DISABLE YOUR COOKIES
1) If we're hard-wired for anything as kids and adults it's FOOD AS REWARD.
As kids we were often rewarded for good behavior with treats or sweets. We're praised for cleaning our plates, get to order our favorite dine-out dish when we get a good report card. Clean your room? Good boy, have some candy. This works pretty well for training dogs but the human psyche handles it differently down the line.
Zip forward a few years, getting good grades or catching a winning pass calls for a celebratory dinner pulling out all the stops ... loose it totally for commitment ceremonies and holidays.
No, I'm not down on celebrating. I sure do after I snag a physique contest medal. If you're doing everything smart 95% of the time, the occasional 5% 'breaking training' won't matter much. Five percent would mean 'sinning' just once in every twenty meals in a row, ONCE a week.
Consider that maybe we're overdoing the feel-good side of things. We put ourselves in nasty, stressful, tense situations many times every day and feel justified in 'slipping a bit' on the fueling plan (okay, 'diet'). "I've had a hard day, I deserve it." "I work hard, I deserve it." "I feel crappy, I deserve it." I'm sure you do, but if you're not happy with how you feel or look in Speedos then maybe you're 'deserving' yourself into the grave with this stinkin' thinkin'.
Brain synapses kick up their heels when we eat sweets, the tactile centers of the mouth love goo and chew, crunch, salt, bitterness and often combinations thereof even better. Now, you know better.
2) We eat more when we're DOWN AND FEELING LOW. For instant gratification, we turn to food for comfort, to fill sorrow or salve loneliness. Okay, we're all human, but if you find yourself buying Oreos every time you pass a grocery store, look at what you're putting on the check out conveyor belt and it's mostly desserts and snacks then, my friend, you have a FOOD DISORDER.
INSTEAD of reaching for the comfort food, go for a walk or a hike, take it to the gym, do some aerobics, listen to music for a while INSTEAD of eating to break the old patterns. Write a letter or email a friend expressing your thoughts and feelings. Break out the watercolors or oil paints. EXPRESS YOUR EMOTIONS in a less harmful way, a much healthier way to unruffle those feathers rather than relying on foods for what you can do for yourself, things are really better for your body machinery, your fine mind and longevity.
3) REDUCE THE STRESSORS. This may sounds nuts to you, but when people whine and complain that their schedules don't allow them to take a walk or a nap during the day or they can't find an hour to train or jog, I tell 'em to QUIT YOUR DAY JOB!
I mean it. If you're working just to pay off the big flat screen TV and a Baralounger, anyTHING that fosters disfunctional non-activity or doesn't nurture you, improve you as an individual, make your better company to be around, then I say you're selling your soul to the devil.
Living simpler means having the time and space to enjoy Life while others work hard to afford a little time off and a few toys.
– Macht M., Simons G., Institute for Psychology (I), University of Wurzburg, Germany. macht@psychologie.uni-wuerzberg.de
–"Emotions & Eating– What's The Connection?" by EAS