STEP 3: ARREST the negative patterns as they happen.
As your level of awareness increases you will become a more conscious eater. This gives you the time to arrest the negative pattern before it arises. It simply means policing your thoughts before you carry out the action. When you become aware of an urge to eat inappropriately, it’s an important moment of decision. Awareness gives you the chance to have a conversation with yourself in those critical moments before you act. Start by saying “STOP”, or “WAIT”! then apply some creative procrastination. Remind yourself that I can always eat this later but let me think about what can happen to me if i eat it now.
The important thing is to stop, pause, and think before you eat. That gives you time to ask yourself some important questions:
– Am I thinking about eating beacause I am physically hungry or for some another reason?
– If it’s not for physical hunger, then why am I thinking about eating this?
– What will be the immediate consequenses if I eat this?
– What will be my long term consequenses if I eat this?
– What will be my rewards for saying No to this?
– Is eating this going to move me further away or closer to my goal?
– Is eating this worth it?
When you start asking such questions It helps to see where you are headed in which direction. Personally I find the concept “I AM WHAT I EAT” works better for me …Ask yourself Do i really want this processed, unnatural food I am about to eat become a part of every cell in my body- My muscle, brain, organs or even my eyeballs??
Then ask yourself, “How will I feel after eating this food”? This one’s usually a reality check. The illusion is that food will make me feel better. The reality is that you’ll feel worse after eating to feed emotional hunger. You’ll feel better after eating for the right reasons and finding more ways to cope with your feelings.
STEP 4: REPLACE the Old Emotional Eating Behavior with More Constructive Alternatives.
“I used to belive that eating would make me feel good, but now I realize that overeating only made me feel sluggish, bloated, and guilty afterward. It wasn’t worth it for any short – lived relief I got. What really makes me feel good is being in control and the victory I feel from becoming fitter, healthier, and better than I was yesterday.”
Another way of overcoming stress eating is by distracting yourself by finding another constructive alternative. For example: Some people when stressed reach out for food while others find ways to relax, do meditation or yoga play relaxing music , chat up with friends, go for a walk …
Some even take up gyming , martial arts or kick boxing class when they feel tired, exhausted or angry.
When you feel the temptation to feed emotional hunger, distracting yourself by doing some kind of physical activity like walking can be a helpful strategy. The benefits of physical activity is not only restricted to distraction it goes way beyond. Physical movement and exercise might be the single best way to change how you feel cause your mind and body are connected. Emotions flows motion. When you move your body , you change the way you feel. The worst thing you can do is NOTHING.
STEP 5: ESTABLISH New Beliefs About Food and the Right Reasons for Eating.
One of the most important strategies for ending emotional eating or any other undesirable eating habit is to examine your beliefs about food , what food means to you and if necessary change them.
Most people are totally unaware of their beliefs about food and how they affect their behaviors and decisions.
Now we look at some beliefs and the Power of Metaphor.
In many of the mind-body healing disciplines, it’s believed that people express what’s going on in their bodies in the form of body talk, also known as somatic metaphors, for example,”pain in teh neck,” It makes me hot,” I don’t want to hear it” and so on.
This Metaphor is the language that the unconscious mind understands so by changing the metaphors you use to describe your body, feelings or food you can help initiate a change in your already pre-established belief system.
If you believed that your body was a temple and divine structure would you be able to poison it with junk food? What if u think of your body as a high performance sports car would you fuel it differently? If you beleived your body was fit, lean, fat-burning machine would you train differently? Most people don’t realize that innocent labels and nicknames actually mold and change your behavior and identity.If you’re going to label yourself than why not choose something more empowering .
When it comes to food , fit, lean, and healthy people have a different set of rules regarding food:
– Food is for fuel
– Food is the best medicine
– Food is the contruction material for the body
– Food stokes the fire of metabolism
– Fruit is nature’s candy.
– Lean Protein is the lean muscle builder
– High fiber foods are nature’s plumbing machines.
When you look at it this way, food is no longer the problem. Food is the solution and you become driven to eat the right foods rather than avoid them.
If you use metaphors to describe the food you eat, write them down so you become more aware of them. Discard the negative ones and keep the positive ones. If you dont use any then sit down and make a list of metaphors you can start using today to influence your attitudes and beliefs, and behaviors in a positive way.
Let me emphazise again how important this fifth step of belief change really is, because awareness alone is not enough. Where the real change takes place is in your beliefs and other unconscious programs as they are the core drivers of your behavior. If you want to change a behavior, you need to change the beliefs that mobilize the behavior. Your task is to uncover your beliefs about diet, nutrition and food and bring them to conscious awareness. Take out some time to sit and write down as many of your food beliefs as you can think of. Remember, replacement is the key, not removal, so always choose and write down the empowering new beliefs you want to put in place of old ones.
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