BY KAREN THORNE
Karen is an Eating Psychology Coach. She is the creator of the Conscious Eating Programme: Changing your thoughts about food to transform your body and your life.
Find out more about Karen's work here.
It’s that time of year again. How many years have gone by when you’ve vowed NOT to overeat during the festive season, yet slowly but surely you have one too many mince pies, one too many Christmas dinners and far too many alcoholic drinks?
In next to no time, you hear those "oh so familiar" words in your self-talk. “Why did I eat three?” “Why did I consume ALL the brandy sauce?” “Why did I drink so much!” Sound familiar? If this is you, then you need to read on to finally, once and for all, stop this unwanted behaviour.
If you’ve heard me speak before, you have heard me talk about the power of the unconscious mind. Modern brain science shows that the unconscious mind is 1,000 times more powerful than the conscious mind, which means our subconscious mind is running the show.
Now that the festive season has started and you’ve made every promise to yourself not to indulge, that is your conscious mind speaking. The conscious mind is responsible for your goal-setting and planning for the future, so you may set the intention with your conscious mind NOT to indulge, but you’re setting yourself up for failure.
So what can you do? Here is an exercise you can do before each and every unwanted eating opportunity:
Imagine you are watching your favourite programme and someone rings your doorbell. You don’t want to miss any of the juicy action so you press the pause button on your remote control. That is what you must learn to do with your impulse to over-indulge. I want you to learn to press the pause button on your unwanted eating behaviour and bring your awareness to the situation.
Brain research shows there are 3 seconds between reaction and responding, so ask yourself “What are the consequences of putting that food in my mouth?”
Think of how you can respond in a way that serves you rather than beats you up. According to "davidje", meditation and stress management expert, at this point you need to reach for SODA. No, not the sweet sugary kind but the following acronym:
Doing SODA helps you to take spontaneous right action, think spontaneous right thoughts and speak spontaneous right words.
Do this each time you have the urge to grab another mince pie over the holiday season and to help you tune into your own inner wisdom.
For a free 30 minute Transform Your Relationship With Food consultation, please call Karen, Eating Psychology Coach at The Conscious Eater on 07804 529371.
Karen is an Eating Psychology Coach. She is the creator of the Conscious Eating Programme: Changing your thoughts about food to transform your body and your life.
Find out more about Karen's work here.
It’s that time of year again. How many years have gone by when you’ve vowed NOT to overeat during the festive season, yet slowly but surely you have one too many mince pies, one too many Christmas dinners and far too many alcoholic drinks?
In next to no time, you hear those "oh so familiar" words in your self-talk. “Why did I eat three?” “Why did I consume ALL the brandy sauce?” “Why did I drink so much!” Sound familiar? If this is you, then you need to read on to finally, once and for all, stop this unwanted behaviour.
If you’ve heard me speak before, you have heard me talk about the power of the unconscious mind. Modern brain science shows that the unconscious mind is 1,000 times more powerful than the conscious mind, which means our subconscious mind is running the show.
Now that the festive season has started and you’ve made every promise to yourself not to indulge, that is your conscious mind speaking. The conscious mind is responsible for your goal-setting and planning for the future, so you may set the intention with your conscious mind NOT to indulge, but you’re setting yourself up for failure.
So what can you do? Here is an exercise you can do before each and every unwanted eating opportunity:
Imagine you are watching your favourite programme and someone rings your doorbell. You don’t want to miss any of the juicy action so you press the pause button on your remote control. That is what you must learn to do with your impulse to over-indulge. I want you to learn to press the pause button on your unwanted eating behaviour and bring your awareness to the situation.
Brain research shows there are 3 seconds between reaction and responding, so ask yourself “What are the consequences of putting that food in my mouth?”
Think of how you can respond in a way that serves you rather than beats you up. According to "davidje", meditation and stress management expert, at this point you need to reach for SODA. No, not the sweet sugary kind but the following acronym:
- Stop: Tell yourself to stop what you’re doing right away.
- Observe: Float to the top of the ceiling, or clouds and look down and observe your eating behaviour
- Detach: Put a physical space between you and the unwanted eating behaviour
- Awaken: To the best version of you. Ask yourself, "What would Buddha, Jesus or the best version of me do right now in this situation?"
Doing SODA helps you to take spontaneous right action, think spontaneous right thoughts and speak spontaneous right words.
Do this each time you have the urge to grab another mince pie over the holiday season and to help you tune into your own inner wisdom.
For a free 30 minute Transform Your Relationship With Food consultation, please call Karen, Eating Psychology Coach at The Conscious Eater on 07804 529371.
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