It seems in my journey to exercise and eat healthier, I always have something to contend with. I have been making small changes since the start of the year. However, I can say that I have seen these small changes make a positive difference in one way or another. Yet every week I seem to have a different battle to fight that is meant to bring me discouragement.
What I have been noticing the past couple of weeks is I lack the ability to control my size portions. I tend to eat beyond full and I wasn’t exactly sure why. Why do people eat to a point of being uncomfortable? I always seem to go just behind full, not to where I am feeling sick but just enough that I feel discouraged for doing so.
Now I’m not a psychologist but at some point in my past I heard that if you grew up with little food, hoarding food could be an issue later in life. I don’t hoard food but like I said, I do have trouble eating until I am pleasantly full. I always feel like I am wasting food. Why scrape away the last of those mashed potatoes into the garbage? It’s such a waste.
I wasn’t raised to eat everything on my plate. You just did because we didn’t have a lot of it. Now I am beginning to wonder if my past is playing into the way I view food today. If it is, I have to redirect my thoughts. I have to stop seeing food as something that I need because I may not have enough. Even though I know it’s not the case, it could be that subconsciously I am thinking that way.
I know of others who battle with food for other various emotional and psychological reasons. It doesn’t have to be a losing battle. Sometimes we just have to get a new mindset. Once we recognize what we may be contending with, we are better equipped to face it head on and change it.
One of my favorite sayings is from Dr. Phil. “You can’t change what you don’t knowledge.” Whatever it is in life, food or anything else, if we don’t acknowledge what the real issues are nothing will change. I would guess that there are many others out there who battle with food for emotional reasons. Try to figure out what the underlying thinking may be and then work on changing that thinking.
We can redirect our thoughts and take them on a better, healthier path.
Related Articles:
Confessions of an Emotional Eater
Stop and Listen: Your Body Is Trying to Tell You Something