I saw this image the other idea and knew I needed to share it with you!

I love this because it’s exactly what I hope to help people do with food – put space between a thought and a reaction.  We live on autopilot with food and eat without thinking.  Working to become more mindful, intentional and aware is far more effective at changing your circumstances than making a list of good and bad foods (what you can and can’t eat), counting calories or obsessively weighing or measuring yourself or food.  Those are all bandaids, but we want to focus more on WHY than WHAT.  So a few thoughts:

• You have a lot of rules in your head about food.  I really encourage you to challenge them, and to identify if they are helpful or not.  For example, “Sugar is evil and addictive” may actually only be hurting you.  Instead of learning how to self-moderate, you continue to believe that you can’t trust yourself.
• Being more aware of how you FEEL is super important for treating emotional eating.  Letting yourself feel means you’re less likely to need to distract yourself from feeling, and less likely to turn to food to numb.
• Quit thinking or saying negative things about yourself and watch your whole world change.  While you might THINK it’s true (fat, ugly, lazy, etc)…telling yourself that isn’t actually motivating you to change anything.  Start saying nice, uplifting and positive things to and about yourself and you may find you live up to those!  It’s hard to take care of somthing you hate, so don’t think for a minute that a critical mindset is at all helpful.

Thoughts are NOT facts.  Just because you think it doesn’t make it true.  I hope this can help you practice being more mindful and aware of your thoughts.

Emily Fonnesbeck RD, CD