In my work, multiple and competing deadlines are a fact of life. This is a fact of daily life for most people--simultaneous commitments, various deadlines or, at least, targets for completing projects, and pressures to say "yes" when you clearly need to set boundaries and say "no".

Often, there is no choice in the matter and we surrender to the pressure with what I call "nervous eating." As deadlines loom, details remain unresolved, and decisions need to be made that minute, I tend to gravitate to food. For me, it's chocolate (preferably good chocoate like Lindt), pretzels (trying to stick to no salt and whole wheat), Diet Dr. Pepper (a guilty pleasure), sometimes a bag of Cracker Jack (actually one of the lower fat junk foods) or Smart Food cheesy popcorn. It might also be a cookie or chocolate-covered graham cracker.

I allow myself these occasional lapses, but for no more than a day. And I'm coming up with solutions: Stay filled up on decent foods, eating about every two hours just a little bit. When I feel the nervous eating coming on, I bring in a banana or a Granny Smith apple, and I often divide my lunch into two parts so I have something to eat in the mid- to late afternoon instead of a chocolate square.

Eat good snacks, I tell myself. I made a list of those in a post last week. Almonds, baby carrots, soy nuts, fruit, and so forth...