This post provided by college nutritionist, author, and all around excellent source of healthful info, Melanie Jatsek.

Do you eat when you’re not hungry?  Sure, we all do to some degree!  Food is one of the necessities of life, but it’s also a source of comfort for those times when you are feeling sad, stressed, homesick, angry, or [insert emotion here].  This occasional indulgence usually isn’t a problem, but when you start responding to every emotion with food it becomes a problem in more than one way.  Can you say weight gain and feelings of zero willpower?  You did just eat that entire bag of Lay’s Potato Chips after all!

It’s time to stop beating yourself up.  So you slipped up and let your stress get the best of you – so what?  Forgive yourself and move on.  But what if it happens again, you ask?  What are you supposed to do the next time you are struck with a bout of good old-fashioned homesickness?

Follow the three steps below to learn how not to eat your feelings.

Step 1:  Ask yourself:  “Am I hungry?”

Sounds like a silly question doesn’t it?  You have to be able to identify if you are eating in response to true hunger (a grumbling stomach) or “head hunger” (emotional eating).  Sometimes it’s not that easy to figure out.  If you’re having difficulty making the determination, imagine your stomach is like the tank of gas in your car.  A gas tank goes from “empty” to “full” right?  Now, picture your stomach with a gauge connected to it that moves from empty to full as you feed it.  Better yet, pretend it goes from 0 to 10.  See the scale below to help you visualize this concept:

0      1      2      3      4      5      6      7      8      9      10

At level “0” or “empty,” you are coasting on fumes.  Your stomach is the size of your fist.  You have never been hungrier and you lack any ounce of mental or physical energy.  Read a chapter for class?  Forget that!  You can’t even focus on the television.  You need food fast!

Level “5” is “halfway,” or the mid point on your gas gauge.  You don’t feel hungry but you also don’t feel full.  This is considered “satisfied.”  I’ve never conducted an official study, but I would be willing to bet money that most college students eat beyond the level of “satisfied” and don’t even realize it.  Physical energy and mental focus are at their peak at this level, so it’s important to understand what this feels like and strive for it.  Could you eat more at a level 5?  You bet!  In fact it’s pretty easy to do because you still have room left in your stomach and aren’t feeling uncomfortable yet.

At level “10” or “stuffed,” you are “topped off” and couldn’t eat another bite if someone paid you.  Your stomach at this level is about the size of a gallon of milk (really!).  Another way to describe level “10” is “Thanksgiving Day full.”  Read a chapter for class?  Forget that!  You can’t even keep your eyes open.  You need to take a nap!

True hunger is any number below a level “5.”

Step 2:  Pick your number

If you had to assign a number to your hunger or fullness, what would it be?  Are you almost satisfied (a level “4”)?  Are you feeling a bit uncomfortable (a level “7”)?  This step is very important because it forces you to stop and take notice when you’re turning towards food instead of tackling the unpleasant emotion before you, whatever it might be.

Step 3:  Find out what’s eating you

If you find yourself eating at any level above a 5 or 6, you need to determine why you are doing it.  To figure this out, keep a journal for 1 week and record the following information:

1. Everything you eat and drink.
2. Using the scale above, assign a number to your hunger/fullness before and after you eat.
3. Do you observe a pattern where you are eating even though you aren’t hungry?  If so, identify the reason and write it down.  Did something happen, causing you to turn to food for comfort?  Did you do poorly on an exam?  Are you stressed out about something?  Are you procrastinating writing that paper?  Are you sad or lonely?  Even if you’re not sure what the reason is, write something down!

Once you identify the source, it’s time to cope.  Find another outlet.  Sit with your feelings and really experience them.  You may still find yourself turning towards food for comfort even after you sit and experience your feelings.  That’s OK.  It’s what you are used to, so it’s going to take some time to break.  An effective strategy is to develop a new method of coping.  For example:  if you eat when you are stressed, stop and do 10 jumping jacks or push-ups.  Nothing tackles stress better than exercise.  It doesn’t have to require a trip to the student recreation center.  Think quick and effective.

The bottom line:  Eating in response to your emotions is taxing on the brain.  It’s an energy draining habit because you never get to the root of the problem.  Food never solves what’s really bugging you – ever! As uncomfortable as it may seem, the next time you find yourself battling the stresses of college life, instead of digging into that bag of M&M’s, start practicing your new coping skills.  The more you practice them, the sooner they will become your new habit.

Be patient with yourself and remember:  You can do this!

Melanie Jatsek is a speaker, author and registered dietitian who teaches college students how to eat to look better, feel better, think better and stress less!  Send her an email at melanie@melaniejatsek.com or connect with her on her new Facebook page for college students: “The Healthy Campus Project.”

So I finished the month.

And while I think the 4-Day Diet has its positives and is a great eating plan for people new to the health/weight loss game, I realized why I don’t succeed on programs like this:

I become obsessed with food.

I stare at my food list 12 times a day and spend the rest of my time constantly thinking about my next meal or snack. Result: I think I’m hungry (always) when I’m not. And that’s not the best feeling when you are trying to lose a few pounds, eh?

The thing is, I know how to eat healthy and I know what I should and shouldn’t be doing. I personally did not need someone to tell me what kinds of foods are good for me and what are not. I just needed to stop eating the crap I knew was bad.

And this program definitely helped with that. What it did do was remind me that the little things I eat add up big time. A few bites here and there add up to a few pounds here and there and, before you know it, I’m breaking a serious sweat squatting and lunging my way into my jeans.

I also learned that I eat often out of boredom or stress, something I know most of you can relate to. So this month I learned how to combat my fake hunger. When I get a craving or think I’m hungry, I envision eating a healthy meal (like carrots and bell peppers). If that sounds good to me then I know I’m truly hungry. If all I want is a McFlurry, then I know hunger is not the real issue (and PMS/boy trouble/an addiction to M&Ms is). It’s a great tip and it will keep you from giving in too quickly to the temptations in the dorm cafeteria, at work, or at the lib.

Overall, I’m happy I gave the 4 Day Diet a try – I learned some new tips and tricks to keeping healthy and, more importantly, learned more about myself. I also learned that when a diet tells you that pizza is OK, eating an entire pizza is not.

Just a thought.

Welcome to day 3 of my week eating entirely vegan.

Breakfast: Venti soy latte from Starbucks. I’m afraid of trying any syrups in my drink because I don’t think they’ll mix well with soy milk.

Lunch: Leftover vegan chili from last night (still tasty!) wrapped in corn tortillas.

Dinner: I attempt to make vegan tofu scramble. The recipe from allrecipes.com calls for canned diced tomatoes, green onions, and mashed silken tofu. I cut out the cheddar cheese from the recipe and instead I add some sliced mushrooms and red bell peppers for a little extra oomph. The finished product is watery and tasteless and the tofu adds nothing to the dish.

I wonder if fried firm tofu would have worked better? I’m not sure if this dish was supposed to be a breakfast or a dinner, but either way it’s disgusting. I heat up some more vegan chili and eat that instead.Today’s discovery: vegan chili is amazing; vegan scrambled eggs substitute is not. If you plan on going vegan, you might want to learn how to cook first.

Anyone got some tips on good vegan recipes? I could use all the help I can get…

[photos are by lil' ol' me]

Even though I’m “poor” compared to a lot of Americans, I realize I’m fabulously rich compared to most of the world’s people. So, every once in a while I try to help out others by donating a few dollars to charity.

I don’t donate as much as I should, and I’m working to get better at that. But for those of you who are strapped for cash like I am, two Web sites have made it really easy to donate without reaching for your credit card.

The Hunger Site is part of a group of six Web sites (the Breast Cancer, Child Health, Literacy, Rainforest, and Animal Rescue sites are the others) that rely on sponsor donations to help charities. If you click once daily on the big button on each site, sponsors will donate a small amount for all the causes on your behalf.  Cool, huh?

And if you’re a word nerd like me, you might like FreeRice. It’s a vocabulary quiz site that works through the United Nations to donate 20 grains of rice for each word definition you guess correctly. If you play for even five minutes, you can donate about 900 grains of rice.

So click, click, click away! These are charities that both your wallet and your mouse can appreciate.