I recently received an email from someone who reads my newsletter. Here is what she said: “Help! I want to get “back on track” and lose weight, but my resolutions to lose weight NEVER work out. How can I have a better attitude around food and weight without succumbing to the “diet” mentality?”
To answer her, I first congratulated her for resisting the temptation to jump on the diet bandwagon. The fact is that 98% of all diets fail, so she’s better off approaching the problem from a fresh, new perspective. After all, how many diets have any of us started and broken in the past? The problem with going ON a diet is that we automatically set ourselves up to go OFF it at some point!
I then offered my new friend a new perspective: since we overeat when we are out of balance I suggested she begin by thinking about how she can best take care of herself and her body this coming month (not how she can control it and make it do what she wants). It’s about “self-CARE, not self-CONTROL”. I asked her how she can minimize stress and incorporate some healthy new habits?
Increasing sleep or taking time for yoga or meditation is always a wonderful way to take care of ourselves. If meditation seems like an impossible hurdle, check out www.MeditationYouCanDo.com. I created a product specifically for those who can’t slow down enough to meditate. It’s called “Visualization and Meditation for the Overactive Mind”. If you can give even 6 minutes to listening to one visualization practice, you can experience change in your eating habits. And the nice thing is that this 6 minute practice can grow into a comfortable and easy meditation practice over time. Your health is worth 6 minutes, right?
I also asked my reader what she can change in her schedule so she has more time for preparing healthy meals at home. It’s counter-productive when we do battle with ourselves and our weight. Instead we need to think about treating ourselves with the respect and care we would eagerly give our best friend, spouse or mother. We deserve it! One of the best ways I know to do this with food is to adopt the “3 Meal Magic” plan (the CD is available through www.betotallyfree.com). It’s a non-diet for emotional eaters. This plan will help you how to have a healthy relationship with food on a daily basis. It shows you, in a sense, how to eat to live, instead of living to eat. There really isn’t anything more self-caring and EFFECTIVE!
We wouldn’t expect to start a new business without an investment of time in building that business. Well, learning to care for ourselves takes an investment of time as well. It doesn’t just happen. We get back exactly what we put in. The point is that in order to feel our best, in order to turn the tide of empty promises and useless resolutions, we all must remember to look on the inside for results on the outside!
Having lost 50 lbs. through identifying and addressing the underlying causes of her emotional eating, Tricia Greaves founded Heal Your Hunger an online resource which offers hope and healing for emotional eaters worldwide. Tricia is also the director of The Greaves Foundation for those with nowhere else to turn for help with eating disorders, obesity and addictions. Tricia is the author of many articles on emotional eating, eating disorders, healthy weight loss and addictions. She is also the contributing author of 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Health and the popular Thank God I book series in which she writes a chapter called, “Thank God I Was Fat.” To learn more and to register for your free “HYH JumpStart Kit,” visit healyourhunger.com.