"I pamper myself."
Dee Wolk, 62, Cleveland, Ohio
Lost: 42 pounds
Maintained for: 24 years
Wolk stayed on the lose-gain roller coaster until her 30s, when she realized she knew a lot about dieting but not about emotional eating. "I ate because I was tired, bored, angry, happy, had worked hard or not enough," she says. "I needed to learn how to take care of myself without food."
She figured it out, and now she teaches her technique at the Cleveland Clinic, among other places. Her favorite trick is to treat herself to something every day, filling the emotional void she used to stuff with food. "Sometimes it's calling an old friend, and sometimes it's taking off my bra and putting on a comfy old robe," she says.
But is a soothing bath a satisfying substitute for a banana split? "The more you treat yourself, the more you reinforce the good habits and weaken the bad one," Beck says.
