Why knowing what not to eat doesn’t overcome wanting to eat it!

  A question I asked myself hundreds of times over 25 years of yo-yo dieting  was “How do I overcome this obstacle of impulse and emotional eating?” 

I used to think to myself; “If I’m ever going to drop this weight and get a life, I’m going to have to get a handle on this! But how? Change is hard!” 

It seemed impossible for me to break free from my “bad” habits and I wondered what was wrong with me? 

I wondered that allllll the time!  

• Why couldn’t I stop doing things that I wanted to stop?  
• What was that internal force that kept driving me to do things I wanted to stop doing? 
• Why wasn’t I able to stop the hand-to-mouth action?  
• Why did I keep putting weight back on?  
• Why was there always a war raging inside of me when I wanted to stop doing one thing and start doing another more healthy option?  

It used to grind me down, why couldn’t I break-away and find my freedom from myself?    

How was I ever going to be able to have:

• Choices about what I wanted to eat and how I wanted to exercise and still lose weight
• Freedom from cravings and feel free in my mind and body 
• Control of my weight, health, happiness and lifestyle and ultimately my life

I’d tried so many different eating plans and even though they seemed to work for other people, I wasn’t able to stick to them long term…I always went back to eating the foods that I liked to eat, I clearly didn’t have the discipline it takes.  

When I was struggling to the lose weight and maintain my consistent healthy eating habits, I felt betrayed by my brain because even though I knew what I needed to change, and even though I knew what I needed to do, I’d still get the impulse and cravings to eat the ‘forbidden foods’!  

Knowing what not to eat just wasn’t enough to stop me wanting to eat it. 

Wanting didn’t go away with knowing, and it was the wanting that would wear me down to a nub! 

There’s a lot of physiology and psychology happening when we’re in the grip of a craving and at that time, I simply didn’t understand any of it and certainly had no idea how to change it! 

We have to do all we can to learn about ourselves. And it’s not “us” as an individual with all our past traumas, hurts and stories that we need to dig into per say, its how our mind and body works, the system, that’s what we have to understand and that’s what I set out to do! 

 
I’m no psychologist, neurologist, or any other “oligst”, but I can tell you that as infinitely intelligent and complex as the human mind and body are, and for all the studies, research, and discoveries that have been made, there is a surprisingly super simple way to look at it, and get your head around, the brain and body and how you operate so you can develop some locus of control over your: 

• Habits and behaviours 
• Weight 
• Health 
• Mindset 
• Emotions 
• Happiness 
• Lifestyle 
• Life 

There is a popular analogy that understanding ourselves and what drives us to do what we do is like peeling an onion.  

But in my experience, finding out about who I am, was more like a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle and all the pieces had been strewn across the earth and it was my job to go and find them all.  

It took me 25 years and over $100,000 to find enough of those pieces that I was able to see and understand that system, and change my habits and behaviours so I could finally lose the 20kgs and keep it off for the last 13 years. 

Whilst I’ve found freedom from myself through developing a new relationship with myself. I haven’t ridden off into the sunset of behavioural bliss; I don’t think that’s even a possible.  

All relationships are a messy, happy blend of emotions, disagreements, problem solving, happiness, teamwork and partnership and they need constant attention to maintain equilibrium and cohesion. And our relationship with, and to, ourselves is no different.  

Personal Health Leadership™ is about having the capacity to create a new relationship with yourself so you can lead your life in such a way that you work with yourself to move beyond those habits and behaviours that are robbing you of your health and happiness.  

It’s a conscious solution to an unconscious problem.  

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.” 

~ Anais Nin 

And here’s the thing, if you and I don’t have a conversation, nothing’s going to change. Stop putting up obstacles, click on the link and see where it goes. You’ve got nothing to lose but weight and unhappiness.  

The good news is, you get to make all the choices about what you want to do and how you want to live your life. We are all on a trajectory to somewhere, so we might as well be on a trajectory that we design rather than one we find ourselves on by default. Life doesn’t get better by chance, it gets better by choice.  

Give me a call, let’s just get on to it this week.   

Your first step today is send me a message here.