END EMOTION-DRIVEN EATING: SHE SHED STRESS— AND 140 POUNDS—WITH TEA

« PAIN TREATMENT: RELAXATION AND IMAGERY

CONTROLLING YOUR WEIGHT: EATING DISORDERS AS DISEASES »

END EMOTION-DRIVEN EATING: SHE SHED STRESS— AND 140 POUNDS—WITH TEA

Jeanette Green weighed more than 300 pounds until she discovered the slimming power of tea.

After years of failed attempts to lose weight, Jeanette, of White Plains, New York, finally took control of her eating habits. She reduced her portion sizes and cut out junk food. Sure enough, the pounds started disappearing.

Although she was encouraged, Jeanette realized she still had one hurdle to overcome. While she ate healthfully during the day, as soon as she arrived home from work, she’d be hit with the overwhelming urge to binge.

Like most of us, Jeanette felt tired at the end of the day. Just thinking of the chores and errands that she still had to do made her anxious and tense. To soothe herself, she would head straight for the refrigerator and grab the first food she saw.

Jeanette started thinking about her postwork behavior and about a theme of the Overeaters Anonymous meetings that she had attended. The two seemed to tie together.

“Overeaters Anonymous doesn’t concentrate too much on the food thing,” Jeanette says. “The emphasis is on the head. They say that if you get your head straight, your body will follow.”

Jeanette knew that her postwork binges were driven not by hunger but by her emotions. So she decided that instead of calming her nerves with food, she’d sip herbal tea.

As soon as she walked in the door in the evening, Jeanette would head straight for the kitchen and brew a cup of tea. Then she’d curl up someplace quiet to relax and recharge for the evening. Her daily tea time became a treasured ritual as well as a means of stopping the munchies that threatened her weight-loss goals.

Jeanette, who’s now 60, eventually lost 140 pounds. And she has \ kept the weight off for more than 18 years.

WINN IN C A C TJO N

Sip tea to de-stress. There’s no question that stress is a

big cause of weight gain. Find your own way to unwind, like Jeanette did. You’ll probably find that a lot of things in your life—hot just your waistline—will begin to come I do into better focus.

*60\89\8*