This was one of those books that I got pitched on Amazon.com when I was buying KD's second book...you know the "people who bought this book also bought..." thing? The author is a DC nutritionist and the price was reasonable, so I figured I'd give it a spin.

I'm not done yet but, so far, it hasn't been tremendously helpful--mostly telling me what I already know. However, at 3 a.m. this morning when I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep, I came to the chapter on emotional eating and felt it was the most valuable information I'd seen in the whole book. While I don't consider emotional eating one of my major issues (though certainly it is an issue for me occasionally), I know quite a lot of you struggle with it so I thought I would share some of her advice in this chapter that I thought was particularly good. This book will be much more helpful to someone who is just starting their healthy eating journey than those of us who are already well into the habit of eating this way.

Excerpts from "Diet Simple - 154 Mental Tricks, Substitutions, Habits & Inspirations" by Katherine Tallmadge, M.A., R.D. (Copyright 2002)

"Losing weight often has less to do with specific food choices than with the underlying emotions. People have a hard time understanding that their feelings, and the unconscious self-talk that we all listen to every day, play a critical role in eating decisions. I've found that most people who have difficulty controlling their weight have never learned how to listen to their feelings or to their bodies."

"My experience has taught me that most people with an 'unhealthy' relationship to food, whether that involves out-of-control cravings or anything else, need first of all to understand the importance of careful meal planning and eating meals at regular times. Once their bodies fall into a natural rhythm, it's much easier for them to FEEL the difference--and to stick with the healthy changes."

"What's the difference between hunger and cravings? Hunger means your body is running low on energy. Think of it as the warning light that tells you when to eat. Cravings, on the other hand, live in your emotions. When you're frustrated, tense, tired, depressed, in love, out of love, or whatever, cravings push you toward food in an attempt to quiet the turbulence within. People who are successful at losing weight have learned to distinguish true hunger from cravings. In other words, they listen to their stomachs, not their emotions."

"When you give in to cravings, you are abusing your body, plain and simple. You are forcing your body to store excess calories as fat. You are also abusing a substance--food--by using it for something other than hunger."

She ends this opening discussion of the chapter with a scale for rating your body's hunger signals before you begin eating and when you finish. She says if you regularly eat when your stomach registers "Hungry: time to eat" and stop eating when it registers "Comfortable: You are no longer hungry, comfortable without feeling full" you can save 300 calories a day.

P.S. The hunger scale was adapted from another book which I have not read called "Eating Awareness Training" by Molly Groger (Summit Books, 1983).

Sheri,
Thanks for posting this. I think that keeping healthy food and having a good grip on portion control is really, really important for emotional eaters. It really helps to have lots of practice eating well when the emotional times/days hit.

Also keeping "bad" food out of the house is really important for me. One thing that has helped a lot is for me to remember that healthy food will actually help me deal with the feelings and emotions. If I feed my brain, I have more energy for sorting out what is really bothering.

Chocolate cake or ice cream just makes things worse. It adds on additional bad feelings. Now I've got whatever the orginal feelings plus the guilt from chocolate cake.

I still eat chocolate cake, but not while I'm crying and not for a meal anymore. Did have an ice cream meal a while back but it was only one in about 9 (or more months) - and that is a HUGE, HUGE improvement! (Just typing this out makes me pleased with my progress!)

Sandy,
Thanks again for reminding me that stuffing food is a carry over from emotional eating. Now I stuff healthy food and control the portions - but the eating fast part is still a habit. Thanks for reminding me yesterday and today!

Thanks!
Denise

Sherie,
You post is timely for me. I have been making a HUGE effort to eat mindfully, to slow down, and never to stuff food into my mouth. I am stunned at the pull to hurry up, shove it in and eat more than I need to eat. I have a pretty god grip on portion size (thanks to a nutritionist) but now am enjoying the food so much more and generally talking and laughing more throughout the meal. I see that an emotional habit I have is to stuff away whatever feeling (I am sometimes not even aware) with quick, efficient eating. I have an opportunity to change. This is taking work, however. But like you say, however hard I have to work, I am worth it.