My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.

Abraham Lincoln

Stop Stress Eating

You can end emotional overeating once and for all. But first you'll have to figure out what's eating you.

Stress sucks. It keeps us up at night, holds our moods hostage and wrecks our sex life. But mostly? It makes us want chocolate. We're only human, and we're hardwired to want junk. When you're stressed, you release the hormone cortisol, which pushes you to crave fatty, sugary foods.
Yet there's no real relief in Reese's Pieces. The oral sensation of eating delicious food cuts off all other brain circuits, so pleasure overwhelms every other sensation. But that's ephemeral. The moment you stop eating, you feel all the old emotions again.
Not only are chronically stressed women the most likely to eat high-fat treats, but they also have the highest rates of disordered eating habits such as skipping meals and banning foods, researchers at the University of California at San Francisco found last year. Women start off using food to cope with work, money, family. The sad irony is that, especially when women overeat, food itself becomes a stressor and a vicious cycle can ensue.
Dieting only worsens the cycle: Studies show restricting food increases levels of cortisol (in part because counting calories is stressful) and makes you gain rather than lose weight.

Should I eat the cookie? The 10-second cure for stress eating

Fending off a snack attack can be as simple as asking, Am I hungry? When a craving doesn't come from hunger, food will never satisfy it. Treat your body like your car: Check your fuel gauge before you fill up. Imagine 10 is starving and 1 is full, and aim to eat at a 6, when your stomach feels fairly empty but not clanging with hunger pangs. To prevent bingeing, eat before you feel signals such as irritability, light-headedness or headaches.
Retrain your brain. If 10 seconds of contemplation reveals that you're not truly hungry, there are ways to lower your cortisol without calories. Do anything that lets you take a breath: Chat with a friend, watch a soap opera, or hang from the monkey bars. Change your routine and your brain will begin to crave your brand of fun instead of gooey treats.

Some people want it to happen, some wish it to happen, others make it happen.

Michael Jordan