Its all in your head

“The only people who ever fall off the wagon are those who see there is a wagon to fall off” – Stacey Hancock © 2014 Person A and Person B both eat identical diets. They eat clean but they also have treats and blowouts. For the sake of this article, they are identical twins with the same body weights, same hormone profile, same job, same type of life. They appear to have the same stress levels and work/life balance. When Person A is switching between clean eating and treating, she tells herself that she is “being healthy” or “strict” or being “naughty” When Person B switches between the two she calls it “eating treats” and “eating normally”

Person A struggles with guilt, thoughts of deprivation and constantly craving treats. Person B just gets on with her life and craves her normal diet after a weekend of poor eating. What is the difference between these two identical women? It’s the self-talk and the language they are using to describe things to themselves. Person A still sees this as “dieting” and has not quite embraced that this is now her day to day life. Person B is just doing this naturally day by day and it is showing by the words she uses to describe what they are doing. What type of language do you use? Do you use the word “strict” to describe something that someone else calls “looking after themselves properly”? Do you use the word “naughty” to describe something that some else can easily call “a treat”?

What type of messages do you think you’re sending to yourself by using the type of language you choose? Do you think that your brain would love to be seen as “strict” it’s whole life, or do you think at some point you are going to start saying “I’m sick of being so strict, I wish I could just eat whatever I wanted”? Do you enjoy being considered in the same category as a naughty child or a criminal? Do you use the words “healthy food” to describe what many cultures simply call “food”? If you’re struggling to stick to eating well and keep flipping from one diet to the next or one nutritionist to the next, then have a little think about what your thoughts and words are regarding looking after yourself and then for 45 days, non-stop see if you can use a different set of words to describe it.

For example, instead of saying “I’m going to be good this week” try saying “I enjoy looking after my body every day” or instead of “I was really naughty on the weekend” try saying, “I treated myself all weekend because I struggled with peer pressure and it didn’t make me feel the way I wanted to feel” – Call it what it really is and use the power of the brain to start to change your habits. The best food plan or latest diet trend cannot save you from yourself. Start to use useful language and watch, over time as some of those old struggles start to disappear and new challenges or excuses pop up ready for your attention.

Its all in your head

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