Eat What You Want When You Want

Eat what you want, when you want.  Walk away from food that speaks to you or calls your name.  And never look back.  Walk into a holiday party with a plan in mind and walk out happy as a lark because you stuck to your plan.  Spend a week on vacation and come back having lost weight, not gaining.  Nailed it!  These fabulous gifts and prizes can all be yours.  You just need to learn a simple trick.  It’s so simple you’ll think it won’t work.  But it does.  I’m living proof.

The book is called Never Binge Again.  The author is Dr. Glenn Livingston, PhD.  He has helped tens of thousands of people with his training in clinical psychology.  He has helped me and I’d like to share with you how it can help you too.  No matter what your food choices are, these tips can help you reach your goals.

Bingeing is something I associated with serious eating disorders, so at first I didn’t think it applied to me.  But when he defined a Binge as eating anything that’s not on your food plan, even one bite…  Well that I could connect with.  If you have ever planned to take just a few chips at a party and ended up eating a few handfuls, by his definition that is a Binge.  So this applies to you too.

Having escaped the dietary Pleasure Trap (If you missed my Big Breakthrough post, it’s worth a visit) I’ve done a very good job of staying out of it.  But I’m not perfect.  I’ve had a few bites here and there of something I didn’t intend to have.  And those led to more bites, or eating something else I wasn’t planning to.   So there I was again, knowing how to eat healthfully, knowing that I want to eat healthfully, and wondering why I made another poor decision that only comes back to bite me.  After reading Never Binge Again, I got it.  It was the Pig.

As Dr. Livingston explains, we each have a part of us, or rather another being inside of us, that leads our best intentions astray.  He calls it the Pig (Note: Lowercase pigs are cute and cuddly and deserve nothing but love and respect.  Uppercase Pigs are evil conniving creatures that must be silenced once and for all.)

Learning to recognize the Pig is the key that unlocks your freedom.  Did you catch that?  That’s the answer, right there, in one little sentence.  I’ll say it again in case you missed it.  Learning to recognize the Pig is the key that unlocks your freedom.  That’s it.  So tune in, start to wake up to the conversations you’re having in your head, and you’ll recognize which one is your own voice and which one is the Pig.

You might say something like, “I’m so full, that was a great meal.  I can’t eat another bite.”  Your Pig might say, “Oh but that pumpkin pie smells amazing.  Dinner’s not really complete until you have some dessert.”  The Pig can be very creative and clever.  All it cares about is getting its way, which is never in your best interest.  Have you ever heard or said any of the following?

I’ll just have a little.

A little bit won’t hurt.

What harm can it do?

But this is a healthy dessert.

How bad can it be?

Just this once.

It’s a special occasion.

I’m in a hurry, I’ll just grab whatever’s fastest.

These are all examples of Pig Squeal.  They are the clever tricks the Pig uses to get you do to what it wants.  And later, you’re super overstuffed with the dessert you didn’t really want to eat, you feel bloated, uncomfortable, maybe regretful and sometimes a little guilty.  The Pig won.  You lost.

As soon as you recognize those voices as Pig Squeal, they lose their power.  I’ll elaborate more in a series of posts to share my journey, but for now start to see if you can recognize the part of your subconscious that speaks to you and tries to get you to do something against your better judgement or that’s not in line with your goals.

This doesn’t just apply to food, by the way!  This can be applied to anything at all.  If you have a goal to exercise and become more active, your Pig is the voice that says your tired, you’ve worked hard enough, you should just put your feet up on the couch and watch TV.  Or if you have a goal to be more social and interactive with your friends, your Pig might remind you it’s scary to meet new people, it takes too much effort to deal with other people’s schedules, or things like that.  Listen up, tune in, and you’ll start to learn a lot.  That is a guarantee.