#146 – Paula Yolles: End Emotional Eating#146 – Paula Yolles: End Emotional Eating
Recovery Survey
Coach Paula Yolles shares her long struggle with emotional eating, sugar and negative self-talk, linking food addiction to other forms of addiction. She and host Brett Morris discuss community, mindset, and the trial and error needed to find a recovery path that genuinely fits.
27:06•22 Feb 2023
Same Pattern, Different Substance: Paula Yolles on Emotional Eating and Recovery
Episode Overview
- Emotional eating can function like any other addiction, with cycles of escape, shame and broken promises to oneself.
- Food may be used to push down feelings while a parallel addiction to negative thoughts keeps people trapped.
- Gradually reducing or removing refined sugar can significantly affect mood and inner dialogue for some people.
- Recovery often depends on finding a supportive community or programme that fits, even if it takes several attempts.
- What you feed your mind each day – music, media, conversations – can matter as much as what you put on your plate.
“I actually feel like it was two addictions… the eating to push down my feelings, and then the other one is addiction of negative thoughts.”
What can we learn from those who have battled addiction? This conversation with coach Paula Yolles shines a light on emotional eating as a genuine addiction, right alongside drugs and alcohol. Speaking with host Brett Morris, Paula shares how her relationship with food began in childhood, quietly growing into a secret coping mechanism for difficult emotions.
She describes coming home from teaching, heading straight for the freezer and “mindlessly eating until I hear thunk… and that’s when I’d wake up sort of out of my eating coma.” Her honesty about shame, broken promises to herself, and the exhausting cycle of bingeing and regret will ring true for anyone who’s used a substance to escape.
Paula explains that, for her, there were “two addictions… the eating to push down my feelings, and then the other one is addiction of negative thoughts.” She talks about a pivotal moment when a friend bravely said she was worried about Paula’s weight and unhappiness. Instead of reacting defensively, Paula calls that the first time she said “yes” to herself.
From there, she describes joining a healing programme that became her version of a recovery community, doing deep emotional work while gradually changing how she ate. A big part of her story includes experimenting with coming off refined sugar and noticing how strongly it affected her mindset and negative self-talk.
Beyond food choices, Paula puts huge emphasis on what you feed your mind: kids’ music instead of news, uplifting audio during gentle stretching, walks outside in all weather, and ongoing emotional support, including inner child work. She now coaches mostly women to end emotional eating by focusing on underlying feelings and beliefs rather than quick-fix diets. Anyone who’s struggled with addiction of any kind will recognise the patterns here: escape, shame, trial and error, and finally community and self-kindness.
Could emotional eating be the “same pattern, different substance” in your own life?
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