There are rules to follow when going through “rehab” for overeating. Read through this blog to find out why & how these rules are effective and some of the rules I have listed to help create your own rules that work for you.
Conditioned hyper-eating is very impulsive. You know deep down that eating sugar, fat or salt is hindering you from reaching your goals. But you do it anyway, sometimes without thinking. You have to set up rules to provide structure for yourself. Rules also provide a “planned response for when we encounter a stimulating food that drives conditioned hyper-eating,” according to David Kessler. For example you may create a rule that you don’t eat candy, when you know that Halloween candy is going to be at everyone’s desk when you get to work.
Rules are conscious & can be applied in real-life situations. For example, when you pass the cereal aisle of the grocery store, you remember that you do not go down that aisle. Or when you smell a bakery’s fresh bread you remember that you do not stop at that bakery.
Rules work better than willpower alone. Without rules, when you encounter a salient food, your willpower is going head-to-head with that stimuli and it can be very difficult. With a rule strongly in place, you no longer have to rely on willpower because that food is not an option.
Rules give you negative consequences when you give in, and positive consequences when you stay strong. Perhaps you have an accountability group you have decided you have to tell if you eat something off your nutrition plan. That’s gonna suck having to own up to that so it helps you choose to stay strong.
Of course rules must be kept in mind so that they “substitute for unconscious action,” says Kessler. But once the rules are followed long enough the new responses take place of the old ones. So once you skip going to Starbucks to get your chocolate chip muffin and vanilla frap for a long enough period of time, passing a Starbucks will be less of a trigger. Your brain just gets used to not having that food any more and the cravings become less and less, so it does get so much easier. I mean, I used to always have to get protein bars at the grocery store because I seriously loved them. But I told myself that I don’t eat them and I would run past them in the grocery store for the first two weeks, but the third time I went to the store, I didn’t even care about them anymore.
So now you need to set up your own rules. What foods are triggers for you… office candy? Oven-fresh pizza? Chicken wings at your favorite pub? When you can set up rules that the triggers for you are not for you anymore, you get over wanting them. Your homework this week is to set up rules.
Tell me about them.. I want to know. Then tell me how you put them to work for you!
Get caught up by reading part I here
and part II (reversing habits) here
Read the fourth blog here: Creating Food Associations
Your Coach,
Kyra
P.S. What rules do you have set up for yourself around food?
Leave a comment below!