Many women tell me they have tried everything to lose weight. Pills, powders, high protein diets, low protein diets; cabbage soup, tomato juice, pre-packaged foods, eat half your plate, no carbohydrates, fermented drinks and the list goes on.
Many tell me nothing works and they can't lose weight. I believe that for some, there are many underlying issues and it is not always the diet that is the problem.
You must search deeper to find one of the many reasons you are not able to lose weight. Aside from those who have serious medical conditions that prevent weight loss, all of us are responsible for the weight we are.
What do you use food for? Do you use it for pleasure, entertainment, comfort, anxiety, or maybe for protection?
We all use food for one reason or another. Of course the healthiest way to use food is for nourishment, but since early childhood, we learn to associate food with comfort and love. Our mothers love us by making sure we are fed and comforted; food is a way to give us that feeling. But are you looking at food as the only comfort in your life?
When you are in the need of extra assurance and comfort do you automatically reach for something sweet to fill your tummy?
When you want to celebrate or reward yourself do you think of the best tasting food you can think of and indulge your tastebuds in the "Junk de Jour"? Do you ever have stressful days and come home and think you 'deserve' that unhealthy food?
If you were hurt or abused in your past, do you eat food to keep you fat so you can hide behind a wall of obesity? Do you abuse food to keep you fat therefore giving you an excuse to keep isolated?
Or are you just a pleasure monger who chases every pleasurable avenue you can, making sure to partake in every food buffet life has to offer? Maybe you are just a plain glutton and whenever you eat, you eat with a vengeance?
How you use food needs to be examined before starting ANY new eating plan. It is not always the eating plan that doesn't work, but many times it is the person and how they currently use food in different situations.
It is a given that you must eat many living foods to be healthy and trim the excess, but many struggle with all diets because they are using food incorrectly. They think the food is controlling them, but ultimately they are in control.
Yes, sugar and other substances are addictive, but habits can be broken as quickly as they are made.
Starting another diet is not going to help anything until you get your food usage under control.
5 Tips on how to get out from underneath the bondage of food:
1. "Make the choice to change" how you think about food.
2. Recognize your patterns with food and how you use food to cope with different situations. Record when and what you eat for a few days, and it will become clear to you how you are using food. You will recognize that you are eating to live or living to eat.
3. Accept the FACT that YOU control your weight.
4. Know that because you are in control of your health and weight, you WILL change it.
5. Find substitutions for food when dealing with emotions;
Examples:
a. For Reward and celebration; pamper yourself by doing a facial, or take a bubble bath, or sit in a sauna (this goes for the men too).
b. For pleasure; find something you enjoy doing besides satisfying your taste buds and do that instead of sitting around and just eating. If you don't have a hobby, get one.
c. If you are abusing your body by overeating to stay fat and protected, face your issues now and get some professional help. Once you get rid of the pseudo layer of protection, you will be free and begin to live.
d. Whenever you feel insecure and need assurance and comfort, acknowledge and examine those feelings instead of stuffing them with food.
e. Above all, when faced with the food control challenge, pray for strength and wisdom to overcome your issues.
Read all the health information you can get your hands on and be 'shocked' about how certain foods and chemicals react in the body. Make a choice for health once and for all!
Read The Living Well Plan
