Choosing Between False Pleasure and Well Being

When we contemplate weight loss, we want to examine the difference between living for false pleasure vs. living for the feeling of well being.  We get to choose which is most important to us- immediate relief from unwanted emotion and instant gratification, or reaching our long term weight goals. If you've been living for instant gratification/ immediate relief, I want you to know you are completely normal. Your primal brain is wired for survival, so our natural instinct is to live for these things. The good news, is that we are human, so we also have a prefrontal cortex that can override those primitive urges. It takes awareness and deliberate action, but living for long term well being can become your new "normal".

If we choose to live for false pleasure, there's a cycle of overdesiring, overeating, and overweight that leads to low confidence and low self esteem. The low self esteem perpetuates  the need for comforting pleasure, and the cycle repeats with overdesiring as an escape from uncomfortable emotions.

If  we decide that reaching our long term goals is most important to us, we go through the fire of self connection. We learn how to feel instead of eat, delay gratification, take full responsibility for our emotions, and plan our food. The cycle is very different. We feel in control. We can manage our eating, our desire, and our body weight. We can then apply these skill to other areas of our lives.

Well Being Living is characterized by:

Delayed gratification

Planning ahead

Awareness

Compassion

Patience

Ability to stay in present moment

Ability to process emotion

Ability to manage thinking

Development of skills to reach higher potential

Emotional maturity

Independence

Accomplishment

Goal setting

Deep, intimate connections

Truth

Internal pleasure

Growth

What's next after weight? The sky's the limit! For more information about how to stop overdesiring food, email me: lparkes@lightenup4ever.com.