While being overweight can foster various negative feelings, the stress of dieting may lead to anxiety, depression or overeating. You can avoid this spiral by mastering your emotions. We asked some health care professionals who specialize in counseling dieters to show you how.
Clinical psychologist Gerald J. Musante, Ph.D., founder of the Durham, N.C., residential weight loss center Structure House, offers the following suggestions:
Be realistic about what you plan to accomplish each day to avoid feeling overwhelmed. Eat three healthy low-fat meals each day.
Preplan your meals as much as possible and try not to deviate from your plan.
If you slip once, just reaffirm your realistic goal of eating sensibly the next day.
Give yourself credit for what you accomplish each day.
Get enough rest. Being overtired can trigger some people to overeat.
Read motivational or uplifting books.
Be gentle with yourself.
Stress management specialist Lori Leyden-Rubenstein, a North Kingstown, R.I., therapist and author of "The Stress Management Handbook" (Keats $14.95), furnished these strategies:
Ask for help and, more important, take it.
Choose never to be stressed by food temptations: Eat slowly, consciously and with great enjoyment.
Never take yourself or anything too seriously; find humor in everything.
Take time for yourself: Meditate, congratulate yourself for sticking to your diet, have fun, laugh, get some exercise.
