Can You See Things My Way?
(Emotional Eating is the Enemy)
By: Jennifer Ross Sawyer, MA, LPC, NCC, Jennifer Ross Sawyer, Counseling and Consultation
I met a man today who made things clear to me. Changing behavior is not easy. And I am my own worst enemy.
I love to tell the stats from the NIH only 5 to 10% can lose weight and keep it off when they are morbidly obese.
But I dont like to face another reality. I am a robot. And I have programmed me.
All these years Ive allowed myself to give in to food. Happy times required food. Sad times made it mandatory. Food has been the answer for every good and bad moment in my life.
I am programmed to turn to food.
Guess what I learned today. I CAN change, and IT WONT BE EASY.
Every synapse of my neurology knows that whatever happens, food is the answer. Can that be changed?
It can, but we are kidding ourselves if we think that surgery or a new figure or a new relationship is going to fix things without some serious work
Remember the story of the man who walked down the street and fell in a hole? The next day he walked down the street and saw the hole and fell in the hole.
When our neural pathways cry out for completion by the insertion of food in our mouths and we give in, we are seeing the hole and falling in.
The next day, he walked down the street and walked way around the hole. Ah, consciousness! The lightbulb came on! He didnt have to fall in the hole. He had choices!
The next day, he took another street. Taking another street on enough days will change the programming of the robot (me, you) and before long, we will not have such a fight with the beckonings of food.
But dont kid yourself. It wont be all that easy. To overcome the flesh requires a toughness that is beyond our learned helplessness.
But it can be done. And you and I can do it.
Thank you, Psychologist Anthony Pedone, at Lilac Springs, for sharing what every veteran of weight loss surgery needs to know.
Youll be hearing more about my visit with Tony in days to come
Jennifer Ross Sawyer is in private practice at Ballantyne Counseling in Charlotte, NC. You may reach her through [email protected] or at 704-200-3540.
