Episode 281

Emotional Eating & The Holidays (feat. Dr. Melissa McCreery)

Published on: 18th December, 2024

What if you could forget cravings? Sounds like a fairytale, right? What if emotional eating wasn’t a problem but a symptom?

Today, Jenn Trepeck dives into the myths, misconceptions, and mindset traps around food, dieting, and emotional eating. Joining Jenn is Dr. Melissa McCreery, psychologist, emotional eating expert, and creator of Your Missing PEACE, to challenge the all-or-nothing holiday mindset and break down the hidden hungers driving your cravings. Together, they’ll explore how curiosity (not guilt!) is the key to stepping off the hamster wheel of dieting and creating lasting freedom with food. In this episode, you’ll uncover practical ways to navigate the holidays, rethink outdated beliefs, and savor life—cookies and all—without waiting until January to hit reset. Tune in and transform your relationship with food, one bite at a time!

The Salad With a Side of Fries podcast is hosted by Jenn Trepeck, discussing wellness and weight loss for real life, clearing up the myths, misinformation, bad science & marketing surrounding our nutrition knowledge and the food industry. Let’s dive into wellness and weight loss for real life, including drinking, eating out, and skipping the grocery store.

IN THIS EPISODE: 

  • [1:50] Dr. Melissa McCreery shares her inspiring story
  • [9:24] Emotional Eating and reasons hidden hunger can drive our cravings
  • [15:11] Dr. Melissa discusses the auto-pilot mentality and asks, “What do you want to savor?”
  • [21:55] Dieting’s hidden traps: why it feels like you’re running on a hamster wheel
  • [26:44] Unlocking self-awareness: Dr. Melissa introduces the Hidden Hunger Quiz
  • [31:25] Why change feels hard and how to navigate emotions around the holidays
  • [38:54] A sneak peek at the upcoming Nutrition Nugget segment: “Chew.”

KEY TAKEAWAYS: 

  • Overcoming struggles like overeating, emotional eating, or food-related issues doesn't require a lifetime of self-control, discipline, or constant management. It doesn’t require endless discipline or continuous management. Many feel trapped in a cycle of cravings and worry, but true freedom comes from shifting mindsets and reclaiming power over food. It’s about living free from the cycle, trusting yourself, and focusing your energy on what truly matters.
  • Emotional eating isn't the problem—it’s the symptom. Labeling yourself as an emotional eater might feel like an “aha” moment, but it’s often useless. We all eat for a reason, and emotional eating usually points to deeper, hidden hungers—like the need for rest, self-care, or balance. Simply trying to manage anxiety or stress isn’t always the answer. It’s time to uncover the hidden pangs of hunger driving your cravings and how addressing them can break the cycle for good.
  • Holiday eating isn’t inevitable—it’s a choice shaped by the stories we tell ourselves. The all-or-nothing mindset during the holidays can feel like a trap: staying hyper-vigilant about food or diving headfirst into a free-for-all. Neither feels good, and both are driven by the beliefs we repeat so often they feel like facts. Challenge those narratives to help you rewrite the story about holiday eating and reclaim control without the guilt or extremes.
  • The hamster wheel of guilt keeps you stuck—curiosity sets you free. When diets fail or holiday eating feels out of control, the instinct is often to blame yourself and push harder. But running faster on the hamster wheel doesn’t work. Instead, the antidote is curiosity. Asking why things didn’t go as planned—a sudden craving, holiday stress, or shifting routines—opens the door to understanding and real solutions. It isn’t about perfection; it’s about staying curious, learning from the moment, and choosing the next step forward.

QUOTES: 

[0:00] “We eat for a reason. We always eat for a reason. We overeat for a reason. If you find yourself standing in the pantry staring at the cashews and the peanut butter and not knowing how you got there, there is a reason. And sometimes it's because you're having emotions you don't know how to deal with. “Dr. Melissa McCreery

[8:23] “It's amazing to be on the other side of it and experience it and be able to say to someone, ‘It is possible. There is this other place’.” Jenn Trepeck

[11:19] “If I'm exhausted, I can have the best tools in the world for anxiety, but I may not have the bandwidth to deal with the situation right now. So it might be helpful to know that I'm emotionally eating because I'm anxious, but actually, what I need is to address my hidden hunger for rest.” Dr. Melissa McCreery

[12:53] “Sometimes it's not even the food or the choice to eat it, it's what happens after, and beating ourselves up is worse than the food or the fact that we ate because of emotions.” Jenn Trepeck

[23:45] “That hamster wheel thinking kills curiosity, and curiosity is how you solve the puzzle. And this is all just a puzzle. So what's going on? There is a much more powerful question than anything you'll ever get by being hard on yourself in the holidays.” Dr. Melissa McCreery

RESOURCES:

Learn more about Healthy Vibe Tribe on Dec 19 at 7pm ET

Learn more about Healthy Vibe Tribe on Jan 6 at 8pm ET

Ready to jump into the Healthy Vibe Tribe? Start here:

Become A Member of Salad with a Side of Fries

Jenn’s Free Menu Plan

A Salad With a Side of Fries

A Salad With A Side Of Fries Merch

A Salad With a Side of Fries Instagram

Eight Chemicals That Drive Overeating and Under-Eating 

GUEST RESOURCES: 

Too Much On Her Plate - Website

Too Much On Her Plate - Facebook

Too Much On Her Plate - Instagram

Dr. Melissa McCreery - LinkedIn

Current Project Inc. - Instagram

Free Emotional Eating Quiz

The Missing Peace Program - Website

Too Much On Her Plate - Podcast

GUEST BIO: 

Dr. Melissa McCreery is a psychologist, emotional eating expert, author, the Too Much on Her Plate podcast host, and the creator of Your Missing Peace. This program supports smart, busy women in creating freedom from overeating and peace with food. She has helped thousands break cycles of overwhelm, overload, and overeating without feeling deprived and without depending on ridiculous amounts of willpower. Participants in her signature program lose their cravings and their overeating habits. Dr. McCreery’s approach to helping working mothers, busy professionals, and stressed-out business owners emphasizes leveraging your unique strengths, ditching a diet mentality, and using the power of psychology. Her perspective has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, CNN Health, Weight Watchers Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Working Mother, Fitness, Women’s Health, Real Simple, and Self.

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About the Podcast

Salad With a Side of Fries Nutrition, Wellness & Weight Loss
What to eat and when to cheat! Let's decipher between all the “diets” out there. You know what to do but it itsn't working. In fact, your diet could be making you fatter.

Ever wondered if cryo-freezing your fat cells would really work? Should you try acupuncture? A hypnotist? If you do, how do you know if someone’s good?

Salad with a Side of Fries is the podcast that will answer all these questions and more! Talking wellness and weight loss for real life, because most of us are going to drink, eat out, skip the grocery store and who wants a life without fries or dessert?! Host Jenn Trepeck’s expertise as an optimal health coach, in practice for over a decade, along with experts in various modalities will clear up the myths, mis-information, bad science and marketing to reveal the truth of HOW TO EAT and HOW TO CHEAT!*



*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This podcast, its content and guests are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

About your host

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Jennifer Trepeck

“My passion for nutrition and helping others stems from “kicking my food issues” with my own weight management saga.” ~ Jenn

I believe that the greatest accountability is paying it forward! That’s why I teach the nutrition education we are all supposed to know but no one ever taught us, along with the science behind food, fitness, and health.

After I graduated from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, I founded Better Life Now LLC while working full-time in hedge funds. In 2019, I took my practice from side-hustle to full-time self-employment and launched my podcast, Salad With a Side of Fries. On the show, we offer science-based tips and tricks for how to achieve wellness and weight loss for real life – because who wants a life without fries or dessert?!

Topics we tackle on the podcast include debunking fad diets, food myths, misinformation in marketing, bad science, and general nutrition. I encourage guests whose expertise is different from my own focus on weight management to bring their unique, fact-based perspectives to talk about subjects they are educated in and passionate about.

Due to my decade-long experience of working with clients, I have gained insight into the health and food industry and the how-tos of building a business.

Some specific health and wellness topics I can speak to include debunking fad diets, exposing the BS we are fed by the food and diet industry, how the people around us can positively and negatively impact our health journey, and shifting mindsets in order to overcome inappropriate barometers of success to instead achieve happy, healthy, and meaningful change.

On the subject of business, I can help you by teaching my critical pieces every entrepreneur should know, how to make your side-hustle into your full-time job, ways to sustainably achieve success without burning out, contemporary networking, and how to prioritize wellness while pursuing your projects.

When I find some free time, I’m typically working out at Physique57, discovering hidden gem restaurants in NYC, or traveling to spend time with friends and family.

I’d love to have an in-depth conversation with you, whether it’s leveling up in business or debunking food myths!