Breaking Bad Eating Patterns – How to eat healthily and enjoy it
Overcoming unhealthy eating patterns and carb or sugar addictions can be really tough. With other addictions – smoking, drugs, gambling – you can at least avoid those things altogether. But with eating, well, we’ve all got to eat, several times a day. And particularly when food is right there in front of you, it’s no wonder that willpower alone doesn’t always work.
Most people know what makes up a healthy diet. Vegetables, good proteins, fruit… And many people who struggle with their weight do actually eat – and like – those healthy foods. But then something happens to screw it all up.
Something drives you into the arms of those annoying eating habits that are so compelling you simply can’t resist. That inner voice propels you where you don’t want to go… “I’ve started this pack of biscuits now, so I may as well carry on, and I’ll get back on track tomorrow”, “I don’t want that food to go to waste so I’ll finish it off even though I’m not hungry”, “I’ve had a rough day, I deserve that cake, it’ll make me feel better.”
So just what is going on here: when we know what to do (eat healthily, exercise more) but something inside constantly drives us to mess it all up?
Subconscious saboteur
It is our subconscious mind that is sabotaging our healthy eating goals. The subconscious mind is the most powerful part of our mind and controls about 95% of all of our thoughts and actions. And while our subconscious mind is always trying to help us, it often gets stuck in patterns we adopted (or which were forced on us) when we were young, and which really don’t serve us well in adulthood.
So for example, you may be able to eat really well all day long, but then come the evening and you’re maybe a bit bored watching TV, you are irresistibly drawn to bingeing on crisps or chocolate or finishing off the leftovers in the fridge. This is your subconscious mind pulling you back to old habits and old emotions connected with food.
The subconscious mind is your emotional mind and emotions are way stronger than reason. So in a battle between knowing what’s a healthy diet at a conscious level and an emotional pull to unhealthy eating at a subconscious level, your subconscious mind – and that habit of overeating – is nearly always going to win.
Unwanted eating patterns
Everyone’s story and experience is different. But throughout my weight loss practice, I have noticed in my clients a number of patterns of unwanted eating. Here are some of them, and they often overlap:
Emotional eating
Emotional eaters tend to use comfort food, sugar or bulk eating to temporarily soothe bad feelings like stress, tiredness, boredom or sadness. Emotional eaters want to get rid of those negative feelings fast – and find brief comfort by filling themselves up with refined carbs or sweet foods like cakes and chocolate that remind us of childhood.
Habitual eating
Often, a habitual eater has grown up not allowed to leave food and has become conditioned to eat everything on their plate, whether they are hungry or not. Habitual eaters tend to eat quickly and to use any occasion to eat (watching TV, on a train, at work) and find it hard to throw away food.
Addictive eating
An addictive eater craves sugary food, junk, fizzy drinks or refined carbs (all of which can actually produce an addictive high); and finds it hard to just have a little of these foods. Addictive eaters often overeat in secret and eat when feeling under pressure, believing certain foods make them feel better.
Deprivation eating
A deprivation eater often grows up with a sense of lack around food. Maybe it was a large family so they had to eat quickly to get their share, or maybe treats were highly restricted. As an adult, there’s a subconscious drive to eat whatever’s there, without restraint, and a feeling that they need to make up for lost time and “deserve” extras.
How to eat healthily and enjoy it – So what’s the answer?
As it’s your subconscious mind driving you into unhelpful eating patterns, you need to update your subconscious, and get it on board so that it’s supporting and not sabotaging your healthy eating goals.
Rapid Transformational Therapy gets to the root of what’s going on in your individual case. In hypnosis, I guide clients to find out what their own personal (and unhelpful) emotional connection with food is.
One example was a 46 year old client I had who had grown up with an unkind, unloving mother; but when, as a child, she spent time at her aunt’s house, she felt safe and loved and happy. This caused her subconscious mind to link sweet foods with feeling good. So in adulthood, when my client was feeling low, she would reach for some “comfort” food to make her feel better. But of course it didn’t make her feel better (for more than a few seconds): it made her feel worse because what she actually wanted was to be slim and healthy and free from the self-loathing that can accompany binge eating.
Once we discover the unhelpful connections and beliefs that are buried in the subconscious, we can clear those away and reprogramme the mind to only want to eat the foods and amounts that are healthy and support your weight loss goals.
And it’s really that simple. One session is all it takes to bring an end to all sorts of emotional eating, including cravings and binge eating. Immediately after the session, clients get back that sense of being in control of food – not the other way round. And then it’s simply not a battle any more. You are naturally turned off from the unhealthy patterns and drawn to the healthy foods that are going to get you to your ideal body size – and keep you there.
Self help – How to eat healthily and enjoy it
There are also ways you can help yourself through self-hypnosis and other practical tips without an RTT programme.
My first tip is to mind your language! Never again say things like “I need a bar of chocolate”, “I can’t cope without cake”, “I just can’t shift this weight”. Your mind responds to what you tell it and makes that a self-fulfilling prophecy. So tell your mind more helpful things. Such as “I’m feeling stressed so I’m going to call on a friend, not a biscuit”, “I’m dropping weight fast” “I love this healthy food”, “I could eat junk every day but I’m choosing not to”. Work out what type of eater you are from the list above and tell yourself the opposite: for example, if you’re a habitual eater, tell yourself repeatedly that you love leaving food on your plate. Affirmations, repeated often enough, do sink in.
Tip two is to use this visualisation and “anchoring” technique. Close your eyes and tell yourself repeatedly that your stomach is the size of your fist, while squeezing your fist tightly and vividly visualising your stomach getting smaller. Then squeeze your fist several times before every meal to remind yourself that your stomach is small and you only need to eat a small portion.
Tip three is to powerfully and daily visualise yourself at your ideal weight. Close your eyes and see and feel how wonderful it is to be the size you want, notice how you’re moving energetically and how you feel healthier and more confident, hear people complimenting you on how good you look and see yourself fitting into some flattering clothes. Top athletes use visualisation to propel them to their sporting success and you can do the same to programme your mind for your weight loss success. The key is to do this visualisation often: do it every day for 21 days. The best way to do it is to make yourself an audio recording on your phone with your inspiring visualisation and then listen to this every night as you drop off to sleep.
You can access more of my weight loss tips here.
The main thing to know is that you can lose weight and eat healthily. Whatever you’ve tried in the past, getting your subconscious on board with your goals is the game changer. And it’s the best part of my job when I catch up with clients after their RTT session and hear that they’re eating healthy food, in the right amounts and just don’t fancy junk food or excess snacking any more.