I’m the first to admit that feelings can be overwhelming. But to run from them is futile. I did for years and all it ever got me was deeper in the hole. Mainly because feelings are greatly underestimated as silly, girly things that aren’t all that important. The truth is, feelings are intelligent portals of information. Pretend they’re not there at your own risk. I know from my own experience that gut feelings have both served to enlighten and protect me. How else do you think we’re privy to vital bits of information that haven’t yet made it to our brain? Once I agreed to stop running I discovered that feeling isn’t so terrifying after all. Feelings are also unpredictable and cyclic, they come and go and they’re best handled by experiencing them in a state of non-attachment. This is particularly tricky with the good ones like joy and excitement. Who doesn’t want to hang onto those? I now let whatever’s knocking at the door in for as long as it needs to stay. It’s cleansing, healing, and the only guaranteed way I’ve ever known to keep the triggers to ‘excess’ at bay, whether it’s eating, spending, worrying (insert your vice here).

My friend and role model Terri Lange has kept her weight off for 10 years. Amazing? Perhaps. But it has more to do with her realism that there are good days and bad days, and the siren call of emotional eating doesn’t cease when the extra pounds are off. Anytime I get the urge to overeat or gravitate to a caloric food when I’m not hungry is actually a gift. It’s a fail proof barometer that there’s something churning inside of me and the sooner I take a look, the sooner it will subside. The choice is mine: I can deal with it as it comes up or ignore it and pay the price later as its velocity grows.