Weight Loss Wednesday: Just Because It Tastes Good Doesn't Mean I Have to Eat It

I’ve been talking with my sister-in-law about weight loss. She told me a thought that has really been helping her: Just because it tastes good, doesn’t mean I have to eat it. This is really helpful in a lot of ways. One way is that it helps you to not resist your urge or desire. Sometimes when we’re trying to lose weight, we’re just resisting eating all of the foods we want to eat. This makes the desire even stronger. We say, “That’s not as good as I think it is.” Or we try to not have the food around, or even smell the food. What if you just saw the food and thought, “Yep, I love that food. That doesn’t mean I have to eat it.”

Think about it, we don’t do that with other things. Just because we love a few shirts, that doesn’t mean that we put them all on and wear them all of the time. We need to wash them sometimes. It’s more comfortable to just wear one at a time. The same with food. If we ate cookies all of the time, we wouldn’t be able to reach our health goals. It’s really more comfortable to not overeat, or even eat sweets all of the time, or other foods that may not contribute to our health.

Our brains are really convincing when it comes to things that give us a big dopamine hit. It’s good to have go-to thoughts like this one, so when our brains tell us, “That is really good for our survival. You should eat it right now.” You can gently remind your brain, “Everything is okay. We don’t need to feel pleasure all of the time. We can try other things to raise our dopamine. Just because it tastes good, doesn’t mean it’s going to contribute to my higher goals.”

Try it out and let me know what you think.