The 4 Steps

My patients are often surprised when they come to understand what it truly takes to manage disorderly eating, bingeing, sugar addiction and related issues. While it is about food, it is certainly about much more than food. Even in the nutritional area, food choices are only a part of what needs to be understood in order to make a plan that works. For example, many patients are completely unaware of the workings of their body and mind in relation to a healthy body fat percentage and weight. For some, the mindbody connection has never even entered the mind. The idea that food choice, amounts of protein, fat and carbohydrates, as well as the timing of meals do play a large part in how the mind and body communicate and function on a moment to moment basis, has remained outside the knowledge loop for most.

I have a clear recollection of entering the world of disorderly eating and emotional bingeing when I was 3 years old. My father died unexpectedly on my 3rd birthday. In those years, deceased were waked or viewed from the home. I remember thinking that all of the people who were arriving were coming to my birthday party. I distinctly remember noticing that they didn't bring presents and cried when they looked at me. I was told to stay in the kitchen and play with my doll, but instead I entered the living room and saw my father "sleeping". As the story goes, I went over to him and told him to wake up. Of course, this was met with screams and a very quick removal from the area. I was sent to the garden with a bag of cookies and clearly remember feeling so sad as I ate them one by one. To this very day I have a tendency towards bingeing when I'm feeling sad or isolated.

I grew up with all sorts of emotional issues, but the biggest error was that no one in charge knew what sorts of foods I needed for my particular family and personal medical history. It would be decades before I found out about this, and during those years my life was filled with all sorts of medical, health and emotional problems. As we work through this blog project, I'll share some of those with you. I know from my many years of research and experience in this field, that those of you reading this will certainly recognize yourselves. It will be through this recognizing that your own personal journey in recovery, healing and growth will begin. And make no mistake, your life will change in ways well beyond your breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Beginning...

I've been working in the field of disorderly eating and related addictions for many decades. I've come to know that there are 4 steps to winning the game of healthy lifestyle change.

We are all pretty much the same. I find with others, including myself, that we are all in such a hurry to climb the steps to success, that we often forget to do the research that is needed to set a proper plan in action. It is not enough to buy a book or go on a diet. While food choices are important, solving these issues goes way beyond that first step. Unfortunately, most individuals do not go beyond this and thus the reason for so much failure and frustration.

Most of us are sick and tired of our problems and want to be free of them. Many of our problems are heavy weights, interfering with our life as a whole. Other problems prove to be annoyances, big and small. Sometimes we don't even know "what we don't know" and so, it becomes a mystery as to what to do. All we seem to know is failure.

A question I hear all the time is "how can I be so successful in one part of my life, and be such a complete failure at things like eating and drinking that appear so simple on the surface?"

Have you ever considered that perhaps these things are not as simple as they appear? What if I told you that disorderly eating and bingeing fall into this very category? Would you be willing to re-visit your old beliefs and to explore these areas of your life with me?

You can do that right here in this blog... or by joining a free online class...or by joining the Boot Camp or other discussion groups. Those links are on my website at http://www.sugar-addiction.com or http://www.hypnosis-audio.com You can also choose to work with my books or CD programs. No matter what you choose, do know this. It is, indeed, possible for you to learn to manage your disorderly eating and binge behaviors. You can curb sugar addiction.......and you can better your health and your life performance.