Because your habits, even your way of thinking of things, took years to develop, you must allow yourself the same patience that you would extend to someone else tackling a new skill. Dr. Elson Haas, founder of the Preventive Medical Center of Marin, in California, mentions that you will need “greater attentiveness and willingness to deal openly with emotions and other adversities that may block your way to healing.”

Look for a trained health professional, a holistic nutrition specialist, support group, or program with a specialty in food addiction. They can help you develop coping skills that are not food-focused—effective interventions that will help you break the cycle of emotional eating and live an emotionally and physically healthy life. Looking at things from a holistic nutrition point of view, try and understand what the food is actually giving you and see if you can get this someplace else.

Have you heard that craving sugar is a sign that you lack sweetness in your life? Cravings often signal something that we really want, as part of our lives. When you eat the food you crave, what happens? If, for example, when you consume sugar, do you feel at peace, euphoric or warm? Where are you missing those emotions in your life? What could you be doing that would allow you to experience them without food?

People who are emotional eaters, or who bite their nails are not alone. We endure a range of unhealthy habits, some of which are relatively benign, but others threaten our well-being and health. There is no doubt that whenever you are slave to a habit, it's holding you back and not allowing you to reach your full potential. However, you are certainly capable of changing the situation! Don't let these bad habits overwhelm and ruin your life and opt to make new decisions right now, kicking your reliance on sugar, for example, and building yourself a better future.

You can develop life-enhancing habits that revolve around your desire for health, happiness, financial independence and success. The reason so many people struggle with unhealthy habits is that they haven’t made the connection between mental skills and habits. It takes a lot of mental effort to replace an old habit with a new one, just as learning a new physical skill requires practice and repetition.

Before we take action, we always follows a thought, even though many of our thoughts are so ingrained within our subconscious mind that we take action intuitively. And that’s where the mental practice begins. When we can stop in the moment and become aware of what we are about to do, we can think about whether or not we want to do it. We could classify this as a healthier choice.

As soon as you're able to make a conscious observation that your old habits are holding you back and not helping you achieve your goals, you can select the new habits that you need to change things. And it doesn’t matter where you are in your life. Whether you are a college freshman or a retiree starting a new career is irrelevant. If you're really seeking to change the quality of your life and adopt holistic nutrition, you're never too young or too old to begin.