The emotional eater thinks when they reach their ideal weight all aspects of their life will change for the better. When this does not happen they revert back to the need for food to make them feel good and the cycle of yo-yo dieting perpetuates.  Emotional eaters need to adjust their expectations and realize the shift needs to occur first and then sustainable weight loss will follow. It is not the reverse.

It is also important to establish a new, healthy relationship with food and not hold on to food as their quick escape when stress, sadness or anger knocks at the door. The emotional eater often sees food as a protector and an escape from everyday life and they want to eat when they want and as as much as they want to mask the real issue they do not want or choose not to deal with.

The good news is that you can stop.  If you practice something it can become perfect.  It’s the same for emotional eating.   Find new ways to distract, calm and sooth yourself.  Rewire your brain, identify new non-eating activities to distract yourself to feed the emotion. Before you know it your new behavior will become second nature.