Our emotions decide whether we gain or lose weight. How you feel at any given moment will be the controlling force of your weight loss effort. Weight loss is all based upon our feelings and I would challenge anybody to refute that statement. We as human beings do things that bring us pleasure and we avoid those things that cause us pain. Why do we decide to overeat or indulge in those things that may not be the best for us? Because it brings us pleasure. Think about many occasions in your lifetime in which food was the main focus. When we celebrate with friends or family, we eat. When we mourn a loss of a loved one, food again is there consoling people. When we are nervous, we eat. Sad, we eat. When we are happy, what do we do? That's right, eat. So by overeating and consuming excess calories with excess food, we start packing on the unwanted pounds. But it brings us short term pleasure to eat. If it brings us pleasure, it is emotion-based. The instant pleasure of eating that Godiva chocolate or extra piece of pizza outweighs the pain and guilt that will come at a later time when you notice the scale starting to creep up again. We do things at the moment that will bring us pleasure right then and there, often not thinking of the future. So, if weight gain is tied to emotions, then it stands to reason that weight loss would be as well. If we do things based upon pleasure, we must find pleasure in starting and maintaining a weight-loss and fitness program. If you do not recieve some pleasure from it, you will not continue it. We must have strong enough reasons in the not-so-distant future that will be pleasurable enough to keep us motivated in continuing our weight-loss attempts. What are some of your motivating reasons for you to reach your goals? I bet they are emotion-based. Do you want to fit into that new bathing suit to impress your spouse? Do you want to attract the person of your dreams? Do you want to enter your first bodybuilding or fitness show? Or do you just want to feel better and have more energy? Whatever you chose, the benefit you will receive later on must be pleasurable enough so that you will resist the temptation of giving in and enjoying immediate pleasure of a piece of cake or scoop of Ben and Jerry's. So how do you solve your emotions so that you are not tempted to give up and throw in the weight-loss towel? First off, I don't think you ever solve the problem, you simply learn to manage your emotions better. All of our actions are done because we get some sort of emotional payoff from them. When you sit down at night and gourge on food that you know you shouldn't be, you are getting a payoff of instant pleasure. In order to stop this, we must substitute that payoff with a new payoff of feeling better, looking better, or whatever it is you want badly enough. You must prioritize what things mean to you. Is the future pleasure you will earn for losing 30 pounds going to outweigh the pleasure of eating junk right now, at this moment? You must ask yourself some hard-hitting questions. It often amazes me that we will often times walk right up to strangers and ask them out on a date yet we do not want to ask ourselves some questions that may help solve a problem. Ask yourself: What is it I am thankful for, right now? What in my life would I like to change, right now? Why do I want to change it? What will these changes bring about, either now or in the near future. What is it in my weight-loss efforts that I want to truly achieve? Why do I want these goals so bad? How will achieving them make me feel? Do I really need this cookie/cake/ice cream right now or am I pacifying something that is not going right for me, right now. How will giving in to these urges make me feel a little later, when the cycle of guilt comes back? If you ask yourself some basic questions and learn to answer them honestly, you can start focusing on the things that really matter to you. When you start doing what matters, this in turn will bring about pleasure because you will have a sense of purpose and a feeling of relief knowing that you are working on making things better. And this in turn, goes right back to emotions and how you are feeling at any given moment. |
