There is an old expression, ‘To the man who has only a hammer, everything looks like a nail’. This same idea can be applied to those of us who are dealing with everyday challenges, such as stress, that trigger emotional eating. You are probably familiar with the acronym H-A-L-T which stands for Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired. This is often used as a technique to help dieters evaluate their eating behaviors.
If we are honest with ourselves, most of us would admit that we have used food to fill a variety of needs, with true hunger not being at the top. In order to cut back on eating for emotional reasons, we have to brave enough to spend a little energy looking at what is really going on. For example, coming home after a bad day at work may cause us to stop at the Dairy Queen instead of rationally planning our dinner. The odds are great that a Peanut Buster parfait is not really going to improve our mood or present a solution to the situation at work. Drowning our sorrows in fudge sauce only adds to our problems.
So, where do we start? The first step has to be learning how to tell when you are really hungry. For many of us, not having a routine to follow causes us to eat whenever we get a chance, whether we are hungry or not. Many people say that they skip breakfast because of a lack of time in the morning. Still more skip lunch to get more work done. Some people even say that they ‘forget’ to eat (this one I cannot relate to). The biggest problem with skipping meals is that we are very likely to overeat at the next meal, sometimes thinking we have saved extra calories to splurge a bit.
When you have not eaten for three to four hours, your body starts to give you signals that it needs food. Remember, the primary role of food is to serve as fuel for our bodies. These signals could be a growling stomach, a slight headache, or a general feeling of weakness. Think about babies. Every 3-4 hours, a baby will let you know that it is time to eat. It is not about being bored or lonely. Their empty little stomachs are making them uncomfortable and they cry to let you know it. The most important fact is to eat a reasonable portion of food (fuel) when you eat so that your body digests it over the next 3-4 hours.
Let’s start by adding two techniques (tools) to our toolboxes that will help us to identify and satisfy hunger.
Tool #1 – Rating scales. These can help us become aware of hunger signals.
5 4 3 2 1 0
Thanksgiving Very Comfortable A little Not
Stuffed Hungry Hungry Hungry
The trick here is to eat when you are at a 1-2 hunger level, and then stop when you reach a level 3-4. That’s right. You stop eating before you feel stuffed. This allows your body to process that meal. You are not eating a meal to keep you fueled for the entire day.
Tool #2 – Portion size. This is crucial because many of us may eat healthy foods, just in too generous portions. Most food packaging labels tell us serving sizes. There are also various tricks to keep us aware of the amounts we eat. Using the palm of your hand (to represent 4 oz of meat) or fingertip (1 ounce of cheese) allows us to estimate how much food we are eating.
To help with these ‘tools’, check out www.webmd.com (portion control and weight loss) for more information.
Dr. Jacqui Lewis-Lyons is a Clinical Psychologist and a Life Coach who works with women and children around issues related to health and stress problems. She has over 2o years experience in the mental health field. Dr. Jacqui enjoys helping clients make their lives more positive and satisfying as they reach their goals. She is located in Columbus, Ohio. Her practice is Personal Wholeness Solutions, the website is http://www.PWSLifeCoach.com .
Photoshop CS6 – Liquify tool. Allows you to push parts of the image for virtual weight loss, smoothing bumps or just cleaning up an image.
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