When you are focused on your weight loss efforts, there are many things that you should be concerned with. You will need to be concerned with your target weight, metabolism levels, blood sugar levels and much more. You should also know about HALT. This means Hungry, Angry, Lonely and Tired. When thinking about HALT, you must know that the times you eat are often as a result of feeling one of these four things. If you want to lose weight, you need to start thinking about your emotions before you pick up something to eat. You can also have a stash of healthy foods to eat when you can’t control your eating impulses during these emotional times. What else should you know about HALT?
Being Hungry
The first part of HALT is hungry. Being hungry is just human nature. There is absolutely no way that you can go your whole life without being hungry. When your body is hungry, that is usually a way of telling you something. You may think that it means you need to eat and sometimes it does mean that. If it is truly because you are hungry, then make sure you eat something healthy. Choose what you eat wisely if you want to lose weight. When most people get hungry, they stop to get fast food or they buy something quick from a vending machine. If at home, they may grab something quick to eat which is usually unhealthy. If you have meals and snacks prepped ahead, you can grab one of those when you are hungry. However, you should also know that sometimes when you feel hungry; it may be that you are actually thirsty. Try to drink water before you eat to see if that was the cause in the first place. You may also feel hungry as a result of anger, loneliness or even being tired. Find out more about those emotions below.
Being Angry
Everyone is going to get angry from time to time. Maybe you worked very hard on a work deadline and nobody appreciated it. You may have tried hard to meet all of your goals for this week but things didn’t work out. There are many reasons why you may get angry. However, if you are used to eating whatever you feel like it when you are angry that won’t make you feel any better. You need to eat healthy, even when you are angry. There are actually some foods that will help you to calm down when angry. These are the foods you should be eating. These may include bananas, oatmeal, blueberries or even a whole-wheat bagel. Try these foods first when you are feeling angry.
Being Lonely
There are also going to be times when you are feeling lonely. There may be times when you miss someone or you just don’t want to be alone. If you are feeling lonely, food might seem like your best friend at the time. Don’t let it be. It is sometimes alright to eat when you are lonely but you should eat something good for you. You can eat vegetables or fruit. It is best if you learn how to manage your loneliness with something other than eating though, especially if you are going to be alone a lot of the time. Maybe you will call up a family member. You might go to a sports game so you can be around others. There are many social events in most communities and you may want to check those out instead of eating.
Being Tired
It is also natural to get tired as well. This is not something that you can fight. However, many men will get in bed when tired and eat while laying or sitting there. You should never eat when you are tired. Not only are you more likely to overeat when tired but you will eat foods you shouldn’t because you aren’t thinking clearly. If you realize that you may be tired, use some essential oil or calming music and go to sleep. When you wake up, if you are still hungry, you can eat a healthy snack or breakfast if it is morning.
These are some of the things you should know about HALT (Hungry, Angry, Lonely and Tired). Make sure you remember these things every day if you want to stop eating unhealthy based upon your emotions. You can do better than that.
