Is worry stalling your weight loss?
Are you a worrier?
Do you take pride in your superhero ability to jump to the worst conclusion in a single bound?
If you are anything like me, your mind has the ability to create the most detailed version of tragic doom in literally a half a second!
Recently, we’ve been drenched with rain and storms in Texas. The gutters and ditches are filled with standing water. There is a path I walk often by our house and there is one particular section that is surrounded by swampy area – every time I walk this area after it rains I get goosebumps from fear of what might be hiding out in that water. My mind envisions alligators and snakes galore. I create a whole story in my head of how I would react if one of those ferocious creatures came after me – I can picture it so clearly in my head that my heart starts racing and the hair on the back of my neck stands straight up. You would think I had actually seen an alligator on one of my walks before!
My point is this – those of us that are used to worrying have some well paved roads in our mind that make it easy to jump to this emotion.
Our brain finds something either in the past (that we wish we could change) or something in the future (that HASN’T EVEN HAPPENED) to chew on. And when this happens, we typically feel anxious and worried.
And if we’ve never taken the time to actually feel this emotion and recognize WHY we are feeling that way (because of the thoughts we are choosing to chew on) – we tend to want to distract ourselves from this feeling.
And assuming you are reading this blog because you’ve struggled with emotional eating – I’m guessing food is your distraction action of choice.
I heard a quote this week that literally BLEW MY MIND – “worry pretends to be necessary, but serves no useful purpose”, Eckhart Tolle.
Did you fully grasp that – worry PRETENDS to be necessary. We assume it’s a requirement for our existence, right? Can you imagine NOT worrying?
So the next time this go-to emotion comes up for you – I challenge you to do a mind dump – get all of those thoughts down on paper.
What is your biggest concern?
Recognize how many of your thoughts are 1) about something that has already happened 2) focused on things that COULD happen and 3) the facts of your present moment.
Guess what? The ONLY scenario that will serve a useful purpose is being present with the facts of your current moment.
Everything else is wasted energy.
And my guess is – THAT wasted energy is leading you to turn to food to numb out the worry and distract yourself from the things outside of your control.
Look friends, I get it, we don’t like things being outside of our control. But the FACT is – many things are.
There is one VERY important thing that you can have control over though – and that’s your thoughts and your feelings.
And allowing yourself FIRST to feel the worry without distracting yourself with food THEN allows you to recognize you are only worried because of a story you are creating in your head.
And guess what?! When you practice doing this – weight loss becomes a fabulous byproduct!
