What’s wrong with me? Arghhh….
I just ate for no reason. I wasn’t hungry, I didn’t need food, I just wanted to eat.
And now, here I am, feeling like I got hit by a tidal wave with the negative voice of “you always do this…” followed by the repeated question “why did I just do that? I keep talking about losing weight and I did it…again”
Oh, man, this used to happen to me all the time! ALL THE TIME! Then I’d go to bed, and wake up to recommit to my diet goal…again, saying “Melissa, this time, this is it, today, we are doing this!”
And, I think you know how that story ends…
It was a vicious cycle that lasted a long time and for the life of me, I could not understand, why I was saying I wanted one thing, I wanted to lose weight; it didn’t feel good to overeat, especially when I was so aware of what I was doing. Then I’d ask myself “why am I still doing the very thing, that is making me so mad at myself, that makes me feel this bad?”
But even feeling this way, I still was doing it…
I would say to myself, “today when you get home, go outside, don’t sit and eat watching TV”. And of course, that’s exactly what I would do, and I’d watch myself, my body would do the very thing I just told my mind not to. The subconscious mind doesn’t register the word “no” it only hears “I’m going to watch TV and eat”.
When we create habits, our minds will play them out into existence and our bodies follow, this counts for good and bad habits. We are animals by nature. As humans we love routines and we are highly intelligent beings. We will always go to what we know, to what is safe, comfortable and to what we have taught ourselves.
Your snacking and overeating, or eating when you’re not hungry, all of these situations were created as habits.
97% of all actions we take in a day are based on habits.
The good news, this counts for both good and bad habits. Habits can be broken and created! It takes 21 days to create, in my opinion, the routine of the habit, and 40 days to truly have it engrained in your brain.
In order to break a habit you have to create a new one. Check out the exercise below.
Examples of Food Related Habits are:
Mindless snacking, needing candy or popcorn at the movies, always having dessert, sweet treats after each meal, cheat days, cheat meals, coffee breaks, chewing gum or mints, late night snacking, eating while in the car, eating while grocery shopping, eating while working.
Here are 4 Steps to Break Your Food Habits to Lose Weight Effortlessly:
- Identify your habits: Out of the food habits listed above, which ones do you relate to the most? Write them down now.
- Question Your Habits: Looking at your habits, review them and ask yourself – What is it I am getting from eating at that time or eating while doing x? Do I really need it? What do I really need? Write it down.
- Create a new Habit: What can you do instead? Could you do that same action but without food? Or what new habit can you create that will serve you even more than the current one, ex: watching TV instead of working out, scrolling FB instead of going to bed.
- Take Action: Now commit to 40 straight days of this new habit, the one that serves you and your body goals.
A habits is just that, a habit. You can break it when you understand and recognize it has no power over you. You’re not broken, you’re not a failure and nothing is wrong with you.
It’s about reconditioning your mind. Something I am obsessed with and do all the time!
Start here and let me know how your 40 Day Break Your Habit to Lose Weight Effortlessly Challenge goes!
Did you find this helpful? Want more? Please click here and let me know!
Have a great rest of your weekend!
Here’s to kicking those nasty habits 😉
XX,
