Do you eat to soothe yourself? Out of boredom? To procrastinate? To numb your feelings? To socialize and entertain with? To reward or punish yourself?

What are you honestly hungry for?

Do you automatically buy popcorn and soda at the movie theater?

How will you respond next time you catch yourself eating for the wrong reasons?

Put a note on your refrigerator and pantry door. As you stand there, pause and ask yourself where the hunger is coming from before you eat.

What foods are you choosing to place on your plate?

Instead of succumbing to false signals, what else could you elect to do? Take a walk? Chat with an understanding friend or food buddy? Make a cup of tea and soak in a hot tub? Distract yourself. Then, write about your findings.

The seven hungers are:

Wanting to eat because of – 1. Your eyes – visual attractiveness. It looks delicious so you want some but are not necessarily belly hungry. 2. Your ears – auditory signals. You hear the sound of a bag of chips opening, a bag of popcorn popping and you want it because you hear it. 3. Your nose – olfactory response. You smell mom’s Italian tomato sauce simmering on the stove when you walk in the door and even though you ate right before, you want it (and probably will dip a torn piece of Italian bread into it). 4. Your mouth –  oral satisfaction. You want to feel sensations, the texture of crunchy or smooth, the temperature of hot or cold, the taste of sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami without being hungry at all. 5. Your cells – brain indicators. You think you’re hungry but you are actually thirsty. Check in with your tummy. 6. Your mind – having mental logical systems such as rules like counting, restricting, eliminating and judging food as good vs. bad. 7. Your heart – emotional soothing or substituting for emptiness, sadness, loneliness, boredom and even celebrations.

I satisfy my stomach hunger with delicious, healthy food.

I gratify my emotional hungers with loving, healthy relationships with myself and others.

From my upcoming book

– Emotional Eating

“Food is not your remedy for problems. Food is not going to change your life. If you are lonely, food is not going to be your company. If you are sad, food is not going to give you solace.” – Jean Nidetch

I DO love eating food.  But I must confess, I often indulge to avoid feelings or to fill a gaping hole of loneliness. And sometimes, I have snacked on junk, overeaten or enjoyed more dessert than necessary to greedily satisfy my taste buds. I swear I think better with a jar of crunchy peanut butter, a teaspoon and blueberry jelly by my side.

Jan Chozen Bays, MD., a pediatrician and Zen master, describes food emotional triggers in her life changing book, Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food. Dr. Bays explains how being consciously aware of our food and its origins, opens us to prayerful, grateful dining. Similarly, pausing to say grace reminds us of how our meal came to our table. In her work, over years of research, she also determined that slowing down and paying attention while eating, had a positive impact, notably with disorders such as overeating, anorexia, and bulimia. She cites seven kinds of hungers we try to quench with food that have nothing to do with an empty stomach. Instead, we soothe our emotions, react from our five senses and unconsciously graze out of boredom.