I’m celebrating a small victory today!

Yesterday, I didn’t give in. And it wasn’t even that hard.

The primary place where I still deal with emotional eating is when I’m on deadline. The stress from being under the gun makes me want to chew.

My desire is to reach for crunchy, salty foods like popcorn and nuts.

One of the reasons it’s taken me a while to address this spot of emotional eating is that I can rationalize that popcorn and nuts are not “bad” foods. They can still be part of a healthy diet.

The problem is the underlying reason why I was eating them. In the past, the desire for popcorn has been so intense that it felt like I must give in or I will never be able to concentrate again.

According to Linda Spangle, author of “Life is Hard, Food is Easy,” this is a classic example of “Head Eating.” Stressful feelings like anger, resentment, and irritation often trigger a specific desire for a chewy or crunchy food.

Eating to cope with hollow or restless feelings like boredom, depression, or loneliness is “Heart Eating,” and is where an unspecific craving for comforting, soft and creamy foods is experienced. Think of standing in front of the fridge wondering what it is you want. The answer might be something like ice cream, candy, mashed potatoes, or macaroni and cheese.

Neither of these types of emotional eating is choosing delicious and healthy foods that will feed and nourish your body. You may tell yourself you are eating because you are hungry, or that you love food, but are you really?

The true taste of food only lasts for the first few bites. After that, you no longer taste the deliciousness. If you can’t stop after a few bites, there is something more going on.

A quick way to tell if your hunger is because your stomach needs food to function, or is a desire in your mouth or head is to ask yourself if you’re hungry enough to eat an apple or orange. If one of those won’t do, it’s a craving.

That’s a sign you need to ask yourself, “Why am I eating?”

When you can identify the situation—for me, stressful deadlines—then look for the emotions.

I’ve been working with my coach on this, and I discovered that I had some limiting beliefs about time that caused me some intense internal conflict when I was on deadline. In fact, it felt like the tyrannical demands of an old managing editor for whom I used to work.

The truth is, that editor has been our of my life for a really long time. This was me doing this to myself.

And this deadline tyrant was not serving me. Meeting deadlines had become a real struggle. The pressure cooker feelings actually drained me of the energy I needed to get things done. I was not being my highest and best self.

Once you realize that eating won’t change the problem—and may actually make it worse with feelings of guilt and self-loathing—you want to address the underlying emotions and look for what you can do instead. Note: this is easier done before you find yourself in the situation that will again trigger emotional eating.

My coach helped me face and clear the underlying emotional energy, which helped significantly. The intensity of the feelings have decreased dramatically. But I still had a slight craving, so I will continue to read the affirmations regarding time that we came up with to shift my subconscious thinking.

And I followed my plan for what I could do besides eat in this situation.

For me, that was chewing sugar-free gum. (That’s a temporary crutch until I can fully clear the emotions and shift my habitual thinking, but it’s not eating, so I’ll take it.) I also take deep breaths, or take 10 to 15 minutes to meditate. (It can be really hard to make myself take that time, but it pays off in spades with how productive I am afterwards.) I also read my affirmation that we created about time to help retrain my brain.

Not reaching for the popcorn yesterday was a huge win! And I feel awesome about myself for making such progress with this issue, which actually helped generate positive energy that lead me to get up and get my workout in this morning.

How can you remind yourself to pay attention to why you are eating?

When the reason is to soothe stress, fill the hole of something missing in your life, or deaden an uncomfortable feeling, what do you need to do to clear that emotion? What can you do to solve the problem without food? How much better do you feel about yourself afterwards?

Together we can do it!