Packing Your Tool Box

Once you become aware that you are sometimes eating for no real reason...it's there, and so are you....you may feel that you need more help than the Hunger Scale alone.  The Hunger Scale increases our awareness of mindlesss eating, but do you have to rely on willpower alone?

There are behavior change tools you can use instead of the teeth-gritting reliance on will-power that often makes us feel less than happy.

The four "D"s are recommended by the American Cancer Society for smokers who are trying to quit in the ACS Fresh Start program, and they can work for you when you are trying to quit auto-pilot eating.

Delay.
Just telling yourself you are going to wait --- even for 10 minutes-- before you have a snack, can give you time to re-group by using another of the four "D"s.

Do something else.
Plan in advance an activity that you will do instead of eating. It might be going for a walk, knitting, playing piano ( breaking that hand-to-mouth cycle) or even brushing your teeth.

Deep breathe. 
A fantastic break from routine that relaxes you and really helps avoid eating from stress!

And finally, one of our magic bullets:
Drink water.
Believe it or not, we often eat wen we are actually really thirsty. Water is also cleansing of course, and filling!

So there you have it: four new tools to use as you revise your eating plan to Lighen Up.

On Monday, we'll start looking at the facts on fats -- or as I like to call it "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly!"  Stay tuned!