Raised to use food as a comfort (by my very loving family), when I had children of my own, I looked for ways to instill a healthier relationship with food in my own children. I heard of an experiment in which young children were given unlimited access to a wide selection of foods, from foods considered healthy to those that weren’t, such as candy and soda. It was found that although the children could eat all the sweet and fatty things they wanted, over the course of a month, their choices turned out to be a healthy, balanced diet. Somehow they knew exactly what to eat without being told. In other words, we are born with this instinct, and only when it is manipulated do we lose it. So I applied these principles to my own children, as much as my budget allowed. The result is that they are both naturally lean and never have to control their weight or fight food cravings.
So, we are born with an instinct to listen to what our body tells us. But through conditioning as we grow up, no matter how well-intentioned, we lose this instinct. But, we can relearn it. If you’re trying to lose weight, consider relearning this instinct. You can relearn how to listen to your body’s inner wisdom by allowing yourself to eat what you want, when you need it.
The reason most people panic when they hear this is because they expect a lot of sweets, cakes, soft drinks, alcohol, chips, etc. But they have never trusted their intuition before, so how can they know what it will really be like? How do they know that they won’t actually choose a healthy balanced diet in general? Another reason for panic is the worry that they will not be able to stop eating if they eat when they are hungry. But if you retrain your mind to listen to your body’s signals, you’ll soon learn to recognize when you’ve had enough and easily stop eating when that happens.
The biggest trick here is to get emotional conditioning out of the way. My favorite tool for doing this is EFT, short for Emotional Freedom Techniques. If you are not familiar with EFT, you can download a free guide to the method from many online resources, or you can have a few sessions with a practitioner. If you are already familiar with EFT, here are some suggestions for you to tap on to remove this emotional conditioning.
Setting
Even though my parents said that I must finish all the food on my plate, because of the starving children in the world, as if by eating I am feeding them, I deeply love and accept myself.
Reminder
Finish all the food on my plate
Setting
Even though I was given a high sugar energy drink when I had a cold and still drink it now, I deeply love and accept myself.
Reminder
energy drink to improve
Setting
Even though my parents told me that I couldn’t eat pudding until I had finished my meal or finished my homework, thus elevating the importance of pudding in my mind as a special gift, I deeply love and accept myself.
Reminder
The pudding became that special gift
I think you get the idea. Just tap on whatever comes to mind, until you are naturally in control of your eating. And then just become an observer in this situation, watching your new food choices, while gradually but surely losing weight. There will be times when the weight goes up a bit before coming back down. This is a natural phenomenon that happens even to naturally thin people. Don’t let that get in the way of your weight-loss confidence. You may notice your weight going in the general downward direction, until it finally settles into a leaner, healthier you.