Never, ever eat to comfort or reward myself for anything.

I used to be an emotional eater.

Now I never allow myself to eat for emotional reasons. I got my salary
increased by $10k recently. Before dieting, that would be a reason to
binge on some food. Now, even though I wanted to do the same thing, I
said no way, no emotional eating.

Same when I get upset, I comfort myself with something else but never
with food.

It is a lot easier to just refuse to ever do it again, than it is to
find some compromises etc. Food is fuel, not entertainment.

Some good tips in the abc article though, although it does not mention
the simplest solution to emotional eating -- to not eat emotionally.

i

Mantra?

I'm not an emotional eater, more likely to not eat when emotional,
but a couple of my weight control mantras are:

"I could eat that if I REALLY wanted it, but I'm not eating it TODAY."

or

"Might as well put that [insert junkfood] right on my a.s, 'cuz that's
where it's going to go."

168/125/125  LC since 2/18/97 maintaining since 3/17/99