As we celebrate our country's independence, celebrate your own. From changing our lifestyle and our habits, we have changed our relationship with food. Rather than living as a slave and victim to food, we are now free and independent of the limitations of emotional eating. You are free! You are independent!

Reflect back on the times that you've binged and emotionally eaten, did you feel free? Did you feel like you were under the control of the food choices? Stop and think about it - under the influence of a cookie? Now, that's a dreadful thought. Be under the influence and control of your own influence and control. Don't allow a Twinkie to rule your life.

The constraints of emotional eating go beyond weight. Emotional eating results in excess weight. A large body size and excess weight impacts and deteriorates our self-esteem, our self-worth, creates a feeling of victimization, and we settles for less than what we deserve. Breaking free from the bonds of food is similar to giving yourself a second birth. It feels as though you've been reborn. We are reborn to live a full, meaningful life that you've always been meant to live.

The next time you are at a fork in the emotional eating road, give yourself a moment of pause. How do you feel when you give in to the food temptations and overeat, kicking in the cycle of eating emotionally? Do you want to follow the path of exercising your muscle of controlling your food choices and truly your life? Yes, sometimes it is difficult to stop the cycle of emotionally eating. It is comforting and can allow us to escape an uncomfortable situation. If we do it often enough, it creates a stronger muscle of resistance in succumbing to unhealthy food choices that make us independent of food.

You become more independent and your own person when you move away from emotionally eating. No longer do you need to live to eat but eat to live. You live your life complete with a variety of thoughts, feelings, emotions and you have the coping strategies to overcome the challenges you previously ate over. That is true independence.

I look forward to celebrating Independence Day, our liberties, our freedom, and what it means to me personally. I also look forward to celebrating my own personal Independence Day, my liberty from being a slave to food, my freedom from emotional eating, and what my life today means to me. I encourage you to do the same. Celebrate your own personal Independence Day every single day of the year. You aren't limited to one day per year - celebrate your independence every single day.