If you’ve spent too much time struggling with food and weight and overeating, the idea of making peace with food may sound appealing, but you might not have a clear picture of what peace with food would actually feel like or look like in your life.
When many clients first contact me for overeating or emotional eating help, they have spent enough time struggling with things like willpower, self-discipline, other peoples’ food rules (that are constantly changing), and diets, that the concept of peace with food seems unattainable.
When I ask a new client about what peace with food will look like in her life, her answer is often only a small part of what’s possible.
Of course, she wants to stop overeating, maybe overhaul the way she eats, and she’d like to wear a smaller size. But there is so much more that comes when you create peace with food.
One of the things I love about what I do, is the joy of seeing that “so much more” start happening for unexpecting clients.
Behind every struggle with food is a huge, untapped store of personal power and possibility, that only emerges when we learn how to get the food craziness out of the way.
When this happens, everything changes.
“This journey towards weight loss, which is what it was originally, has changed so much for me. Now I see it as a journey towards being full of life and love. The side benefit of that is that food is no longer such a coping mechanism for me. Feeling full of other things means I can let go of having to always have food. I don’t feel deprived at all. My eating is very different already. I haven’t had cravings and I am allowing myself to eat anything I feel like eating. I ate pasta three times this week!! I just didn’t need to eat lots of it. My relationship with my partner has an intimacy that I have never experienced before. I can tell that I am a better mother than I have ever ever been. I seem to have new patience and more love than I had before. . . And yes, I have lost 5 pounds this week, without trying. . . and I felt completely in control.” ~ M., Private Coaching Client
Peace with food does not mean cracking the code on how to create perfect willpower. Peace with food is about transformation—not deprivation. It’s about stepping into a life that is more balanced and that nurtures you more–a life where food just doesn’t have the power that it used to have.
Peace with food is about freedom. Real, lasting freedom from overeating.
When you have made peace with food, when you have created freedom, you can and do make choices with food that serve you. You get to take control as the designer of your life and of your weight and of lots of other things—the tasks that fill your schedule, the level of physical activity you have, how you care for your emotions and needs, and who you are with those you love.
Finding peace with food means creating more peace and ease with the things that are currently causing you to overeat or struggle with your weight.
And when you do this, food loses it’s power.
Freedom from overeating means that you have other ways to comfort yourself or take care of yourself or revive after a terrible day. The junk food doesn’t call to you.
People are often surprised by how freedom from overeating and peace with food changes other parts of your life too. It’s easy not to think about how struggling with food robs you of confidence, leaves you frustrated with yourself, or leaves you feeling vulnerable or ineffective. Sometimes, being in the midst of the struggle creates a fear of really stepping up in other places in our lives.
Freedom from overeating brings with it more confidence, more ease, and a solid feeling of strength. When you feel free and at peace, you know your own power.
How do you create freedom and peace with food?
Overeating freedom is a journey, and it unfolds one small step at a time.
Start by getting clear on whether you really want it—because going for peace with food means stepping off the weight loss hamster wheel and breaking free of the diet mentality requiring more and more deprivation and willpower. Create space for the possibility of peace with food for yourself and making a commitment to looking at your eating and your choices with food with curiosity and respect. This is how you will start to understand what is currently driving your overeating and the tools or resources you’ll need to make changes.
One more note about making these changes. When you want to change something you have done your whole life (like eating), it is almost always faster and easier to do it with help. Don’t be afraid to seek the resources that can make this journey smoother and less stressful.
If you’d like the specific tools and strategies, and step-by-step guidance to create your own Peace with Food, check out Your Missing Peace here.
Talk soon,
