Sure thing, Karen!
The kick in the butt that got me started on my weight loss journey in the first place was stepping on the scale when I knew I wouldn't like what it said. I was stressed out, and knew what it was doing to my eating habits and activity levels but I kept trying to convince myself it wasn't that bad and making excuses to myself.
When I stepped on the scale I was shocked to see a 2 as the first digit of my weight for the first time in my life. But it really was a GREAT wake-up call. Don't allow yourself to be in denial about the trend toward craving unhealthy food and skipping exercise. Get on that scale, find out EXACTLY where you are. Own this. Break the cycle of "I feel like crap because I've been eating poorly so I'll cheer myself up with food." Sometimes you need a cold hard fact to reflect the emotional state you're in. But don't let your fear of what you might see stop you, because I'll bet you that while it'll be worse than part of you hopes, it will also be better than part of you fears. Don't let that fear paralyze you! Get up RIGHT NOW and check your weight. THEN go for a walk around the block. Nothing huge, just something anything to get you moving, start some new momentum toward healthy habits. Take action!
Oh, and here's one other thing I've found that helps a lot. If you're craving comfort food, make yourself a deal. Something like "Ok, if I do 20 minutes on the treadmill, I can have two cookies." Be specific about both how much you must do to earn it and what you will earn, and don't allow yourself to earn more than a sensible serving of a comfort food. When I do this, more often than not I find the endorphins or whatever other mood-boosting chemicals that exercise creates short-circuits the craving and I don't want it so much anymore. However, I make sure that if I still want it I go ahead and have it. Otherwise it will never work again! Once you've broken your word with yourself this will NEVER work again. Of course, I don't do this all the time; maybe once or twice a week at most and only end up wanting the treat after maybe once in every three or four times. More often and I think this wouldn't work so well. But as an occasional tool to replace bad habits with good ones it works quite well. Instead of diving for food as soon as I need the comfort, I hope one day to automatically jump on the elliptical or go for walk. This has already started to work, there have been a few times when I felt unhappy when my FIRST impulse was to grab the trampoline and get bouncing. And it WORKS!