Stress eating, boredom eating, comfort eating, celebration eating, eating, eating, eating…
Sound familiar? It is engrained into us as small children that food will make everything better. Cake for your birthday, M&Ms for peeing on the toilet, and the list goes on. Food was designed to make us feel better in a totally different way, though. When you eat healthy, clean food, your body is able to optimally perform. When you eat junk food, your body feels like junk. So often, we have eaten junk for so long that we don’t even realize how good we were designed to feel and move.
Junk food has proven to be addicting. And the rate at which obesity is rising, especially among young children, is alarming.
While we cannot change the way the world around us operates, we can change our perspective. You will not miss out on anything if you skip a piece of pie. Everything is okay in moderation, there is no need to never eat ice cream again (unless you have an allergy/intolerance).
I have some tips to help you combat disordered eating:
Log your food, and your feelings.
Eat the healthy food first.
Identify triggers that cause you to eat (refer to your log above).
Create healthy ways to relieve stress, go for a walk or use a sketch book.
Intentionally move your body every day.
Drink your water.
Find an accountability partner.
We very much live in the Me, Instant, Gimme times. The more instant the gratification, the more we like it. But those feelings are fleeting. Delayed gratification leads to long term happiness and success, in all aspects of your life.
Think back to the Stanford marshmallow experiment. The little kids who delayed gratification and got the 2 marshmallows were better adjusted, higher grades, and self motivated high schoolers. That tells us that the delayed gratification is innate.
It is also changeable though.
You can reward yourself for choosing delayed gratification. Sometimes the results of our efforts are not seen for a long time. Breaking it into smaller chunks, and rewarding those milestones will keep us motivated to keep going.
You can identify your goals, and prioritize your actions to be in line with your goals. If you want to focus on your mental health and overall happiness, journaling is an important activity. You need to schedule a couple minutes a day to write, or you are setting yourself up to fail long term.
Determine your why, whether it is eating healthy and working out or unplugging with your family, you will be much more successful when you remember why you are choosing to delay gratification.
Create a plan that works for you, for your life and for your goals. This will make you much more likely to not be tempted by eating that cookie, or staying up too late watching tv.
Good food will make your body run efficiently. If you fill your body up on the good stuff, you won’t even have room for the bad stuff. There is a quote about how we don’t even realize how good we are supposed to feel. It is so true! Energy and motivation create confidence, which leads to even greater goals. Skin looking fresh and healthy, hair that shines. Changing what you put in your body, changes you from the inside out. WOuldn’t it be great to radiate happiness and joy? To be that person that everyone wants to be like? It is totally possible!
What is one thing you will do to change your mindset today about food? Leave it in the comments to share and inspire others!