1. Recognize what you’re doing, and that it’s a quick fix.
2. Treat the eating as a trigger: Something’s up. I need my attention.
3. Come up with solutions, as best you can, for whatever problems are making you blue.

Putting it in practice:

Yesterday I had a terrible, no good day. My cat went missing, his stomping grounds having been usurped by very loud, busy workmen. I got a $50 parking ticket, after agonizing for weeks about a gift for my boyfriend’s birthday that I could afford. On top of it, the stress of several days of professional snafus had been cooking and was ready to boil. I burst into tears while wandering around looking for my cat — not polite little rivulets, more like big sloppy sobs — giving the workmen surrounding my home an awful scare.

Once I had had my cry, I felt a little better. Except my blood sugar was completely bottomed. I was in that dulled, post-cry stupor. So I ate about 6 chocolate graham crackers. (Not 6 segments — 6 whole crackers, i.e. 3 “servings.”) True to form, my brain perked right up and I got a couple of hours of work done. Until I crashed in an exhausted, sugar-induced sleep.

OK, that’s not much of a success story. I should have done yoga, which is what I did later in the day, and it actually did make me feel a great deal better and corrected my blood sugar. But a stack of chocolate grahams is not the end of the world.

Emotional eating is going to happen. It’s human. We’re smart animals and know that at least in the short term, sugar works in a very physical, chemical way to make us feel better. We’re also dumb animals: We know that later on, it’ll make us feel worse. And we do it anyway.

Yesterday, I stopped at 6 graham crackers. First, grahams were the only tasty thing to eat in the house, and after 6, you don’t really want anymore. They’re like a real tasty cardboard. Second, I talked to some friends. Third, literally while I was eating, I went through each of the stress factors and came up with a fix:

1) Ticket: I’d halve next week’s grocery budget. (Not that fun but easily done.) That made me feel like the $50 was “undone.”

2) Feline: I reminded myself that the last time this happened, the cat came back. (Not the very next day, but eventually.)

3) Work: I started writing — doing the one thing that I’m fully empowered to do, whatever my other professional hurdles.

When I realized there were real solutions, I didn’t really need any more chocolate sawdust.