Okay, if you’ve tried to stop emotional eating and lose weight, but haven’t yet succeeded, then you need to do something you’ll love... throw out the rules!
Yes, even though overcoming emotional eating requires new thinking and some new methodology, your success in part is due to your ability to throw out all of those old rules that have been weighing you down.
To get you started, here are three rules to throw out in order for you to begin walking on your new path to success!
#1 Throw out the thinking that you have to go on a diet or deprive yourself of anything.
When you tell your mind and your body that you are going to eliminate certain foods or be strict about the quantities that you’ll eat, you immediately set yourself up for failure. The very things that you promise to stay away from will be the very foods that you crave. In addition, your mind is a highly sophisticated computer and once you tell it “Starting Monday I’m going to do this and that,” your brain kicks in and sends you into panic mode. As a result, you binge to prepare for the impending stage of deprivation, starvation, and hibernation. Your body clings to every once of fat because you’ve told yourself, “Prepare for the worst.” Now, is this a very efficient or fun way to start?
#2 Throw out the rule that you have to stop eating by a certain time every night.
Learning how to overcome emotional eating is all about listening to your body. If you’re hungry late at night, then by all means... eat! Once again, if you say that you aren’t going to eat past any given time, then as in the first rule, you will eat all you can in preparation for the long night ahead. Why not learn to respond to your body’s needs instead of boxing in yourself like a caged animal? Be free instead of confined, so that you can have peace, sanity, and a healthier body.
#3 Throw out any rule that says you must count calories or fat grams!
Unless you are medically advised for other reasons, stop driving yourself crazy with counting calories and fat grams. If you think that being more mathematical in your approach will help you achieve long term success, you only have disappointment ahead of you. Yes, you can lose weight for a while, but you won’t learn how to listen and respond to your body’s needs because you’ll be too focused on the numbers. When you pay attention to how you feel instead, your body will help you be the best physician for yourself. Focus on eating until satisfied and put that calculator away!
These are just a few of the many rules that have been taught throughout the years. Now is the time for change, for new thinking. The old rules didn’t bring you success in the past, so why would they now? Think differently. Learn how to give your mind and your body the best. Free yourself from the rules and by doing so, you’ll start to free yourself from a life of frustration.
Copyright 2005 Stacey Rodewald
