Sabotaging healthy eating choices can be happening without you even being aware of when and how it is happening.
Have you ever asked yourself ” what the hell is wrong with me?”, “why can I not just stick to a diet and an exercise plan?” Feeling out of control with food, trying to be “good” for a little while to then only end up overeating can be exhausting, well, it is exhausting. When we set an intention to get healthy and fit, we are really genuine about it, but often we sabotage ourselves without without even being aware of why we do it.
Keeping in mind 90% of our decisions are made subconsciously, therefore a lot of the choices we make are based on our thoughts, beliefs, old stories and conditioning.
Here is one of the reasons we often sabotage our healthy eating goals and what we can do to feel in charge of our choices and therefore in charge of our body.
The need to be in control
Every year we feel like we want to make the change to eat better. The intentions surrounding this change are real but we often struggle to fulfill it. One of the reasons for self-sabotage is the need or the want to have control. We think that if we are going to go on a diet, we have to do it 100% – you know that “all or nothing mentality”? This need to control and be “perfect” leads to fears of falling of the wagon. We start avoiding social events, are scared of joining morning tea at work and food becomes an enemy.
These fears create negative associations with this ‘change’ of wanting to eat better. Fears = Pain. As humans we naturally avoid pain and seek pleasure. As soon as we create association of change, in other words pain, we will seek pleasure and that often means seeking comfort in food.
In moments when we eat something outside of our diet plan or dietary rules, maybe because we’ve had a bad day or a stressful week, we feel out of control and believe we ruined everything. This is usually when all chocolate bars and chips come out of the cupboards. This is how we sabotage ourselves.
The need for control create negative association with the intention to eat better. This often results in seeking comfort in food to avoid this uncomfortable feeling.
Be in charge.
Instead of wanting to be in control, let’s focus on feeling in charge of our decisions. So, what is the difference? When we feel in charge, we take an empowering approach to our actions and decisions. We make conscious decisions that are aligned with how we truly want to live our life such as: happy, free, joyful, eating for nourishment, making peace with food, finding joyful movement. We are taking away the pressure of wanting or needing to be perfect aka needing to control everything. That not only applies to eating but also all areas of life.
A great question to ask ourselves: what would be good for me to live in alignment with what I want to achieve? By doing this, we are focusing on taking daily actions in alignment of who we are, how we want to feel and what makes us feel good, rather than the single focus on weight loss or following a perfect diet.
When feeling in charge of our actions and decisions, we take an empowering approach to life. We make conscious decisions that are aligned with how we truly want to feel and live our life such as: happy, free, joyful, peaceful, content.
Have you ever asked yourself why you want to feel in control with healthy eating? Why do you want to lose weight? What will be different when you lose weight? How are you going to feel when you feel in control with food?
It is an exercise I do with my clients to truly understand what they desire. We have been conditioned to think that weight loss is the only vehicle to get us to our destination of what we really want. The reality is different though. Most people keep remaining unhappy with their body and their look, even if they lose weight. Yes, they feel great as long as the number on the scale keeps moving down but as soon as weight loss plateaus, fears, control, negative self-talk, self-hatred and blame comes back.
Therefore, I always stress about how important it is to find out what we really desire and start taking empowered actions towards healthy eating which will help us to feel confident, in charge, happy, healthy. I believe we need to focus on enjoying the process for sustainable life style changes.
Live in alignment with your goals to sustain healthy eating and healthy living goals
Being in charge is to live in alignment with what we want to achieve. For example, you may ask yourself: if I want be more confident, how can I live in alignment with being confident? What are the things I can do to make me feel good? This may be wearing certain clothes that make you feel good, or being more active outside or joining a group exploring your favorite hobby.
For me personally, it was dancing and yoga. I had no idea these two things were going to play such an important role in my healing. That’s why I am so passionate about teaching my online body positive yoga classes. Maybe you always wanted to try yoga but didn’t feel comfortable. I have plenty of free yoga videos on my YouTube Channel. Give it a go and let me know how it was Start living in alignment with what you want. Food restriction, body hatred, living in fear of making a mistake is probably not part of it. Be in charge of your life, not in control. Control only creates fear.
If you feel like you are ready to stop sabotaging yourself and want to dive deeper to understand why you can’t stop eating at times, even if you are not hungry, why you feel addicted to food and what you can do about it, either book a Free discovery call to discuss your challenges and what you want to change or join my upcoming 6 weeks online program – Beat Binge Eating and Emotional Eating – with Food Freedom Formula.
Free yourself from Emotional Eating and Stop Binge Eating with Food Freedom Formula.
6 weeks online group program Registrations open now
If are you ready to finally free yourself from food obsession and free your waistline from excessive weight – without going on another diet and giving up eating cake – then this program is for you!
