Everyone has roadblocks on their road to fitness. For some, it is motivation. They just can’t get up the energy to go out and exercise. For others their roadblock might be health issues or an injury. Still others may not have the knowledge needed to overcome and make healthy choices.
I feel like I have the head knowledge that I need in order to lose weight and become healthy, and I’m pretty motivated, but I still have a roadblock that keeps stopping me dead in my tracks. My roadblock right now is emotional eating.
photo credit: catatronic
Emotional Eating – Wean yourself off of unhealthy foods
In a recent article at weightladder.com, Kevin talks about emotional eating, and how sometimes it functions much like a drug addiction. We eat when we’re down, we eat when we’ve had a hard day. We crave those foods to help give us a positive boost. We NEED that boost.
When you’re trying to eat healthier, and stop emotional eating it’s important to start with baby steps. Instead of trying to quit cold turkey (pun intended?), you can wean yourself off of the unhealthy foods gradually. If you eat a lot of cookies, try eating some that are lower in sugar. If you like ice cream, try eating frozen yogurt. Once you’re weaned yourself off of those you can move to even healthier options. Something I have to keep reminding myself is that I eat to live, I’m not living to eat.
Healthier Options
I’m beginning to work some healthier options into my diet right now. I still struggle with feeling like I need those naughty foods in my diet, but the longer I go without them, the less I want them. I am also working one day a week into my diet where I’m allowed to eat unhealthy – eating whatever I want.
Health Food Spending
When you start eating healthier it can be easy to go overboard and spend a ton of money on health foods, supplements and so on. Over at stronglifts.com this week they talked about some simple ways that you can eat healthy when you’re on a budget. Lots of great tips and tricks to get you going. A couple of my favorites include:
- Avoid Impulse Buying: Make a list, and stick to it, shop after eating, and shop alone.
- Prepare your own foods: It’s cheaper, and you an control your portions and ingredients better.
Find more tips at stronglifts.com
No Excuses – Knock Down Your Roadblock!
Now there is no excuse for my roadblock to stay up! Knock yours down too, and get moving!
Links:
I am still trying to find my way past “living to eat”…
Food is such a wonderful part of our existance and yet at times the call can be all consuming…
good luck QTF and thanks for the mention…
Weight Ladders last blog post..How to Stop Emotional Eating
Great post Pete!! I agree that I use to eat for the taste (is that emotional eating)? But I’m in the process of changing my mindset to eat to live and putting good things in my body.
I also agree that I need to give some wiggle room to eat the sweet things other wise it just gets unbearable. And to also give myself the room to change my tastbuds.
I’ve found for myself that exercise was the number one thing lacking in my life and as soon as I started working out, doing taekwondo, the 100 pushup challenge, the fat started to come off quicker. Building muscle is a great way to loose fat.
Thanks for the great article!!
I tend to really start off change by a nice big tough challenge. For eating, maybe you would try no just fruits and veggies for 2-3 days.
When you complete it, the quick win gives you more confidence, and it usually changes your perspective on what healthy eating really is. You learn a lot. Also it gives you the confidence to try something longer/braver so that you can really see how you body reacts.
Finally, it makes for really interesting blogging.
Steve Pavlina 30 day Raw Food Diet was so compelling for some reason.
The Happy Rocks last blog post..How did this Happen? – The Path Back Into Financial Trouble
Great post! About the healthy eating bit, when I first changed my eating habits and gave up sugar, simple carbohydrates, etc I found that I didn’t really crave them simply because I knew I was doing my body good. Now that I can sneak them in if I want I find that I don’t have the desire to. You just need to get past that initial desire to have them. Once you do that then you might find that your cravings are different. Now, sweet for me is jello and plain yogurt. Six months ago that would never have flown.
Good luck and I look forward to reading more about your quest for fitness.
james
jamess last blog post..All Hail the Power Tools!