“I caved in last night, and I ate a batch of cookies I baked.  I know it’s not good, it’s just that, when my husband started eating them, I couldn’t resist.”

​In a situation like this, a really important question to ask yourself here, is, if you weren’t eating the cookies out of a physiological need (hunger), what need were the cookies meeting? A cookie is not a very satiating (physiologically satisfying) food.  But it is being eaten to meet a need.

Now, there’s all kinds of potential emotions in play here. Jealousy/Envy (why does he/she get to and I don’t?); FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out); Fear of scarcity/deprivation (I’m not allowed to have that);

But if we look deeper, there’s probably an underlying need. Self-soothing (I had a hard day), stress management (I can’t stop thinking about …), escape (I just want to forget), and so on …

Awareness is the first step to change.

It’s highly unlikely you’ll be able to “white knuckle” your way through any fat loss program, including Lifestyle-180, and I don’t ask you to.

But, at some point in time, in order to really get on the path to permanent transformation, it will require asking yourself some difficult questions, and likely involve working through some difficult emotions.

“Yeah, but, does there have to be a reason other than the fact that you just really enjoy cookies and if they wouldn’t normally fit in to a regular meal, when would you ever get to enjoy them?”

The underlying concern here is that it appears that you’ll never be able to enjoy a treat again, or never be able to enjoy it “guilt-free”.  This is the destructive fallacy of the “All-Or-Nothing” approach.

I take a strong stand against the all-or-nothing approach, and I never ask for perfection.

What I do push for is awareness and mindfulness. We want to avoid mindless snacking. If our goal is weight loss (fat loss) and we are going to eat for reasons outside of hunger, we need to do this mindfully, if we want to make progress towards our bigger goal.

When we understand why we’re choosing to eat, and we consider it in the light of our goals, it becomes easier to make an informed decision.

Sometimes the appropriate decision is to choose present enjoyment with the company we’re with. Other times the appropriate decision is to delay gratification in the pursuit of a bigger goal.

“It makes me feel good, so why is it a problem?” is a slippery slope to be on.  Many destructive addictions and behaviors start with this justification.

Achieving and maintaining the health and body you desire is always going to involve tradeoffs. At the end of the day, the responsibility falls on you to decide what are acceptable trade-offs in pursuit of your goals.

The way to do this is to get crystal clear on what your goals are, and how much they mean to you.  If you’re not sure where to start, you can book a free consultation call, and we’ll get you started on the path to permanent fat loss.

Ready to lose weight, while still enjoying cookies?  Give the middle finger to diets forever?  Lifestyle-180, with it’s “no FN diets” approach will change your life.