Q: “I feel really guilty about eating certain foods. What should I do?”
A: Guilt is the worst emotion when it comes to food. Why? Because if you eat something when you’re guilty what do you do? Eat more. Then what happens? You tell yourself things such as ‘you have ruined it now, you might as well keep eating’.
The best thing I believe I can ever do for someone in regards to nutrition is to empower their choices, regardless of if they select the ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ foods.
By empowering food choice; I mean helping others choose foods that align with their goals. For example: if you choose to eat foods that don’t align with your health and fitness goals, there must come a point where you realise you gain more benefit from eating the ‘wrong’ foods than taking the time to prepare the ‘right foods’. This doesn’t make you a bad person but understanding and owning your food choices is the first step towards changing them.
Any behavior you don’t own you can’t change. Example; if you can’t admit that you binge on nuts, then there is no need to change the behavior. Once you admit, ‘yes I do this’, then and only then can you allow your mind to develop strategies and behaviors to change.
The fastest way to change is to understand why you do certain behaviors and what benefits you derive from these habits. Might sound counter-intuitive, but I have found when using this technique people own their habits and behaviors. This allows them to change their habits to ones that are conducive to their goals and honour themselves and the choices they make…. Which means, there is no guilt.
Try this: From today, ask questions from where you want to be not where you are now. Put in another way, ‘act as if’ you have achieved your goals.’
Example; I am a healthy person. Because I am a healthy person, how do I act? Do I binge on these nuts or do I save them for the cashew nut and chicken stir fry I was planning on making for dinner?
“Yes, I will have them with my delicious dinner.”
Act as you aspire to be. Let your actions be driven by #excellence.
– Mark
To enquire about training at Enterprise Fitness call 1300 887 143 or email info@enterprisefitness.com.au
