54. Restriction Doesn't Work for Weight Loss- what to do instead

It can look like cutting out food groups like sugar or gluten, restricting yourself to a number of calories or points, blaming the food or ourself for wanting to overeat If i cut out these things all my problems of wanting to overeat them will be solved Restriction is the go to weight loss method when we lack a belief in yourself and your ability to change your brain and trust yourself around food. What and why: Action you take… this is important because as i talk about here a lot that means there is a thought process and emotion the precedes taht action. Simply taking action to lose weight rarely works Knee jerk reaction, usually take it out of frustration, regret, guilt, shame C: overeat, eat foods we know wont serve us T: this is the only thing that will help, i don’t know how else to get myself to stop eating those foods, im out of control, im fed up with myself, something is wrong with me F: frustrated, regret, doubt, no self confidence A: restriction R: we don’t actually have the ability to self regulate because we don’t trust ourselves around food When we react in this way we keep the cycle of restricting and then overeating alive. The pendulum What is really happening is we don’t trust ourselves around food and don’t believe in our ability to not want to overeat eat those foods, so we try to draw a line and say we can’t have it The result is we don’t build trust with ourself, we don’t build our self confidence around tempting foods, we don’t build belief that we can be around that food and not overeat After the tension of wanting to eat the forbidden thing becomes unbearable…we run out of the energy to keep resisting. If you tell yourself you can’t have something then you are making it top of mind. What you focus on you get more of. Now you are thinking about the forbidden thing all the time…and resisting eating it. It takes a lot of energy Ex. tell yourself today you can’t have any sugar. Tell yourself sugar is the problem, there’s a problem with your ability to want to eat sugar, you have a problem with sugar and you shouldn’t have it, you can’t have any sugar. No cookies, no ice cream, no dessert, you better watch out for salad dressings, is fruit ok? Where do you draw the line? Now you are just focussed on sugar…you are thinking about it all the time. It’s top of mind….so of course if it’s on your brain, and you don’t have any tools to manage your mind around desire to eat, building your confidence around food, then you wont know how to stop wanting to eat it You are going to spin out in this for however long you can hold out. You blame the food, you blame yourself, but really you are missing the right tools! Eventually you eat and you determine the food and you are the problem, but you can’t escape either one….so what do you do? Give up, tell yourself you don’t have what it takes, you don’t have the willpower or motivation. The problem never gets solved this way because you haven’t learned anything What to do instead People sometimes say but if i don’t restrict myself i wil ljust go crazy and eat everything. Restriction is not what is preventing you from eating all the things, and it isn’t by the way, because you are! Your mind is… That will come out of a thought process that looks like: T: restriction is the only thing stopping me from eating, im out of control, i can’t stop F: out of control, But this also takes a lot of energy, and it feels terrible physically What you focus on your get more of…When you take the focus off of the food and off of your ability to not want it and put it instead on: It’s possible to not want to eat this food My brain is capable of change I am working on building my confidence around food I am learning to trust myself and my body When you stop eliminating foods or restricting yourself to a number of points or calories you begin to build trust in yourself.. In your ability to be around food and not want to overeat it In your ability to change your brain and manage your midn around food In your ability to listen to your body and not your brain My name is Hayley Sohn, I am a nutritionist and brain training weight loss coach specializing in helping women lose 30lbs in 90 days without dieting by eliminating emotional and stress eating. Work with me: basicallyitmeals.com