Breaking the Eat-Repent-Repeat Cycle

I can’t take credit for the title or the subject of this blog post because I read it on CalorieCount.com but it struck a chord with me.   Michelle May, M.D. asked several questions about eating behaviors that seemed to have been patterned after many of my own, things like “Do you think about food and eating more than you think you should?” and “Do you often eat when you are bored, stressed, sad, lonely, or angry?” Ad celebrating, happy, tired and breathing to that list and it just about sums me up. 

Her conclusion is that simply “dieting” alone wouldn’t get the job done for people like me. She went on to offer 7 steps for achieving greater success with weight loss. They may same like same-old-same-old but for some reason they resonated with me today. So as not to steal her work, the link to her article is at the bottom of this post but she inspired me to take several steps of my own.

•   I will not totally restrict my favorite foods as this will only make me crave them more. I will carefully choose when to indulge in “those” foods. 
•  I will pay attention to that little voice in my head trying to tell me when I’ve had enough instead of “cleaning my plate.” 
•  When I am tempted to eat, I will challenge myself to discover the reason why…am I truly hungry? Is it just appetite? Was there an emotional trigger? 
• Most importantly, I will not demand perfection of myself because that only sets me up to fail.

I am sure there are more things I could be doing to improve my health but as the blog’s title suggests, I am taking baby steps to wellness. It took me years to get this way. It will take years to correct.

DR. May's article