Deal with the underlying issues

As is the case with many forms of addiction, it is very important to understand WHY you overeat. I did not get to my heaviest weight of 260 pounds just because I liked food, though that was part of it. There were a lot of other, deeper emotional issues that I had to deal with to help me push through "the wall" and make it to my weight loss goal.

I was about six months into my weight loss journey when I hit a plateau. I thought I was doing everything that I could to be healthy so I went to a nutritionist to discuss my eating habits and why I was not able to keep losing weight. As we were talking, she asked if I had thought about the things that made me eat. I hadn't. So I decided that the best thing for me was to see a therapist and discuss the things that lead to my eating in the first place. That was a very cathartic process for me. I am also very lucky to have a wonderful, supportive group of friends and an amazing husband that helped me work through a lot of the underlying issues that I had about my past and future.

That is when things really changed for me. I was able to heal mentally from the things that I went through in my life (and that everyone goes through in their lives) and that helped me to heal physically from the abuse that I put myself through by overeating. And as I like to say, "I don't love myself because I lost weight, I lost weight because I love myself."