Life Coach Tip of the Month: Dealing With the Cause, Not Just the Symptom

We live in a society where we are constantly being told that to lose weight we must diet and exercise.  I cannot disagree that it will help you lose weight, but I also believe that diet and exercise alone just treat a symptom, and not the cause of why you became overweight in the first place.  This is why so many people are yo-yo dieters. People put blinders on because it’s easier to just deal with the symptom, but in almost all cases, until the cause is dealt with, the weight will come back.

It’s been ingrained in us that we must have willpower to succeed with weight loss, but the truth is if you work towards loving yourself more, losing weight becomes easy.  When you love yourself and honor your body, you won’t want to abuse it with food.  Years ago when I struggled with my body, I would exercise every day, and starve myself.  Then in a moment of weakness I would eat everything in sight, and after the fact hate myself for doing so.  This was a viscous cycle until I realized what was really going on.  I was lonely and unhappy with where my life was at, and I was numbing those feelings with food.

The only way to release negative feelings is to feel them.  Once I learned to take a moment before I went on an eating rampage, and really think about what I was about to do, and how I would feel after, the desire to stuff myself with food stopped.  It didn’t happen over night, but dealing with my feelings (the cause) lead me to be where I am today.  My relationship with food is simple now…I eat when I’m hungry, I stop when I’m full (most of the time), I try and eat healthy foods most of the time, but I regularly indulge in reasonable portions of foods that might be deemed “bad” by most diets, and I don’t beat myself up if I don’t eat “well” all the time.  My weight stays the same.

Loving yourself is key.  When you love yourself, you will take better care of yourself with little effort. It is inevitable that your relationship with food will change. It actually doesn’t have to be so hard!

For more info. on weight loss coaching and how to love yourself more, or to set up a free phone consultation visit me at melanierudnick.com