The Food Breakup- It's Time To Change Your Relationship With Food!

This Pretty Much Says It All! This image pretty much explains my eating challenge. Many people are faced with 'emotional eating'. I define emotional eating as eating for comfort, rather than nutrition. If you're having a good day you celebrate with food. If you're having a bad day, you celebrate with food. Here's good news- breaking that connection is a learned skill that starts with awareness of the real problem. I have many good strategies within my blog on how to begin to break the cycle of insanity.

Today is my 1,000 straight day of logging. Over the past 3 years, I've dropped 50 lbs. and at 51 years old I can honestly say I'm in the best shape of my life...by far.   Here are some lessons I've learned that might be of help to others on your journey. 1) You can do it! I promise. Just don't ever give up. You can win this war, but the war is made up of 1000 battles. Win each battle and you will win the war. It's inevitable! 2) It's at least 80% psychology. Once we have some basic knowledge about nutrition, the rest is a mind game. My line is, "We don't need to know we shouldn't eat the cookie, we need to learn how NOT to eat the cookie." Face the fact that if you've overeaten as I have, it's a psychology problem. 3) Food Is Fuel! Yup. It took me 49 years to get that one in my head. Please learn that one earlier than I did. Food is not there for emotional comfort. It's not there to cheer you up w...

You want an awesome accountability partner? Someone who's always with you through thick and thin? Someone who won't judge you but will never budget in their relentless pursuit of you staying (or getting) to where you want to be? Here's your partner...meet your favorite pair of jeans (or shorts or whatever kind of pants you love). Bue Jeans? I have a brand of jeans I love. Yet there's nothing more frustrating than trying to put them on when I'm not at the right waistline. The frustration of getting that button to slip inside of that hole...arrgggg! I can get frustrated just thinking about it. Yet, how can you use that to your advantage? I used this hack as I was dropping weight. When I was a 38" the jeans were starting to fit tight. I said to myself, I'm not doing 40". I refused to buy 40" pants even though the 38" were snug. With time and focus the 38" got loose, so what did I do? Of course, I went back to eating more and exercising ...

I use to say that eating right while traveling was tough. If we say that, we will find a way to make it true. Really though, it's not as hard as you might think with a few strategies. Here are some thoughts on food while traveling... @Restaurant - When you eat out while traveling you need to limit options. If you sit down at dinner and open the menu, you're screwed. What you say? Not look at the menu? Mark, you've lost your mind. Yup, don't even open it. Ever restaurant has grilled fish or chicken and vegetables. It's just that easy. You got this! Personally, I like fish but it never tastes as great at home than when I'm traveling. So fish is a go-to for me. @Airport - Ok, truth. Fewer options here. You can get a grilled chicken sandwich about anywhere, but here's where some prep helps. Get your blender bottle with protein powder out. Ice and water and you're set for a meal. No joke, carry that thing with you everywhere! My favorite is Quest protein ...

"I can't take one more bite." "I shouldn't eat anymore." "I should stop." ...and then I eat one more bite. ...and then another. ..."Well, I might as well finish it." That was my internal voice. Let's say you've decided you're going to have one bite of the cake. Cool, you know what you're going to do and I'm not a believer in never eating something like that. Enjoy a bit of cake! But, one bite leads to another. Then another. Then 800 calories later you feel like sh*t! Ask me how I know this. We can learn to get conscious of the moment right after the good taste has passed when we think to ourselves, "I should stop." BAM!!! That's the moment to get conscious! BAM!!! We can learn to recognize that internal voice and ASSAULT your food...or should I say SALT your food. At that moment of willpower, recognize it! Leverage it! Grab a salt shaker and coat the food in salt. I mean so much so that it lo...

Willpower is a fickle friend. Having willpower in the moment of decision can be HIGHLY unreliable! Let's face it, it's too easy to cave in the moment of a "what do I eat" decision and make a choice that doesn't support your goals. This is usually followed by the "why did I just do that?" feeling which hurts our confidence and undermines our ability to get to our goal. Ask me how I know this...because I've done it 1000 times! We can prevent the problem though of having to make a good decision "in the moment." One tool to use is "Predecide". Predecide is simple...and we need simple!  Predecide what you will eat before the moment so you eliminate the emotional decision. When you're in the moment of making a decision on what to eat, emotions play a part of the decision and willpower may not hold up. However, if you know what you want before the moment of decision you take the emotion out of the decision. You just act...you don...

Did I get fitter today? That's all that matters. Did I make progress towards my goal today or not. Let's look at it a bit further. 1) Did I get ____ today? Maybe your goal isn't fitter it's healthier. That's fine, insert the word "healthy" and it becomes, "Did I get healthier today?"  I'm cool with that. Maybe you want to get stronger. Then your question is, "Did I get stronger today?" Make it your own. BTW- I'm a fan of "Did I get fitter today?" 2) Take your question and when you are in the moment of decision as what you will eat or if you should exercise...ask yourself...  "Will this get me closer to or further from fitter/healthy/stronger?" ACT accordingly! It's the decisions in the moment that define us! 3) One more rule. If you have to think about it when you ask yourself the question, "Did I get fitter today?" ...you DIDN'T! Let's act like the person we want to become!...