Open up a google doc, you are going to want to take notes! What you have been told about emotional eating is keeping you stuck. You may be surprised to learn what insight it brings while being with your superpower. If you struggle with emotional eating, wonder how to move forward using intuitive eating or anti-diet approaches, well this episode is for you! Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds. This episode of The Love Food Podcast is brought to you by: Grab details at PCOSandFoodPeace.com Thank you for you supporting the Love Food Podcast! Dear Food, My relationship with you has changed so much over the years and I am grateful for that.We do have a positive relationship now, most of the time.  I enjoy you, I savor you, I appreciate you and give gratitude. I don’t need to count calories or think of how much exercise needs to be done to rid you from my body. But, I still use you as a drug and that angers and frustrates me.  You have calmed me for years when I didn’t have any other tools. But I am tired of not having other tools. I am tired of turning to food to deal with life’s daily stressors. I am ready to give you up and learn new life skills, but I feel stuck. I fall into entrenched patterns of using food to push away any discomfort, whether big or small. I know it makes me unhappy and doesn’t solve my problem.  But I don’t believe that any other strategy will work as well. I am so convinced that nothing will work as well as you, that I don’t even try other skills.  Sure, I have used other strategies from time to time, but I always fall back to food.  I get so tired of the suggestions “got take a walk, read a book, take a shower” to avoid emotional eating.  How does anyone do that at work? I can’t leave a meeting or stop working with students to do that.  Anyway, you can see how frustrated it makes me that I still turn to you, but I feel so stuck sometimes.   You can calm me so quickly; bites of chocolate or extra servings of pretzels eaten so fast – and I am calmed… When stressed, I eat way more than I need.  But you don’t make me happy in the long run. Sure, I feel good for a few seconds, but then I feel blah, physically and mentally. Once again, asking myself “why did I do that again?” “why did I eat more than I needed?”  The cycle continues, eating too much, having an upset stomach, feeling bad about it, telling myself I screwed up,  tight pants and on and on…. How can I end this? How can I stop this cycle of using food as a drug? How can I stop eating emotionally? I am fed up!! Please help. Show Notes: Julie Dillon RD blog The PCOS + Food Peace Free Roadmap The PCOS + Food Peace Course Link to get latest Food Peace Syllabus. 6 Keys To Food Peace Dr. Barbara Birsinger on Love Food Podcast Episode 157 Submit your Dear Food letter here or https://forms.gle/pepKRGPC8JbHLHHn8 Julie on Instagram: Instagram.com/FoodPeaceDietitian Find Eating Disorder Dietitians near you. 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!