Why do I keep eating Christmas cookies?!

Do you ever wonder why you have such good intentions with your eating in the morning and then somehow by the end of the day it all seems to have turned to shit?!

No, it’s not because you lack willpower. Or you’re broken. Or you’re not trying hard enough.

It’s because you have a human brain and it’s working perfectly! Let me explain….

There’s a part of our brain that stores pleasure, pain, memories, etc. And it’s designed to let us know if we should do something again. To put it simply, the brain likes to do 3 things:

1. Seek pleasure

2. Avoid pain

3. Use minimal effort

So when you see a tasty treat that your brain knows you like, saying no to that food goes against all of those hardwired responses. Because we know it’s tasty (pleasurable), it’s right in front of us (minimal effort) and saying no would make us feel cheated or mad (pain).

So if our brain is designed to do this, how the hell are we ever supposed to lose weight?! Let me offer you 2 strategies.

First, you need to get your rational, logical brain on board. This part of the brain knows what you really want, long-term. It’s also clear on the real pain you are in by not dealing with your weight/eating.

I think most of us who have struggled with our weight know that what we really want is to feel good in our bodies more than we want those random holiday cookies. Yet, we find ourselves mindlessly grabbing the cookies.

The key here is being mindless. Mindless means your hardwired brain has taken over...you haven’t invited your rational brain to the party.

Your rational brain knows the way you genuinely want to feel and how life will be different when you conquer this eating problem. And its job is to remind you in the moment when the less healthy food is freely available. Yes, you will have mini-conversations in your head before deciding to eat something and that is a good thing!

Which brings me to my second strategy…

If you decide to eat the food anyway, you better enjoy the hell outta it! You want to maximize pleasure and minimize pain - in this case, it’s often guilt and regret.

So quickly stuffing 5 cookies in your mouth before anyone can see is NOT pleasurable! Not only are you not slowing down and enjoying them (lacking pleasure), you don’t want other people to see you because of guilt/shame/embarrassment, and you’re likely not going to feel well physically when you overindulge (increased pain).

Instead, make sure you really like the cookie before finishing it. If you don’t, toss it, your body is not a trash can. If you love it, take the time to savor it! You’ll find you often need far less to satisfy yourself.

Listen, I know it’s tempting during the holiday season to tell yourself you’ll be missing out by employing new eating tactics, but you have to ask yourself what you’re missing out on if you don’t??

You can enjoy the holidays, eat all your favorite foods, AND still not gain a single pound. Hell, you could even lose… (gasp!) If that’s appealing, let’s chat.