Emotional Eating

I have been doing really well with my diet and exercise plan - I have actually lost about 9 lbs in the last week and a half, most of which I'm sure is water weight, but I do feel a lot better. Anyway, I was very proud of myself last night because D.R. and I went out to eat at Stub's in Thedford, and although I ordered a chicken fried steak, I only ate about a third of it and a small portion of mashed potatoes and gravy and a salad. We also ate out for lunch yesterday, and I had a salad instead of fries and asked for wheat bread instead of white. So I was doing pretty well for the first couple of times I had eaten out since I started paying attention to what I am eating.

Then, last night I decided I felt like going out for a little while because I haven't seen any of my female friends for a long time. D.R. said he just had to run one little errand that would take about 15 minutes, and then he would come home and watch Cooper for me so I could go. That was about 8:45. I bathed Cooper, fed him, played with him, and put him to bed, and at 10:00, I really started getting mad. First of all, I couldn't find anyone that wanted to go have a beer with me, and I called 6 different people. But that wouldn't have mattered anyway, because D.R. was gone for an hour and a half!!! So I was really disappointed and a little pissed off, and so I did what I always do - I used food to make me feel better. I started with just a handful of mixed nuts, and ended up polishing off the whole can. Then I found a bag of Mike and Ike's, and ate 3/4 of it before D.R. got home. That effectively wiped out all my extra Weight Watcher's points until next week, so now I feel like I have to eat perfectly for the rest of the week. The really sad thing is that the only reason I stopped my little binge is because that was the only unhealthy stuff we had to eat in the house. I was really craving pizza or nachos or something.

I guess the good side of all of this is that usually the next day I would abandon my healthy eating habits because I'd already fallen off the wagon, and go right back to where I've been for the last four years. But today I'm going to work out at lunch, and just try to do the best I can. I know that emotional eating is a huge reason why I've gained so much weight and I need to find something else to make me feel better when I'm upset. Any suggestions?