Oprah.com has an article entitled "Oprah’s Weight Loss Confession", in which the immensely popular TV star details her struggle with her weight over the years, including her issues with emotional eating. Some selected passages from the 15 page article:

When Oprah turned 50 in 2004, she seemed to have her health and weight under control. For years, she maintained her figure with diet and exercise. She says she thought she had it all figured out, but in 2007, as Oprah dealt with emotional and medical issues, the number on the scale began to creep closer to 200…….

In February 2007, Oprah says she put on the first few pounds. Then, as life took over and she began to feel overwhelmed, she turned to food for comfort. "I have known since my early years of working with Bob Greene that for me it is not a cosmetic issue. It is an emotional issue," she says. "When my engine runs down, my drug of choice is food. My drug of choice used to be potato chips. Now, this year, it was organic multigrain blue chips…but a bag of them. So you eat a bag of those a day, and see what happens if you’re not working out."

When Oprah gains weight, she says it means her life is out of balance. "It’s not about the food. It’s about using food—abusing food," she says. "Too much work. Not enough play. Not enough time to come down. Not enough time to really relax."

Over time, she discovered what she was really hungry for. "I am hungry for balance," she says. "I’m hungry to do something other than work."

When times are tough, Oprah remembers a lesson she learned from author Marianne Williamson. "She was saying that your overweight self does not stand before you craving food. It’s craving love," Oprah says. "It’s about extending yourself in so many different directions that you literally become unconscious. You’re just trying to get through it all and not giving back to yourself. When you love yourself enough, you take care of yourself."

Oprah wants everyone who’s struggling with weight to make themselves a priority this year. "Look at falling off the wagon as I am—not as a weight issue, but a love issue," she says. "Like all of you, I’m really good at giving love to other people and my happiness … really comes from giving to other people. But we all need to make 2009 the year we give ourselves as much love and support as we give to others.

At the end of the article, the oprah.com staff asks five questions to help people get back on track:

1. What are you hungry for?
   "The weight is always representative of something other than what it looks like," Oprah says. "You don’t have a weight problem; you have a self-care, self-love problem."
2. Why are you overweight?
   "It’s not because you like a certain food," Bob says. "Get deep into it."
3. Why have you been unable to maintain weight loss in the past?
   "This one is really more about ‘Why have you failed?’" Bob says.
4. What in your life is not working?
   "You’re going to find the answers in those areas that you say are really important to you," Bob says. "But they’re not doing well."
5. Why do you want to lose weight?
   "If any part of your answer hints that you’ll be happy at a certain size or weight, you’re setting yourself for failure because [there are] two outcomes," Bob says. "You never reach that size or weight and you’re never happy. And even worse, you reach that size and weight and realize it has nothing to do with your happiness."

Welcome to EmotionalEatingHelp.org, a site devoted to helping people understand, treat, and overcome emotional overeating. This blog will be a resource for people looking to find out more about emotional eating and will offer tips and news on:

• Techniques to avoid emotional overeating
• Interviews with experts
• Advice on how to overcome emotional overeating
• Healthy alternatives to bad food
• Coping with emotional overeating
• The psychology of overeating
• Products to help emotional overeaters
• Weight loss strategies
• Mental fitness information

This blog is sponsored by Bach Original Flower Remedies, makers of the Emotional Eating Support Kit. More information on Bach’s Emotional Eating Support products is available here.