People losing weight spend most of their time changing WHAT they eat. But the “what” of one’s diet is almost never the only issue, and it’s often not the biggest contributor to a weight problem… “WHAT” is just the most obvious, easiest, and fastest thing to change, so it’s the lever we pull first and hardest…like the tip of a fallen tree branch we can see sticking out above the water.
However, the main reason weight control is hard is because of WHY we eat. This is like the huge submerged trunk of the tree below the surface, the true basis of the problem, which is not immediately apparent. And this part will take a lot more effort to move.
To control your weight, you need to address both factors: the physical/physiological (the what), and the emotional/behavioral (the why).
There are probably a million people selling some version of their solution to the WHAT side of the equation, from what to eat, what not to eat, what pill to swallow, what exercise to do. Notice that almost nobody focuses on WHAT to do once you reach your goal. WHAT to do after the diet. (My course ShapeShifter will teach you that!)
Diets don’t address why we eat, and many people with problems managing their weight are “using” food, not simply eating and enjoying food. There are many reasons we “use” food that have nothing to do with being physically hungry.
We use food to celebrate, to experience excitement, or try something new. Or to stuff down anger, resentment, or guilt. Or to comfort and console ourselves. Food is so much more than just physical nourishment! Therefore, any attempt to achieve long-term weight loss maintenance is going to have to look at why we eat, not just what.
But the vast majority of diets don’t do a thing to help people with this. They don’t prepare people to anticipate and respond to common emotional triggers and conditions which threaten our food “sobriety,” and cause us to eat more than we physically need.
When we aren’t physically “hungry,” but are reaching for food to satisfy an emotional or psychological need, that’s emotional eating. And guess what? Emotional eating is also a learned response, a habit, triggered by an emotional, social, or visual cue. It can be overcome through a process involving vigilance, self-awareness, and analysis.
Saying so because I developed my own process for this, and it effectively stopped my emotional eating and episodic binge-eating. It’s an introspective and analytical way of approaching emotional eating and allows you to build back your self-respect, self-control, and self-trust. You don’t have to go it alone, you can learn this from me! “Deconstructing Problem Eating” is one of several foundational lessons in ShapeShifter: The Emotional and Energetic Method for Maintaining Your Ideal Weight. Join today!
