The first step is Awareness…
Wanting and Doing are two different parts of your brain. The only way to make change is to take Action. You can sit around all day and talk about what you’d like to change, but until you take that first step, no matter how small, you will never move. You will be stuck.
The first Action to take is Awareness. Become aware of how much you are eating, why you are eating, when you are eating. Spend some time becoming more aware of your habits, your environment, your thoughts and feelings around food and exercise.
Perhaps this is a good place to practice a few days of food journaling, food photos, or tracking? Have an open, curious mind about your current intake, when you eat more, eat less or have cravings. Where are you, who is around, what is happening at the moment or right before, what are you feeling, what are some recurring thoughts or habits you may notice?
Begin to take notice of your hunger cues with the same curiosity, where are you? What are you doing? Who are you with? Is it true physical hunger, or are you experiencing “mental” hunger? What is the difference? (see my previous post on Hunger Cues).
What if you’re not really sure how you feel? You’ve tried pausing and you come up blank? I got you. I do it too! So, you want to become more aware of yourself?
Here’s a great first step, a challenge for you before my next post…
Spend some time defining your emotions using this “Wheel of Emotions” and stop yourself once, twice or more times a day and sit with this wheel, pick out two emotions you are experiencing in the moment. Sound easy? It’s not! I struggled with this, which really surprised me. The trick is remembering to do it… set an alarm on your phone to repeat 2-3x/day everyday this week, and stop what you are doing to choose from the wheel.
