The next time you go to put food in your mouth, ask yourself a question. Are you REALLY hungry? Does your body really need that food ? That snack?? That second portion at dinner???

If you find yourself answering that question with an honest NO, then determine WHY it is you are going to eat when you're body is not really calling for it:

• I'M BORED. Sometimes we are just bored and don't have anything better to do. When this happens, and you start to walk into the kitchen, take a detour to another part of the house. Do a small chore as "punishment" to yourself for almost eating for no reason. Or go for a small walk. That small bit of activity walking or doing a chore will have quite the opposite effect of having gone into the kitchen.

• IT TASTES GOOD. Yea. Sometimes it does. But sometimes we are eating anything we can find in the kitchen, even if it really isn't that great tasting. (like fat or sweets). When I'm dieting, I like to eat food that I really enjoy. Eat less of it, and savor it. And even if it does taste good, it is no reason to keep eating after your belly is full, especially if you are trying to lose weight. We have to learn when to "say when".

• I AM ALONE, TIME TO SNEAK SOMETHING. Isn't it funny how as soon as we are alone in the house, we sneak into the kitchen for a full blown raid. We must think that if nobody sees us eating, we won't gain any weight. One favorite times is when everyone else is off to bed. Then we load up our stomach with food and sleep with a full stomach. Self destruction.

• IT'S BECAUSE OF SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED TO ME IN THE PAST. It may be true, but if you can beat the weight problem, you beat the past, and maybe it will help you to forget.

• MY MOTHER ALWAYS MADE ME EAT. My mama always told me "MANGIA!!". And I did. I was a chubber all my life. We still mangia whenever I see her.

• I AM STRESSED OUT, IT'S NERVES. Now here is a pretty valid one, for me anyway.. Many times during work or after work, I would be feeding my stress instead of my hunger. And it does seem to help. I don't know why but it does. Fix the stress problem and you will be way ahead of the game. Once I was able to beat the stress, I was halfway there.

• IT IS COMFORTING. This one goes along with being stressed out. It may go with something else as well. Fix the problem causing you to want comfort, or find something else to comfort you, if you can.

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  More reasons .........

• TV!!! I know what makes me want to eat... TV! I rarely watched TV when I was thin about a year ago. Then I started to watch TV almost every evening. I put on 45 pounds. Evening TV programs play too many delicious food commercials that make it very tempting to run to the fridge and snack. Watching food on a screen for some reason gives you instant desire to eat. And what makes it even worse it that many people are usually just lying on the couch as they watch TV and snack. My best diet advice: Stop watching evening TV (or watch a rented movie with no commercials). Or even better, use a workout video instead of any TV PS: I have limited my TV watching in the last two months, and I have lost an amazing 19 pounds. Cindy B (@MONSANTO.COM) EXCELLENT Advice!!

• BECAUSE IT'S THERE!! From: Cat (@starfire.org) OK, give it away or get rid of it, or if not in your house, walk away from it.

• REVENGE: I eat when I am not hungry because my ex boyfriend constantly reminded what I shouldn't have been eating. I am not even overweight. I have maintained my weight since high school which is 9 years ago. But I would always eat the wrong foods at the wrong time because it would piss him off. I don't want anyone telling me what, where and when i should eat, especially the boyfriend. That is one of the reasons i got rid of him. From: Lori S. (@oberon.pps.pgh.pa.us) Problem solved.

• DINNER TIME: One of the main reasons I eat is that it is dinner time and my fiance is hungry. Also, if I let myself get too hungry I get a migraine. From: Rachel Bell (rbell@adobe.co.uk). Hmmmmm.. maybe plan your day to eat at that time, just eat properly and plan healthy meals. If he doesn't like them, that's a problem.

• BECAUSE LIFE ISN'T FAIR!! Sometimes I look at my husband, 6'4" and 175-180 lbs. He can eat anything and not put on weight. I admit that sometimes I eat something, cookies, milkshake, etc., just because he's having one and, darn it, I should be able to as well. Like I said, life's just not fair. From: Wendy Clark (@earthlink.net). Hmmmm, that it ain't. It's a damn shame that we have to work a lot harder / eat less than others to get down to, or maintain a desirable weight. That's what makes all this so difficult. When we do reach our goal, we have probably accomplished one of the most difficult things we will ever do, and can be pretty proud of it. We will be a better person for it. And Better than those people that have it easy.

• BECAUSE I'M REALLY THIRSTY: I recently read that sometimes people eat because they are thirsty. Not recognizing that thirst, people will put something in their mouth (often fattening). The next time you have a craving or feel hungry (but you shouldn't) drink some water. From:K Pettersen (@cce.occe.uoknor.edu) Great advice

  And....

• I DON'T KNOW WHY I'M EATING!. Well, if you don't know, then at least you're thinking about it! That's the whole idea, thinking about why you are eating before you do it.

I read a small book one time on this subject. I gave it to my sister a few years back, so I can't credit the author. This book insisted this problem was due to some kind of neurological thing. Something to do with Kinestetics. You wouldn't believe what it told you to do to cure the problem of eating when you are not really hungry. It gave you a series of finger tapping sequences to use when you found yourself getting ready to eat when you weren't really hungry. You would have to tap your index and second finger on your opposite wrist about 20 times. Then if that didn't work, you would tap underneath your eyeballs, on the bone. Then you would tap somewhere else, etc., and back around all over again if you still wanted to eat.

I actually tired this for a few days. It felt pretty stupid, and after the second day, I felt like I had been had. I imagined this author laughing while he was making money on this book. Hey, maybe it's for real! Regardless of whether this was valid or not, it did make me realize and think about this whole idea of eating when you aren't really hungry. If the light bulb can at least go on in your mind when you are getting ready to eat, and make you think about what you are doing, maybe you can STOP. Go to the list above and try to figure out why you are trying to eat, or worse, blow your diet.

Well, let me give one opinion here....

IF YOUR STOMACH IS GROWLING, IT IS TIME TO EAT. If you are desiring food between meals when your stomach is not growling, then it is not your primal instinct telling you to eat, so don't. ASK yourself why you are eating. Remember, you should still give your body some kind of nourishment 3 times a day or your metabolism will slow down or stop, and hold on to your fat. And if you do have to eat between "meals", be reasonable. Eat some fruit or cereal, the fiber in those items has proven to be excellent for the heart.

Maybe you've thought of some other things we can add to the list. Please e-mail Steve at info@shapeup.net and we'll add them to the list. Let's look at the funny side of this mental mystery.

At least think about what and why you are eating the next time you have the urge to do it. By reading this page, perhaps it will program your mind a little bit so that next time you go for some food, you ask yourself..........WHY AM I EATING???????