Too Much on Her Plate with Dr. Melissa McCreery: Emotional Eating Help for Smart, High-Achieving Women

What do I do when all those “self-compassion” suggestions require more time and energy than I have? In this episode, I’m unpacking self-compassion - what it is, what it isn’t, and why you need it to make peace with food and create freedom from overeating. In this episode: Why self-compassion is never a list of things A bunch of other things that self-compassion is NOT The three steps or parts of s...

What do we do when we have just five spare minutes? Usually not much. It’s become a non-rewarding reflex action to pull out our phones, scroll for a few minutes, or mindlessly eat something we’re not even hungry for. Sometimes we do both. You might tell yourself that you’re taking a break, but odds are that when it’s over you don’t feel any more refreshed than before you zoned out. The next time y...

Psychological barriers will lead us to create more barriers (more doubt, more isolation, more difficulty). What we believe is possible has a dramatic impact on the results we achieve (and on the way these results are created). It doesn’t have to be this way. If you’ve spent a minute (or years) steeping in diet mentality, then it stands to reason that ditching all that deprivation thinking and begi...

This episode is about why you need to take up space to create freedom from overeating and why taking action to change your eating habits isn’t the smartest way to start. This is an especially important episode if what you’re trying doesn’t seem to be working or if you’re stuck in a yo-yo pattern with your eating, weight, or feel like you’re going in circles instead of getting results. Let’s talk a...

When it comes to overeating and emotional eating, many women who have so much confidence in other areas, begin to feel less capable. I’d like to help you get our sense of power back. Did you know that there are two ways you can approach changing your eating habits? One is empowering, the other leads to a vicious cycle. In this episode, I’ll tell you the difference between the two approaches, help...

I’ve had multiple requests to address the problem of mindless eating or overeating on autopilot. How do you break the cycle? How do you prevent mindless eating? How can you interrupt an autopilot binge? Let’s talk about this. In this episode: Mindless eating or eating on autopilot The antidote to mindless eating Strategies to break the mindless eating habit How to use discernment to eat less more...

Sometimes labels like stress eating are helpful because they lead to better understanding. And sometimes labels don’t add clarity. Sometimes labels like “stress eating” lead to what feels like a dead-end to our problem-solving abilities. And this can be extremely frustrating. Figuring out how to take your power back from stress eating in the moment requires understanding what type of stress eating...

Telling yourself to “stop overeating” is one of the least effective ways to change your eating habits. There are smarter, simpler strategies to break overeating cycles. Today I have a 24-hour challenge for you that you can use to reboot your relationship with food. In this episode: A 24-hour challenge Why braking, or slowing down is so powerful How to break patterns of eating on autopilot More way...

Let’s assume you’re determined to figure out how to stop emotional eating or overeating. Your first step is likely to be something along the lines of telling yourself you won’t eat if you aren’t hungry. Women have been conditioned to believe that emotional eating and overeating result from a lack of willpower. That’s not true. In this episode: Your lack of willpower is a myth Why focusing on food...

Overeating, emotional eating, and perfectionism have a close, complicated, and completely enmeshed relationship. It’s not helpful. Perfectionism also gets in the way most times we set a goal or set out to make a change. Before you blame yourself, it’s important to know that perfectionism is a very human thought pattern. Impossible to attain, but so seductive to our brain. In this episode: The link...

Where is your greatest source of power? How can you make ending overeating habits easier? What are some of the most powerful (and empowering) small steps you can take in any moment when you have the urge to overeat? THIS is what I'm covering in today’s episode. In this episode: The psychology of overeating and the psychology of change why both are so important to understand The one thing you...

If you’re someone who wants to stop emotional eating, address your binge eating, lose weight, or just stop overeating we need to talk about the New Year’s resolution cycle and how your brain’s thought errors may be keeping you from seeing results. In this episode: Why we cram too much into a day and end up overwhelmed Our tendency to overdo and how it creates vicious cycles with overeating, binge...

I’m coming out of an exhausting and stressful week and am freshly reminded of how powerful the urge is to not do the thing that would ultimately feel like self-care. Whether it’s fueled by exhaustion or stress or a rebellious reaction to the idea of one more thing to do the resistance to self-care (when I need it the most) is real. And it’s real for my clients and members of Your Missing Peace. So...

In today’s episode I have for you: 25 reasons NOT to start a diet. The New Year is a season the diet industry loves! The marketing to jump on the gimmicky weight loss and diet bandwagon is everywhere - and it’s probably going to get worse. Diets don’t work, but if your brain has marinated in diet mentality, it’s tempting to think, “This time might be different.” I have your back. Use this episode...

What does it look like to be a success story with emotional eating? How does it feel to stop overeating or to lose weight without dieting? Is it really possible? These are questions I get asked - a lot. Will this work for me? Can I do what it takes? What’s it like to get help for emotional eating? What is it like to join Your Missing Peace (my program for ending overeating habits)? In this episode...

There are common mistakes that smart women make all the time that lead to holiday overeating cycles that aren’t satisfying or even enjoyable. Breaking those patterns can actually increase your joy and decrease your stress (contrary to what diet mentality might have taught you. In this episode: 10 common mistakes that lead to overeating, guilt, and unhappiness during the holidays (and how to avoid...

Diet mentality and deprivation mentality won’t help you feel satisfied or joyful about eating, but freedom mentality is a whole different ball game. Let’s talk about what eating to REALLY feel satisfied might look like for you. In this episode: What to do if your brain tells you there are never enough cookies or that you have to eat all the cookies to feel satisfied Holiday baking and freedom from...

Today I’m calling out the thoughts and beliefs that you may have about your own independence. The beliefs that keep you stuck and that can even lead to more overeating or emotional eating. I’m a firm believer that superwoman has a support squad in the wings - cheering her on, adjusting her cape, and telling her the hard truths she might not want to hear. But too often, we have a set of thoughts fl...

Women have a lot of conditioning and experience in prioritizing other people and things over themselves. You may also have thoughts and beliefs about self-care being frivolous or selfish or a luxury. In this episode, I’m sharing why it’s so important to understand the cost of a Work Comes First mindset and how to shift your thinking in a direction that will be more effective for you in all areas o...

The idea of big, fast, dramatic results is so sexy and so appealing, but it can create problems. In fact, when this is your way of making changes, you might actually be getting good results but feeling like you’re failing. I have an example of this which I share in this episode. Be sure to check out the other episodes in this series exploring five mindsets - ways of setting your mind - that you mi...

This is the second in a series of episodes where I’m sharing five mindsets that might be keeping you stuck in cycles of overeating and emotional eating. The Just Do It mindset has mesmerized a lot of us. It feels so good to just jump in, take bold action, and tell yourself you’re taking the bull by the horns this time. And this is how a lot of women approach changing their eating habits or their w...

Wouldn't you want to know if the things you’re telling yourself in the hopes of being stronger, more powerful, and more successful were actually sabotaging you? Well, I have news. There’s a set of beliefs that smart, busy women rely on as they try to change their eating, their weight, and their relationship with food. Commonly thought of as “success habits,” this set of beliefs tends to be se...

If you’re someone who wants to stop bingeing or stop eating all the chocolate before bed, or if you want to lose 25 pounds without dieting, you’d think you’d know if your approach was working - right? What if I told you that it’s incredibly common for women to overlook, underreport, and even miss positive results and signs of success when they’re working to create freedom from overeating? It’s ent...

Unfortunately, nourishment is too often equated with a long list of things you “should” eat (and not eat). That’s not the place to start. Today I’m sharing three basic areas to focus on to improve the way you nourish yourself, but we start (of course) with mindset, and how you and your brain are thinking about nourishment and fuel.  In this episode: How to break free from the diet mentality versio...

Weight-loss culture endlessly reinforces the belief that any failed plan to end overeating is on us. It’s our fault, and the solution is - to work harder. Be more determined. Get it more perfect and then you’ll see results. Which (by the way) is a big, unhelpful myth that makes things worse.  Today let’s talk about a more effective way to think about the “failures” you’ve experienced while trying...