Bored to Eat

Do you ever find yourself snacking even though you’re not hungry — at all? We tell you how to break the habit.

We asked Marlene Schwartz, Ph.D., director of research and school programs for the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, for the best tips to curb your "bored" snack cravings.

1. Recognize that you're doing it: One of the easiest ways to find out when you’re eating out of boredom is to write down everything you eat and at what time for two to three days. You can do this in your daily planner, on a piece of paper, or in a journal. When you analyze your list, you might notice that you're eating a lot of random snacks right when you get home from school because you’re wandering around the kitchen. If you can identify the times and the places that you eat without being hungry, you'll have something concrete to focus on.

2. Set rules: Tell yourself that you eat only when you're sitting down at the kitchen or dining room table. Don't eat in front of the TV, on your bed, or in front of the computer. Those are high-risk areas because you might not necessarily be hungry, but you’re not going to be paying attention to what or how much you’re eating if you start to snack.

3. Make a regular eating schedule: You want to have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and it's okay to have a healthy snack or two if you have a long stretch between your meals. But don’t stray from that schedule. Do you always need a dessert after dinner? That’s fine. But don’t throw in another dessert two hours later when you’re writing a paper at 1 a.m.

4. Keep your hands busy: It sounds obvious, but if you’re doing something else with your hands, it’s pretty hard to eat at the same time. Polish your nails, try a new hobby like knitting, read a book, play video games — anything to make it tough to eat at the same time.