Cheating on your “diet” or just cheating on the healthy eating patterns you want to maintain? What are you thinking? Seriously – what are you thinking? When you are pulled by that urge and head to the kitchen, what was in your head? Whenever you eat anything, you think about eating it. You think about eating it whether you are truly physically hungry or just following that inner urge to eat when you are not physically hungry. Whether you are consciously aware of the thought or not, it is there and that is where your work begins.
The first curiosity you want to have about you is if you are truly physically hungry or are you following an urge? The first is a situation that is going to be relieved by eating – it’s the only thing that food can fix; hunger. The second situation will not be relieved by food. If you are following an inner urge to eat and are not hungry, that urge is coming from something that food cannot fix. You are going to eat something and still have that urge to continue; or you feel terrible that you ate it and the beatings begin.
Stop the beatings! Become aware of how often you let your mind beat you up. What are the thoughts that you normally tell yourself when you have eaten foods you consider not healthy or when you’ve overeaten. If you have never really given close observation to the thoughts you tell yourself, this can be a shocker. Notice how it feels to think those thoughts about yourself. Not great, eh? Don’t fall into the beatings cycle! You eat too much, you start noticing your brain kicks into beating you up, and now you feel terrible that you are thinking the thoughts. Stop right there for heaven’s sake! You just want to be curious about your thoughts and don’t beat yourself up for thinking thoughts that you beat yourself up with (we are such complicated creatures).
Your ultimate cheat sheet? Start journaling those thoughts. Write them all down and just stay curious about how your mind works. You want to be an objective observer. Then you can learn a lot about yourself. What thoughts really surprised you? How do you think these thoughts influence your eating? The answers you will get in this exploration are pure gold. Once you have your cheat sheet of thoughts, you know your usual pattern and can recognize it when it starts. That alone is enough to put a halt to those negative, hurtful thoughts you’ve been sharing with yourself. This begins to diffuse them and you get to pick better thoughts or simply dismiss the critical thoughts. Remember, don’t just read about it – go do it! Good job!
