CRUISE:
Emotional eating is the number one saboteur to all weight loss in my opinion and I've worked with thousands of clients. It usually comes from derivational dieting where you feel like you are truly being hard on yourself in the sense that you are depriving yourself of things you love. I mean, willpower only works for so long and eventually your emotional desire for sweets will take over. That's why, on this plan, like we said earlier, there are no bad foods, only bad portions. NOTHING, and I must stress this, is off limits on the 3-Hour Diet?, it's just portion control. Particularly chocolate -- chocolate is actually good for you, certain amounts of it and certain kinds of it are very health beneficial.

The first key to emotional eating, I would say, is to not deprive yourself of the food you love. The second thing is, if you do feel emotional distress, and it's not related to deprivation but is related more to personal issues such as loneliness, boredom, or even stress, what you need to do is then deal with the source of the problem.

In the book I have a special chapter dedicated to overcoming emotional eating. It's optional; they don't have to read it. It will address what I call removing food as the solution. That's what happens -- when people eat emotionally, they will use food as a drug. We must not do that because that enslaves us for a life of being overweight. Food becomes a drug like cocaine or alcohol. What we must do is replace what I call the food solution, meaning when you eat when you're emotionally distressed. Just to clarify, emotional eating is eating any time you're not hungry, so it's eating for emotional reasons, it has nothing to do with hunger. If you do that, you'll never lose weight, you just never will. You can eat every three hours, but then at midnight you're going to eat a whole box of cookies because you're stressed or sad or lonely. That's not going to work.

What I have people do is replace the food solution of theirs with what I call the people solution. The people solution is documented in my book, but in a nutshell, it's replacing the power that comes from the comfort of food with the power that comes from the comfort of real people supporting you, being there and nurturing you.

No matter where you live in the country, I would invite everyone to visit my web site at www.jorgecruise.com. It's a virtual community; it's a center for people who are on my plan. It's a great place to meet, greet, connect and create support groups that will get you through those low points, those empty points when you're lonely and depressed. Anyone who has lost weight and not done it with a support group in place, odds are they are not going to be successful long term. You have to have a really good, positive support group and if you don't, you won't be successful.

I always tell my clients one of those quotes I heard years ago from one of my mentors: "Who you are with is who you become." If you're with negative people that criticize you and make you feel bad about losing weight, or you're with no one and you're by yourself and you're lonely, then you don't get any positive energy. If you're surrounded by positive people that are nurturing, outgoing and positive, then that rubs off on you and that gives you that advantage to deal with the emotional issues that come up in life. We need that. We need people in our lives. That's hard for some people, but the great thing about the web site is that they can do it virtually 24-7 and you'll meet people from all over the world.

MEMBER:
Yes, absolutely -- food is my drug. I use it when no one is around, only when my husband is gone and definitely not in public. In fact, I don't like eating in public period. When I go to restaurants I mostly order salads and then if I'm still hungry, I'll have something else when I get home and not let anyone see me. I have had trouble with this since high school. I've already bought your book, but thanks for your advice today.

CRUISE:
I'm very proud of you -- that you shared that with me and with all of us. That will be the secret to your long-term success -- healthy eating with healthy emotional help as well. Congratulations, you should be very, very proud of your awareness. Congratulations!

MEMBER QUESTION:
I need to lose 150 pounds. Should I be doing more than eight minutes of exercise a day?

CRUISE:
With that much weight it will be very hard on your joints, back and spine to do a lot of exercise. I would make my exclusive focus the 3-Hour Diet? with no exercise. Walking could be the one exception, light walking, if that doesn't hurt you already. Then, when you lose maybe the first 50 or 60 pounds, I would incorporate some exercises. And yes, the eight-minute moves are wonderful.

I have one book called 8 Minutes in the Morning for Extra-Easy Weight Loss . That book is designed to be extra gentle on the bones and back. I would use that book but not for a few more weeks. I would first focus in on good eating, that's the way you are going to remove the mass weight. And then incorporate the strength training with some walking to tone, firm and accelerate weight loss.

You are at the point where I would recommend that we stay solely on good eating every three hours, with healthy portions. That's going to be your homework.

MEMBER:
I think that people should try to move, no matter what their shape.

CRUISE:
That would be wonderful and that's why it's optional. If you feel like you can, then you should. Exercise is wonderful for the body. There was a study today in the Wall Street Journal saying how it helps beat depression. So I'm all for exercising, eight minutes a day -- and if you're up for it, you should do it. But if your body hurts, listen to your body and don't force it. Most people I have worked with that have that much weight to lose need to do it gradually, but if you have less or feel up to it, then please, go ahead. The secret is doing what feels good.