When Food Has a Hold Over You

Re-posted from September 6, 2013

When faced with the decision to attempt to lose weight, you might doubt your ability because you say "But food has a hold over me!"  and I say, I know!  Food has a hold over me too!  It's called - if I don't eat, I'll feel a strong desire to; I will feel hungry.  And I know from a few times in the past, I really don't like that feeling. 

And the continuing logic goes like this - even if I can tolerate feeling hungry, but I don't eat, I'll feel light-headed, and even if I can tolerate feeling light-headed, I might pass out.  And even if I can tolerate passing out, I risk injury to myself, so I risk not being able to work at my job.  That means I risk earning a paycheck.  That means I risk my whole livelihood!!  So YES, OF COURSE food has a hold over you!  It has a hold over me too.  It has a hold over EVERYONE.  We must eat to live.  We intuit this every single day.  We don't need told this, we know this.  Food has a hold over you just as the air your breathe does.  It's okay.

Did you ever stop and give opportunity to the idea that food can have a hold over you and you can STILL lose weight?  At The Losing Coach, I don't dive into deep psycho-analysis of your past to figure out WHY you gained weight or WHY you love food.  I simply say, "Okay, that's normal" (besides I am not a psychiatrist) and then proceed to move forward in helping you lose weight.  If you want to psycho-analyze WHY you like food, ask your psychiatrist.  Then also ask your psychiatrist to try to figure out why you like to sleep and breathe as well.  It's really called "being human."  Accept it.  Accept it now.  Accept you like to eat food.  And say to yourself "Of course you do!  That just means you like to live!  And that's great!"

Embrace that energy of liking food because we will take this enjoyment in food (or enjoyment in staying alive) and not shame or shut that energy down; we will redirect and re-channel that same energy into... sorry to be repetitive here... your enjoyment in staying alive!  See, most of my clients, despite age or health, come to a place where they realize the most unhealthy thing they can be right now is overweight.  That means the most detrimental thing to them staying alive is being overweight.  To respect enjoyment in staying alive, I will help you lose weight.

So we are going to acknowledge that your strong desire for food is a reflection of your strong desire for life.  It's like two sides of the same coin.  If you can picture flipping a pancake now (don't eat that pancake, not yet anyways, wait till I'm done) - let's flip this "Food has a hold over me" to "I have a hold over food."  Easier said than done?  Of course, we just said it, and it's not done yet.  It's a process.  This is the process I coach my clients through.

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