| Eating is terrific. You love to eat. It’s the most fun. You look forward to it. It makes your day. Eating makes you feel great. You couldn’t live without your precious food. But wait a minute. You weigh 30 pounds more than you want to and you’re always complaining that you weigh too much and you say that you want to weigh less. You say your problem is that you can’t weigh less because you love to eat. Do you really believe that? Let’s look at the situation logically. You know you weigh too much. It’s not healthy for you. You can’t wear the clothes you want. Your friends tell you that you should “lose weight.” People even make fun of you because you weigh so much. So now you sit there and tell yourself that your problem is that you can’t weigh less because of your love of food. You even like to blame it on the food or the people who sell food. Is any of that really true? Don’t you even feel foolish just to say it? Do you really “love” to eat or do you feel you have to eat the way you do? Does eating make you feel good? Does eating make you feel happy? Do you experience a positive emotional reaction when you eat? Is that why you eat? To make yourself feel good? One thing is for sure. Since you weigh 30 pounds too much you aren’t eating just for nourishment. You could probably not eat any solid food for days and be no worse for the experience. If you aren’t eating for nourishment and you weigh too much why are you eating the way you do? You know there isn’t any logical reason. Actually, you hate weighing what you do and you hate the fact that you feel you have to eat the way you do. You don’t “love” food. You just have to eat it because you have emotional needs that you are attempting to satisfy with food. That’s why you “feel good” after you eat or think you “love” the food. Putting the food in your mouth and tasting it and chewing it may temporarily alleviate some negative emotional reaction, but it will never “satisfy” any emotional need. Next time you feel you have to eat food you “love” don’t eat any of it until you think about your “love” for the food and your weight and be sure you understand why you want to eat it. You will come to understand what your “love” of food really is. |
