Get to know your emotions. Meditation is a key part of Dr. Dean Ornish’s weight-control, heart-disease-reversal program. “I consider it food for the soul,” he says. Meditation is relaxing, and it increases self-awareness, so you’re less likely to succumb to emotional eating when you’re practicing meditation.
Visualization
See a slimmer you. A deeply relaxing visualization comes from Gerald N. Epstein, M.D., director of the Academy of Integrative Medicine and Mental Imagery in New York City. Close your eyes and breathe deeply. Picture yourself standing before a mirror, seeing a noticeably thinner you. Imagine entering the mirror and merging with that image, becoming that slimmer you. Feel your clothes hang more loosely on you. Now separate yourself from the image and step out of the mirror, but keep your eyes on it. Open your eyes.
Each time you sit down to eat, take a minute or two to practice this exercise, Dr. Epstein advises. It can help you eat more sensibly and reinforce your commitment to losing weight.
Aromatherapy
Smell success. At the Diet and Fitness Center at Duke University, psychologist Susan S. Schiffman, Ph.D., combats emotional, anxiety-driven eating with a relaxation program based on aromatherapy. She teaches relaxation techniques to participants, and at the same time, she asks them to inhale whiffs of apricot oil, so they associate the aroma with feeling calm.
During the program, people learn to carry along a vial of the apricot oil wherever they go. Whenever they feel anxious, they can inhale the fragrance, which triggers a relaxation response. In effect, they are substituting apricot’s relaxing effect for their former stress-relieving activity, eating. Dr. Schiffman says that her aromatherapy technique has helped control compulsive eating in more than half of those who have adopted the technique.
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