tempation that was the downfall of their entire lives. My tempation was food. I believe the wizard was also food. It wasn’t until April 22, 2022 that Electrophysiologist (a Cardiology specialist) Dr. Shravan Ambati snapped his fingers and woke me up from that lifetime of a trance state.
How to Stress Eat While on GLP-1s
Not a tutorial, but the question I asked myself several times in the last few days.
What I found interesting each time I asked that question was, I EVEN ASKED THE QUESTION!
In my past, pre-GLP-1s, I would have, trance-like, just eaten. If I didn’t have anything in the house I craved, I would have ordered it in. I would not have ordered just one small bag of M&Ms, but a family-size bag. Or two. I would have ordered two Party Size Lay’s plain chips, and eaten them all. I should not have said “or,” but “and.”
This time, the process was slowed down, so much so, that I was able to make a conscious decision about what exactly to eat. Thinking back on it now, that was just weird. I have never been able to think before eating. Even after the Gastric Bypass. Even on Fen-Phen. Sure, they both slowed down the actual eating, but they did not slow my mental processes that implored me to forage.
What I Found to Eat
After looking everywhere, including my friend’s full chip cupboard with added small bags of candy, I went back to my stores of canned food.
Lima Beans.
I chose to eat a small can of lima beans.
Could I have chosen anything stranger? I don’t think I could have. They were my lima beans. I love lima beans. But to purposefully choose them when there were more – typical binge-y things to eat in the house? Even a couple of days afterwards, I shake my head at that conscious choice.
The Best-Tasting Part of My Decision
There was the zero shame that came afterwards.
It took a few hours after eating that small can of lima beans before I realized it had satisfied the urge to eat. I did not want to eat more. I did not wander through the house or stare into the fridge to find something else to put in my mouth.
Is this how people who do not have issues with obesity or overweight deal with problems? Is this how they think?
More Fear; No Food Cravings
Yesterday, I was still scared about the procedure, but had no urge to eat. That realization of not craving food during my nervous fear came after I madly cleaned the house from top to bottom. In my wildest dreams, I could not think of myself cleaning for three hours without stopping before GLP-1s.
I was almost dizzy with disbelief that I had not thought of food first. I didn’t think of M&Ms, chips, ice cream, or any of the other binge foods I could have gotten to within moments. I picked up the Endust, the cleaning cloth and began dusting like a fiend. I continued through sweeping, mopping, rearranging, throwing out the trash, cleaning the kitchen, doing two loads of laundry and even with my head in the fridge with a wet towel and scrubbing the sides, I didn’t consider food an option.
But that I chose cleaning instead of ordering or eating food?
Who is this new person on GLP-1s?
For those who think our medications are only for slowing down digestion, this thinking-before-eating thing, is an example of a benefit that might just save our lives. The only analogy I can give to people who don’t understand this ravenous desire to fix our feelings is using alcohol, drugs, shopping, gambling, and other similar compulsions. While I do not believe one can be “addicted” to food (because we have to eat to live), I do believe it is a compulsion.
How else can you describe this predatory need to eat when stressed/sad/happy/tired/<fill in the blank>? Please tell me in the comments what you used to do about stress eating pre-GLP-1s and what you do now if you are on them.
I’m continually amazed at what these medications can do. This was one side effect I never considered.
And oh, how happy I am I discovered this one!
