Lesson #4

Dieting and Deprivation

Stress is a Normal Component of Your Life

Using food to cope with stress is a behavioral problem which needs modification, not a personality flaw. You simply have not learned or practiced other skills for coping with stress. Food has been your only tool for managing. If you have become accustomed to using food as the primary coping mechanism in your life, use the following Coping Exercise to explore your habits.

The HM&N System Coping Exercise

Do you eat to level out emotions?
Yes
No
Do you eat to take the edge off?
Yes
No
Do you crave the wonderful numbness associated with a full stomach?
Yes
No
Does eating make you sleepy, allowing a retreat from the pressures of life?
Yes
No
Does eating relieve all kinds of stress, be it personal, social or work related?
Yes
No

Eating compulsively is often a measure of your anxiety. Food relieves the anxiety. It calms you, removes the stress and helps you cope. Learn to recognize the early signs of stress and remove yourself from the vicinity of food.

Strategies to Shift Your Focus Away From Food

Plan your eating. Be assertive. Do not be embarrassed or intimidated. Stay in control.

Do not use food as a significant other. When food is in control, you’re a passive eater.

Many people eat before they think. Eating becomes automatic when emotion triggers pseudo-
hunger.

Use the Craving Record to distinguish between real and emotional hunger.

HM&N Food Craving Record

Date
Time
Comments
Food craved?



Last meal or food eaten?



What was your mood?



Was the hunger real or emotional?



What was your response?



How will you cope next time?




Reduce Foods Influence in Your Life

Just as you are the one who started your relationship with food, you and only you can change it.
Begin today to let food revert to its natural role as fuel for your body. It is not worthy of being anything more!

Gene C.