Are you someone who identifies with the emotional eating experience? Have you tried everything to work through emotional eating and bingeing, but still lean on food when things feel intolerable? Do the tools that everyone suggests to you to overcome these problems always seem to fall short? Listen now to get a new perspective and begin to find some relief from emotional eating. Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds. Key Points: Sometimes we get convinced that nothing will work as good as food in allowing us to cope with our emotional issues. How do we incorporate tools that just don't work with our lifestyle? Eating for emotional comfort just doesn't make us happy in the long run! Ellen Shuman, a therapist who does work specifically with people who struggle with emotional eating, joins us to help answer today's letter! She tells us about her journey to becoming involved in the eating disorder and emotional eating worlds. "The Oprah Effect" Ellen's "Emotional Handrails:" something to attach our mind to in order to tolerate the emotions long enough to figure out what is driving us to emotional eating. It's not about food behavior, it's about being able to internally emotionally regulate! "I've learned how to neutralize the things I'm saying to myself that really are distortions, and not really the truth." - Ellen The whole point of eating emotionally is to be mindLESS, which is why mindFULL eating is such a hard goal for people who deal with emotional eating. "First we learn how to tolerate our thoughts and feelings and to feel more empowered to manage those so [that] we're not so scared they're gonna overwhelm us." - Ellen There are so many tools out there that work better!! It's about intervening BEFORE the food thought hits. Conscious positive behavior replaces conscious negative behavior. Ellen's "To Hell With it Switch:" that moment in which we abandon our promises to "do better" and instead engage in emotional eating to numb out. What's the brain chemistry going on here?? What are the patterns of thinking that trigger our emotional eating? Top brain (pre-frontal cortex) vs. bottom brain (primitive brain). Use self-compassion and self-care to quiet your negative thoughts (middle-brain self-critical statements) that lead to emotional overeating! "I am not my thoughts! Just 'cause I have a food thought doesn't mean I have to act on it." - Ellen "Don't believe everything you think." - Dr. Wayne W Dyer Ellen chats about her program, A Weigh Out which focuses on an end to emotional eating and weight obsession, her free phone seminar session, and the Weigh Out free 3-week membership. If we work on the underlying issues and learn new tools to support our emotional management, then the food issues begin to resolve themselves. Happiness and freedom from food obsession comes from being who we truly are, and working on our emotional coping tools. You are WORTH putting in the effort and figuring this out. Stop blaming yourself... you haven't found the tools yet that work for you! RECOVERY IS POSSIBLE!! Show Notes: Link to subscribe to the weekly FREE Food Peace Newsletter. It is sent out every Tuesday morning and no spam EVER. By signing up, I will also send you Love Food's Season 1's Food Peace Syllabus. Marsha Lineham and DBT Excuses Begone! by Dr. Wayne W Dyer Free Phone Coach Seminar with Ellen A Weigh Out Ellen's free 3-week membership Ellen's contact information: ellen@aweighout.com, (513) 321-4242 Eating Disorder Dietitians Julie Dillon RD blog Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com.  Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue! Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series. Give me feedback via Twitter @EatingPermitRD. This episode is sponsored by my friends at Green Mountain at Fox Run. A special promotion for Love Food listeners: Immerse yourself in a practice of m