Diets! Many of us have tried a diet or two. We are surrounded with information about what to eat to lose those extra pounds we want to shed. Proper nutrition and regular exercise are crucial factors in successful weight loss, but another factor worth exploring is our reason for eating. Many of us eat out of an emotional response. Even though we are not hungry, we eat at times out of fear, anger, avoidance, loneliness, boredom, comfort, reward, stress and celebration. We often do this unconsciously, with little awareness of food serving as a repressor of our emotions. Our extra weight may serve as a way of protecting or hiding ourselves from the pain of past experiences and from others around us. For some, a cycle of dieting begins, accompanied with a growing sense of failure, guilt and hopelessness and an increase in emotional eating. Often times, when we are able to address our emotional eating and handle it appropriately, we will experience greater success in permanent weight loss. A book that addresses this area of emotional eating is "Thin Again" written by Judy Wardell Halliday and Arthur W. Halliday.

Janet Purdy