“Why Eating is a Huge Habit—And What We Can Do About It”

Many people have lots of issues around eating. In fact until a person comes to a point in their lives that they have to change their eating habits they really don’t know how much of a habit eating really is. Recent studies about fast food showed that almost 80% of the people said they were not willing to give up their eating habit even if it meant not being healthy. But there are many ways to overcome our eating habit.

Powerful Habit - Eating is a very powerful habit that’s just about as potent as taking certain types of drugs. When we eat something it causes a burst of hormones that go to our brain giving us a feeling of elation and happiness for a short while. Similar to what we get with many habit forming drugs. And some people get hooked on eating in order to make themselves feel good.
Declaration - One of the best ways to overcome the food habit is to make a declaration to change, to eat simply and not allow anything block our progress… that may seem simple yet it’s not easy.

Also taking some kind of health food challenge can be helpful. Personally when I had kidney disease, high blood pressure, and arthritis I was determined to become healthy… so I became a vegan. And it worked, and in the process I found that eating a simple diet was emotionally gratifying. And that lead to taking the 30 Day Raw Foods Challenge and eating nothing but raw foods for 30 days. At the end of 30 days I found that food was no longer important, that food was not a temptation any more. It was as though a switch was turned off in my brain and the habit of eating ended.

Pleasure Response - The pleasure response of eating is such a powerful process that can keep us trapped. And for those who don’t want to make a powerful decision to overcome the eating habit with a declaration… meditation can be a great help.

Meditation - Meditation helps us break free of the food habit. Instead of finding pleasure from food we can go inside and find great joy within. Thus we no longer need food… other than when we are truly hungry. Meditation has been used by veterans coming back from foreign wars who are in terrible emotional turmoil and really need help. And the only thing that really works for these people is meditation. Not even counseling, not even drugs, nothing seems to help them other than meditation. Meditation seems to allow all the emotional turbulence, all the anxiety, and the need to eat something to subsides… and thus food becomes less important. So learning meditation is can be a potent force for letting go of the habit.

Hypnosis - And eating is really all based in our mind, we see food and we become hungry. How many people have not been hungry and then all of a sudden got a glimpse of a billboard with fast food on it and become terribly hungry? It’s true, it’s a mind process that starts the stomach chu
ing… and our mind is activated to make us feel hungry. This is where hypnosis can be very instrumental in breaking the eating habit. A study was done about weight loss with diet, hypnosis, and exercise, plus a control group. The group that lost the most weight was the group that used hypnosis. Just placing a suggestion in our mind… that whenever we see a particular color or shape, or anything other image or artifact that we see all the time… helps us to feel full and satisfied by reminding us unconsciously that we feel full.

Hypnosis and Meditation Together - And the use of meditation and hypnosis together can be a very potent healing process for breaking the eating habit. Finding a good hypnotherapist to work with to create a simple suggestion, and mediating daily for 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening can be a powerful process for overcoming the eating habit. One process supports the other and thus change will happen… it's inevitable.

And once the habit of eating is broken life is very different. We no longer derive our feelings of happiness from the outer world. We find all we need inside… thus life starts anew. Then peace filters in and other parts of life such as hobbies, having a social life, and enjoying the company of others become much more important… and we are free of the huge habit of eating.

Many Blessings to Everyone

Dr. Paul Haider - Master Herbalist