[av_heading heading=’Urges to eat- how to handle them.’ tag=’h1′ style=’blockquote modern-quote modern-centered’ size=” subheading_active=” subheading_size=’15’ margin=” margin_sync=’true’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” av_uid=’av-jo7q4qy3′ admin_preview_bg=”][/av_heading]
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In your weight loss journey, your goal is not to resist or avoid your urges but to allow yourself to have them and to process them.
We are brainwashed into believing that our feelings should always be good and we should feel comfortable all the time, well this is just not true. This only leads to pain and suffering. When I fully learned how to deal with the feelings that were coming up, I no longer had to run to food to comfort me. The more I practiced feeling that feeling that was there, the more confidence I gained understanding that no feeling is too much to deal with. It took a lot of practice and a whole lot of courage in the beginning to do it but I did it and still do it! You need to practice being fully and completely present with your feelings and urges. To know that all your urges are caused by your thoughts. Those thoughts are so unconscious and programmed in you.
So how do you deal with your urges? You first need to be present with that urge that is trying to send you to eat. You then allow that urge to just be there, don’t fight against it at all. Also, do not react to it, that means don’t eat! The reason so many of us don’t stick to our diets for long is we are so programmed to give in to those urges instead of allowing them to be there, to be willing to be uncomfortable at that moment. This is the point where so many people go running for the cupboard looking for something to eat. Don’t do it because if you do you are only rewarding that urge. The urge got what it wanted if you reward it. The reward is in our brain and especially when we eat sugar and flour, we get an extra special reward. We need to learn and this may take a lot of practice on how to be present with that urge to eat, to not eat, to just let it be there. By letting it be there instead of fighting against it is so important.
Think about how you can let the urge be there without eating. You will have so many thoughts come up, just observe and allow them. What worked for me is sitting and writing them out because seeing what I was saying to myself helped me to see how illogical most of them were. Being where you are at is okay. The more you use this process, the less and less that urge will come up. I think of an urge the same as a mosquito bite. It is a darn itchy feeling and if we scratch it, it will only make it worse, so don’t scratch it, allow it to be there and that itchy feeling will eventually go away.
Get out your pen and paper and write down every time an urge comes up. Then note how it felt, what you were thinking and how you managed it.
Hugs,
Karen
karenschaible.com
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