It sounds like you are prone to eating when stressed, plus you deal with a challenging home environment because you are surrounded by people with unhealthy eating habits. You say that you do better when you are away at school because you are focused on your school work and other activities, which is a positive sign in that you don't persist with unhealthy eating away from home. The challenge is for you to set long-term goals about weight management that focus on permanent lifestyle changes, then train yourself to be mindful about your eating choices in all environments. The best way to do this is by keeping a food-feelings journal. I'll post an article below that may be helpful:
Research studies show that those who are most likely to succeed at losing weight and keeping it off utilize a tool called "mindfulness." Mindfulness simply means paying attention and keeping track of yourself. It means tuning into your thoughts, feelings, goals, and strategies. Mindfulness is a key ingredient for changing unhealthy eating habits, because our present American society promotes overeating in many ways, which leads to distortion of what it means to be hungry, full, and satisfied. We often lose track of bodily sensations and eat just to be eating, without regard to the main purpose of eating, which is to provide fuel for living. Improving mindfulness is the only way to fight back against environmental forces that shape our behavior into overindulgent patterns.
One of the best ways to improve mindfulness is to keep a food-feelings log. Almost all traditional dieting strategies require keeping track of calories, but a better tool is to keep track of feelings as well. Although burdensome, the food-feelings log is a potent tool for identifying the emotions and issues that trigger and accompany overeating, which is a crucial step toward developing healthy eating patterns.
The best way to keep a food-feelings log is to carry around a small notebook. You goal should be to write down everything you eat, plus the feelings associated with eating, at or near the time that you eat. Don’t wait until the end of the day and try to recall your earlier eating; the food-feelings log should be an ongoing activity. If you commit to this task you will be able to train yourself to pay attention, and you will most likely discover things about your eating patterns that you weren’t aware of previously.
Important questions that you should get in the habit of asking yourself include: What am I feeling? What is my body telling me? Am I physically hungry? Am I emotionally hungry? Am I full? Am I eating past being comfortably full? If you find yourself eating mindlessly, stop immediately and take out your food-feelings log. Jot down what you are eating, and then “backtrack” as best you can so you can answer the question, “What was I thinking and feeling when I decided to begin eating?”
Keeping a food-feelings log will not only help you become more mindful, but it will also be a healthy emotional outlet. Writing is therapeutic! Studies have shown that those who write about their feelings tend to improve not only their emotional health, but their physical health as well. Keeping a journal can be a private place to express your innermost thoughts and feelings, a place to get some perspective on what you’re dealing with, and a place to identify issues that might be in your way. Journaling is also an effective way to keep track of your changing inner self, as progress usually takes place in bits and pieces of insight that accumulate over time. Your journal can be a way to look back at where you were so you can completely appreciate how far you’ve come.
