On February 14, I welcomed 7 women to my ongoing Losing Weight Without Dieting Program. As I promised them, I expect that this Valentine’s Day will be very special for each of them. It represents a kind of Independence Day! I told them, “Ladies, mark your calendars. Today you begin to reclaim your power over food.”
Today I heard from one of the women regarding her experience of last week. She was so excited to share that she had started off with a bang by deciding to give herself permission to welcome back an old forbidden love into her home, Cake! She purchased some King’s cake from her local New Orleans supermarket.
She said that she took a few bites and noticed that it was stale. She soon set it aside.
Amazing! I congratulated her awareness.
Another time during the weekend, she found herself at her sister’s home. Just as she was about to open the refrigerator, she caught herself and realized, “I’m not hungry. I’m stressed.” Then she closed the refrigerator and dealt with the stress.
Later that weekend, she mentioned that she was shopping in the supermarket with family members and she was not able to make up her mind about what to eat. With the world of possibilities before her, she was flummoxed and overwhelmed by all the choices. She indicated that she sat for a few minutes just going over in her head all the options.
Her mind was filled with all the reasons and foods that she didn’t want to eat. She noticed that she didn’t want the squash because it was too bitter, and she didn’t like the way her sister prepared one of the other foods they were about to buy. She began to get frustrated with what she considered her indecisiveness. I explained to her that she was simply going through a natural selection process in her head to sort for what she wanted. The thing was that since she did not focus on what she wanted, her brain was telling her everything that she didn’t want.
I suggested to her to thank that part of her brain that was coming up with all of these things that did not appeal to her. It was taking excellent care of her and ensuring that she got to the bottom of what she wanted, however it was taking the longer road.
I assured her that it is important to recognize what we don’t want to eat if we are to eliminate the tug of emotional eating. Next I recommended that she tell that part of her that although this information it offered has been very valuable, it would really help if it would assist her in coming up with an idea of what she did want. She decided to give that a try. I’m looking forward to seeing how that works for her.
These are big steps and represent a huge leap of consciousness for women who consider themselves to be emotional eaters. By definition, an emotional eater is a person who eats a large quantity of food when they are not hungry. The triggers are varied – boredom, sadness, exhaustion, happiness, anger, despair, etc. Yet the concept is the same, eating on a full stomach.
Ask youself how many times in one day do I reach for food when I’m not hungry? The next time that you find yourself doing that., don’t beat up on yourself. Pay attention. Your body is telling you something. Listen to the message. Ask yourself “If I didn’t have food to keep me busy now, what would I do with my time?”
Let me know what you find out by sharing your comments with me. If you’re curious and want to find out more about how you can also lose weight without dieting, then snag my free article. It’s too delicious to resist!