Do you REALLY need it??
Are you finding it a struggle to stick to a healthy eating regime? Or you can’t give up your after dinner chocolate? Or even your favourite go-to fast food restaurant or take-away?
Have you TRIED to be “good” and keep finding yourself PULLING towards these foods in an almost hypnotic way?
You keep thinking, “If only I didn’t ENJOY eating these foods so much, it would be sooooo easy!”
Let’s get something straight…
It’s NOT because you don’t have any will power…
It’s NOT because you NEED the food…
It’s NOT because you LOVE the food… (believe it or not…)
Because IF you truly…👉🏽 HAD will power
👉🏽 NEEDED these types of food
👉🏽 LOVED these types of food…
Then you would NEVER…
😔 Feel disappointed when your so-called “will-power” caved in!!!
🤢 Feel HEAVY and BLOATED after stuffing yourself with these types of food IF your body TRULY needed them!!!
🤦🏻♀️ Feel GUILTY if you GENUINELY loved these foods!!!
The next time you face a cake, a biscuit, some chocolate or ice-cream… observe the messages you say to yourself.
Do these statements sound familiar to you?
“It’s ONLY a treat”
“I’ll only have ONE”
“It’s a party after all”
“I have to have something sweet after dinner…” etc. etc.
These messages appear HARMLESS, but what we don’t realise is that every single time we decide to include these types of foods in our diets, our brain is REAFFIRMING its beliefs!
And that belief is that it CANNOT survive WITHOUT these foods. Essentially, it feels under THREAT EVERY. SINGLE. TIME you abstain from them!
Therefore your brain will do WHATEVER IT TAKES to talk you into having the food…
Do you recognise these voices?…
“Go on, it’s only ONE biscuit”
“I can start AGAIN tomorrow”
“It’s a party after all!”
“It looks soooooo good, surely, I need to ENJOY myself!”
And so forth…
You may even sometimes feel physically anxious!!!
You feel like you’re fighting a strong resistance. The voices in your head are being compounded by the tightness in the pits of your stomach, FULL of anxiety!
You wanna explode if you don’t have that cake, biscuit, ice-cream etc. etc.
And no matter what your main goals are:
💃🏻 Get to your ideal weight
🏃🏻♀️ Have more energy
🥦 Be healthy
🤐 Avoid a binge
👨👩👧👦 Be the role model for your kids
Whatever your reasons, when it comes to your brain, the brain DOES NOT care!!!
Because eating fatty, starchy and sugary foods like cookies, cakes, bread, ice-cream etc. is something MOST of us have been eating in some variety from the DAY. WE. WERE. BORN!!!
You're perfectly NORMAL!
One of our primal instincts is to be drawn to what’s familiar and HATE anything that is unfamiliar.
So most of us have been conditioned to CRAVE fatty and sugary foods since we were born!😱
FAT/SUGAR (aka cake/cookies etc.) = HAPPY = LOVE = SURVIVAL
You’re perfectly NORMAL!
You’re just acting in a perfectly normal, SURVIVAL mode!
The problem is, the brain DOESN’T realise that there’s abundance of food available.
The brain DOESN’T care that cakes, biscuits, ice-cream DOESN’T give you ANY nutritional benefit at all!
The brain DOESN’T care that these types of foods make you FAT!
The brain DOESN’T care that these foods HINDERS your energy levels!
The brain DOESN’T care you want to be HEALTHY!
The brain DOESN’T care these foods are HIGHLY ADDICTIVE!
The brain DOESN’T care that you want to be the ideal MODEL to your kids!
All the brain CARES about is EATING what it’s known ALL. IT’S. ENTIRE. LIFE… in other words, what is FAMILIAR!
But the GOOD news is...
CHANGING a LIFE-LONG habit DOESN’T have to take a lifetime to change!…😲
In combination of TELLING yourself the RIGHT messages… start by making the…
Familiar (JUNK food or BINGE foods)👉 UNFAMILIAR and the…
Unfamiliar (Saying NO to JUNK food or BINGE food and YES to foods that nourishes your body)👉 FAMILIAR!
BREAK the habit!
TEACH your brain!
The brain WILL listen!
I can hear you say… “In English please Mel!”…
If you find that you usually cave in to biscuits when you have a hot drink in the afternoon, it’s because you’ve developed an ‘ANCHOR’ to your hot drink.
So the brain has connected:
HOT DRINK = BISCUIT
Much like when we go to the cinema, most of us have anchored:
CINEMA = POPCORN
This is where you have an opportunity to BREAK the habit or in other words, the anchor associated with it.
You can do a variety of things like;
1. Don’t have a hot drink in the afternoon
2. Swap your hot drink to a cold drink instead
3. Skip a drink altogether and drink more water during the day
4. Do a burst of exercise instead. You’ll get the benefit of the energy boost as you would a coffee but you’ll also build strength and muscle tone as well😜
Avoid SWAPPING the biscuit with another sweet, EVEN fruit!😲
The reason is, swapping it for a less attractive option (at the beginning of the transition) only signals the brain that it’s being DEPRIVED!
If you’ve been eating regularly and ENOUGH during the day, you shouldn’t be hungry. If you usually eat your snack with your hot drink, either have a piece of fruit at least half an hour before or half an hour after your usual drink break.
The idea is to STOP the brain from associating;
HOT DRINK = BISCUIT
This way you’ll build 2 habits at the same time!
1. Being able to drink a hot drink by itself
2. Eating a piece of fruit as a snack (another time of the day!)
And if you do this for at least 21 consecutive days, you would’ve built a new habit. This means that you would’ve BROKEN the link! Yeah babey! 🙌🏽💃🏻🎉
Can you think of any habit you can change right now?
