Occasionally, I come across someone who snacks late at night out of true physical hunger -- someone, that is, who just doesn't organize her meals well and as a result really feels the need to eat late into the evening. But mostly I see late-night snackers who eat out of habit and snackers who are emotional eaters, who eat to anesthetize themselves.

I used to fall into the habitual snacker category. I often tell the story of how, when I was growing up, my family would sit down together before bed and have a communal pre-bedtime snack. My mom, dad, sister, and I, usually clad in our pajamas, would gather around the table and have something like milk and cookies, ice cream, or hot chocolate, then roll off to bed happy and full. Back then, it seemed like a healthy thing to do, especially if the snack involved milk, which we were told would help us sleep (that part, at least, is somewhat true, since milk contains the natural sedative tryptophan). But to me, the best nights involved pie. I loved it then, and I love it now! To this day, whenever I'm offered a slice, I'm tempted to indulge and have a hard time passing it up. But I suspect that's mostly because I associate it with those intimate, comforting evenings I spent with my family.

I still crave that comforting ritual, but I've found a fulfilling substitute for the sweets: chamomile tea. I really relish that time of day when I'm able to sit down with something warm and calming, and the tea-drinking ritual allows me to preserve my family tradition in a much healthier (and far less caloric) way. When I go to bed, I feel satisfied but not stuffed the way I used to. As a result, I fall asleep more easily and get a better night's sleep.

Habit was half of my problem; emotional attachment to the tradition was the other half. I find that many people share this emotional attachment to late-night eating. They're not physically hungry when they eat; they're using food for emotional sustenance. Many of these emotional eaters do okay during the day, but at night they have time to reflect on what's wrong in their lives, and that sets the ball rolling. Suddenly, stress, anger, sadness -- all the things that have been hidden under the surface during the day -- boil over, leaving them desperate for something to wash the discomfort away. Food, handy and comforting, seems like the perfect remedy, but it's really just a bandage that masks, not solves, the problem. In fact, most emotional eaters ultimately find little pleasure in their late-night snacks, and they feel worse knowing that they're adding to their weight problems with every bite.

There are various degrees of emotional eating. Some people just feel a little discontented (or bored), so they'll eat a few cookies to distract themselves for a while. Others are in deep pain, which leads them to seriously abuse food. For them, it takes a lot more than cookies to fill the void they feel inside.

But whichever category you fall into -- or perhaps you fall somewhere in between -- it's imperative to address the reasons behind your emotional eating. In order to lose weight, you have to have a healthy relationship with food, and that means seeing food for what it is -- a source of sustenance, nutrition, and enjoyment, but not a source of emotional fulfillment.

I don't want this to sound flippant, as if I think it's easy to give up using food for solace. I know it's not, and I don't want you -- and this is important -- to feel guilty or distressed about your desire to eat. But I do want to encourage you to seize this chance to understand why you turn to food. It's an incredible opportunity to change your life significantly. Working on your weight is actually working on your life -- and that's what Get With the Program! is all about. Get in touch with your inner self, and the outer self will follow.