Ep #68: Have You Felt Like You Have Been Eating Against Your Own Will?

You are listening to the Weight Loss for Successful Women podcast with Shannan Christiansen, episode number 68. Welcome to Weight Loss for Successful Women. A podcast for women who are ready to break the diet cycle and end their struggle with weight for good. Here’s your host Fortune 100 Executive and Certified Life Coach Shannan Christiansen.

Hello. I am so happy to be back with you.

I’m excited about today’s show as always. This is, you know, the second podcast of 2021. We’re already halfway through January. Can you even believe it, so crazy. Today I’m going to dive into how, when we overeat, it can feel like we’re eating against our own will. And I’m going to give you three steps to overcome it.

But first as always, I want to give a listener, shout out. This is where I read a review of the podcast every week. And this week’s listener shout-out is to Dana Allen. Shannan, I wanted to write and thank you so much for everything you did to help the Transform ladies this holiday season, especially the extra podcast series and our holiday challenge. I can honestly say that for probably the first time in my adult life I had a whole new way of thinking around food celebrations and traditions.

In years past my holiday overeating started at Halloween eating with kids and grandkids and candy. And this went all the way through New Year’s Eve. I always had a resolution for the new year of getting healthy and losing weight, but that never occurred this year. Thanks to you and all the wonderful ladies I’m in control during this holiday season.

I enjoyed my time with my family and focused on them and not obsessing over food. The best part, I didn’t gain weight. That’s right. I’m so thankful to you. Dana Allen. Oh, Dana. She is one of my Transform Bosses. Thank you so much. It is such a joy to have you in Transform. And I just have so much love for you.

I love this review. So, if you liked the podcast or you love it, please leave her a review. It just helps the, the reach so other ladies can find the podcast. So, it is the new year we are in 2021. Can you even believe it? My husband and I went on our first date of 2021. I know our first day date, we went out in public. We went to an outside restaurant. It was great to be outside and, you know, see the other humans. I really do miss them.

We are having the most beautiful winter here in Arizona. Last winter was super cold and I’m sure if you listen to the podcast, you heard me complaining about it. But this year we are having a lot of 70 degree days and it’s just gorgeous.

And I love, you know, warmer days for sure. So ladies, I I’m excited because tonight I am doing a future self-workshop with all my ladies who are in Transform and I cannot wait. I love thinking about my future self and what would she think and how every day today, everything that I do is really a gift to her. A gift to my future self.

Loves, there are times I want to give up. I want to pull the covers over my head and binge Netflix. There are times I don’t want to make my realistic plan, move my body or show up for myself. This is when I’m reminded of my future self. What would she do? Well, I know she would show up. So if you haven’t listened to the future-self podcast, go back to episode 14. It is a good one, especially at the beginning of the year.

So on the day that this releases, Transform Weight Loss Program, it’s our opening day. We have been closed since October and I am super excited to welcome in a whole new group of ladies. I love watching transformations and watching ladies blow their own minds.

So, onto today’s episode. So, I want to ask you a question. Have you ever felt like you were eating against your own will? I was thinking back to this time where I had started a diet and you know, I was starting, I was feeling excited. I had the motivation. I really believed that this was the time that I was going to lose weight.

I was going to follow the program, go to the meetings. I had these, you know, fantasies that I would become one of their group leaders and share my before after pictures, I was all in. I went out, bought all the food I needed. I had my journal to track all my points. I had a plan. This was the time.

And I continued to fantasize about how I would look in this killer outfit, how I would be so confident and have all my dreams. I mean, I was in it. I was looking online at all the before and after pictures, I was so inspired. So, like usual on a Monday I began. I had my lunch prepared. I knew what we were going to have for dinner I, this was the time loves.

This was the time I was all in. Have you ever felt like this where you’re just you, you got this right? But then it was nacho day and nachos were a big thing at my work. And they came around with the cart, but I resist it. I felt strong. So I passed it up. I felt so good. I felt like I got this.

Then later that afternoon, I had a meeting with my boss and he was not happy about something. So, I felt irritated. And I just continued throughout my day, pushing down the irritation. And by the end of the day, I felt exhausted. I had planned on making dinner, but I was feeling so tired and I was still feeling super irritated.

I felt like I had gotten in trouble that day. So, on the way home, I stopped and picked up fast food. I justified that I could still fit it in my points for the day. Right. That negotiation that goes on in your head, it was going on seriously in my head. But then I started eating and then I was in the pantry snacking.

I felt like I was eating against my own will. I knew that I desperately wanted to lose weight, but I felt like I could not win out over my own self. I mean, go back, you know, 12 hours. And I was so excited. I was in this was the time and then a stressful day happened. So, then it led to three weeks of back and forth negotiating every day on whether or not I was within my points total.

And I would go to the meeting. And every week I, that I went to weigh and I gained weight. And that my love is when I vowed to never diet again, why does it feel like we’re eating against our own will? Love, it’s because food has become our go to relief. When we’re feeling stressed, when we’re feeling tired, run down upset, we reach for a cupcake chips, something fried, something sweet.

And what is going on is our brains were actually craving a dopamine hit. And we’ve given into it so many times over so many years that it has become automatic. It’s just a habit that we in our brains. This is why dieting can feel so hard. And why, when you’re dieting, you feel like there’s so much mind chatter around it.

It’s basically how we’re wired. I teach my ladies in, transform all about our brains and how we’re wired. Because when you understand it, then I believe you can use your brain for you, instead of feeling like you’re doing something against your own will. There are three simple steps. I want to teach you just to introduce you and how you can combat this.

This is introductory, and I go way deeper with my ladies in Transform. But I want to give you something today because I know how frustrating this can be. The first step is just to begin to notice what triggers you to feel like you’re eating against your own will. Is it stress? Is it tired? Is it weekends? Is it night?

I know that it sounds simple, but just beginning to notice your triggers, it starts to pull your brain from this automatic habit mode to where you’re more conscious and you’re using a different part of your brain. The second step is once you notice that you’re overeating, you’re negotiating to overeat, right? You’ve been in negotiations with yourself to overeat something off plan, right? I’ve done this so many times.

Once you start to notice that you’re either in the middle of overeating or you’re in that kind of negotiation process with yourself, ask yourself, what am I feeling right now? Just by stopping and asking yourself this very simple question, again, it’s bringing you back from the automatic brain. What am I feeling right now?

And the third step is to allow yourself to feel the emotion. Feel irritated or angry or sad or happy, maybe excited, maybe because sometimes we eat even when we’re feeling positive emotions. So just allow yourself to feel the emotion. And this is the key without taking action, without moving, without doing anything, just allowing it, allowing the emotion to be in your body without taking any action.

Notice what that feeling feels like in your body. Allowing an emotion to be in your body. Instead of eating to push it down can help you begin to stop eating against your own will. Every time you move from your automatic brain to your prefrontal, your thinking part of your brain, you will find it easier to stop overeating or even negotiating with yourself to overeat.

So, if you want to learn more on how to do this and go deeper on this work, I invite you to join Transform, go to bflycoaching.com/join. I will teach you how to process feelings instead of eating them because love it has never been about the food. And when you learn this work and you get coached and the tools that I can teach you, you can get off the diet roller coaster. Ooh, so good. My love bye for now.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Weight Loss for Successful Women. If you love what you heard today and want to learn more, come on over to bflycoaching.com. See you next week.