Hello and welcome back! I’m so glad you’re here. We are fast approaching Christmas and all the party foods and sugary treats are everywhere. We want to lose weight for the holidays but how is it even possible with all the foods that are so hard to resist showing up all over the place?
It’s ok – I got you!
Let’s figure out the problem first. We walk into the breakroom at work and there’s a plate of homemade assorted cookies on the table, still warm and ready to eat. Or your office sends out candied nuts as a gift to your house. Girl, the treats just walked right in your door! Then you walk through the store to grab a few essentials and the pretty Christmasy candy arrangements are so cute – your buy some as gifts and maybe keep just one for yourself. What about those decorated sugar cookies at the grocery store? Let’s just pick a box up for the kids – they can have some Christmas sugar even if you can’t, right? Except you find yourself eating some once they’re in bed!
What is this bizarre power that foods have over us? We’ve all said things like “Girl, I’m the cookie monster. I just can’t say no to a good cookie!” Or “Cupcakes are my kryptonite.”. Even better, “Those wings were calling my name!”
Except they weren’t.
I’ll tell you how I know for sure that the food has no power. First and foremost, food doesn’t care about you at all. It was prepared by someone and it just sits there. It’s not tempting you or calling your name. Food is an inanimate object that has no feelings or motivations in any way.
Your thoughts are what gives the food the power.
If you put a cupcake in front of a person with a true gluten allergy, they wouldn’t agonize over how delicious the moist delicious cake might be. They’d say no thank you and keep it moving. If you have IBS, there are certain food that you would avoid like the plague because they’ll set you off. You don’t want that smoke! No temptation there. Let me give you a personal example. I have a life-threatening allergy to brazil nuts. Fortunately, they don’t show up too often, but if you offer me one I have no problem declining. Doesn’t matter how delicious you say they are, doesn’t matter that they are an excellent source of selenium – I don’t want one. I like to live!
When we have a food that we consider a “trigger” food, it’s because we’ve gotten very good at thinking thoughts about that food that encourage our desire for the food. We think “Oh, that’s going to be delicious”, or “I have to have some of that!” These simple thoughts are so well practiced that we immediately respond to the desire they generate by taking the food. It happens so fast that we think the food has some magical attractive properties. But it doesn’t.
So what do we do? The first thing you usually do is try to resist. Resistance is exhausting and requires tons of energy. Eventually, it wears out. Then you’re tired from resisting AND you ate the cookie! Your goal is to try to slow things down so you can think. Before you take the cookie, wait. Breathe. Remind yourself what you really want for yourself more than the cookie. Then you can direct your brain once you’re back in charge. You can remind it that it can want the cookie, but you’re not going to respond to the urge to eat it. Those thoughts don’t run you – you run this!
The more you can allow the urge to be there but not respond by doing what it says, the faster your brain will stop yelling at you to eat out of control. Your brain is very good at thinking thoughts about the “trigger” food. You get to watch your brain spin out over the food and then settle down when you stay in charge. When you are the boss of your brain, it can offer you suggestions, but you decide what you’ll do. That’s the end of “trigger” foods!
You CAN do this! Losing weight for the holidays isn’t a cute tagline – it is possible! When you manage your mind, your goal happens. This work is what I do with my clients and every one of them is losing weight after years of struggle. I had one client tell me that she was surprised by how much easier coaching was than any diets she had tried before!
If you’re ready to invest in your weight loss goal, if you are ready for focus and accountability unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before, email me at drandreachristianparks@gmail.com, and let’s set up your one-hour free consultation. I’m taking clients for 2022, but the spaces are going fast! If you want to know that you have your plan in place as you begin the year, don’t miss your chance. Let’s get you what you really want!
Here’s your video help for the week!