When does the food need to go?!

When I was constantly battling my weight, I never bought peanut butter. Not because of any other reason than I could not be trusted to not grab a spoon and start eating.😳 And once I “broke the seal”, who knew when I would be able to reign it back in?! I know you feel me!

But now I have peanut butter almost every day with my breakfast.

So what do I advise folks who are trying to lose weight but who frequently overeat certain types of foods….whether it’s peanut butter or cookies & ice cream...to do? (You can catch my IG video on this topic here)

In the beginning, I always recommend removing all your tempting foods from the house. This is NOT THE SAME as NOT eating those foods!

First, let me remind you that I am a HUGE advocate of NOT cutting out foods you enjoy eating WHILE you are losing weight. You need to practice enjoying foods/drinks you plan on having in your life while you are learning to listen to your body’s hunger/fullness cues. If not, how do you plan on eating them normally once you’ve lost the weight?

But in the beginning, when we remove foods from our home (and not our life) we are doing two things:

1. Breaking the habit of mindlessly eating. How often have you not had one thought in your head about chips and then you see an open bag on your counter and suddenly you find your hand inside?!

There is a reason ads are always showing you tasty foods….because just seeing these foods sparks a desire to eat this food, whether you are hungry or not!

By not removing the food from your life, you know you always have the option to go get that food whenever you want. But this time, the act will be intentional. Intentionality makes all the difference!

2. It creates a pattern interrupt for habitual eating. If you’re in the habit of calming down stress by grabbing a bag of chips, you have now made that hard to do. If you’re in the habit of eating too much dessert on the couch at night, we now have removed that habit.

Remember, you can always get that dessert or those chips, but now you have to decide if that’s what you really want or are you just in the habit of doing it?

For me, adding peanut butter back in my life happened gradually. First, I had to remove all food rules. Second, I had to get honest about which foods needed to stay gone until I got in the habit of flexing my moderation muscle. Third, I practiced eating “lower value” (but still stuff I loved like ice cream) food into my diet in moderation. Finally, I introduced peanut butter back in. And it wasn’t perfect, but I got better at eating it moderately as I had more and more practice with it.

Happy practicing!