Sit! Stay!

Imagine how skinny you would be if you only ate when you body needed the nourishment. If your'e like me, you eat when your not hungry. If your'e like me, you frequently eat to feed something other than your body. On any give day, I eat because I am tired, lonely, bored, sad, happy, annoyed, aggravated, frustrated, excited and the list goes on. . . and on . . . and on. I think a lot of people eat to feed an emotion. The problem is that food doesn't actually feed the emotion. In fact, it usually makes things worse or simply replaces the emotion with another emotion like guilt or shame. Even worse, is when guilt and shame tote along their traveling buddies fat and flab. blech.
So what do I do? Just everyone else does. I eat too much and then resolve to do better tomorrow. Of course this is a paradox because it's always today. To those who have played this game, you know tomorrow never comes. You think it will but, it won't. And therein lies the problem. You THINK! Hah! This is not about thinking. This is about emotions. Emotions and intellect speak totally different languages. You can't reason with emotion.
So what can you do? The answer is surprisingly simple. Be your own dog trainer. Since the part of your brain that drives emotion is a lot like the brain of a puppy, dog training can be just the ticket.
In her book, "US: Transforming Ourselves and the Relationships that Matter Most" Lisa Oz talks about a brilliant technique she uses to put the brakes on emotional eating. She calls it, appropriately enough, Sit! Stay!
To begin she makes a rule that when she finds herself about to emotionally eat, she stops and thinks, "Stop what you are doing and sit down." This is brilliant because it is so easy and it gives the emotional brain a little jolt. Why would the emotional brain agree to such an obvious ploy to keep it from wolfing down brownies? Because Lisa has made a deal with the emotional brain that goes something like this, "If you stay here for one minute, just one, and you still want to stuff our face. I promise to be OK with it."
Then the magic happens. With this jolt, the emotional takes snooze. Frankly, it is all too aware that the intellectual brain is gonna start yammering on about . . . blah, blah, blah, Zzzzzz.
Now, with the emotional brain fully disengaged for a minute (remember just a minute), all you need to do is ask yourself some powerful questions.
Not difficult questions, just powerful. Of course, these questions only work when you answer them honestly.
Question 1, "What exactly do you want?" Maybe the answer is that stale brownie from last week. That's OK. As long as the answer is honest and specific. Saying you want to forage around the kitchen for something sweet and gooey is not specific enough.
Question 2, "How do you feel right now?" The answer "hungry" is out of bounds. "Hungry" is not an emotional state. Name your emotion. This is usually not a pleasant emotion. The answer is rarely, "Awesome, ready to take on the world, thank you!"
Question 3, and this is a kicker, "How will you feel right after you eat what you want?" Be honest. You've been here before and you know exactly how you're gonna feel.
Fourth and final question, "How are you going to feel 10 minutes after you eat?" If question 3 doesn't get you, question 4 should get you thinking.
And there it is. Thinking. This whole thing is about slipping your emotional drive into neutral long enough so that your intellectual brain can knock some sense into you.
Still "hungry" after all this? Fine, you made a deal after all but, you didn't say the terms of the mini-feast weren't negotiable. This is great time for the intellectual brain to make healthy food suggestions to the emotional brain. You may remember that the emotional brain is just waking up at the end of the agreed upon minute. It's still a little groggy and therefore easily influenced. So, bring up the fact that there is a great lookin' salad in the fridge and, you never know, the emotional brain may just go for it. No matter what the outcome, this is great habit to work on.