How many ‘sod it’ moments does it take?
Right now, I can stay in my pyjamas all day, I can drink wine every night since I don’t’ have to go to work, I mean I haven’t driven the car in like 7 weeks.
I can bake and bake and bake and eat and eat and eat all the cake! I can drink cup after cup of tea (with biscuits of course – I mean who would have a cup of tea without biscuits – losers!!!).
I can have as many ‘sod it’ moments as I like because everyone is doing it, it’s not going to last forever and then when this situation is over I’ll get back on the wagon, stick to the diet, be super good and my summer clothes will fit me fine!
After all, it’s been rather stressful lately – hasn’t it!?
And these are rather unusual times!
And this is completely normal behaviour – isn’t it?
When we’re stressed, we eat and/or drink – right?
To show our love we give food treats – don’t we?
When we’re bored, we eat and/or drink – wouldn’t you agree?
When we get the kids to do 20 mins of actual schoolwork then that’s a good reason to reward us all with food (not broccoli but cake!!) – isn’t it?
And when the small people finally go to bed then let’s eat numerous snacks whilst watching tv – that’s normal – right?
Well this would all be fine if we didn’t feel like shit afterwards! If we didn’t look in the mirror and say to ourselves, jeez you’ve put some weight on! If we actually felt in control and knew we could stop!
If this comfort eating was actually taking us towards our health goals. If we could look our kids in the eye and know we weren’t a hypocrite! If we could look ourselves in the eye and honestly say, it’s ok I could just stop if I wanted, it’s not like I’ve lost control!
Yes, it would all be fine!
But it’s not – is it?
Let’s talk about why we comfort or emotionally eat (or drink)?
When your brain recognises a threat, a real threat like an invisible virus that’s restricting your normal life and routine then it needs to initiate the fight and flight response.
It needs to do this because a threat is a life or death situation!
So, your body needs to get ready to run or fight in order to save you.
When we are in fight and flight, we access the oldest part of the brain. The part of the brain that thinks you are living in a cave and a tiger is about to eat you for dinner!
Your brain starts rifling through the filing cabinet to find solutions to this situation. It will recall ANY time in your past (most typically before the age of 8) where any pain, upset, fear, sadness, uncertainty was experienced and then it recalls what was done to take that pain etc away!
Your body does not like being in pain, fear, sadness etc.
So, it’s good we have a system in place to help.
Except when we look back at those experiences, we discover that pain was taken away by food, love was shown with food, sadness was covered up with food.
You get the picture!
And this is why so many of you struggle with this.
When you are accessing the oldest part of your brain, you are not in control!
Will power is in a different part of your brain and when you are under stress your automatic fight and flight takes over and you cannot out will power this life saving function!
In go the brain DVD’s that tell you that turning to food WILL help you.
The comfort eating (according to your brain) will literally save your life!
And you have very little control over this – well actually you have no control!!!
So now you know why you can’t stop at one biscuit, one piece of chocolate, half an Easter egg (any of those left?). one glass of wine or whatever else it is you have your hand and face in to!
What you need to do is to change the DVD or you are just going to get stuck in the same pattern.
Doing the same thing over and over again!
In order to change your DVD, you need the steps and the tools.
There are 4 steps to sorting this out.
The first step is awareness. You have to start being aware of what you are doing, how you are feeling, where are you standing or sitting, what is the time of day, what triggered the eating or drinking and what were you told before the age of 8!???
Then you need:
Steps 2, 3 & 4…….
Mind Over Food Matter starts 8th June.
