How many times have you started and stopped a diet? How many times have you told yourself that it is time to lose this weight once and for all only to go back to old eating patterns after a week or two? Weight loss and eating becomes a mind game that never gets won.
It is possible to be successful at eating, weight loss, and diminishing the constant battle that goes on in your head. But first you may have to come to terms with a few things. You need to come to terms with being your own friend and not your worst enemy. Here is what I mean. When you tell yourself things like I am not worth it or I can't do it, you are saying you don't like who you are which decreases the likelihood of losing weight. This is why, every time you tell yourself something negative it reaffirms to your brain that you don't deserve to feel good or be happy and the result of this is eating, not exercising, and feeling bad. This becomes a constant cycle and perpetuates the battle in your head which then perpetuates eating etc.
Something else that you need to come to terms with is that you can only be you, meaning to compare yourself with someone else and wish for what they do or do not have is ludicrous. We all do this but learning to be OK with yourself inside and out will help decrease the cycle that keeps you stuck in the weight loss battle. You are good enough, you deserve to be happy and healthy, and you are worth the effort.
Learning to accept yourself and take ownership of your body, your thoughts, and your emotions can decrease the amount of time you spend beating yourself up. When our time is spent thinking about the negative and not dealing with what is true and factual our brain will follow this thought process. This will lead to the destructive eating patterns and weight loss becomes just a wish.
One more thing to come to terms with is that food does not fix problems. Food has become the solution to stress, depression, anxiety, anger, frustration, grief, guilt, sadness, and happiness. Food does not have the ability to solve problems, food can only make us feel full, and give our body fuel. We have decided that food is more than that and it is not. Start being aware of your emotions and accepting the fact that sometimes these emotions do not feel good and then remember that food will not make them go away food will only increase the guilt and negative thinking because of the regret you will have with indulging in food for that instant gratification. After the instant gratification is over you are left with regret, guilt, and negative thoughts which usually feel worse than the original emotion you were trying to get rid of.
Emotions are normal part of being human, we all have them; learn to accept and deal with them in a healthier manner i.e. walking, talking to someone, writing/journal, meditation, and mindfulness practices are just a few ways to help. Remember emotions are not permanent they come and go, ebb and flow, our job is to learn to ebb and flow with them and allow the emotion to come and go, it lets us know there is a problem and also that we are alive.
