| Get With the Program! Basics |
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| Plant sources of oil are always healthy. Wrong! Palm and coconut oil are saturated fats. When possible, they should be replaced with canola oil or, even better, olive oil. |
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• Organize your eating, and eat consciously. When you don’t have a plan, it’s easier to give in to an emotional pull and eat haphazardly. Limiting yourself to three meals and two snacks a day, as well as having an eating cut-off time at least two hours before bed, will give your day some structure. That structure will make it easier for you to take the time to enjoy each meal (and snack) as a conscious act. By a conscious act, I mean that you should make each meal, and snack, an enjoyable event—eating slowly and savoring each bite instead of wolfing it down compulsively with little pleasure. You may want to enjoy your food with music and candles, or  just the company of someone you like. Reading, watching TV, or working while you eat doesn’t allow you to register the experience and will leave you hungry and yearning for more food later on.
• Learn the difference between physical hunger and emotional eating. If you feed yourself out of emotional need, it’s possible that you may have lost the ability to know how physical hunger feels. Choose a day and delay your normally scheduled mealtime so that you can feel what it’s like to be hungry, (If you have a medical condition like diabetes, you must consult a physician before trying this.) Familiarizing yourself with this sensation will help you be a better judge of why you’re eating whenever you eat. If you don’t feel physical hunger, don’t take the first bite.
• In your Journal, identify the reasons and occasions that often lead you to emotional eating. If you’re not hungry, why are you eating? This is an important question to ask yourself, since it will help you identify what triggers your emotional eating episodes. I highly recommend that you keep a journal in which you can write down what you’re feeling when an emotional-eating moment comes up. A journal is a great tool for identifying patterns and behaviors you may not even be aware of—and of course you need to know what they are before you can change them! (Click here for more on journaling.)
• Use the moment of temptation to learn what needs to change in your life. Sometimes people eat because they don’t want to think, but thinking is exactly what I want you to do. Every time you’re tempted to eat when you are not physically hungry, you have a golden opportunity to do some self-exploration. Again, go to your journal. Think about why you are eating and write it down. This is your chance to change—seize it!
• If you’re depressed, consider seeking professional counseling. There are many issues you may be able to deal with on your own and others you can manage with the help of family and friends. But if you are continually and deeply depressed—or even if you just feel overwhelmed by life and need an impartial person to talk to—it’s a good idea to seek the help of a professional therapist. This can be a very hard step to take, but sometimes an outsider’s insight is just what you need.
• Look for healthy outlets for your emotions. There are many enriching alternatives to eating, and it may be helpful to keep a list of them handy. What do you like to do? Read a book or phone a friend? Taking classes, taking up a craft, web surfing—these can all help. Perhaps the best substitute is exercise, even if it’s only a walk around the block. Exercising won’t just distract you, it will improve your mood and help counter the effects of stress.
For more details check out my books Get With the Program! and The Get With the Program! Guide to Good Eating.
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