Week 2
Let’s address some mental blocks you may experience as you decide to heal your relationship with food. It’s important to eliminate or reduce your personal trigger foods—but I know what you’re thinking: “I can’t do this for the rest of my life. I can’t not eat birthday cake ever again. I can’t commit to that.” Well, here’s the thing: I can’t commit to anything for the rest of my life either. So here’s what I want you to understand. When that voice in your head says, “I can’t do this forever,” say, “You’re right.”
No one can commit to the rest of their life. I don’t even know what’s going to happen in five years. I don’t even know what will happen in five days, but change begins with self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is the belief that you can do this, and this belief is important for sustaining long-term behavioral change. Often, when we think of a lifelong commitment, our self-efficacy will be very low. When you ask yourself if one meal is possible, your self-efficacy will likely be high. I need—and you need—your self-efficacy to remain high. Please don’t entertain thoughts of what the rest of your life will look like.
Here’s a game I would play to keep my self-efficacy high. It’s called I Won’t Today, But I Might Tomorrow. I would tell myself, “I’m not going to compulsively overeat today, but if I wake up tomorrow morning and want to, I’m going to.” This thinking process would help me get through an overwhelming urge to overeat. It’s a powerful strategy that I invite you to try. Every day I delayed compulsive overeating, I got stronger and rewired my brain, lifting the craving fog in which ultra-processed foods had me trapped. Every day I delayed my drive to compulsively overeat, I strengthened my self-efficacy, and every day, things got a little easier.
Action Steps for today:
Before each meal ask yourself “Just for [breakfast, lunch, dinner] can I avoid my trigger foods?”
Hint… don’t worry about the next meal!