WHAT EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT WILL POWER

The truth about weight loss motivation does not lie with will power; it lies with the addictive refined foods we eat (more about that in a later blog) and the skills we lost when we started dieting. Our problem lies not with food but with our own attitude to it. When following a diet plan or eating regime you not only label food as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ but you also give up two very important skills…

1.      The Skill of Conscious Eating

2.      The Skill of Personal Choice

By listening to what foods others tell you are good for you, personal power of choice is given away. By switching off your mind to your body you close down your instinctive ability to eat exactly what your body requires and responds to well.

When dieting or trying to lose weight your focus becomes the food you believe you shouldn’t have and the outer appearance of your body. In other words you lose the skill of inner reflection, an ability to look internally to find peace and happiness rather than seeking it in external factors and expectations.

Conscious Eating is therefore not just about food, it encompass a wide variety of skills based around reflection on…

• Your thoughts about food
  
• Your thoughts about yourself
  
• The effect different foods have on your body
  
• How you feel when you are eating and have eaten
  
• How you use food as a fuel not a comforter
  
• How you love yourself

These are the skills you have lost, the many and varied habits of ‘Conscious Eating’.  The first step in regaining them is to shed your fear of food and learn to love it again. It is fear that holds you trapped in old and unhelpful habits with food. After all, if they were useful would you be struggling in a battle with food and weight after all this time? Wouldn’t you have lost the weight and kept it off easily?

Many of the Conscious Eating skills are those used by people who have never had a weight or size issue and so have never dieted. They are a rare breed that believe they are beautiful just as they are. They have no problem accepting the shape of the body they genetically inherited from their parents. They have no problem ignoring what others and society portray as the ‘perfect’ body shape. They sometimes have a wardrobe of clothes in 2 different sizes because they accept their weight fluctuation between seasons. They may even have no problem accepting a change in shape and size, as they get older. These are the people you can learn a great deal from about Conscious Eating. They hold many of the keys of how you regain control and power over the food you eat, and how to eat to live rather than live to eat.