Overeating caused by stress

• Make sure you're eating every two hours - It doesn't have to be a big meal, but you should be eating every few hours to stabilize your blood sugar and not get too hungry. Often, over eating is coupled with times of starvation. When you're under stress, you forget to take the time to eat, causing you to feel famished once you do have time. This leads to eating too much and then the cycle begins again.
  
  
• Distract yourself when you want to eat - Most hunger pangs last only twenty minutes, so if you can wait it out, you can keep from over eating when you don't want to do so. Try calling a friend or walking the dog whenever you begin to feel you want to eat. It will become easier the more you do this.
  
  
• Write down everything you're going to eat BEFORE you eat it - By taking time to write down everything you plan to eat during a binge, you might stop to reconsider your decision. This isn't a practice in making yourself feel guilty, but rather an attempt to help you become more self-aware in order to control your impulse to eat when you're not hungry.
  
  
• Allow yourself one meal to eat whatever you want each week - When you do this, you create the sense that you're still controlling your eating, but also getting to have that splurge meal. But limit it to only one meal a week in order to keep from taking in too many calories or getting back into a habit of eating too much.
  
  
• Don't be afraid of your hunger - With all the food available these days, it's surprising that anyone is ever truly hungry anymore. You may want to try to wait one day until you're actually hungry to see just what hunger feels like. The growling stomach and the hunger pangs are what should signal you to eat - not today's stress.

We all have days in which we feel like we need some sort of reward for doing a good job under stress - but food is not the best choice. Instead, why not take yourself out for a small reward - a CD or a book, for example. This is far more satisfying.

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