***Happiness, Pleasure, And Weight Loss

If you are struggling with an inability to maintain long-term weight loss, or stuck in behaviors of binge eating, emotional eating, or stress eating, you already know that your weight or eating patterns are about something far deeper than food alone. The pattern of how you eat is a language of sorts, speaking of your own decisions to be alive, energetic and passionate, authentic . . . or not.

Somewhere in the process of growing up, every one of us made decisions about ourselves on this Earth. We decided how alive we could be, how genuine, how open and real. We decided whether we have the right have to our own needs, wants, and desires - and have those needs met. The decisions that we made are reflected in our bodies and in our food patterns.

For a moment, look at your own relationship with food. How does your style of eating relate to your own aliveness, right to self-express, be passionate, be real, and your inter-relatedness to the greater whole? Does your eating style lead to feeling more energized, or does it lead to lethargy and physical discomfort? Does it involve self-denial and self-sacrifice? Does your eating style keep your energy wrapped up for years, attempting to resolve your weight (perpetual dieting) rather than claiming your right to have what you want?

Become aware of your attitude toward rest, relaxation, pleasure, and fun, and your relationship with food. Is there a parallel between your ability to feel good and receive pleasure and the pattern of how you eat? Deep down, do you believe that you do not deserve to have a good time, or that you haven't earned a right to feel good? Read the following list of eating patterns and discover if your relationship to food is in part a metaphor for your relationship with pleasure.

1. Pleasure Denier
The pleasure denier often appears to be the picture of health. You may be a strict dieter counting your calories religiously, scrutinizing your every food choice, or eating perfectly organic. However, below the surface none of your food choices has anything to do with what you actually need and want. You are far from living a balanced lifestyle or having inner peace.

2. Pleasure Delayer
Do you deny yourself energy / food, forgetting to eat breakfast and lunch throughout the day then attempt to provide yourself with as much pleasure as you can quickly get in the evening? Only, once you finish eating you feel guilty, once again denying yourself the pleasure of having what you want?

3. Secretive Eating
Do you eat in private? Do you wait until you are alone in the care, or until everyone is asleep at night before you allow yourself to have pleasurable foods? One of the most powerful human needs is a yearning for connection to all that gives pleasure and meaning to our lives. While you are eating secretively, you are giving yourself pleasure in whatever amounts you want. Overall, this is a wonderful thing. The only problem is that you really didn't want food, you wanted something far more important. You wanted to be able to receive pleasure, and feel that you had a right to have that pleasure.

4. No Need For Food
Do you restrict food entirely - denying yourself the energy needed for life? If you lean more towards anorexia, you never allow yourself to be hungry - or human. You have decided that you don't have needs and that you are above being human. Underneath though, you feel like you don't belong here on Earth, or that you have no worthiness as a person.

5. Hoard Food and Energy
Do you hoard energy - holding onto as much energy (food and fat) as you can, not feeling safe without it? Do you keep weight on your body as a way not to be too powerful, too sexually attractive, too alive, too authentic or real? Your weight or food choices may be a way to insulate you from your fears and your inner most heart-felt feelings, and thus from avoiding personal growth and change.

6. Denial of Power
Are you bulimic - somehow sensing it is your birthright to be powerful and have what you want, but you have mixed feelings about your needs? Do you indulges in huge amounts of energy (food) but then throw up what you believe you aren't allowed to have? Bulimic people often do not feel secure about their own self worth. They usually strive for the approval of others. They tend to do whatever they can to please others, while hiding their own feelings. Food becomes their only source of comfort - but even that is not allowed.

7. Unconscious Eater
Have you ever been nibbling on something for some time before you realize that you are actually eating? Have you had someone ask you, "What did you have for dinner last night", and you couldn't tell them? Do you find yourself eating food constantly while you are working, driving, talking on the phone, or watching TV without even thinking about what you are eating. Do you heap mounds of food on your plate? Do you put another bite into your mouth before finishing the last one? If this describes your patterns of eating, you may want to take a closer look at your fears and desires. Are you remaining unconscious to your inner truth, wants, and desires? Are you afraid to listen to your heart and follow your own true path in life?

You deserve all of the good things life has to offer. Challenge yourself to look more closely at your style of eating. Look with non-judgement and without fear. Look without attempting to solve or get rid of the problem. Instead, be curious. What does your style of eating say about your right to be alive on earth, your right to have your needs met, your right to self-expression, or your right to be empowered and happy? What would your eating look like if you were filled up with your own life, passion, and joy, love, feeling good and having what you want?

To help end overeating, increase the amount of pleasure in your life by increasing connection with your physical senses. Set out to intentionally fill your eyes with pleasurable colors and pictures, your nose with pleasurable aromas, and your skin with pleasurable sensations. In addition, become more optimistic, practice gratitude, pursuing meaningful life goals, engage in activities and hobbies that make you feel good. Watch your relationship with food change as you become more "true to yourself" and more willing to allow yourself pleasure!