Okay, time for another Pep Talk post:) Because I keep getting emails about unsuccessful attempts at weight loss, or binge type eating.

If you feel out of control when it comes to food, it’s time to start eating with your head and not your stomach.  There’s two things you need to do.  The first is focus on the different effects food has on you.  Does it have cancer causing properties?  Does it raise blood sugar and insulin?  Does it have hydrogenated fats that cause disease?  Is it loaded with simple sugars and flours that cause bad skin, depression, and belly bloat?  Get in the habit of always looking at the INGREDIENTS, and then judge them as to whether or not they’re SAFE for your body.  Put bad foods in the same category as cigarettes, because that’s where they belong.

Start connecting every single morsel you put in your mouth with it’s effects – whether you see or feel that effect immediately or not.   Believe that food has an enormous effect on our health and weight, and our kids health and weight.  Calories don’t matter – ingredients matter.

We’ve been trained and conditioned to think of food in terms of want and desire and calories.  Advertising tricks us into thinking that nothing is more important than taste.  Advertising tricks us into thinking chemicalized diet foods are good for us because they’re low in calories.   The only foods with advertising budgets behind them are foods created in labs, but no food created in a lab actually nourishes our body or actually creates a “thin” physiology.  Foods high in carbs and chemicals and bad fats ruin our liver, our thyroid, and our hormones.  They screw up our brain neurotransmitters.  There’s just no positive benefits.

Who’s promoting clean meats, healthy fats, vegetables, fruits, nuts or seeds? There’s not a great profit margin behind Real Whole Foods, so Big Business isn’t going to be spending billions making them attractive to us.

Next, you’ll need to identify and then focus on your bad habits.  Here’s a few common examples:  you always stop at Starbucks or your favorite convenience store every morning for coffee and pastries;  you need a sweet after lunch or dinner; you eat out of the candy jar at someone’s desk at work; you always participate in junk food fests during meetings; you like to chill at night by watching TV and eating ice cream, chips, or cookies, you enjoy a glass of wine or beer several times a week.  I could go on and on, but you get the point.  We’re all creatures of habit, and the ones contributing to our undesired weight or poor health need to be stopped.  Unfortunately, they become deeply ingrained in our brain neurons and resistant to change.  I can help with this.   Email me if you’re ready to break your old patterns and begin new ones.

So that’s it in a nutshell.  If you want to change your health and your body, you’ve got to change your mind first.  Get rid of old thought patterns and behaviors and replace them with new thought patterns and behaviors.  You can do it, it’s easier than you think once you make a plan.  I use a very concrete system of identifying behaviors and working on them, one or two at a time, using a calendar and a LOT of interaction and support.  If you want to do this on your own, don’t buy another DIET book, buy a HABIT book, because it’s daily habits that screw up attempts to change eating patterns, even if you do believe that bad food is bad for you.

Whatever you do, don’t give up.  You might feel like you’ve tried a hundred times and failed a hundred times, but failure is just learning what DIDN”T work, right?  You have plenty of willpower and strength in other areas of your life, right?  You pay your bills, get to work on time, do what needs to be done around your house, meet deadlines and time schedules.  You can be successful at eating or NOT eating certain foods.  Go back to my two points:  change the way you think about food, and work on your habits.  Being healthy and losing weight if you  need to is 100% attainable.  The trick is to make new habits and thought patterns normal and natural, like brushing your teeth, not smoking cigars, or washing your hands:  something you do without really thinking about it.  Just part of your everyday thinking and life.  Other people do it, why not you?