| Reason, singular, as in: one? Ha! I eat because: - I love food - I'm always hungry - It's just who I am - It's a habit - I can't seem to help it - I have self-esteem issues - I am a carb addict - I have no willpower - I love chips (or cookies, or....) - I'm not even aware that I do it - It's just something I do while watching TV - It's too hard to give up the foods I like - Besides, I'll just gain it back anyway - So I may as well comfort myself How can we boil down a complex issue to one reason? Yes, it is complex, which is why a diet is rarely the answer. Not for people who have a real food problem. In my experience, we eat for the same reason that all mammal babies eat: because we are hungry of course, and, because we want to be reassured. We want to be made to feel like everything is going to be OK. And we want that at both a conscious and sub-conscious level. How does it relate to loving chips, or not being able to stop at one cookie? Whether we are physically addicted to a food or whether it's just a highly ingrained habit, we are conflicted over eating it. We know it gets us into trouble, yet we don't want to do without it. So anything that gets us thinking about the issue scares us. For example: - I want to lose weight and plan to restrict my intake. The resulting tension leads to more eating. - I give in and eat a few chips. My whole self tenses up over the glee of having them and fear of both having more and not having more, and I wolf a bag down before anything can stop me. Even habitual eating in front of the TV relates to tension. Sure it is now mainly a semi-subconscious habit, but start thinking of reforming your ways, and watch your tension level rise. What about eating out of boredom? Boredom is a downright scary thing to experience. It's premature death. To be successful at weight loss, we absolutely must learn to deal with our need for reassurance, learn to defuse tension from all sources. The best way to not be such a victim of fear and tension, is to become more comfortable in our selves and our world. People with a greater sense of self-mastery don't feel assaulted by stress as much. And that's quite a catch 22, because it's just about impossible to feel masterful, when you are at the mercy of your overeating urges. It's quite a destroyer of self confidence. But you can get there one mini-victory at a time. So irrespective of your choice of diet, successful weight loss calls for learning (and practicing over and over again) stress coping skills, and for gaining confidence in your self mastery. Exercise helps because it reduces tension and makes us feel more confident and at ease in our bodies, in addition to providing all the metabolic and physical benefits. For some people, being more physically active was the key solution. Many need more help. Some get inspired by books, but most need other people to guide them for a while. We are talking about adopting a new way of being while fighting ingrained habits. Some structured support really makes the difference between wasting more years to food |
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