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Become a mindful eater

Emotional eating is usually unconscious eating, meaning you don't really think about what you're eating or why. You can score a major blow to your emotional-eating habit by being mindful of the foods you choose throughout the day. This awareness allows you to make choices instead of just going on auto-pilot and eating whatever's around.

Following are some suggestions for becoming more mindful of what you eat each day:

Keep a food journal. A food journal makes you more conscious of your choices in the moment. Many people find that they do less unconscious eating when they're jotting down what they eat on a regular basis. For tips on starting a food journal, flip to Chapter 6.

Pay close attention to your hunger and fullness cues. Believe it or not, your body has its own built-in weight-management system, which can be described as hunger and satiety (feeling full). Your body literally tells you when to eat and when to stop. So that you don't miss the signals, your body even takes matters a step further by making you feel starved if you wait too long to eat and stuffed when you eat too much. Paying attention to these cues can help you manage your weight more effectively.

Ignoring your body's hunger and fullness cues is all too easy to do when you're eating for emotions, because it often takes more food to feel emotionally satisfied than physically full. Play the full game with yourself and pay close attention to when you feel comfortably full. When you do, it's time to try your chosen healthy-yet-self-gratifying behavior (as explained in the preceding section).

Slow down and be conscious of taste and texture. With all the rush, rush, rush in today's society, people tend to scarf down their food quickly, which can make emotional eating that much worse. Why, you ask? Because the quicker you eat, the more food you need to feel emotionally satisfied. Remember: Eating isn't a race! Slow down and really pay attention to the food you're eating. Enjoy its taste and texture in a leisurely manner. When you do, you find that you discover emotional satisfaction faster and with less food. Try this approach out with a few M&M's or an ounce of chocolate. Spend as long as you can letting the candy melt in your mouth instead of just chewing it, swallowing it, and grabbing some more. I bet you find that you "need" much less candy than you thought you did!

Taking care of your emotions in a healthy way

When you're used to relying on food to cope with your emotions — be they happy or sad — you may have a tough time coming up with other ways of dealing with your feelings. The habitual act of eating when you're stressed, bored, or excited happens so quickly that you may not have time to think about a different behavior to engage in.

So you can have some ideas ready to go, fill in the following chart with ways (other than eating) that you can take care of the listed emotions.

Emotion

Action You Plan to Take

Anger

Boredom

Comfort

Fear

Guilt

Loneliness

Love

Stress

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Next, grab a sheet of paper and list any activities that you can do when you get the urge to overeat. Be sure to include self-gratifying behaviors that you know make you feel better, such as calling a friend or relaxing in a bubble bath.

Turn off the TV to lose weight

Studies have found a direct correlation between increased weight and increased TV viewing time. Why? Well, for many people, watching TV is a trigger to eat — and eat, and eat, and eat. Your metabolism actually slows down when you watch TV (in fact, it's almost slower than when you're sleeping!), so eating more and burning less spells serious trouble for weight loss. If you really want to watch TV to unwind, try moving to a different room — one that's farther away from the food — and couple TV viewing with a hands-on activity, such as sewing or folding laundry.

Breaking Through Weight-Loss Plateaus

When your body can operate efficiently at a particular calorie level, you may find yourself