Emotional Eating Solutions: 3 Tips for High-achievers Who Overeat

By: Melissa McCreery, PhD

Many smart women struggle with their weight and many busy, successful professional women resort to food to cope with the stress, uncertainty, and other emotions that occur in a full, high-pressure life.

Unfortunately, for many, these battles with food become vicious cycles that look something like this:

“Fresh starts” and plans that don’t work or don’t last, followed by feelings of defeat and inadequacy, followed by overeating and a period of trying to generate motivation (again), followed by another “fresh start.”

This vicious cycle leaves women feeling bad about themselves and ineffective. It also often leads to weight gain instead of weight loss.

If you are a high-achiever—a woman who is successful in many areas of her life who finds herself stuck in this cycle—there is a way out.

Here are three tips to start breaking the yo-yo diet emotional eating cycle:

1. Let go of the belief that you are alone and the only one struggling like this. If you are caught in this cycle with food and overeating, you’re in some great company. One of the most self-defeating actions you can take is to continue to struggle alone, heaping on self-blame and even shame. Find someone to talk to. Open your eyes to the possibility of support. Ask other women what they do when they struggle. Consider investing in yourself the same way you invest in your career and your family and your home and pursuing emotional eating solutions that can help you.

2. Take control of perfectionism. You’re human and you’ll never be perfect. Perfectionism or all-or-nothing thinking is common among women who expect a lot of themselves. It can get you stuck in a pattern where making a poor choice is interpreted as “blowing it.” Women trying to lose weight fall for this all the time. Instead of continuing forward and allowing the next choice to be a better one, the tendency is to cash in all your chips and start down a road of overeating because you’re upset with yourself and you “failed.” Plan for imperfection. Train your mind to notice your progress and not just your missteps. Try the “Three Things That Went Well” strategy.

3. Stop relying on willpower. This is a biggie. You are a high-achiever. You probably have a lot of willpower and stick-to-it-ness in other areas of your life. You may be lost in a mindset of beating yourself up over this cycle you are stuck in. If so, you probably tell yourself things like:

*“What’s wrong with me that I can’t get a grip on this?”

*“This should be easy.”

*“I’m just not trying hard enough.”

*“This is an embarrassment and I need to stop being lazy and just take a tough line with myself.”

This is not a Success Soundtrack™. Go back and read my first two tips again. The truth is that you’re stuck because your method isn’t effective. You’re missing something. Start with compassion for yourself for how big and deep and exhausting this struggle is. Try holding yourself in the same positive mental light that you’d hold a dear friend.

Take a deep breath and allow yourself to treat this issue as a legitimate problem. Allow yourself to respect that you are in a tough spot. Instead of blaming yourself, give yourself permission to take the situation seriously.

Now ask yourself what you need that you don’t have that could help. You may be tempted to choose some kind of judgment (“I’m lazy”), but instead, focus on identifying the outside resource or concept that could help (“Im overloaded and Im at a loss about how to feel better without overeating. I need some new tools.”).

I find that high-achievers who are stuck in this overeating cycle hesitate (or don’t even think to) ask for:

*Help with finding motivation

*Help with creating time for themselves

*Help with accountability

*Help developing new skills and strategies

*Help with getting to the root of what’s triggering their overeating

*Help. Period.

Approaching the problem with respect and allowing yourself the resources you need to be effective can make a world of difference.

Are you a smart, busy woman struggling with stress, overeating, or overload? Claim your free audio set: 5 Simple Steps to Move Beyond Overwhelm With Food and Life at www.TooMuchOnHerPlate.com.

Melissa McCreery, PhD, ACC, is a Psychologist, ICF Certified Life Coach, Emotional Eating Solutions specialist, and the founder of www.TooMuchOnHerPlate.com, a company dedicated to providing smart resources to busy women struggling with food, weight and stress. She is the author of the Emotional Eating Toolbox(TM) 28 Day Program and the Emotional Eating Toolbox™ Weight Loss Surgery Edition. Bariatric professionals: Customized patient materials and programming are available for bariatric practices.