Halloween is over and it’s the official beginning of the holiday season–the season of sweets, parties and comfort eats. My treat to you today is sharing with you the POWER OF NO. No? Yes, NO!
THE HOLIDAY EATING SPELL
It must be the candy corn (which many of you know is a major trigger food for me), the nostalgia of childhood, or all the Pumpkin Spice everything; as soon as Halloween and those bite size candies come around, so does this mental phenomena called “it’s the holidays”. We find ourselves much more vulnerable to all our trigger foods, eating more calories, exercising less,and believing we have no choice but to surrender to the spell.
We emerge sometime after January 1 when the bell chimes and the spell of “it’s the holiday’s” recedes. We are left in the wake of the aftermath with weight gain, more struggle, and the disappointment of “how did I let it all go?”.
But, in this season of YES, we can start using the POWER OF NO.
FANTASY OR REALITY??In case you have not realized it, the mind can’t really separate fantasy from reality.Have you ever found yourself watching a James Bond film where James is being chased by the bad guy and realize that your heart is beating faster, your breathing is elevated, and your stomach is tensed up — just as if you were being chased right alongside 007?
Have you ever watched someone watching an intense sporting on TV stand up and begin yelling at the players on the screen as if they believed the players could really hear them? We can tap into this very phenomenon and the power of self hypnosis to help you resist trigger foods.
SIMPLE MIND HACK TOOL TO AVOID THE SUGAR SPELL
I am going to give you a subtle but easy and effective cognitive technique that you can use in a relaxed (self-hypnotic) state to help change your relationship to a particular trigger food (usually sweets or starches) that you have a vulnerability to over eat or binge on.
I have used this with some of my trigger foods (frosting, Wine Gums, and candy corn) in the past and it works well. You will want to practice this exercise a number of times for it to have a real impact.
-Find a place to get comfortable and close your eyes.-Now imagine your trigger food in front of you.
-Now practice saying “No” to that trigger food in many different ways and times.
(IMPORTANT: Not “No” as in, “You can’t have it.” I mean “No” as in “I choose not to have it.” Making this distinction between –you can’t have and I choose NOT to have is huge. The former engages the Inner Critic and the latter engages the Inner Coach.)
-Practice saying “no” to your trigger food politely—Pause and take a deep breath between each time you imagine yourself saying “no” to your trigger food.
Thank you, but no.
No thanks.No.
No.
No.
-Now imagine saying no to the trigger food firmly the same way.
No!
I said no!
No!No!
No!
Repeat this polite no and firm no with the trigger food in the circumstances that you might encounter it; at the grocery store, at the party, in the office, in your kid’s goody bag, in a restaurant, in your cupboard (hey, what’s it doing there?), at a drive through etc.
NO, NO THANK YOU, NO….HELL NO!!
-Now imagine someone else is eating your trigger food and telling you how delicious it is and offering it to you.-Imagine many different ways of saying no politely and then firmly to them.
You can even yell at them if you wish( in your imagination that is!).
Now, still in the relaxed position run this exercise again but now add your voice. Practice really saying no politely at first and working your way up to a resounding firm “No!”. Make sure you take a breath in between each “NO!” and align yourself with that feeling that you are saying “No” because you choose to and not because you have to. You can do this part while you are driving in the car—just say no!!
I recommend that you start with the food that is your strongest trigger and repeating down the list of trigger foods. And repeat a few days or before you go to a party or event where you know you’ll be tested.
Please let me know how this works for you.
xo Rita
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