Are you keen on overcoming emotional eating? Are you sick and tired of the pounds that go on week by week when you feel miserable, bored, angry or just plain tired?

Does the waistband of your jeans cut in just a little more each day, until it's uncomfortable to sit down? Perhaps you have tried to eat a healthy snack at the end of a long, frustrating day, rather than another large piece of chocolate cake - but haven't quite made that change?

Yes? Then, start by making a commitment to overcoming emotional eating and to persist as you create your new, healthy lifestyle. Read on to discover how to do this.

Before you implement any changes in your diet, it's a good idea to decide what you want to achieve by eating healthy. If you've read this far, you have probably decided you want to know how to stop emotional eating and begin eating healthy.

It's helpful to start by setting a goal to swap your emotional eating patterns with healthy ones. The best goals are SMART goals, that is, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Based. It's also useful to visualise what your life will be like once you have achieved your goal.

Start by assessing what's happening in your life. While there are behaviour patterns common to most people, each of us has to make an individual journey through weight loss to better health.

So, the first step is to notice your eating patterns. Start a journal in an exercise book. Note down:

• when you eat
• how long you eat
• what you eat and how much
• where you eat
• how you feel before and after eating both emotionally and physically
• what else you are doing when you eat, if anything

After a week or so, this journal will give you some important clues to what triggers emotional eating for you.

Behavior starts in the mind - even apparently 'mindless' emotional eating. So, become more aware of your patterns by checking your journal for:

• events which start the process - may be external (an argument) or internal (a feeling or thought)
• how you feel as a result: vulnerable to emotional eating
• what you do: eating pattern

Draw some conclusions about triggers, your emotional response and how these tie into your eating pattern.

Remind yourself that you are strong enough to stay the course and keep going.

It's helpful to decide to change your habits day by day. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• If the trigger is an issue which makes professional assistance necessary, then don't delay. Make the appropriate appointments and get on the road to the new you.
• Think of three pleasant things you can easily do instead of inhaling a bag of potato chips.
• When you do eat, make an occasion out of it. Eat deliberately and discover what it feels like to enjoy a meal.

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