Finishing Chapter 1

Let's finish up the the 1st chapter of Shrink Yourself. Earlier we discussed being POWERLESS. See if any of these 5 resonate within you, they did me.

1. I feel powerless about how to deal with my self-doubts.
2. I feel powerless about how to get real satisfaction in life.
3. I feel powerless to insure my own safety.
4. I feel powerless to appropriately assert my independence.
5. I feel powerless to fill myself up when I feel empty inside.

"In one Native American folk tale, a grandfather explains to his grandson that he has two wolves inside him. One wolf fills him with hope and reminds him how wonderful his life is, and the other fills him with doubt and convinces him that nothing is worth the effort. The grandson asks, concerned for his grandfather, "Which one will win?" The grandfather replies, "Whichever one I feed."

We now know the secret to overeating is not our lack of willpower but our experience of powerlessness. On to chapter 2 "Food, the over-the-counter tranquilizer".

Emotional Eater?

Are you an Emotional Eater? We are suppose to answer the following seven questions. The last time you ate too much:

1. Did you notice your hunger coming on fast, or did it grow gradually?
2. When you got hungry, did you feel an almost desperate need to eat something right away?
3. When you ate, did you pay attention to what went in your mouth, or did you just stuff it in?
4. When you got hungry, would any nutritious food have sufficed, or did you need a certain type of food or treat to satisfy yourself?
5. Did you feel guilty after you ate?
6. Did you eat when you were emotionally upset or experiencing feelings of "emptiness"?
7. Did you stuff in the food very quickly?

If you are like me and answered yes TO ALL OF THEM, than we are emotional eaters. So the real reason we are all so hungry - PHANTOM HUNGER.

"You eat when you aren't really hungry because you have two stomachs - one real, the other phantom. The hunger in your belly signals you when your system has a biological requirement for food. If that was the only signal of hunger you received, you'd be thin. It's the phantom stomach that causes the problem. The phantom stomach sends out a signal demanding food when unruly emotions and unsolved personal agendas start pushing themselves into awareness and you feel compelled to eat, or more accurately to stuff yourself and shut the feelings up."

So here is the question to answer: What triggers your phantom hunger?

For Me: When I feel hopeless - no control from a situation, powerless. Example:- at work my boss screamed at me on the phone and threatened to "dock my pay". He reacts to situations like this...I didn't respond to him even though he had verbally abused me. I allowed him to treat me this way. Instead of handling the situation with inner power, I cowered and turned to food this week. I know there are other triggers - that was just one I recognized. How about you?

Powerlessness

Today - the buzz word is "POWERLESSNESS". The discussion of the book will come from the 5 layers of powerlessness and how the urge to eat is simply a superficial layer of that feeling of powerlessness. INTRODUCTION - "People feel powerless when they doubt themselves, when they feel frustrated, when they feel vulnerable or unsafe, when they feel rebellious or angry, and when they feel empty." The goal for this Transformation trip is to strip away each of the layers of powerlessness and my dependence on food until my powerful self finally emerges. SELF AWARENESS: I know I'm a person who when confronted with any of those powerless emotions listed above, I turn to food as my comfort. Example - difficult situation this week at work - I ate ice cream last night. Didn't enjoy it, just wanted it, felt I deserved it. I even turn to food as a point of rejoicing. Friday comes, its the weekend - I've worked hard all week, let's go out, I deserve it... hmmm....I'm seeing a pattern.

Shrink Yourself

My sister, Carol, sent me her new blog site about Transformations so I decided to participate as well. The idea of transforming or changing is facinating. I think of a butterfly as it emerges from it's cocoon.

So, my mind was rapidly thinking of different areas I could focus on. There were so many, that I decided I need to go to the one issue that I have been working on for many years....my weight. I have been dieting, successfully mind you, since 2005 and have lost 75 pounds, but now I find myself consumed by diets, food, the scale, my weight - until that is all that I think about. I'm frantic if the scale goes up, I rejoice if it goes down, but then hate myself when it goes up again.

I found a book called "Shrink Yourself". It is a self awareness book about why we eat. I'm going to read this book and as things become "aware" to me, I'm going to blog them. Hopefully by the end of this journey, I will have emerged "transformed" or at least a more content person with who I am. And perhaps as you journey with me, you too can be more aware of your own need to transform.