Your Feelings are stuck in the Food
Today we are talking about weight loss blocker number 2 which is about the cravings you have around food, which is different from Weight loss blocker number 3 which is Emotional Eating. These two blockers have usually been put into the same category, but they stem from a different problem and the solution is different, so it is good to get an understanding of the difference.
What do you crave?
Do you have a specific food, or maybe more than one, that you just can’t say No to? Cakes, chips, biscuits, cheezies, fairy bread, scones, jam and cream, lollies, marshmallows, ice cream – there are so many potential foods.
Which ones are yours?
This is different than a general desire to eat something or anything, which is the emotional eating and covered in weight loss blocker 3.
Cravings are feelings that you want Oreos, and only Oreos will do. You do not want chocolate chips biscuits or monte carlo. You will be willing to get in the car at 9Pm to go to the shop to get the specific thing that you want – Oreos.
What are your memories?
Pick one food that you want no matter what, and think back to your earliest memory of eating that food. It can be the ice cream that you always got when the Mr Whippy van came past your house, and it was such a special treat to be able to chase the van and buy something.
Or maybe it was the treat that your Mum bought you if you were good while shopping.
The food that you only had at birthday parties, like cheezels or fairy bread.
For one client it was the cup of tea with her grandmother, and they always had two biscuits with the tea. That is a lovely time but, when you are having five cups of tea a day at home and you feel that you must have two biscuits every time, that adds up to 10 biscuits! That is a lot every day.
For another client it was sliced cheese. Her grandmother knew she liked them, so she bought a special package for her granddaughter and kept it in the fridge just for her. She would visit her grandmother most days and go straight to her fridge to get herself a couple of slices of cheese. Now she can’t go a day without cheese.
So, what is the food that you crave?
What food do you desperately want most days? Is there something specific? Is it general like cheese, or even more specific.
Now see if you can remember your earliest memories around that food.
For me it is cream cakes. My grandmother and her sisters were very close and would get together every few months for a big party. They all loved to cook and were extremely good, so the tables at the parties were groaning under food. But especially very light fluffy sponge cakes with fresh cream. They were amazing. And the pavlovas, were homemade with the perfect crunch to the meringue and tons of cream and fruit.
I love foods with cream in them.
Cravings are all about the emotions.
They are about the love. The love of the food, but more importantly the love of those people who you associate with the food. Your parents, your grandparents, parties, treats, and rewards.
Food was often the way people showed loved. I know that my grandmother and her sisters loved their families because they loved to feed us. They loved to cook for us. My grandmother had BBQ shape biscuits for my children whenever they came to visit her. She made apple pies, including the pastry. She made soup for my children when they were little, and I would take home a week’s supply. She loved to cook for my children, and when I was young, she did the same for me.
Her love for my family was tied up in the food.
And that is why we crave specific foods. We are looking for that love. We are looking for the rewards, the nice feelings, the feeling that someone cares about us. All the good warm, yummy feelings. The feeling of being loved is something that we all want and crave, but the love is not in the food.
I have an amazing technique that works so well for this blocker.
What to do to heal this blocker
Imagine all that love in the food. Think of the specialness around the food and either the love from person how made it for you or who is giving it to you. Look at the food and see the love. Then imagine that love coming out of the food and turning in to a golden ball of light. Feel and see the love. Now take that ball and pass the love around. Give everyone who is in the space a hold of the ball and let them share the love. And have them each give the ball back to you. Keep passing it around sharing the love that was in the food. All the feelings, all the caring, all the specialness.
Are you feeling that love?
Look back at the food, do you still crave it? Could you leave it alone now?
Yes. The love is no longer in the food. The love is being shared.
If you would like to see this technique in action sign up HERE for my next Cravings Crusher challenge!