The Hidden Key To Weight Loss Success: Judgement vs. Curiosity
After 10 years experience in this field – I can tell you that the biggest obstacle that gets in the way of people just noticing how food feels in their body and actually feeling it (one of the keys to losing weight) is self-judgment.
Self-Judgement is, “the forming of an opinion, estimate, notion, or conclusion”. (Dictionary.com)
The second you start to judge yourself you feel bad, “What’s wrong with me? UGH…I’m so stupid, I’ll never lose the weight, etc.” Well, no one want’s to feel bad so what do we do? We check out. And when you check out you miss a lot of good information. It’s like missing the end of the movie where you finally find out what happens.
When you judge yourself you miss all of the important information – like how food really feels in your body after you eat it? Are you really satisfied? Does your energy go up? Does it go down? Do you feel grumpy, irritable, and lethargic or do you feel happy, energized, and vibrant? When you answer the way you feel about these questions – it gives you more information to make a better decision. Think of it like discovering the hidden charges behind each food decision that you never knew were there. A little more awareness can change how you feel about those foods permanently.
Face it, knowledge is POWER. It’s often the difference between success and failure. Imagine for a moment, two real estate investors. The first, is a first-time home buyer with no experience. The second is Donald Trump. Who know’s more about real estate? Who’s going to have an eye for the details that most of us would miss that can be a deal breaker or a deal maker? Who’s going to get the better deal? No question it’s going to be Trump.
In this program, I’m going to arm you with all of the necessary knowledge you need to make the best decisions on a daily basis – so you can still enjoy your food, have fun, and be fit and healthy too.
Yes, it can be done.
The first step is to replace ‘Self-Judgment’ with ‘Curiosity’. Curiosity is, “the desire to learn or know about anything; inquisitiveness.” (Dictionary.com)
Think about the difference between an angry Nun and curious Scientist.
The angry Nun grimaces and points her finger at you and tells you what a bad person you are every time you eat something ‘bad’, like a donut. She shouts, “How could you! What’s wrong with you! You’ll never lose the weight because your weak! Bad girl!”
The curious Scientist rubs her chin and begins to wonder what the effects of eating that donut will be. She looks up and rubs her chin while imagining eating the donut. She thinks about the combination of fat and sugar, how it will affect your blood sugar, whether it will trigger unnecessary hunger? She is curious how you’ll feel after you’ve eaten the donut? Will you get a sugar high? How long will it last? What does it feel like to come down? Is it really worth it? Do you ever eat just one? Etc.
Curiosity is observation without the judgement – so you can really begin to notice more than before and gather the information that helps you make a better decision you can feel good about.
If you get ‘curious’ about that donut and imagine eating it and feeling sluggish and unsatisfied afterwards, you may find your desire for it diminishes. If you then imagine how it affects your blood sugar and what it’s doing to your body, you may want it even less. If you then notice how awful it feels, how little it lasts, and how much it really costs calorically when you eat it – well, then you may lose interest in it altogether.
Remember, your preferences are just the sum of a list of pros and cons about anything. When you favor something, you are making pleasing pictures of it in your mind that make you feel good. If you avoid something, you are making unpleasant pictures that make you feel bad. If there are more pros than cons it’s a yes. The awareness you will receive from observing your behavior with curiosity will begin to reprogram your preferences. Sometimes this happens instantly when you have a realization that what you are eating just isn’t worth it, and sometimes it takes awhile.
Start replacing self judgement, criticism, and condemnation with curiosity today and see what happens.