If your are overweight, you are most likely letting food have too much importance in your life and far too much of your time. When I was overweight I was obsessed with food, my weight, dieting, losing weight, day dreaming about food that I couldn't have, binging... Every day I'd spend hours and hours thinking about this stuff. Things like what color of sprinkles I'd choose for a raspberry filled doughnut if I could only have one...Now as a 0-5 eater I still like a doughnut every once in awhile but not a whole one and definitely not more than one every few months. In fact they usually sound a bit gross to me now. Everyone is different in their food likes and dislikes. You'll have to discover for yourself what foods you really do like and what foods just plain gross you out.
The goal of 0-5 eating is not only to lose the weight, but to live your life as a naturally thin person. Over time food will have less and less importance in your life. You'll love to eat but only when your body is physically hungry and only the foods that will satisfy your body.
Naturally thin people don't really even think about food unless they're hungry, (or maybe shopping for food). So what do they do with the rest of their time? That's hours and hours a day of time that has to be filled with something. They live out their dreams or at least dream about living out their dreams. They have projects that they work on or hobbies that they take up. Sports that they play or special interests...riding horses, hiking, hot air ballooning, motorcycling, anything but food... They live their lives!
You may feel far too busy with the stresses of life: a demanding job, school, spouse, children, house work, bills, sickness, lack of money etc., to even think of taking up a hobby or planning a super vacation. But that's the best part about dreaming, it's free and dreams will never be fulfilled if we don't take the time to dream them up in the first place.
It may help to make a list of all the things you'd love to do with your life. It can be anything you want. As big as flying to the moon or as small as learning to sew on a button...anything! When you allow yourself to dream, your dreams start to become reality. Make your list and when you find yourself needing some kind of outlet, grab that list up and do something, even if it's just sitting back for a moment and thinking about a dream or goal that you have.
Try to find ways to change the stressful parts of your life, or at least tone them down. Get psychological help if you have any chronic problems that you can't deal with on your own. You may not be able to rid yourself of all your stresses but you need to find some other kind of escape rather than food.
Naturally thin people never eat for emotional reasons. In fact if a naturally thin person came to you with a problem and you handed them a carton of ice cream, they'd think you'd lost it. They'd wonder "Why would I eat ice cream right now, that has nothing to do with my problem".
Begin today to live your life. Make the most of it, don't take it for granted. You deserve to have an amazing life! Live it...life is a really great thing to live!
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I never eat when I'm happy and excited to be doing something... it's always when I'm frustrated about something in my life I can't change, or situations that are so overwhelming I can't cope. I'm trying to transition back into 0-5 eating, and struggling a little bit.
ReplyDeleteThe programmed response to shove something in my mouth when I can't handle my situation is almost overwhelming. I'm going to make a list like you said, and then give myself permission to do something I enjoy when I can't handle life as it is... even if it's just for a few minutes. What's a good alternative for eating when a baby is screaming relentlessly for hours.... a date with my i-pod perhaps? :)
Take 0-5 eating day by day, moment by moment, second by second if you have to. If you lose it and eat when you're not hungry then okay, that just happened...now it's time to move on to the next moment. 0-5 is a learning process. If the crying baby is too much to deal with right now, allow yourself a conscious binge. Pay attention to the binge and binge slowly. After a few moments of binging see if you can stop. Next time the baby is screaming you'll recognize why you're feeling the overwhelming need to eat and maybe that time you'll be able to pass up the box of cookies.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of bingeing consciously. I know when I'm that stressed out, I'm really not tasting the food I'm eating at all. So why eat it? I don't know... a programmed response I suppose. It's wierd that I even think eating will make me feel better -it's sweet for a minute, but then I feel worse afterward. When I think about it calmly I can see that I don't even really like eating. I just panic when things get out of control I think.
ReplyDeleteI was listening to the Saturday Morning session of General Conference on LDS.org, and one of the talks was about dealing with addictions, and it actually mentioned food along with alcohol, smoking, pornography and drugs. Food should be such a benign thing, but how many people are miserable because they have an unhealthing relationship with food.
It's definitely something to think about, and another motivating reason to try and change.