Distractions

1. Throw a temper tantrum! Go into your bedroom, lay on your stomach in your bed and scream into your pillow while you kick your legs and punch your hands into the bed. Ever see kids do this? They expend all that energy and it moves right through them. As adults, we can’t really do this and lots of anger and pain winds up feeling stuck in the body. We often try to stuff that down with food and for some, get rid of it by purging.
2. Do something creative. Make something (try www.cutoutandkeep.net for inexpensive and easy ideas and tutorials), paint or draw, play music, or some creative writing.
3. Take a class or volunteer somewhere. You'll be doing something productive as well as getting out of the house and filling time. You can also say you ate there when you get home.
4. Look through old pictures.
5. Go through your photos. Learn scrapbooking or put them in albums. Make a collage.
6. Give yourself a foot massage
7. Put on music and dance. Burns calories as well as distracting.
8. Water your plants– if you don’t have any, go out and buy some plants!
9. Drink a cup of tea
10. Spin around in circles
11. Teach yourself to juggle.
12. Tell the food that you are stronger than it. You are stronger than the urge to eat. Just because you want to, doesn’t mean you have to.
13. Call a friend or relative who has been unhappy lately and needing some support. Sometimes giving support can be incredibly heartening and also supports the supporter.
14. Pray
15. Make a list of why you rock. Think about what’s great about you. Can’t think of those things? Call someone who loves you and ask them to tell you.
16. Knit or do needlepoint
17. Make a list of things you've been meaning to do. Unfinished projects, errands you've been putting off, reorganizing something. Go through it when you want to eat.
18. Write in your journal
19. Go to an online support forum with other people dealing with eating issues.
20. Play solitaire
21. Zone out in front of the TV, catch up on your shows– as long as television is not a binge trigger.
22. Brush and floss your teeth
23. Make stuffed animals or throw pillows out of old clothing.
24. Explore your neighbourhood or town.
25. Take a nap
26. Read positive affirmations.
27. Pick flowers
28. Go window shopping.
29. Smell lavender
30. Search through your couch and house for change! Put everything you can in a jar and put it aside to start a fund for yourself as a motivator in your recovery. Every time you reach a milestone (ie: no bingeing for one week) you can buy yourself something fun, like a new pair of shoes, or some jewelry or new CD, or whatever you like within reason.
31. Use crayons to colour hard! This can release tension.
32. Beat up your pillow.
33. Write out your intentions or personal goals for yourself for the week. Write out both long term and short term goals- things that you are striving for and ways to help you get there.
34. Do a home makeover! Rearrange your furniture, get rid of things that you no longer want– sell them on eBay! Put up some curtains, just make things pretty for yourself.
35. Write a long, heart wrenching letter and stick it in a bottle and send it off.
36. Get ahead on your homework.
37. Go for a walk
38. Clean!
39. Chat with friends on facebook or update your facebook profile
40. Drink a glass of water.
41. Play music! If you play an instrument, whip it out and start playing. If not, teach yourself to play one. Beat on some bongos, ping a triangle, strum a guitar, whatever is convenient to you. If nothing, make an instrument out of household objects and play it.
42. Go bowling/miniature golf
43. Call your friends over and have a dance party.
44. Stretch, go to a yoga class, do a yoga DVD or an exercise or yoga class on OnDemand cable.
45. Go through your closet or garage, find old things you don't use or need and take them to Goodwill. Or organize a clothing swap with your friends, trying on clothes will be very motivational!
46. Twitter!
47. Clean out your closet, donate your old clothes or sell them on eBay.
48. Scrapbook
49. Cuddle with your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, daughter, son, cat, dog, teddy bear, etc.
50. Research health, weight loss, and nutrition info on the Internet. Go to the library if you're really hungry, you can't eat in there.
51. Get your hair done or do your own hair. Experiment with different styles, curling iron, flat iron, curlers, etc.
52. Go through old pictures
53. Make cards for people, catch up on Thank You notes, send out notes to relatives you haven’t spoken to or seen in a long time.
54. Do online crossword puzzles or sudoku or boggle.
55. Write some notes with positive messages and post them around your home or get out of the house and put them up in dressing rooms, public restroom mirrors, restaurants, — help Operation Beautiful!
56. Write a letter to your future self, about what you’re going through right now.
57. Learn a new language!
58. Make a rubber band ball. Try to beat the guy who made the world’s largest rubberband ball.
59. Get organized sort out your bills, create a budget– organize your home, your closet, your life! Often getting organized can help you feel more in control and enable you to thwart a binge, which can often feel very out of control.
60. Write a novel, short story, or poetry.
61. Take a shower or bath. This is best when you're on the verge of a binge. Take as long as you need to get your mind off food. Looking at yourself naked will remind you that you don't need any food.
62. Write an angry letter to whomever you are holding anger at. You don’t have to send it, just let it out. Afterwards, put it somewhere safe.
63. Go to the museum or the zoo. If it’s not the right time, go to an online museum and learn all about art.
64. Make someone a gift, or go shopping for one. A great idea to get out of the house when you don't need anything yourself. You'll make them happy and feel good too, much better than if you ate!
65. Create a collage
66. Play video games.
67. Make your own website
68. Keep all your old magazines. When you need a distraction, go through them cut out thinspirational photos and interesting articles.
69. Go bowling, play pool, play golf or miniature golf, play basketball, hit tennis balls, go to a batting cage.
70. Scream into a pillow.
71. Smell aromatherapy oils.
72. Watch a funny movie at home.
73. Learn a musical instrument.
74. Play scrabble online
75. Go through your closet and donate all clothes that are too big, too small, out of date or unworn. Keep the clothes that you feel good about yourself in.
76. Light candles and incense and relax
77. Sing!
78. Paint your garbage can.
79. Build a terrarium.
80. Write and direct a short play with stuffed animals or Barbie dolls or action figures or your pets or sock puppets and videotape it to put on youtube.
81. Catch up on your emails
82. Get out of your house and into your car, go to the beach, the lake, the park… somewhere pretty and relaxing.
83. Go out and take photos.
84. Plan out your calorie intake for the next week.
85. Draw, paint or color.
86. Write a blog!
87. Do beauty rituals. At home facials, manicure/pedicure, exfoliate your entire body, do a hair treatment. It's very soothing and you'll feel too beautiful and clean to dirty yourself with food.
88. Scratch things off your “to do” list
89. Clean your entire house. Start in one area and move through the house until everything looks perfect.
90. Read a good book.
91. Plan a party or get together or weekend trip with your friends.
92. Move! Do jumping jacks, run in place, anything to move a little energy and release some tension.
93. Call family members you don't talk to that often, like your grandparents. Pace while you're on the phone.
94. Make jewellery out of household items or beads or coins.
95. Research anything you can think of! Finances and investing, political issues, world news, history, philosophy...anything that interests you or that you don't know much about.
96. Give yourself a facial treatment.
97. Do karaoke, you can either go out to do it, or do it at home with OnDemand Cable if you have it.
98. Go to the gym.
99. Pretend that you are a tourist in your old city or town. Look up things to do that tourists would do and do it!
100. Garden
101. Download MP3s
102. Fight Procrastination! Do homework, write that paper you’ve been putting off, work on your dissertation (ahem…)
103. Play with your pet.
104. Go to a movie if the food there is not a trigger.
105. Read a magazine