guilt – Page 3 – Change your behaviour, change your life

If you’ve read my book, you’ll know that I believe in eating what will satisfy you. You’ll also know that you can set yourself up to fail if your blood sugar is all over the place.

So what do you do when you wake up wanting a chocolate croissant?

Do you have it, because you really want it? Or do you go without because you’re trying to ‘be good’?

An alternative is to see if you can clarify what you’re really after. If it’s the rich chocolate taste that you crave, along with a good hit of carbs, there are other ways to accomplish this.

A bowl of porridge – which is healthy and low on the glycemic index – can be pimped up with a generous spoonful of cocoa and a bit of honey or brown sugar to sweeten it. It’s amazing how chocolatey porridge can taste without chocolate – just cocoa powder. It’s worth a try – it might solve your cravings AND balance your blood sugar.

You do, don’t you? Just one last time. And THEN, after that, you’ll address the other things.

When I was in thrall to food, I wrote in my journal:

Another binge… three weeks now. What stops me from eating normally is:

Guilt from over eating in the last three weeks
Terror at the weight I must have put on
A feeling of helplessness and hopelessness that I’ll ever lose it
A consequent hatred of my body
Disgust and despair at myself

Overeating acts both to blott out those feelings and to punish myself. If I felt attractive and glamorous and interesting, I wouldn’t feel like bingeing.

The terror of the weight, and the terror that my life might be one long endless binge without the constrains of a diet, kept me locked into diets. And diets were the very thing preventing me from being thin.

But the lure, the promise that they make is almost irresistible. There are endless before and after photos, lists of science or pseudo-science that back up the claim.

And if only you could lose those kilograms/pounds, that everything would be alright. Wouldn’t it?

It will have taken you many years to create the body that you are currently living in. Realistically, it will take months or years to create a new body and a new way of living. I know, I know, you want the results NOW. Well, that then leads back to those diets that are restrictive, make you feel deprived (see the post on Dieting) and that you end up breaking…. And usually putting on more weight than you lost.

So here is a different method. It does not involve pain, deprivation or doing anything that you don’t want to do. You get to decide. You get to eat your favourite foods. You don’t have to feel hungry. You can set your own pace. You can still eat out with friends. Yes, you can still eat chocolate. In fact, there is a blog post coming devoted to just that!

Tag: guilt

What about when you wake up wanting a chocolate croissant?

Why you still fancy one last diet…

But I want it now!!