We all hate pain and will do all sorts of things to avoid it.
As a small child, you hopefully had caregivers and people in your life who offered comfort or distracted you until physical hurts and emotional aches went away. Sometimes all it took was a band-aid and a kiss to make you feel better. A treat or favorite food may have been given to stop your crying, comfort you when you were sick, or sugarcoat a visit to the dentist/doctor’s office—all unknowingly kick-starting a habitual use of food as pain reliever.
Now, when pain of any kind surfaces—real or imagined—you might engage in behavior or make choices that sabotage your efforts to reach your weight-loss goals. You may reach for comfort foods to get rapid relief from that pain and to make yourself feel better, especially if there is no one around to distract you from it.
We all learned to reach for food to escape pain. Therefore, before you choose to take another trip down the dieting highway, you are encouraged to go on a Weight Loss Discovery Journey to shed some light on how your inner child tries to protect you from pain by comforting you with food. Awareness of this pattern is what will finally allow you to shift and transform it.
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