WHY DO WE OVER-EAT?

Obesity continues to be a battle fought by many people today.  Despite the desire to lose weight, it remains a struggle for many to be consistent with healthy eating habits. Why? Somewhere along the line food became a drug.  Even worse, food took on the role in many instances of a comforter when we accidentally discovered that food temporarily made us feel better, because of the serotonin and tryptophan levels that get elevated after eating certain foods.  Little did we realize that we were developing not only a psychological dependence on food but we were also developing a physiological dependence as well.  Now not only do we have to break a bad psychological habit, we also have to address our physiological dependence.

Our mind is our most lethal weapon and if we are not careful, it can wreak a lot of havoc in our lives.

Our minds can convince us, despite the evidence to the contrary, that we need to eat.  So powerful is the suggestion that we ignore the evidence and reach for more food.  I know that we do not need as much food as we consume.  So again I ask why?  Why is it so difficult to control or change our response to the suggestion from our minds to consume more food? Perhaps we have not learned how to deal with negative emotions (anger, anxiety, boredom, depression, discouragement, frustration, loneliness, rejection, etc.) in a healthy manner.  It can also be that we have continued the habit from childhood where food was a treat when we had a bad day or accomplished something good.  Sadly, as adults we took the habit too far and now we simply eat for so many reasons other than physiological hunger.  At some point if we want to be healthy and control our weight, we have to make it a need and then change our responses to the emotional and or physiological stimuli.

SOURCE OF IMAGE: SHDR