Six Steps to Managing Emotional Eating

I once heard Oprah Winfrey comment that losing weight was the most significant achievement of her career. I was profoundly saddened by her comment, considering her enormous achievements and contributions in other areas.

More recently, I happened to see an interview with Oprah on Larry King Live. At the end of the interview, Larry asked Oprah about her weight (I guess he couldn't help himselfJ) and whether that would always be an issue for her.

Oprah replied with a gleam in her eye. She said that she was starting to get a handle on it - and this is why . . .

She was starting to understand emotional eating.

She went on to explain that in the past, she always used to "eat" her stress. And now, she allows herself to "feel" her stress.

She has learned the SECRET to conquering emotional eating.

It's OK to FEEL your emotions.

Oprah understands and now accepts that her life is going to be stressful, that there are going to be lots of ups and downs, that she is going to have emotional reactions.

In that way, Oprah is just like you and I.

She explained that she used to think weight loss was about how long and hard she worked out, or whether she liked potato chips or didn't like potato chips. Now she understood, with the look of enlightenment in her eye.

It's not about food. It's about emotions.

It's about being willing to feel your emotions, to feel your stress, anxiety, anger and disappointments, instead of handling them with food.

You may not have known what to do with those emotions until now.

You may think you can't handle your emotions if you allow yourself to feel them. Well, if Oprah can handle her stress, you can handle yours. It may be uncomfortable and different from what you are used to, but it is possible.

You can start small. When you find yourself reaching for food, use these steps:

1. STOP and check in with yourself.

2. Ask yourself if you are physiologically hungry.

3. If not, sit yourself down.

4. Ask yourself what you are feeling.

5. Write it down. Try to be as specific as possible.

6. Try to identify the exact emotion and the strength of the emotion.

You can use this simple stem . . .

I feel _________ because _________.

Just let yourself feel the emotions. It's the only way to get through it.

If you still want food, you can eat. Or you can call a friend or take a nap or write in a journal. What you want to do here is BROADEN your range of responses.

You see, stress and anxiety NARROW your range of responses. This is what I mean. Say you get some bad news and if you are used to using donuts to solve problems and comfort yourself, you reach for donuts.

It's automatic - or at least it has been up to now.

You may be the smartest person in the world (even Oprah couldn't figure this out), and all of a sudden you can't think of anything else to do in the moment.

Feel your feelings.

It may be painful, but it WON'T shatter you.

Then figure out a way to get support for your feelings. It can make a HUGE difference in your life.

It may be painful at first, but if you can get a handle on emotional eating, you have come a long way toward connecting to yourself and interrupting the vicious cycle.

It took Oprah YEARS and who knows how many millions of dollars to learn this.

You can start today.

Here's to keeping up with OprahJ, nnn