I took your Fattitudes quiz and learned that I am an emotional eater. This makes sense because I've tried and failed repeatedly at sticking to a diet. If another diet is not the answer, what is?

You're right. You don't need another diet. What you probably do need, though, is to D.I.E.T. your way toward healthy living.

Traditional dieting strategies don't work for emotional eaters because the psychological aspects of weight management aren't fully addressed by most plans. Most diet programs don't deal with self-sabotage and the real reasons why we knock ourselves off track. To achieve lasting weight management success, emotional eaters need to go through the following four stages of change.

Discover: The first step is to discover our hidden emotional obstacles and understand the food-feelings connection that makes balanced eating so difficult. It's essential to tune in to our inner selves before we can attempt to change our outer appearance. We need to identify the Fattitudes, or self-defeating thoughts and attitudes, that lead us to sabotage our success with such frustrating regularity. Discovery is crucial because it's impossible to win the weight war until we know who the enemy really is.

Invent: Once we've discovered the emotional issues and self-defeating ways of thinking that have always stood in our way, we need to invent a new way of managing our lives and ourselves. It's time to break free from old habits and standard modes of operating. This requires that we invent healthier, more nurturing ways of thinking to combat those self-defeating tendencies.

Extinguish: The next step is to extinguish the old, unhealthy ways of thinking, feeling and perceiving as we adopt our newly-invented life plan. Healing old wounds and building new skills will help us deal with life's troubles head on and decrease our reliance on food.

Transform: Our final task is to transform our new insights, skills and healing into a positive lifestyle that emphasizes healthy food choices and regular exercise. After much hard work, one of my clients got to this stage and said, "I'm at the point now where exercising and eating right are emotionally uncomplicated." What she meant was that she at last felt free of her old emotional shackles and could now make the commitment necessary for the long-term task of successful weight management.

The D.I.E.T. Plan is a sometimes tough -- but necessary -- process for those of us with emotional eating issues. Remember: Until you deal with the demons, you can't tackle the fat.