#135 Learning to manage your mind around food

 

 

  When I was struggling with weight and overeating I was always looking for the next miracle cure.

 

 Like most of us, I wanted a quick and easy fix. So, I would come up with a crazy food plan for myself or sign up to do a bodybuilding comp.

 

I have to confess that I used to sell 100s of 12-week challenges each year to help others do the same thing- a quick but unsustainable fix.

 

Every time I embarked on my new diet I would secretly binge along the way and dream of what I was going to eat 'when it was over' and of course, this inevitably kept me in that diet - binge good- bad all or nothing diet mentality.

We all know that YOYO dieting IS BAD FOR US and as I got older, I found the effects on my metabolism and overeating to compensate for the undereating got worse.

 

When we start the next diet and fail after 3 days it just intensifies our feelings of failure and self-loathing and destroys our confidence in ever being able to eat 'normally' and be a healthy weight consistently - that is a healthy for us as an individual.

 

Until we can manage our minds around food there is no magic food plan. Nothing will work long-term until we develop these skills.

 

Here are the 3 things that changed all of this for me.

 

1. Planning food ahead of time v keeping a food diary.

 

2. Tuning into true hunger and recognising and then stopping eating when I am 80% full.

 

3. Learning how to deal with urges and cravings.