If you began working on a healthy lifestyle after my first blog post, you are in the fourth week. Congratulations and keep up the good work. If you’ve slipped a bit, don’t fall into the trap I’ve often experienced. I tell myself because I didn’t perfectly keep up with my goals, I might as well give up. I just can’t do it.
Don’t listen to that self-talk. It’s nonsense and a lie. No one is perfect, expect the Savior who came on the earth 2000 years ago. 
Begin where you left off and keep going. Don’t get discouraged because everyone fails. Success is not in performing perfectly but in getting up again when you fall.
You may be making wise choices every week, picking yourself up when you fall, and staying with it, but something is just not going right. You don’t like to admit it, but you’ve been doing some binge eating or another way to put it is emotional eating. Again, don’t kick yourself in the rear and say “I’m the only person in the world who does this.” You aren’t.
I’d like to tell you about my debut novel which was inspired by my own story combined with several others who are close to me. The hero, Jess Colton, has never been able to please his father, so he numbs his pain with alcohol. Only thing, when the effects of the alcohol wear off, the pain is still there. Then my character becomes a Christian and surrenders his heart to the Lord. Since the overuse of alcohol is not pleasing to God, he stops drinking completely because he can’t just drink one or two. But something happens he hadn’t expected. Instead of getting healed from his addiction, he replaces alcohol with another—food and now he weights three hundred pounds. He’s using food as an emotional crutch.
Again, when the satisfaction of the food wears off, he finds it necessary to gorge again. If anyone would like to read Jess Colton’s story, it can be found on Amazon at this link.- Flawless 
But this post is not about marketing my book. It’s about emotional eating that may hinder your progress in establishing a healthy lifestyle. Emotional eating can happen any time we suffer stress, emotional problems, or even boredom. There’s not one single person whose life isn’t plagued by problems. Eating is acceptable in our society so it’s easy to choose food to numb our symptoms. As a side note, other accepted cover-ups can be exercise, shopping, busyness. All these things are fine when not practiced in excess or used as crutches.
Emotional eating is a huge subject which I couldn’t begin to cover right now. But if you find you’re bound by eating food when you’re not hungry, I have a great article for you to peruse. Blessing and prayers for the new year.
I have to admit that I am an emotional eater. I have struggled with my weight most of my life. I eat when I am happy, sad, mad, afraid, etc. This is something I continue to work on, with God’s help. 🙂
I think that’s one reason I shared this article. I eat for entertainment instead of hunger. Admitting it, for me, is the first step of healing. Thank you for stopping by today, Melissa.