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

You probably have a lot of thoughts about food, overeating, and maybe your weight. We judge our eating, we judge our “results,” and our weight, and our willpower. So many women think about their day as “good” or “bad” depending on how they ate or what they weighed and what they make these things mean. We have a soundtrack that plays in our head of thoughts and beliefs about ourselves, about our pe...

Overeating and emotional eating can become habits that feel hard to escape, and, after a while, this can take a toll on your sense of hope. It’s easy to doubt yourself or wonder whether change is really possible.  Let’s look at why you may be feeling short on hope or belief or confidence - and what you might do about this. What you’ll learn from this episode: False assumptions that have probably e...

Overeating at night is probably the struggle clients ask about most often. Overeating, emotional eating, and bingeing are all most common at the end of the day and it’s also the period of eating that most women feel least confident about being able to change. There are good reasons for this, but I’ve got some new tools to share with you to help with night eating. What you’ll learn from this episod...

Food journals or food diaries or journaling your eating - odds are you’ve either tried these things or told yourself you “should". But are these practices effective ways to stop emotional eating or overeating - or are they just self-imposed torture? The answer: it’s complicated... What you’ll learn from this episode: The pros and cons of food diaries How to prevent a food journal from feeling...

You’re probably doing something “without even thinking” about it that makes overeating more tempting and makes changing your eating habits more difficult. It’s human nature to have a soundtrack in your head that constantly feeds you thoughts and beliefs and stories - about you, about what you’re capable of, about food and eating and cravings, and about the possibility (or impossibility) of change....

Why is it so hard to make a new eating habit stick? The idea of changing your eating habits sounds straightforward. So why is it so easy to fall off track? Why does this one area of your life work differently than all the other places where you can easily solve problems? Let’s talk about why new eating habits don’t stick and what you can do to change this. What you’ll learn from this episode: Why...

Comfort eating is a term almost everyone uses, and it’s something we all do. I’m sure you can easily make a list of your “comfort foods.” There’s nothing wrong with comfort eating - unless it feels like it’s taking up too much space in your life. Or unless the eating you’re doing doesn’t feel comfortable or comforting (beyond the 30 minutes after it happens) Take a deep breath, take a listen, and...

Emotional eating is a label that gets thrown around a lot. I’ve talked to women over the years who: Felt like emotional eating was normal - and something everyone did Felt great shame around their emotional eating and believed it meant there was something deeply wrong with them Felt like emotional eating was a “cop-out” and that it “should be easy to give up.” Felt like they understood their overe...

If you can’t figure out how to stop overeating and emotional eating - despite your efforts, or if you can’t motivate yourself to try to change your eating habits because nothing seems to work, this episode is exactly what you need to hear. In this episode, I want to show you how you can coach yourself to do things differently. It’s time to ditch your inner-drill sergeant and discover what tough lo...

One place that even smart high-achievers get stuck with emotional eating - and with comfort eating, stress eating or eating to numb or overeating because you’re so busy - or any kind of overeating really, is by missing an important connection. And that’s the connection between your boundaries and your relationship with food. There are reasons that focusing on boundaries might make you uncomfortabl...

How can you feel hopeful about getting help for emotional eating or overeating when it feels like your past attempts to get help haven’t been … helpful? Join me while I share my thoughts on why it’s important to be clear on the kind of help and support that will meet your needs and be helpful to you - and how to let go of the “help” that isn’t helpful at all. What you’ll learn from this episode: H...

Comfort eating is one of the most challenging types of overeating. It can be a difficult habit to break, in part because our need for comfort tends to show up most strongly when we’re feeling down or tired or vulnerable in some way. Check out this episode of the podcast to learn specifically what you can start doing today to deflate the pull of comfort eating in your life. I’ve also got a free che...

Everyone eats emotionally from time to time, but actual struggles with emotional eating are a different beast. If you’re caught in a power struggle with emotional eating and overeating you know how exhausting this can be. It takes a new approach to create freedom from emotional eating and it all begins with a very different step. Check out this episode if you’re ready to let go of struggles for co...

It’s the season of goal-setting and resolutions. When it comes to tackling emotional eating and overeating, we tend to sell ourselves short (because of a lack of belief in what’s really possible). It’s also far too common to set goals or resolutions that will set you up for failure, or self-blame, or one more pass through a vicious cycle with overeating and the scale. You CAN step off the diet and...

It’s entirely normal to say you want to create freedom from emotional eating and then create a plan that moves you in the opposite direction. Years of living in a culture focused on productivity and diet mentality will reinforce thoughts and behaviors that only leave you feeling deprived or blaming yourself for any lack of results. In this episode, I’ve got a list of powerful questions for you. Ta...

How do you stop emotional eating when you’re busy? How do you make changes when you don’t feel like you have the time? When it feels like you’re overeating because life feels out of control? In this episode, I’m covering how to address emotional eating when you’re busy, including simple things you really can do, that definitely make a difference. What you’ll learn from this episode: Spoiler alert...

Do you ever feel frustrated because you know the reasons that you’re overeating, but the knowledge doesn’t seem to make a difference? You’re not alone. What you’ll learn from this episode: The four mistakes that smart, busy women make after learning about their Hidden Hungers that lead to a lack of results or effectiveness How your thoughts and beliefs can sabotage you after you’ve identified your...

Do you have a lot of rules about food and eating and weight taking up space in your brain? Are you sometimes both exhausted by them and scared to give them up? In this episode I’m shining a light on diet mentality and food rules - what they are, and why we react to them as we do. I’m also covering some ideas you can use to begin creating new thoughts and behaviors and habits that will help you bre...

When you find perfectionism hiding in your blind spot, it opens the door for the possibility of real change. And that is exactly what this episode is about. What you’ll learn from this episode: How and why perfectionism causes emotional eating How cycles of “starting over” are fueled by perfectionism - and how to break the cycle How perfectionism can sabotage attempts to end emotional eating and p...

Let's talk vicious cycles with overeating and emotional eating - and what to do about them. You can break patterns of endlessly falling off track and "starting over" each time your eating doesn't go the way you'd hoped. You can also let go of the guilt and shame and the other emotional baggage that's often a part of these overeating cycles. I have a number of "wh...

When’s the last time you felt really, truly nourished - like your tank was full, and your spirit had been fed? If your goal today was to take care of yourself in that way, would you know how to do it? This episode of the podcast is not a list of things like bubble baths and long walks. Instead, I’m covering the process of creating new ways of thinking and approaching self-care - so you can rewire...

If you’re a stress eater, you’ve probably felt frustration at what a difficult habit this can be to change.  In this episode, I’ve got some strategies to share that you can use to shift patterns of stress eating, and also to shift the power away from food in those challenge situations. You can even download a handy cheat sheet with all the strategies I share in the episode. You’ll find the link be...

Knowing the value of something and then being able to implement it can be two very different things. This is especially true when it comes to making changes with food - and there are so many good reasons for this (that’s a whole season of podcast episodes!). Let’s talk about upping your transition game and strengthening your pausing muscle - both why it’s important, and how to actually implement t...

Have you ever wished life came with a pause button? Take a moment and consider - if you had a pause button - would you allow yourself to use it? If you’re someone who wants to change patterns of overeating or emotional eating, it’s worth exploring whether or not you’re using food and eating as your pause button - or if you’re stuck in the pattern of depriving yourself of transitions. Listen to thi...

Difficult feelings and situations are a part of life. They’re a common reason that smart, busy women overeat, and they are often the things that throw a wrench into the best-laid intentions to make changes in how you eat or think about food. What do you do with a feeling when you don’t know what to do (but you don’t want to eat everything in sight)? That’s the topic of this episode. Tune in to thi...