A Pound Of Chocolate

Last weekend we ran another No Willpower Required workshop and met some amazing people. They came along on a lovely Spring morning to learn some things about themselves and why they were doing what they were doing.

One of them was a lady called Bev who was amazing. She has done well with her weight and asked to write today's article as her story is very like many others who "struggle" with their weight. Her article is called "A Pound Of Chocolate, How Did I Know It Was Enough?" and is a very typical story of how easy it is to get into emotional eating and, more positively, how you can choose to change and stop doing it.

My article for this week can wait therefore until next week! If you do want to contribute to this newsletter then feel free to mail me...even if you just have a good quote of the week or want to ask for a particular subject to be covered then mail me at Mike@NoWillPowerRequired.Co.Uk

Before I leave you, one of the common factors last Saturday with all the people who attended was that they knew why they really overate in the past. A few people said to start with that they just liked food too much but by the end of the day they had stated that they did know the real reasons. Do you know the real reasons you overeat and if you do, can you choose to do something different and, if so, what? The key to being slim long term is to be absolutely honest with yourself about why you overeat. This isn't an exercise in beating yourself up as that does nothing to help, it is just being honest and realising that you really can just change your behaviour by deciding to. There is no secret to being slim, it is just a choice to change. My biggest advice is to make the choice sooner rather than later..it took me twenty years to actually make the decision to change and then 1 second to actually make it.

Have an amazing week as always!!!

Cya Saturday

Mike ;-)

A Pound Of Chocolate

How Did I Know It Was Enough?

When I was having problems with my marriage , the first time I used chocolate as an escape, I probably didn't need that much to make me feel good. Over time, the problems I had in my marriage increased because I wasn't dealing with them. I went round and round in circles instead of making the decision to leave. So the amount of chocolate I needed to stuff down those feelings also increased.

But also, as I used chocolate daily to improve my emotional state (temporarily) the effectiveness decreased. So I ended up eating more and more, and eating it faster and faster. As I used to eat it in bed at about 9.30pm, before I went to sleep, there was a window of about an hour before getting in bed and dozing off.
So over a period of about 6 months I was 'learning' that in order to get over the negative feelings I had, I needed to eat chocolate until I had had enough in an hour or so. Eventually that amount increased to until I needed to be completely full of chocolate. So I learned that 'happy' was about a pound of chocolate in about an hour. And I was also learning that I needed to go to the shop at about 9pm.

I already knew that this was the reason for getting emotionally hungry for chocolate at 9pm. But I'd never been able to figure out the amount of chocolate I seemed to need. Or why once I started eating it, the rollercoaster would just get up speed and go off the rails! So I was always nonplussed that if I did get chocolate, I'd buy way more than I could even eat, and eat it very quickly even though I'd end up stuffed to the point of being sick.

'Chocolate' could be bar form, or it might be a 5 pack of fresh baked chocolate cookies, or a pack of 20 mini caramel shortcakes, or a six pack of cr�me eggs, or a combination of any choc containing things which took my fancy. And then in a fit of guilt and disgust for myself, I'd throw the leftovers in the bin - but sadly and quite disgustingly go rooting through the bin for them the day afterwards.

Since the NWP course, I've not had the urge to binge on chocolate. In fact I've not had the urge to binge on anything. I have had some times when I wanted to eat emotionally, but have asked myself why and worked out a better way of dealing with the issues. I still open the cupboards through habit and then say to myself 'you're looking for solutions in the wrong place!'.

There were other lightbulb moments for me on the NWP course but I think 'the angry teacher' analogy was by far the biggest. I never expected the course would have such a powerful single moment that would shake my world up like it did. On Stephen's advice I have finally divorced my ex for good in my head as well as in reality. The gold engagement bracelet and wedding ring I've continued wearing are being cashed in and will pay for my NLP Taster Weekend! :)

Bev