Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Body Image #2
“Don’t let your mind BULLY your body!” - Coach Kerry
Have you ever wondered why it’s so tough to lose weight and keep it off in mid-life? Many women starting a new diet experience a conflict within themselves struggling between feeling emotionally and physically uncomfortable going through the steps necessary to lose that extra weight.
Why is it such a challenge for some of us to stop overeating and achieve the results we want? What is your underlining reason you are overeating? Why do we overeat?
Here’s the thing, most of us have no idea what thoughts cause our overeating. We are so unaware of what’s going on inside our minds that we don’t even notice the thoughts and feeling we are experiencing before overeating. Matter fact, we barely notice overeating until half way through a bag of chips or cookies and then we beat ourselves up. It’s a pattern in many of us.
Remember all your thoughts causes feelings and all your feeling drive your actions. When you start looking at your thinking that drives your overeating you can change that and stop overeating! It’s true!
The first step to permanent weight loss is understanding your thoughts when it happens. Like when you’re stressed and think the pint of ice cream will make you feel better, but it doesn’t. Or when you’re lonely and think a bag of chips is going to numb that feeling, but it doesn’t. You can use those thoughts as an indicator that you’re probably going to be driven to overeat. Let this indicator be your internal alarm that leads you to be curious vs beating yourself up. Being curious will help you discover “WHY” you are overeating in the first place!
This process of figuring out “WHY” you are overeating is also a process of becoming more conscious and connected with yourself. Is this easy? NO! Is this a quick diet fix? Absolutely not, but it’s a permanent fix because you can figure out why you are overeating and resolve that issue! And, stop constantly beating yourself up.
Once we can recognize our obstacle of “WHY” we are overeating we can actively work to influence the internal, judgmental voice that constantly nags us and make positive changes to our eating habits. Change your thoughts that creates your negative feelings to overeat to achieve the positive results you deserve!
YOU CAN DO THIS!
Something to think about:
Connect: Start being aware of your thoughts before you eat. This isn’t easy because the feelings that come up you have been avoiding for years. Start consciously connecting to yourself about what’s really going on inside you before and while you eat.
Clarify: Let’s go deeper now. What are the feelings these thoughts create? What makes you uncomfortable about them? How can you face and deal with these emotions? Those feeling are going to come up that you are going to have to learn how to process and deal with them. And, us emotional eaters don’t know how to do this well. The more you are willing to experience any emotion that you’re presented with and not react to it, the more closely you’re going get to your natural weight.
Commit: to being aware of your thoughts before you eat for a week, everyday, every meal. Keep a daily journal on these thoughts. Not what you eat! Look for the pattern. Discover why you are overeating. Are you an emotional eater, a stress eater, a loneliness eater? Discover why you overeat. You might need a few weeks or more before going on to the next step.
Email me if you have any questions - kerry@kerryrasenberger.com or want to set up an appointment for help.
We are in this together.
