Morning You vs. Evening You
Do you ever feel like there are two versions of you? There’s a version in the morning who swears she’s going to “be good” today – she wants to eat all the healthy things, keep her calories low, and she absolutely will exercise. She’s got big plans for weight loss, and she’s 100% committed to achieving them.
Aaaand, then there’s a version of you in the evening who doesn’t give a damn about any of those plans that morning you made. She had a long day, her boss acted like an ass, the kids are screaming, and there’s still so much shit that needs to get done before she can finally sit down and relax. THIS version of you just wants ALLLL the delicious comfort foods washed down with boatloads of wine. She just wants to shut down from the day – to finally rest, relax, and turn her brain off. And food and wine are fast, easy go-tos, so forget all the things we promised ourselves this morning.
I get it. I struggled with the same cognitive dissonance for YEARS. Set all the lofty goals in the morning, swear to myself that today I would finally actually do them, only to throw it all out the window when the stress of work, kids, and life got in the way. Wake up in the morning, beat myself up for having such little willpower, and start the whole messy cycle all over again. I dreamed of being someone who could just keep the promises I made to myself, but it felt like a STRUGGLE every single day.
I blamed my overeating on so many different things – stress, kids, my job, the other people in my life. I believed at the time that I simply couldn’t lose weight when my life was so stressful. I believed that overeating and overdrinking were my only options to feel better.
And then a coach dropped a powerful truth bomb on me. She told me that my whole story was bullshit – and it Blew. My. Mind.
She told me that it wasn’t my kids, my job, or any other people or things in my life that were causing my stress and compelling me to overeat. It was my BRAIN. The busted THOUGHTS I had about the circumstances in my life were the only things causing my stress and overwhelm – and they were driving my cravings and compulsions to overeat.
When we think shitty things, we FEEL shitty.
So, of course, when I spend my day thinking that my job sucks, my boss is an asshole, my kids never listen, and nobody appreciates me I’m going to feel pretty awful. And when I spend my days this way, it’s no surprise I find myself facedown in a double pepperoni pizza alongside a vat of Italian red.
Food and booze are a quick fix to feel better – they’re delicious, they numb us out, they make us feel happy and satisfied in the moment. But they don’t actually SOLVE anything. All your problems are right there waiting for you when the food haze wears off, only now you’ve compounded them with the shame, regret, and self-loathing you feel after overindulging when you told yourself you wouldn’t.
So when I finally learned how to manage my mind instead of blame my life for my overeating, everything changed. I realized that I could improve the way I was thinking about the circumstances in life so that I could feel better without food, which made it a hell of a lot easier to keep my promises to myself.
And the other benefit of this was that food could just be food. Delicious and fun, but not *the* thing responsible for making me feel soothed and happy at the end of a long day. I realized that I could do that with my MIND, which gave me all my power back.
And now I love that I get to show my clients how to do the same thing, so that they can keep food as fun and fuel, not HAVE to use it to numb out and cover up shitty emotions.
If you struggle with this too, let’s chat. As a certified weight loss and mindset coach specifically for Women Who Love Food I get this shit. I’ve been exactly where you are now, and I know how much freedom there is in working on your mindset, so that you can lose weight and feel healthier and happier, all without having to give up any of the foods you love.
I offer all potential clients a free 60-minute Discovery Session. On it we’ll talk about YOUR unique issues and struggles, and how you can get some relief right away so that you can start losing weight without all the deprivation and drama.
