About Eating & Habits
Steve Pavlina wrote this after having nothing but juice for the last ten days:
With each passing day, I can see more clearly how cooked food is used as a drug to create a certain kind of feeling in our bodies. We keep eating it because we’re addicted to it, not because it’s healthy for us. We confuse those addictive cravings for the experience of genuine hunger. Instead of making conscious food choices, we let our addictions dictate what we eat, how much, and how often.
I experienced a glimpse of this during day two of my own short live foods fast:
I feel fine, and didn’t feel too hungry during the day actually. There were times I wanted to eat, but not because I was hungry – I was just craving for taste and the feeling of having a full stomach. There were times I walked past the fridge too and just wanted to open it and pick something up out of habit. Makes you think how much a person eats in a day is based on how hungry he really is!
I’m definitely not comparing one day of a liquid diet to his ten. But I remember how I felt back then; as if I wanted to eat out of habit, not out of hunger. An usually unconscious choice, like eating simply because it was lunch time, became conscious and I realized what I was craving wasn’t the satisfaction of a physical need, but simply the sensations of eating.
Like Steve alludes to, I realized I had been filling a void at times with food, and now had no idea how to fill it without. I’m not saying that eating out of habit is a bad thing per se, but I do think it’s a bad thing to perform the same habits again and again without being conscious of them.
In a way, it’s akin to how I feel when I come home after a while spent overseas. All those little habits that I do at home everyday and feel as if I couldn’t do without disappear in a foreign land. And when I come home, I realize the world didn’t fall apart just because I stopped reading my RSS feeds or watching my favorite TV series. And I didn’t end up any less happy either.
I really enjoyed this post. It’s easy to forget how powerful our physical reactions are! I like your approach here. Especially reminding the reader that we are not always ready for change — though we think we are! I agree that the real failure is letting fear stop us. Thanks for posting this!
Hi Julie,
Thank you for your kind words. I am glad it was helpful! “Coping with Stress” is a part of a series of articles on Stress that I have written, hopefully Life Coaches Blog will be posting the rest. So keep in touch!
Kindest regards,
Karen
This is a great article. I especially like the list of symptoms… some of which a lot of people may not recognize as a sign of stress.
It’s also important to continue with your stress managment activities even when there are no signs or symptoms of stress. Doing this will help you become stressed less often and ward off stress before it even begins.
Hi Jill,
Absolutely, it should be a way of life! Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts.
Kindest regards,
Karen
Hi,
Great site!!!!! Good health is very important with the high cost of medical coverage. We need to have a healther lifestyle by taking care of our health eating and exercising. I am a cancer survivor and I know. Our health is our greatest asset. Keep up the Good Work!!!!!
The physical body does not differentiate between happy stress and overwhelm. Stress is stress. We need to develop coping mechanisms in our daily life to avoid the harmful, physiological effects of stress.