Wave surfing by “hanging ten” is a smart weight management strategy.  Surfing puts the pause in your response to food noise otherwise known as emotional triggers to eat when you are not hungry. Brian Wansink, Cornell University professor and author of Mindless Eating, found that we make over 220 food decisions everyday. Mindless eaters are more apt to respond to this food noise with “Yes, let us have cake, nab the last cookie and dig into the bag of chips that sits open in the kitchen cupboard. Here’s where the wave analogy comes in. You can’t stop your appetite from growing and the wave from peaking but you can learn to ride it out.

Successfully surfing your reaction to all of the food noise you are exposed requires that you hit the pause button as your first response, which could be an impulsive or mindless reaction rather than true physical hunger.  Food noise includes everything from the food aromas permeating out to the grocery store parking lot to what’s visible on your kitchen counter, in the employee break room, on a coworker’s desk, in the vending vending machines, your child’s after school snack or television and newsfeed ads.  There’s a lot of munching that goes on around us all day long.  Liken this food noise to the wind that blows across water causing friction.  Eventually this energy creates multiple ripples that build upon each other creating a wave or a desire to eat.  Waves like your appetite are unpredictible and if you’re not careful you can get caught in the middle. Are you really indeed physically hungry or just responding to all of the ripples in your emotional environment that trigger you to eat?

The safest and healthiest option is to stay surf side up. Do this by “Hanging Ten.”  Ride the crest of what is often times emotional hunger (angry, lonely, tired, stressed, see it, smell it or bored) by “Hanging Ten” minutes before responding to the food noise.  An easy way to remember these triggers is the acronym HALTS-SSB. Am if truly hungry or instead, angry over a work situation, tired from a bad night’s sleep or bored sitting in front of the TV after dinner? Adjust your footing on the board and drink a glass of water or chew gum and surf the peak as your first response.  Oftentimes, you’ll find yourself successfully riding out the wave into calmer waters where the noise has subsided and you’ve avoided the undertow of mindless calories. Congratulations, enjoy the stillness and lean into your new found ability to surf your appetite.

Full Disclosure: I’ve never been on a surfboard, I’m certain I’d drown.