Having once been a smoker that sounds a lot like an addiction.

I always used to restart smoking after quitting after something good or bad happened in my life.

It took me a long time to realize that life is full of things that go good and bad and having identified those triggers I successfully kicked the habit by being on my guard at those times.

Thankfully with eating, I just used to enjoy eating a lot of cr@p. No emotional attachments or baggage.

I started my journey by eating less cr@p.

Then changed what I eat to healthy stuff, which I now enjoy eating quite a lot of.

And then adding in exercise.

In fact exercise has become quite addictive for me and ticks quite a few of the things on your list especially the stress and emotional stuff.

I'm SUPER impulsive and that's one of my biggest hurdles something will be in my mouth before my brain catches up to say "stop!"

I do both! The stronger the emotion, the crappier the meal.

Alaskandaughter: that's my life story!!!

That's the holy grail. I'm not saying it's simple but it seems so much more simple than eating for emotional reasons.

In my case, I have to constantly over analyze why I'm putting food in my mouth every.single.time I'm going to eat or drink anything except water.

It's such a tiring thing to do, especially because this is the first time I'm in my life that I'm doing this. I'm hoping to get used to it over time.

Palestrina: I think you've got a point there; it's not quite the same type of challenge.

#1 on your list explains a lot of my overeating----and I have variations of it. For instance, "It's fresh now, and won't taste as good later, so I'd better eat it now." Also, your #21 goes into the same category. It's the idea of having to eat something right away because somehow it won't be as great when I am hungry. If I really think it out, though, it's usually not true. Even if it is true, though, so what? Unless it's some special circumstance where I'll never get to eat that food again in my life, what difference does it make if it goes bad, gets stale, etc.? I wish I could think this logically when confronted with the food in question.

Or sometimes you just eat something because you don't want to throw it away. I made too much lasagna for a party last weekend so I've had a lot left over. I don't want to throw it away because I put so much effort into making it and don't like to waste food that I absolutely love to eat. But at the same time I'm eating a piece of lasagna every day which does not feel good on my body. What to do?

I'm getting slightly better at this because the freezer has become my friend when it comes to leftovers. Dieting aside, my husband (a "naturally thin" person) and I have very different taste in foods, so I often find myself cooking something that I really want but that he will not eat (e.g. I love vegetables, baked pastas, eggplant parm, etc., and he doesn't even though he's Italian!). That means I have leftovers. A few weeks ago, I made a pan of eggplant parm. I cut it into some nice-sized pieces and froze all but one piece. I have just one piece left now. The only time this doesn't work for me is with pecan pie, my all-time favorite dessert. It tastes better frozen! I haven't made it in a very long time because when I make it, without fail, I'll eat the entire pie within two days, max.

How I wish I could freeze food for later, something so simple! But nope. My willpower would last for only a few hours. I'd go back, take it out, heat it and shovel it in my mouth ,all this without feeling hungry...just because it was lying there.
I stopped doing the once a month grocery shopping years ago, because I'd finish the "provisions" in less than a week.
The one desperate measure I had to take was to unplug my fridge 2 years ago. *sigh* Addiction...

There's a lot of food I do freeze but not all cooked food freezes well. Soups and stews yes to some extent. But this lasagna dish I've tried freezing pieces before and it was horrible when defrosted and reheated. I may not be freezing it correctly though, how do you freeze?

I find when I don't eat processed foods, sugar, or wheat, it is a LOT easier to stay on track. Once I have just a little bit of the crap food, it spirals! I cannot moderate the crap food. Period.

And, after much experimenting, I sure feel TERRIBLE when I eat crap food. It really is astounding how much it affects the way I feel. Plus I get bad heartburn which is miserable.

Wow--I wonder why it's not freezing well for you. I've made various types of lasagna before (e.g., traditional Italian, butternut squash, etc.), and they're all fine as long as I give them time to fully thaw. They don't taste quite as good when I nuke them.

I tend to be a bit manic with wrapping foods for freezing. With my eggplant parm, I first let it cool completely. Then, I wrap each piece in wax paper, and then wrap it again in tin foil. I freeze them on a cookie sheet (so they won't all smash together if I put them in a bag). When they're frozen, I put everything in a large freezer bag.

That's exactly how I freeze it too. But I do put it in the microwave. It takes a long time for something to thaw properly and I froze it so I could have a quick meal in the first place.