Why we Self-Sabotage with food
Many of us have done it.
We will vehemently promise ourselves we will NOT eat junk today.
We will start the day off great. That green smoothie went down nicely with your supplements and morning exercise.
But what’s this?
The day gets going and your stress levels rise. There’s too much to do! Or, you stressed about the pandemic. Or, you’re so overwhelmed you forget to eat lunch or grab some Tostitos on your way to the next zoom call.
The day is ruined right? Might as well just get take-out on the way home. Pizza is what you really wanted anyway. The kids are begging you for it! And you’re just too tired to whip out a home-cooked 3-course meal right now.
You have just witnessed the evolution of self-sabotage.
Sure, there were external factors going on that made it harder to stick with your plan.
Sure, you really believed that your promise would be different this time.
You’re spinning at how fast your day went from empowered to a bingy mess.
Why does this keep happening? Two of the answers are embedded right there in the preamble of this blog.
The 2 main reasons why we will sabotage our efforts are:
Mindlessness & Chronic Stress.
Start by learning to reduce those damaging and pesky saboteurs.
Here are some other ways / reasons why despite how much you want to change, without proper skill building and pre-planning things may fall apart, despite how much you want it to be different.
You trust your future self more than your present self.
Have you ever said to yourself “I’m too tired right now but I’ll go for a walk later,” or “I’m too busy to make a healthy snack right now, but I know I’ll have more time later”. Do not listen to that sneaky saboteur. Putting off health or self-care behavior gives you a sense of relief in the moment but really makes things harder on yourself later on. Stop believing that your future self is somehow going to save the day and that it will magically be easier later if you put it off. I find that simply taking any small action, right then and there, helps to cement the motivation and momentum to continue it later. After all, a body in motion stays in motion. A body at rest stays at rest. When in doubt, take small, imperfect actions that will set you up for success for your future self.
2. Human beings all seek pleasure and avoid pain and discomfort.
It’s built into our DNA as a way to protect ourselves. So, of course, you’re going to unconsciously move towards a direction of familiarity and comfort, even if it sabotages your long-term goals. It’s why when you’re stressed and/or distracted you may say yes to a food that is put in front of you even when you know you shouldn’t or know it might even make you feel worse. Once you understand this, you can take steps within your environment to ENSURE you make choices that reflect both your current needs and future desires.
3. You have limiting beliefs or have failed too many times in the past.
Look, I know this sounds counterintuitive but if you have tried again and again to eat healthier, take better care of yourself, workout more, or reduce stress to no avail, part of that might be because you have a hard time envisioning yourself being successful. There is a great book called the Big Leap by Gay Hendricks which explores how we all have an “internal barometer” of love, success, wealth, etc that we’re willing to experience before we hit a wall. Believing that you can and deserve to have more can be a powerful first step in actually taking the steps to make it happen. It means getting a little uncomfortable. It means taking a risk. It means that you can believe it can be a different way, EVEN if you haven’t seen evidence of it before. We sabotage when we let our limiting beliefs about ourselves get in the way. A self-fulfilling prophecy, if you will.
Understanding self-sabotage means going beneath the hood a little bit and understanding your own psychology and behavioral habits with a clear awareness of what gets in your way.
Working with a coach can be a powerful and pivotal way to help move the needle, give you support with a safety net to explore and challenge your beliefs. Nothing is more satisfying to me than seeing a client reach beyond what they thought they were capable of and witnessing self-sabotage slip away and finding empowering confidence in its stead.
I am soon opening up doors to my latest program called Replenish.
Get on the waitlist now to stay apprised of when we open doors and get all the details! You’ll immediately receive my top gut-health boosting resource and recipe packet so you don’t have to wait to start getting replenished.