A great way to avoid binge eating is to HALT: Acknowledge hunger, anger, loneliness or feeling tired. In this video, psychologist Ramani Durvasula, PhD, explains this rule, and how these particular emotions tend to be triggers for binge eating.
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A great rule of thumb to avoid binge eating and a great place to start is simply to halt. And by halt, we mean listen to your hunger, and pay attention to other emotions like anger, loneliness and being tired. Halt. When you use halt, you can stop for a moment and ask yourself if you are actually hungry, and if you are then eat a healthy snack, but then if you're angry, lonely or tired, food is not going to take those emotions away and then it's important to find better ways to actually deal with those emotions like reaching out and getting help or getting support, by using this as rule is a great way to stop, pay attention and then do the right thing in the face of those emotions rather than using binge eating as a way to numb all your feelings.
Ramani Durvasula, PhD, is professor of psychology at California State University, Los Angeles and a licensed clinical psychologist and author of You Are WHY You Eat: Change Your Food Attitude, Change Your Life.
