Often people become overweight because they use food as a way to relax, celebrate, deal with sadness, enjoy happiness, and get through stressful situations. But food is really innocent in all of this. It’s just there to give you the energy you need to get through life.
And while food should taste good and be enjoyable, it shouldn’t be the answer to all of your mental and emotional dilemmas. Instead, you need to change your relationship with food and find other outlets for dealing with your emotions.
Free Download: Why You Can't Shift Your Belly FatHow To Change Your Relationship with Food
Many of us indulge in comfort eating every once in a while. You’ve probably treated yourself to an ice cream cone after a hard day at work, or snacked on cookies while studying for an exam. For some people, comfort eating goes beyond indulging in the occasional treats and ends up going to an extreme.
But there are several things you can do instead of finding comfort in food. For example:
- Take a hot bath
- Take a nap or just go to bed for the night
- Read
- Keep a diary
- Knit or crochet
- Learn a new hobby
- Call a friend
- Get a massage
- Drink a glass of water
- Have a good cry
- Hit a punching bag
- Take a walk
- Meditate
- Count to 10 – or 100 if necessary
When you learn some new activities to replace your dependence on food, you may find that you lose weight without even trying. You can still enjoy the food you eat, but you won’t be dependent on it for your every need.
Don’t Quit When You Go Off Track
From time to time, you’re going to go off of your plan. You may have an extra slice of cake, go carb crazy, or simply throw out all the rules for a vacation. It’s okay when this happens.
The danger is when you beat yourself up, decide that you can’t do it, and then throw out the diet completely. No one is perfect. Accepting that sometimes you’ll make mistakes is a healthy way to stick to your diet in the long run.
Just regroup and keep going. The very next day you can pick up where you left off and pretend that you never went off course. Don’t let a little setback actually throw you completely off your new healthy relationship with food.
Don’t beat yourself up when you make mistakes with your diet. When you get discouraged, you may turn to food for comfort. This will cause you to stay off of your diet longer, gain weight, and feel even more discouraged.
This cycle is what causes people to gain weight quickly when they quit a diet program. You don’t have to quit just because you made some mistakes. You just need to get back into the program.
You can also try to determine what caused you to go off track in the first place. This can help you to prevent future problems. Make your mistakes learning experiences and you’ll have even more success.
Why You Can’t Shift Your Belly Fat
When trying to lose weight, many people say that it’s belly fat they want to lose the most. But the belly is normally the last place most people lose fat. Are you frustrated because you feel like you’ve been doing everything right, but you’re still not able to shift your belly fat? Maybe you’re eating healthy foods and going to the gym, but the change in diet and exercise isn’t making your midsection smaller. To learn more, download my free report, Why You Can’t Shift Your Belly Fat and see how you can start getting the results you want.
