Christie gives you 10 thought provoking questions to answer in this section. I don't want to completely spoil you going ahead and downloading her guide yourself, so I will answer 5 for you right here on WIOG.
- When you look at yourself in the mirror, what do you say to yourself? I tell myself that I am tolerable. Not beautiful, gorgeous, or traffic stopping. Tolerable. I am/feel average. I know this is bad... I don't think that my self-esteem is completely low, but it definitely is borderline somedays. I constantly worry about how I look and what others will think of me. So, when I look in the mirror, I tell myself that I am tolerable to avoid potential disappointment or someone letting me know that I am not fly.
- When you say those things to yourself, does it feel good? How do you treat yourself when you talk that way to yourself? Of course it doesn't feel good. I tell myself that it keeps me humble. I don't indulge myself very often, so it keeps me in check. I tell myself that I don't deserve XYZ until I XYZ. Once I get there, I will be able to get XYZ. Terrible, right? And most of the time, I "don't deserve" something because I am not seeing progress with my weight loss journey. BUT then again, I will self-sabotage myself and eat Pringles because I feel like my life is over and I can't lose weight. Such a vicious circle.
- Do you eat for reasons like boredom, stressed, tired, even happy? DEFINITELY! Sometimes, I just want a snack... Like, I want to chew something. I am not hungry, I just want to eat something. My mood will even change if I don't get the snack and then, what is worse, is that I feel "calmer" after I indulge in that snack. Normally something crunchy and salty.
- Does your body hum with energy, vitality, and aliveness? No? Why do you think that is? My body feels slow, sluggish and worn down most days. I crave to have more energy to get through my super long days, but sometimes, I just can't. I can force myself to do what needs to be done, but there is a countdown happening in my head until the moment I can climb into bed and relax. AND I am only 24 years old! I should be bouncing off the walls still. I really worry about what my energy levels will be like when I have children.
- Are you really ready to make true and lasting peace with food and your body? YES! I feel like I must make a change. It is now or never. I even feel like I know what I am doing wrong on most days, but I just don't gave the energy to do it right.
These questions really got me thinking. I can see the patterns of my thinking that make me emotionally eat. So if I can see it, then I should be able to change it, right? Well, we will see how I feel when I finish the e-book. If you are looking for the book, just go to Christie's site and download it. There should be a link on the right hand panel.
You are so right. Your thoughts create a pattern in your life that flow into all areas of your life. I know it's tough to deal with emotional eating. I really think it's a day to day process that requires you to stay conscious and committed. It is even more challenging when you have a full time life to live that requires working, planning a wedding, nurturing a relationship and trying to lose weight. Those added stresses can definitely fuel the emotional eating.
ReplyDeleteLike I commented in my blog you must address the reasons why you have such a negative perception of yourself. It's as if you don't want to set yourself up for disappointment, judgement or failure.
My issues had to do with being abandoned and abused as a child. Then it was going through a unfaithful marriage. I feed my emotions until I weighed 245lbs.
The only time you can fail is if you give up. As long as you keep moving forward and try to improve yourself everyday then you are a champion. :)
Instead of beating yourself up for eating Pringles why not make your own healthier version of a salty snake by baking your own chips. You can bake some sweet potato chips or regular potatos and season them with whatever you want.
That might make you feel better. I love sweets and had to bake my own treats for a while until I could manage my addiction to sugar.
What ever you do just remember to stay commited to yourself and your goals because you deserve to feel amazing. You are worth the time and effort!
Sorry I meant to say salty snack unless you like salty snakes. :) LOL!
ReplyDeleteI love this and can relate on so many levels. I'm constantly struggling to find a balance between eating and my emotions. I will deprive myself, telling myself I can't have XYZ, and inevitably I fall off and then binge, to the point where I am not even remotely truly hungry and even feel sick. Then I feel guilt and shame over being so stupid, I go exercise like a maniac, and put myself back on the deprivation train.
ReplyDeleteI too am posting about how to get through this and find a normal relationship with food. Thanks for sharing this!!
Anytime! I cannot wait to head over and see your perspective on this. Some people really feel that emotional eating is simply a lack of control... but as you and I both know... it is so much more than just that.
DeleteLove the questions! There was a blogger the other week who couldn't understand emotional eating and some of the comments got pretty rude, in favor of the "emotional eating is just a lack of control" and it really upset me! Yes, it's a lack of control, but not for the lack of being intelligent about choices, there's typically an underlying cause.
ReplyDeleteI just made that comment above! It IS so much more than that. I believe that there are a lot of emotions behind most self-damaging actions. The average healthy person would not want to put themselves in harms way... Emotional eating ultimately causes more harm than good. If it were just a lack of self control then we would all just "get over it" when we were tired of it.
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