I'm changing my habits, one at a time and I feel this is more sustainable than a crash-diet type of thing.
Weight Watchers have "Ten Winning Habits" that I'm focusing on right now:
1. Make wise food choices
2. Get active (exercise!)
3. Sort your surroundings (get rid of junk food etc in the house, replace it with healthier food, do a weekly foodshop)
4. Measure and record (your weight loss, your food and exercise, your portion sizes)
5. Plan ahead (plan your meals and exercise for the week ahead)
6. Learn from experience (if something has tripped you up before, dont do it again! Learn from it)
7. Manage your thoughts (think positive "can't", "should", "ought to" are negative words-replace them with "I would like to". Believe that you *can* lose weight and you will lose it)
8. Manage your feelings (distract yourself if you have emotional hunger cravings, take yourself away from the food, get a new hobby/something else to do etc)
9. Take care of yourself
10. Get support (of someone)
Also the 3 W's as I've heard them called-Water, Walk, Write Down. Get your 8 glasses of water per day/2 litres of water at least, walk (for exercise), and write down (what you're eating and how much exercise you're doing).
I really think exercise is the key. When you exercise regularly, you can maintain a certain weight easily enough. If you don't exercise, then any little binge etc will result in a weight gain.
I also don't think of food as emotional anymore-I just think of it as fuel. I think of my body as a machine that needs fuel and that has to burn off that fuel. I find this analogy helps me x