Stop-Look-Listen: Write on a Sticky Post in Strategic Places!

I've found for myself that the emotion, situation, incident, WHATEVER that occurs as a trigger to eat happens and in less than a nanosecond, I want to eat. It is less than the time it takes to blink and as automatic.

One of the things I've learned it to create a pause. Make myself, force myself to pause. If I give myself a moment of pause to process and talk myself through whatever is going on, I can arrest that trigger to emotionally eat.

So, I've developed the Stop-Look-Listen method for my clients. I force myself to Stop (create the pause), Look (what's going on to cause this urge to emotionally eat) and Listen (what do you need to do to take care of yourself, your emotions or the situation).

Write it on a sticky note and post it on your refrigerator or your computer. Any time you're tempted to reach for a snack instead of handling your real issue, first do what it says on your note. Then proclaim victory over your challenge and skip the snack.

It's a trap! It isn't hunger, it is hoping for a bit of relief from something in your day. Food is quicker and easier than dealing with the real issue.

Thinking is a lot of work! Sometimes the emotions are so intense we want to jump out of our skin, right? If we sit with our emotions or the situations, they will pass. However, the effects of emotional eating don't pass but translate into extra weight. Sometimes, we just don't want to bother with figuring out our emotions. But in many situations, the trade-off of NOT thinking is overeating.

The next time you have that immediate feeling of "I have to eat" changes are it isn't true hunger. Hunger doesn't come on that way but emotional hunger does. Try my Stop-Look-Listen and see if it works for you.

Cathy