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What’s Eating “At” You?

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By: Nina Savelle-Rocklin

 

No willpower? No problem.

Do you have food cravings? Maybe you wake up every morning and say, “I’m going to be good today” or, “I’m staying away from sugar.”

Eventually your willpower fails, so you try again with a new diet, but the cycle repeats. You are probably more than ready to get off that diet roller coaster, but you might think that if you’re not dieting, you will gain weight.

There is a reason why diets don’t work and guess what? It’s not about willpower.

Why all diets fail

Diets fail because on some level they are about deprivation, and the anticipation of deprivation always leads to overeating. That’s because thinking about what you cannot eat often just makes you want it more.

Plus, if you’re thinking about NOT having pizza or pasta or ice cream, then you’ve pizza or pasta or ice cream on the brain, all day. That puts the focus on the wrong thing, which is “what” you’re eating, instead of “why” you’re eating it.

If you are turning to food as a way of comforting yourself, calming down, or distracting yourself, then eating is actually a solution to the problem. It’s not the real problem.

To make a change, you must first identify what is eating “at” you. Every gardener knows that if you pull a weed it will grow back. The only way to get rid of it for good is to get out the root.

Dieting is like pulling weeds – the eating problem keeps coming back until you get to that root.

What is triggering you?

In the last 15 years I have helped thousands of men and women make peace with food, and early on I started noticing some patterns and correlations between what they described as trigger foods and what was going on in their lives.

Often, they did not realize they were being triggered by situations. They truly believed that food was the trigger.

Sharla’s Story:

I met Sharla at a barbeque, and she shared her frustration with her weight. She worked out five days a week, but a few months earlier she had developed what she called, “a thing for ice cream” and as a result, she had gained ten pounds.

She pointed out her husband, who was across the backyard talking to other people. I noticed that when she tried to catch his eye, he ignored her. In fact, he hardly paid attention to Sharla at all.

I asked Sharla what had been going on in her life before she started craving ice cream. Upon reflection, she realized that it started when she and her husband began having problems. She quickly added, “When I get back into shape, things will be better between us.”

Clearly, it was easier for Sharla to think about losing weight than it was to feel the pain and disappointment over the relationship.

The real problem was not ice cream or her weight. It was her marriage.

Crack The Code Of Emotional Eating

Like Sharla, you may be so triggered by food that you do not recognize what is actually bothering you. I developed a Food-Mood Formula to help you figure it out. There are three basic categories:

Smooth, creamy foods like ice cream or pudding

Filling foods – bread, pasta, pizza, cake, muffins

Crunchy foods like chips or crackers

Take a moment to think about your last craving? Was it for something smooth, like ice cream or pudding? Or filling? Maybe you were all about pizza, pasta, bread or cake. Or maybe it was crunchy and you grabbed that last bag of chips.

What does it all mean?

Sweet, smooth and creamy foods suggest a need for nurturing and soothing. If ice cream or pudding is your go-to food, you must find a way to comfort yourself with words, instead of using comfort food.

Filling, bulky foods point to loneliness, since they are bulky and fill an inner void. If you crave bread, pizza, pasta, muffins, cake and those sorts of filling foods, you may be feeling deprived or lonely. You must find a way to fill the holes in your life instead of symbolically filling up.

Crunchy textures are associated with anger. Chips, pretzels, everything that makes you bite down hard, indicate that you are angry, frustrated, or annoyed. Think about who or what you’re angry with, if you were not mad at yourself for eating chips.

Keep in mind that if you are turning to food, you are turning away from something else. Stop dieting and start paying attention to what is eating “at” you, and then process those thoughts and emotions. When you stop using food for comfort or distraction, you will create permanent and sustainable weight loss. That’s how you make peace with food and feel better.

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