The Slimming Pool Weight Loss Blog: Hey, I was Eating That!
Monday, March 15, 2004
Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone
One issue that pops up time and again for my clients (and me too) is that of the "comfort zone." How many of you have once been at your goal weight but then found yourself slowly creeping back up? The odd thing about those situations is that you know what you are doing differently, perhaps not exercising consistently anymore, or starting to eat nighttime snacks more often, or ...?
Those little habits and patterns are persistent buggers and unless you keep at it, even though you think they are gone, they may come back like the zombies in "Night of the Living Dead." Hundreds of them holding your favorite foods in their outstretched hands, begging you to eat me, eat me!
Ah, but there is something you can do to zap the zombies: just be persistent. Whenever you are making a habit change the struggle isn't so much between good and evil as between comfort and discomfort. At first, change, no matter how small, creates discomfort. Try putting on your pants the other leg first today - you'll see what I mean.
Try eating with the wrong hand, or driving a new route to work. It takes real effort to jump off our usual path, and even if you tried to drive a new route, day after day, one day while off in a daydream, you'd take the old, familiar route without even realizing it, until suddenly, "Oh, my gosh, how did I get here?" LOL
I think a disciplined approach to EFT and NLP can be helpful. By that I mean nothing more stringent than each morning when you first arise, a quick round of EFT on any issues from the day before that might have bothered you, just to shake off any lingering "stuff" so you can tackle the new day fresh. "Even though I didn't like the way that clerk looked at me, I deeply and completely accept myself."
Then again in the evening, while getting in bed, or even while brushing your teeth, a quick round on anything that happened that day that might have been bothersome, "Even though I got angry in traffic today, I deeply and completely accept myself."
I think the EFT is very helpful on those little daily stressors - the annoyances, the "stuff" that builds up and causes us to want to stuff down the bad feelings with food or alcohol as the case may be. When you use it on everything, even the seemingly insignificant things, it will handle those issues that most matter.
So much of our issues are beneath the surface, and rather than spending a decade in therapy, why not just start tapping away the trouble, one bite at a time.
