3. Show the love. Many people who overeat claim that they just love the taste of food. That’s why they want to keep eating it. Geneen Roth points out that, “When you like something, you pay attention to it. When you like something—love something—you take time with it. You want to be present for every second of the rapture.” She continues that overeating does not lead to rapture, it leads to a lot of discomfort.
4. Be happy. Food does not provide happiness. It might be good to remind yourself of this when eyeing that chocolate cake, especially if you feel tempted to eat it all — at one sitting. Roth says this is a way of avoiding feelings of deficiency or emptiness. She says, "It’s called postponing your life and your ability to be happy to a future date when then, oh then, you will finally get what you want and life will be good." Happiness is not something that we hope for in the future, it’s something we can cultivate in our lives today.
5. Learn to let go. It may be easier to not eat a particularly troublesome food at all than to find a way to stop once you’ve started. Moran says that if "a certain food has always been a problem for you ('one bite is too many and a thousand aren’t enough'), face the fact and leave that food alone." Whether it be cinnamon rolls, chocolate chip cookies or potato chips, identify your trigger foods and avoid them.
All three books delve into the reasons behind why we overeat. That’s really the best place to tackle any problem. You don’t tend your garden by cutting weeds at the stem. You pull them out, hoping to get at the very roots. Roth, Moran, and Beck offer tremendously helpful strategies for pulling out the unhealthy eating habits (weeds) that have been keeping your life’s garden from bearing fruit.
Article comments