My guess is “Yes!”
Your external environment surrounds you with powerful saboteurs which keep you from your slim, fit, sexy, sassy self and it’s likely you fall victim to them daily.
Do any of these conspiracies have a familiar ring?
- Being a slave to your work and/or family schedule which won’t allow for breaks and dedicated relaxed eating times. You’re at the whim of everyone and everything else.
- Your friend, neighbor or family member tells you “I love you” with Krispy Kreme donuts, your favorite candy bars or couple of quarts of Ben & Jerry’s.
- Your supervisor who “appreciates” everyone with her Friday afternoon “Ice Cream Sundae Cart” to help wind down from the week.
- Your co-worker keeps M&M’s “handy” in a big filled-to-the-top jar, just for your vulnerable times.
- Your luscious leftovers that peek at you when you open the fridge or call you from the counter top—there, exposed, begging to be eaten.
- AND the crazy, over-the-top goodie tables that are everywhere from Halloween to New Year’s—63 sugar-laden days and ++ weight gain.
It goes on and you face your own traps at every turn. When you’re a visual person like me, you see that stuff, your knees go weak and you’re compelled to eat it.
In the past, I was doomed to sporadic, uncontrolled “I’ve got to have that sugar” attacks. It is a helpless–and hopeless feeling. I was convinced I didn’t have a minim of willpower. And I always, always managed to beat myself up, set my inner critic into high gear and stay stuck.
For those who say “be mindful”, “stay awake at your plate”, “practice conscious eating”, I ask—“Have you been there?” In the throw of things these mantras don’t compute. Don’t get me wrong, you absolutely need awareness practices when in your life but you need the strategies to get there—it’s a process and it’s also fun! You get to experiment, be curious and adventuresome and you get to stop being stuck
Make Your Environment Work for you!
The First Steps to Powerfully Take Your Environment Back:
Begin this very day getting wise about your surroundings and food. Just observe for the coming week all the ways food interfaces with your world and how it manages to do that.
- Where are the food traps: what can you count on to offer that sugar fix, what do you have tucked away and waiting, what places call sweet comfort to you, who loves you up with your favorite goodies?
- When do your craving hit full force, what habits have you formed that trap you every time—being with certain people, at certain places, letting stress rule you, allowing your blood sugar to drop, “over-CARBing”?
- When do you feed yourself, how and what: is there forethought and planning, scheduled times to eat, is relaxation present?
- How much joy and pleasure comes into your life each day—the real “sugar” of life?
As you begin to gather data, you’ll see it’s a war zone out there. And we haven’t even touched on how the food industry, media and advertising are enticing you with gimmicks and convenient processed non-foods .
Journal what you observed throughout your week. Observation and journaling are key to arousing your awareness (mindfulness, conscious eating) and you are set begin your strategy-making journey to balanced and nourished eating, un-stuckness and successful weight release.
Part Two: Next week we’ll start the strategies—strategies that are clever, easy and reliable. Stay tuned!
Check out my new eCourse on “The Top 6 Ways to Conquer Your Cravings”—you’ll get great tips on getting those craving out of your life. You can sign up here in the upper right corner.
