Overcome emotional eating?

I think it definitely helps to work on alternative coping strategies. Finding something to do with your hands helps (can't eat if your hands are busy and/or dirty!) A good support network of friends helps.

One of the difficult things about switching to better coping strategies is exactly that interim time, IMO - where they still feel new and awkward, but eating would be second nature. For me, being mindful of that helped me get through that awkward time - I could tell myself it was temporary and my brain was reworking itself to do this other thing instead. If I made a good choice now, it would be easier next time to make that same choice. (And it's true - humans are creatures of habit!)

I still think it can be worth it to seek out therapy. I really benefited from a year or so of therapy when I had severe postpartum depression and I recall lessons and practices I learned then all the time. If you don't already know for certain it would be very expensive for you, I'd encourage you to check a few things if they apply to you: your insurance benefits and expected copays, employee benefits (including EAPs), or checking with community resources (or even Googling) to find providers who work on sliding scales or can work out alternative arrangements. I think there's often a lot more of this than many people think.

Failing that, there are self-help books. Some are better than others, some are focused on eating specifically. One of my favorites is Codependent No More, which is not about overeating specifically but did help me a lot with how I responded to emotional stress. It's a pretty popular one; there were lots of copies in our local library system.

Some of the boring things here too - getting adequate sleep is a biggie. A big key for me is to just keep on with my routine and not make items of self-care subject to my emotions about it - again this is a habit thing. So (unless I am really sick) if I know I should shower but I don't want to, I do it anyway, because that's what I do. Same with exercise and going to bed on time. I can't think of a time I went ahead and did those things and thought to myself, "nah, I should have kept moping or becoming one with the couch."

It definitely feels awful to know you need to hop on but aren't sure how to jump. But you can, and IMO it doesn't matter much that you do it perfectly but that you just go for it and keep at it. It doesn't have to be perfect on the first go. If you need a smaller deficit to start, then that's OK. I hope some of this is helpful and you begin feeling better soon.