You are doing amazing with your nutrition and are super proud of yourself for all the healthy food choices you have made this week and then it happens… You have a moment of eating “bad” food. You go crazy on salty snacks, chocolate, or whatever your processed food choice is.
“I was doing so good, why can’t I have any control over what I eat?”
“I’m a failure. I might as well eat junk the rest of the day.”
“What is wrong with me?”
Sound familiar?
The above can happen to you if you live with a ‘diet mindset’. When you view certain foods as “bad” you give them power. When you view healthy nutritious foods as a ‘chore’ or ‘deprivation’ you lose your motivation and passion!
If your body is craving a food that is nutritionally void, what you are really craving is the feeling that the food gives you, or a distraction from a feeling/emotion/event.
As an emotional eater, which a lot of us are, we can use food to numb or avoid a feeling, or to feel something. We are trying to fill up on a feeling.
When you remove the unhealthy foods you rely on, you no longer have a way of dealing with that emotion. For a while willpower works, but once it wanes, your tempted to give in.
What you want to do is be more mindful and notice triggers that come up.
Eat mindfully! Sit still and take a few deep breathes before you reach for food. Ask yourself what you are feeling – Is it hunger? Is it boredom? Is it stress? Is it a lack of “me” time?
Not hungry? Ask yourself – What can I do instead that could give me the same feeling I am looking for? Then go do it!
Hungry? Ask yourself – What do I want? Health, natural energy, well being, to lose body fat, to feel great! Will this food give me all those things?
Practice creates habit. The more you practice, the more you can connect that healthy, highly nutritious food will always benefit you and elevate your positive feelings whilst the processed ones will just mask your true feelings.
Remember if you do over indulge, you are always able to get back in control! Imagine driving down the road and your tire going flat. What would you do? Do you change your tyre and get back on the road or do you wreck the other tires, stand still and feel like a failure?
Every day, every meal, you have a choice! If/when we over indulge, it’s ok, we are human and it happens. Forgive yourself and move forward. You have that power!
Gemxx
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