Feeding Your Emotions

Do you eat when you're not hungry? Do you have
a problem controlling the amount of food you
eat? Do you use food as a way to procrastinate?

Do you use food to ease your stress? Calm your
anger? Relieve your boredom? Celebrate your
successes?

If you answer "yes" to more than one of these
questions, you most likely eat and select certain
foods for the emotional responses they give you.
One way to learn how to take control of your
emotional eating is to use the method that most
12-step programs use, the HALT (Hungry, Angry,
Lonely and Tired) method.

Being too hungry, angry, lonely or tired are
conditions that can leave you more vulnerable
to using food as a crutch. The HALT acronym can
help you remember that when you feel certain
emotions that trigger you to eat, stop and
substitute the eating with something that will
actually allow you to experience your emotion.

If you're lonely, call someone. If you want to
celebrate a success, reward yourself with a
non-food gift. Whatever emotion drives you to eat,
remember there is a better way to feed it than
with food.