What are actual proven, doable ways to deal with emotional eating?

[Rockshore]

My mindset is so screwed, I eat for all the wrong reasons - when I'm happy, when I'm sad, when I'm bored, when I'm stressed. Food is a treat not just fuel and although I kid myself I eat healthily - I dont binge on chips and cream buns - the scales tell me it's clearly not working.

Is there anything I can do to reset my body and my thinking? I'm 51 and worried about my health.

I think the first thing is to be kind to yourself. Don’t beat yourself up. It’s a thing that you do to cope, to literally fill a hole. There is no immediate solution. Make small changes and don’t dispair if you fall off the wagon. I find exercise really helpful for lifting my mood and reducing the need to binge. Talking therapy might help. It’s sounds so corny but honestly you need to love yourself as you are not some version of you that may or may not lie in the future. Good luck and take care

Counselling? I think the key is managing emotions in a healthier way and a therapist can help you do that.

I had CBT and it really helped me. You can also try to work to replace food with something more fulfilling and positive like self care, doing something little for yourself like a lovely hot bubble bath, going for a nice walk - things that lift your mood naturally. You also need to stop repeating the mantra to yourself that you/food are bad. If you recognise you eat when you are stressed, try not to buy the food when you are feeling more positive (only shop in a good mood) and buy other nice things to eat for when you feel the urge - replace cakes in your basket with some nice grapes, a jelly, a yoghurt. You will still have something to be able to eat but it’s not a cake

I was/am the same, SW sorted me out, over 50 and over 3.5 stones off. I do it on line, it keeps me on track and stops the mindless snacking but there's still lots to eat, I have been doing it a year and I honestly have never been hungry.

You have to see it as a way of life though not a quick fix diet. It's basically low sugar,low carb and plenty of fruit and veg and protein.

I don't eat processed foods. Once I'd ditched the sugar which is like an addiction to me, it was easy. It's quite shocking how processed foods have become the norm now. I found family cooking easy as cooked everything from scratch anyway, I just adjusted the oil and didn't have huge doorstop slices of bread with my soup 😉

People seem very sniffy about SW on MN but it worked well for me and really isn't any different to any other diet, when you stop the weight goes back on so you have to make sustainable changes.