Why do we struggle with our eating, weight & appetite?

We have to eat for survival, and with an abundance of food at every turn and stress being rife in modern day living, we can find ourselves feeling compelled to over/consume even when we don't want or need to.

Consuming things that aren't necessarily good for us, or overconsuming certain things over and above our metabolic need requirements, happens to most of us over our lifetime! When we hit a threshold of what's tolerable for us, we either resolve it ourselves or we seek help from family, friends or professionals to support us.

When change happens, e.g., starting a new relationship, moving to university, experiencing illness, injury or disease, grief and loss, starting a family, changing jobs, travelling, etc., we often find that what worked for us before doesn't work anymore and we need to do something different.

Feeling out of control with our eating, weight, and appetite from time to time isn't uncommon. There's usually some underlying reason that's happening, but when things persist and our go to strategies aren't working, we have to find new ways of doing things.

What are the effects of dietary harm & overconsumption?

Consuming the right kind of foods & drinks in the right kinds of proportions for what our body needs can leave us feeling fulfilled, satisfied, happy and full of energy!

However, when we're not taking good care of our health and well-being with the right blend of nutrition in the right amounts, the opposite can so easily be true, and we start to experience symtpoms related to mental and physical dysregulation, illness and disease. 

We're often consuming things which are harmful for us and we know it, but just don't know what to do about it. Cravings for certain foods, can send us stir crazy, and even when we're compelled to act on them we often still don't feel satisfied and have regrets later.

Many of us are also deficient in essential nutrients, the common ones being iron, calcium, B12, Omega 3 fatty acids, and vitamin D, often because we don't eat enough of the right kinds of foods which contain those nutrients, or in the case of vit D get enough expose to sunlight.

because we avoid We're also not We're all living longer with an increased risk of developing chronic inflammatory conditions and diseases. Consuming a low inflammatory diet is recommended and in some cases essential for disease management. Triggers may be known or unknown but by changing our responses to them it's possible to manage disease symptoms in association with essential and appropriate medical interventions.

This is especially so with conditions such as metabolic syndrome, autoimmune disease, cardivascular disease,  cancer, chonic skin conditions, or inflammatory bowel disorders such as IBS, Crohne's disease or ulcerative colitis.

With between two thirds to three quarters of us now overweight or obese globally, eliminating dietary overconsumption is a very common and healthy reason to reduce weight and appetite, feel healthier and eliminate disease risk. We know obesity and being excessively overweight for example, carries some serious health consequences such as cardiovascular disease (mainly heart disease and stroke), type 2 diabetes, musculoskeletal disorders like osteoarthritis, and some cancers (endometrial, breast and colon), so there are some life threatening and mitigating potentially life ending reasons to eliminate dietary harm & overconsumption. 

Many more people are wanting to eliminate dietary harm & overconsumption in the current climate for planetary health concerns. Doing our bit for the planet and all that lives in it, is becoming a way of life for those who have severe concerns about the care and future of our planet for the next generation of all forms of life. Taking individual action gives us back some level of control that we are doing our bit to care for what we can while we can!

Why can't we put on the breaks to dietary harm & overconsumption?

 
When we overconsume or consume something that we know isn't good for us, or we eliminate something we should be consuming to help us feel healthier, it's often too difficult to overide our desires or compulsions, and we often don't like what we're doing, but we  do it anyway! 

We often have good intentions to not do dietary harm & overconsume, especially after a regretful experience, and we may even prep ourselves ahead of time for it happening again given we know it happens so often. Unfortunately our conscious intentions have a limited time span and before long the ability to resist temptation creeps in and we either mindlessly find ourselves there again being impulsively driven by our unconscious and automated habits, or we lose the strength of our convictions in the moment to maintain our committment,  which overides our motivation and cognitive intentions.  

Why? Maybe because we haven't really understood the problem enough, maybe our resolve to stop ourselves isn't fully there yet, our goals are not realistic or clearly defined, we don't have clear objectives to help meet our goals, we don't persist for long enough to implement our new behaviours and disrupt our well-ingrained habits, or other priorities creep in and we tell ourselves "sod it! This is too difficult", or "The time isn't right", or "I'll think about it again tomorrow", or "I'll try to not let it happen again in future!".  

Unfortunately, what's often missing are the nuts and bolts of behavioural and dietary  change. That is, a sound understanding of the problem and our goals and objectives, we don't create implementable and realistic plans, and the dedication, support and committment to follow through to actual behavioural change isn't there.  Once we have all this in place and we put it into practice we latch on our new ways of doing things pretty quickly.

Unfortunately, we often don't pesist for long enough for this to become our new habit and we go back to our old ways because it seems easier or simlier that way somehow. 

There's no doubt many obstacles can get in the way even despite setting our mind on a plan, and we can end up back at square one. The key change that has to happen is that we have the necessary resources and support at hand to help us to persist with our motivation and intentions through to behavioural and dietary change, and keep to plan without having to start all over again some other time. 

What will be different this time?

 
Imagine what it would feel like if you didn't have to worry about overconsuming, or the ill-effects of harmful eating. How much of your energy, time and money could be spent on doing much better, healthier, enjoyable, and less boring things instead?!

It doesn't have to be complicated resolving dietary harm & overconsumption, even if its been going on for some time. Learning some effective, natural and easy going strategies can soon get us on your way to eliminating... deprivation, excessive exercise, calorie counting, obsessing about portion sizes, battling cravings, yo-yo dieting, surgery, or becoming addicted or reliant on unneccesary pills or potions to manage our dietary harm & overconsumption.  

Need a proven strategy with lasting results?

The program is hosted by Karen Bartle, behavioural change & resilience health coach, lifestyle medicine practitioner, advanced cognitive-behavioural hypnotherapist, and whole food plant based health coach. Learn more about Karen

Access amazing support and resources to keep you motivated, on track and committed to getting back in control of your eating, weight and appetite behaviours. 

All in all, a no brainer; go at your own pace and in your own time, effective strategies to help you make and maintain some essential behavioural and dietary changes.

A simple four step process to eliminating dietary overconsumption

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All you need to manage your eating, weight and appetite issues for Good!