Some people are on a diet 365 days a year, not because they enjoy dieting but because they are afraid that if they stop they will completely lose control and their weight will skyrocket. Yet this futile attempt to stay in control may very well be the reason their weight is out-of-control.
Food ...Some people are on a diet 365 days a year, not because they enjoy
dieting but because they are afraid that if they stop they will completely lose control and their weight will skyrocket. Yet this futile attempt to stay in control may very well be the reason their weight is out-of-control.
Food has no super powers it can not make us eat it, pull us toward it or communicate verbally or telepathically with us; it can't do anything, it simply exists. And it is a great thing that it is there for us; otherwise we would cease to exist. Since food is vital to our survival, we were, by design, built to have a natural desire for it. When we resist this desire, as in when we adhere to strict
dieting rules, this desire grows and grows until the point is reached when we feel we are no longer controlling food but rather food is controlling us.
What we need to understand is that it is completely natural to be attracted to food. From our very first day we crave it and cry if we don't get it. Since we are so fortunate to live in a place where food is abundant, we can easily fall into a trap of overeating and consuming more food than our body can use so our body intelligently puts that food energy into storage - fat.
Since the act of eating is usually enjoyable, we have no desire to stop overeating until we start to notice fat accumulating on our body. At this time, we feel compelled to reduce the amount of food we eat - i.e. we diet. This would be a sensible solution if we continued to feed our body when it signaled that it was hungry but often we take drastic steps and we end up resisting our natural hunger signals and denying ourselves food.
Resistance is the act of pushing against something or trying to prevent something from happening through force or willpower. The desire to eat is a basic instinct of survival, when we resist it or push against it, it pushes back and we end up wanting it more. We will never win this grudge match because eating is vital to our existence.
There is an alte
ative, and it is to stop resisting. But this is a scary thought to many people because they fear losing control - but isn't that what has already been lost?
When we give up resisting food and denying our hunger, we actually give ourselves control over food because when the resistance stops, we no longer feel the mystical pull of food. Food becomes more a way of fueling the body instead of a way to relieve stress or pacifying emotions.
You may still be feeling reluctance to stop
dieting because you fear that giving up that grip will cause you to dive into eating junk food. Fatty foods and refined carbohydrates are called comfort foods for a reason. They do cause a physiological change in our mood. When we feel frustrated, depressed, angry or tired food can provide a temporary change in how we feel, so, again, it is natural for us to want these foods at these times. This is however a temporary lifting of the spirits which is typically followed by an emotionally empty feeling so it is best to deal with the underlying emotion or physical need of the body. This may require taking a nap, quenching a thirst, dealing with an uncomfortable emotion or diverting your attention.
If we stop resisting our body's natural desire for food we learn to work with our body and rise above the problem of weight gain. When we are above the problem, the problem drops below us, it shrinks and is therefore manageable. It is like learning to ride a bike, it takes some effort at first but once we learn how to balance on the two wheels, the problem is no longer bigger than us, in fact it is now a small problem and we can manage it for the rest of our lives.
When we are dealing with weight loss or avoiding weight gain, we must become bigger than the problem. Things that keep us below the problem are fear, disgust, anger and pride. If we try to manage our weight using these "low energy" emotions, we will end up frustrated and unsuccessful. To rise above the problem and attain permanent weight loss, we must build ourselves up internally by using high energy emotions such as love, passion, enthusiasm. These emotions grow out of knowing exactly what we want for our lives, believing in our ability to be and do more, being solidly committed to our goal and having a high degree of self-respect and self-worth.
By giving up resistance to our body's natural desire and focusing our energy on rising above the problem by developing ourselves into someone who has a strong level of self-worth, belief and confidence the problem of controlling our weight shrinks, it becomes a non-issue and a healthy comfortable weight is achieved and maintained without effort.