Healthy Heart – Stay Away From the Fridge (Part III)

If you eat when you’re bored
*Work for your food
If you’re munching just because you have nothing better to do, choose a snack that requires time and energy, such as microwave popcorn, unshelled nuts-even crunchy foods like carrots that involve a lot of chewing. “For me, it’s pistachios,” confesses Madelyn Fernstrom, Ph.D., director of the Weight Management Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “I have to crack the shells open one by one, which forces me to eat slowly and be more conscious of how much I’m puting in my mouth.”
*skip Leno or Letterman
If you stay up late, there’s a food chance you’ll get a case of the munchies-and that can spell extra pounds. A 2004 University of Texas study found that nocturnal noshers end up eating more fat and calories than those who snack earlier in the day. “It’s very easy to overeat if you’re bored, especially if you’re doing something sedentary like sitting in front of the TV,” explains Abramson. A better move: Get in bed an hour earlier and catch up on your zzzz’s; several studies show a clear link between obesity and too little sleep (say, less than seven hours).

If you eat when you’re sad
*Get a daily dose of vitamins and sun
It can help cheer you up, report researchers at the University of Washington School of Nursing. They asked 112 women who were mildly to moderately depressed to walk briskly outside for 20 minutes five days a week and take a daily dose of vitamins(50 mg of vitamins B1, B2, and B6; 400 mcg of folic acid; 400 IU of vitamin D; and 200 mcg of selenium). The women also upped their exposure to bright light, both natural and artificial, during the day. After eight weeks, almost all the women reported feeling less depressed-and 25 percent had lost weight, even though they had not been asked to diet. “Many of the women were eating less at meals, snacking less, and they even mentioned that their cravings for carbs diminished,” explains Marie-Annette Brown, Ph.D., coauthor of When Your Body Gets the Blues.
*Watch what you watch
Wansink and his research team found that when people saw the 1970 tearjerker Love Story, they ate about 30 percent more buttered popcorn than when watching the uplifting 2002 flick Sweet Home Alabama. Don’t want to give up sob stories? You can still watch them if you do a little pre-movie reading: When viewers looked at the popcorn’s nutrition label before the film started, they cut their munching by about two-thirds.
*Attend religious services
The more often you go, the less likely you are to be overweight. A study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that pious women reported higher activity levels. “One theory is that churchgoers are more likely to believe that their body is a temple of God, so they need to take care of it-which means  eating more healthfully and staying active,” explains study author Karen Hye-cheon Kim, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
*Join an online support group
“If you’re eating as a substitute for companionship, log on to the Internet instead,” suggests Abramson. To find friends-and shed pounds-try joining a Web-based weight-loss program that includes expert counseling and access to chat rooms and message boards. Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Brown University found that people who followed these types of diet programs lost an average of 13 to 15 pounds in six months.

The end (3/3)