Sarah- I did have a horrible experience after seeing that movie! I ate up half our OP chocolate peanut butter cookies! EEk! Thanks for sharing, this is great stuff.

Thanks for the great post!

V. Separate mood from food
Sometimes eating is not about food. The obvious reason that people use food to change their mood is that the food they are abusing tastes food. Almost all mood eaters reach for snacks with a sweet taste or creamy texture or they want crunchy texture that is sweet or salty. These tastes and textures provide mood eaters with immediate satisfaction. Crunching on something may actually relieve pent-up emotions in the same way pummeling a pillow would. And when you keep such snacks around the house eating to spill your emotions becomes more user-friendly and immediate.

Mood eating is a learned behavior, and fortunately anything learned can be unlearned.

For the overwhelming majority, mood eating isn’t about food and it’s not about fine dining. It’s about snacking and grabbing whatever is around your immediate environment that looks interesting.

Mood eating is about immediacy-right now.

Most mood eaters share this common pattern:
It’s almost always
the same food: most often they prefer bite size foods that they can keep popping into their mouths almost independent of whether they are hungry or not.
Same place: most often in the kitchen,
Same time of day: late afternoon, evening.
Same moods: anxiety, anger, frustration, disappointment or boredom are the common triggers.
Same people: Mood eaters become stressed by the same people over and over again, parent, spouse, child, boss
Same situations: mood eaters snack because they become stressed by the same situations ove and over again or they’re bored and eating becomes “something interesting to do”
Same quantities of food: Mood eating is almost always about volume. Whether frustrated or bored, a mood doesn’t go away with 1 M&M. As the mood lingers, people want the eating to linger also so they choose snacks with a “long-eating” time like a bag of M&M’s
Same reason: Mood eaters want a treat or comfort from the food. That is why mood eating is almost always done with a food they buy and bring home for themselves; even if they may believe they bought it for others.
If you’re frequently a mood eater, there’s a very good chance that you do it because of the same moods caused by the same people and the same situations that caused you stress before and you do mood eating alone in the same place at the same time of day and with the same food nearly every time. Once you realize your mood eating is totally predictable, you can control it with strategy.
The best place to end mood eating is not in the psychiatrist’s couch. It’s the supermarket. If you know you have a tendency to eat when you are upset, don’t buy snacks you habitually abuse when you are stressed.

The interesting and wonderful thing about ending the pattern of mood eating is that when snacks aren’t immediately available, almost all mood eaters automatically busy themselves with a non-eating activity which disperses their energy. In the end, no matter what the burdens and stresses of your life may be, you can’t eat what’s not there.

When we hit a real crisis, a death or serious illness of a friend or loved one, we don’t eat. It’s actually the day-to-day annoyances, not the profound upsets that prompt mood eaters to reach for their snacks. Almost all mood eating is about simply getting rid of the stressful day or event. It’s about immediately substituting a pleasurable feeling for an unpleasant one. That’s why when the shock of a genuine crisis hits us, it never occurs to us to open up a bag of chips.

Strategies for stress on the horizon
When stress looms—youngest going off to kindergarten, the older brother that spoils every family occasion. One day of stress doesn’t have to become a legacy of fat.

1. Write out what you will eat for that day in advance. Direct your psyche to thinking in terms of these foods only and avoid all others.
2. Plan which snacks you are going to eat and keep all others out of sight.
3. Plan to avoid trouble. Don’t drive down the road that takes you right past your favorite bakery on a day you know you will be stressed out. Take all the change out of your pockets if you know you’ll be passing by vending machines

If you can’t stop it, switch it. Most stress eaters are very open to switching foods that have similar characteristics to the food they abuse, but which aren’t’ as fattening. They will even feel better immediately if they switch to a food that is healthy for them. Go for a crunchy whole grain waffle for cookies, drop the junk food snacks and eat as many raw green beans as you want.

If you stop and reflect, most of the annoyances that prompt you to mood eat are not as important as the harm you do to your body and psyche by perpetuating a cycle of mood eating. You perpetuate a sense of being unable to cope without dependence on food.

Whenever you use strategy, it puts you in control. Strategy empowers you to deal with the agenda of your life. You are no longer reacting as a victim but as a leader in your own life.

Are you a boredom eater?
Once of the surprising things I’ve discovered about boredom eaters is that, unlike mood eaters, the act of snacking is more important to them than what they snack on. While most mood eaters aren’t really happy unless they can munch on their favorite snacks, boredom eaters will eat anything so long as it fills up time and they can easily pick at if from the kitchen counter, refrigerator or cabinets.
Planning is the cure for boredom eating. Doing just about any activity you can think of that’s legal is a better use of your time then boredom eating.
But even the most organized people can end up with unstructured time on their hands. If you are a boredom eater, keep a plate of raw vegetables or single serving bags of popcorn on hand. Especially avoid bringing home the fascinating finger food you see in the market.

VI. Taking control of your favorite foods

Take control of your favorite foods, so they don’t take control of you.

Box in your favorite foods-the strategy will allow you to master your favorite foods, once and for all, may be the most powerful tool you can take from this book.

Whether you include a food in your diet regularly or only on special occasions will depend on the food and your personal history with it.

Limit frequency: only at a specific time, designated days, only in restaurants or when served you at a party.
Limit Availability: Keep tempting foods out of your line of vision at home, avoid eye contact with them in restaurants and other social events. One of the major triggers for wanting something is seeing it and smelling it.
Limit quantity: Buy your favorite foods in single serving sizes, and don’t store it in large quantities.

Boxing in is especially important around the holidays. Weight gain over the holiday season doesn’t come from one feast. The danger is in the foods and the trays of baked goods left out in the office and home in the days before and after the holidays as well as the leftovers. The secret to getting through these events in your life is to box in special meals on the holiday itself or the evening before rather than to randomly eat whatever you see, whenever you see it throughout the season.

Your lifelong success at weight control depends on how well you handle the foods that tempt you the most.

Anything you love that you can truly control can be part of your life forever.

Taking control of a food that doesn’t work for you.
You think about a food more and more often even though you may be eating it regularly.
Your cravings return or increase
You continually renegotiate the terms of the agreement you made with yourself so you can eat the food more often.
When you stop or limit the food you lose eight
You break promises to yourself about how much or how often you’ll consume it.

If you recognize these symptoms, don’t kid yourself. Talking about just a little or just this once is the road back to fat. In such a situation it’s time to admit that a food doesn’t work for you. It’s time to BOX it out of your life.

Boxing out a food is not about deprivation, but liberation.

In choosing to avoid a certain food, you are freeing yourself from constant weight problems, cravings and the unending battle with temptations that wear down your will power.
Getting rid of a food that’s sabotaged you, again and again.
1. Shift your thinking. By making a conscious choice to avoid one food or type of food, you know that you can eat it any time you want, but if you do, you will be depriving yourself of a lifetime of being thin and in control.

2. Set a date that you are going to stop eating it and reward yourself for the decision. Tell yourself you can eat again when you turn 75 or buy yourself a new outfit in a size smaller.

3. Tell yourself: It’s not an option. The human psyche is prone to negotiate boundaries where pleasure is involved, but when it hears an unequivocal “NO!” it becomes surprisingly obedient and respects the line.

4. Remember to think historically. Taste buds don’t care if they get a little bite or many bites, once they’ve reactivated, they’re back in control. After that, eating your trigger foods is like throwing gas on a fire.

5. Avoid eye contact, what you can’t see you won’t crave so much

6. Don’t allow thinking that sabotages you. Don’t tolerate an inner voice that speaks to you about your problem food. Avoid reading about it in recipes, magazines and restaurant reviews.

7. Give up the resentments and thinking, “It’s not fair.” Wayne Dyer counsels that when you are filled with resentments you turn over control of your emotional life. But when you depersonalize an issue, you have no need to feel resentment and you immunize yourself against negativity and doubt. Remember the problem may be in the food and not in you , so it doesn’t work for you unless you want to wear it.

8. Cut of food curiosity. If you’ve given up desserts, don’t visit the dessert table for “just a look” . If pasta is your problem, don’t study the spaghetti and ravioli section in a restaurant menu. You have no reason to give your problem food any role in your life.

9. Make a public announcement about your food choices. If you tell everyone at a party or at your table that you don’t eat a certain food, you commit yourself to not eating it. The power of embarrassment is greater than will power.

10. Try not to buy it for your house or buy a substitute. If you must buy it for family members, select a small supply or substitute with a variety that’s less a problem for you.

11. Reinforce your commitment with the single most powerful statement that supports your resolve: If I don’t begin; I don’t have a problem.

12. Reward yourself, replace the food treat psychology of your childhood with the adult reward system of a new outfit, vacation or something special you want. You deserve rewards and being trim is one of them.

I enjoy a good read. I just requested it from my library. Thanks!

oooh Sarah, I need time to digest all this cuz I feel I few whacks on the head...
thunderstruck by a few of these things...need to process .... but wanted to once again Thank you for taking your time to post this ... still cant express how grateful I am for these pearls... thanx

Sarah thanks so much for sharing this with all of us.

I have got to share this with you guys, since I've started applying these stategies to my eating, the scale has started to move downward again after an entire year long plataeu.

I've passed up numerous treats from co-workers that I previous would have eaten because I'd been so good the previous week, working on changing my attitude about the childish food rewards.

And speaking of childish food rewards, Have you seen the Healthy Choice ice cream commercial? The little girl is very sad, and tells her mother that she was picked last for the team so her Mom pulls out the ice cream and gives her a scoop to make her feel better and the little girl keeps adding more to her story to make it more pitiful-it started to rain, she had to stand in a puddle and with each addition line, Mom gives her another scoop of ice cream. After 3 scoops the little girls starts to smile.

When I think about needing a reward for something, I think of that commercial and how silly it is to think that some food will make it all better in the long run.

Has anyone else bought or read the book yet? What do you think? Are you getting tired of me talking about this and about ready to tar and feather me for bringing it back up so often ?

Sarah

That commercial bugs me. And it's certainly not what I want to teach my son!

I haven't read the book but I certainly appreciate what you have posted here.

I think that is teaching our children, exactly what we are trying to unteach ourselves. Food is not a reward....We need to teach our childrent to be healthy!!

Sarah I to dislike the commercial. I also think it is wonderful that you are sharing all of this from the book with us. I have found it very interesting and when/if my life ever slows down again so I can read I am going to get it and read it myself.

Thanks Sarah you Rock! I have saved a lot of this in my inbox, so that I have access to the info, which I have e-mailed on to some friends and family members. Thanks again, you don't know how many people you have affected by posting this! Thanks

Chpater VII. Slips should teach you, not defeat you.
"Error control is the essence of weight control. Don’t say “I blew it” if make an eating mistake. Don’t under eat in an attempt to compensate for cheating the previous day. Discover your predictable pattern in eating mistakes. Use binge-busters to end cravings. Don’t go hungry.
Find something to do such as read, knit, to help get your mind off your cravings. Think substitution not deprivation. Put a negative association with the foods that tempt you the most.

Know your pattern and you can predict your behavior. Errors almost always follow a typical pattern. Unlock you REP (Repeating eating pattern)
What type of food?
What type of mood?
What environment?
What people were with you?
What time was it?
No fail strategies to prevent your eating mistakes:
1. Break availability
2. Delay
3. Use binge-busters: sugar blocker gum, halls sugar free mentho-lyptus drops, Listerine breath strips.
4. Don’t go hungry
5. Avoid packaging temptation-pretty packaging temp you into eating.
6. Use blocking behaviors-carry a clutch purse at a party so you can’t carry a plate full of food.
7. Diversion-chose another activity you find absorbing.
8. Talk to yourself in a new way
9. Think substitution, not deprivation.
10. Mental rehearsal-Identify what foods you will find most tempting and rehearse being around it. “I will smell pizza at the door, or smell cookies baking” Then tell yourself, “I doesn’t work for me. I don’t want to wear it.” Then put a negative association with the food-a picture of yourself at your highest weight or imagine the food going to your thighs or butt. "



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Just curious, did anyone else read this book? Several of you said you were going to. What did you think?

Sarah

Sarah, just a bit of a concern. When you post huge pieces from a published work, you could be violating copywright. We sure don't want 3FC sued. It's OK to post a link or small pieces but they should be in quotes and attribute to the work.
It's all good stuff to share but we have to be careful in this day and age!

When the munchies start, paint your nails... You can't eat when your nails are wet... And, if you hate having colored nails, just use clear.... It also works with your toes - If you toenails are wet - You can't walk to the fridge

Thanks for recommending this book, Sarah. I just ordered a copy for myself and one for a weight loss buddy. I'm looking forward to reading it. While quoting extensively may pose a problem, I hope the publishers will realize how many more books they have sold because of you spreading the word! Thanks!