Fit Talk

Many people eat not because their tummies tell them to, but because their minds are consumed by the stresses of the day; this is called emotional eating. Have you ever found yourself watching your favorite reruns with a bag of popcorn right after a stressful day at work or school? You’ve stuffed so many handfuls of popcorn (or M&M’s for you chocolate lovers) into your mouth that you topped off the bag before the theme song is over. Many people wonder how to stop this not to helpful habit. Well, I don’t have a complete answer and I’ll admit I don’t know everything, but I’ve read about HALT and think the concept is good (I just have to practice what I preach:)

Okay here it is

The next time you open the pantry to satisfy your emotions think HALT~

Hungry

Angry

Lonely

Tired

Ask yourself, am I really truly hungry? Or just angry because …….. (fill in the blank) Or am I lonely and need some company? (I think bored should be added to this list, I like food and so when I’m bored I want to do something I like: eat. Besides there’s nothing else to do. (so I think:) And lastly are you tired. You feel zapped of energy because that research paper was due early this morning and you stayed up way past bedtime. You reason that you’ll need more energy from food because you stayed awake all night… so you eat because you’re tired.

Hope this helps~