How To Adjust Your Food Expectation

In this episode, I teach you how to adjust your food expectation to get the scale moving. 

Step 1: Serve yourself a little bit less than you're used to eating. If you are doing this right, you will hear a flurry of old shitty thoughts like: 

--This is what a toddler would eat. 
--This will never be enough. 
--I'll never make it to dinner. 
--I'll wake up starving. 
--This is SOOOO much less than I used to eat.

Do not allow yourself to be distracted by these thoughts that feel so true. Treat them like a bee buzzing in your ear; just know they go away if you ignore them. 

Step 2: Eat that smaller amount. Ask your stomach: Is it enough?  The stomach will NEVER lie. Most times, the stomach confirms, 'Yep, it's enough.' 

Step 3: Repeat this at every meal for about 2 weeks. 

What I am describing is an adjustment process to visually re-estimate what is enough to allow weight loss. This MUST happen with weight loss because a smaller body operates with less fuel. 

This is how it works: Eat less --> get used to less being enough --> accept less as the *NEW* enough. 

We know it's true because those at goal weight and maintenance do not report feeling hungry all of the time or restricted by the amount of food they eat. They have allowed this re-acclimation process to play out. 

To allow this to play out requires: 

1. A willingness to accept eating less food as part of the process. 
2. Sitting in fear/discomfort by allowing less to be enough even though we currently think it's not. 
3. Noticing old shitty thinking about 'not enough food' to be a cue that what you are doing is working; not use them as a reason to go back to eating more. 


Your coach's homework is to practice adjusting your food expectation at every meal for about two weeks. Don't make this hard by serving yourself a lot less than you are used to eating; just adjust it enough to challenge your thinking slightly. 

Visit the episode #11 post on @thriveinmidlife and share your experience, thoughts, takeaways, or ah-has in a comment over there for accountability. 

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Audio engineering by Young Cub Audio.