Winning Weight Loss Tip No. 2: Make Eating Conscious

 

Understand what you eat and when you eat it

 

As humans we are creatures of habit – most of the time we will do things in the same way every day – from the moment we wake up and our morning routine all the way through the route we take to work and beyond.

 

While this makes for a much easier life most of the time, when we consistently do things the same way we often stop really paying much attention.

 

It’s a bit like when you first learnt to tie a shoelace – at first you had to think about it and pay attention, yet having done it so many times you can now do it without even thinking about it or paying much attention. And you may have had one of those moments where you wonder whether you actually locked the front door or you travel on your usual route and wonder how you got there!

 

And it’s the same with food – we eat so many times a day that we often don’t even notice what we are eating.

 

Whether it’s the extra biscuit with a coffee, the cake your friend gave you a piece of or that piece of chocolate you saw while you were in the kitchen doing something else – it all counts.

 

And you only have to watch people eating popcorn at the cinema, eating while watching TV or talking on the phone to recognise that they aren’t paying any attention to how much they are eating or when they have had enough. They are on auto pilot.

 

There is often a great divide between how much we THINK we are eating and drinking and how much we ACTUALLY PUT IN OUR MOUTHS.

 

And if you don’t close that divide you aren’t going to be as successful as you could be with losing weight.

 

So the first thing you have to do is understand:

 

• WHAT you are eating and drinking
• WHEN you are eating and drinking it; and
• HOW MUCH of it you choosing to put in your mouth

 

By far the simplest way to do this is to keep a food diary and note down what you are eating and drinking and when you do it.

 

By making weight loss conscious, it will enable you to start doing things in a new way so you eat the right amount and feel good as the weight drops off effortlessly.

 

If you are committed about shedding those pounds then you really need to do this and you need to:

 

• Be HONEST – no-one is going to point a gun at your head to make you fill it in. But if you leave things out to make it look better then you’re going to keep wondering why you can’t seem to shift the weight.

 

• Do it AT THE TIME or as close as possible to eating. Not only will this make you pay attention to what you are actually doing there and then, it’s much more difficult to try and remember back to record what you were doing (if you don’t believe me try and work backwards from now over the last 5 days of everything you ate and drank –I pretty much guarantee that you’ll have missed something).

 

• Do it for at least ONE WEEK and preferably longer until you really understand what you are doing with eating and drinking – and consequently with your body and your health

 

• For super successful results – note down how you were FEELING just before – huge amounts of food are consumed in this country by people trying to put a plaster over feelings of stress, boredom, loneliness etc.

 

To make life even easier, here’s a food diary template you can use – so NO EXCUSES it’s time to get started!

 

Successful weight loss food diary template: Weight Loss Hypnotherapy – Food Diary Template.pdf

 

 

After seven days, stop and review your diary:

 

What patterns do I notice?

 

Check for patterns such as:

 

•        Is there a link between how I feel and when/what I eat?

 

•        What am I eating/drinking more of than I thought?

 

•        What am I eating/drinking less of than I realised?

 

•        What times of day am I eating when I’m not really hungry?

 

•        What would I want to change about my eating & drinking?

 

 

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