Don’t Feed Your She Devil

We all have a she devil-God love her!

When we are going through hard times, when we carry unresolved emotional baggage or we we are just plain unhappy for reasons we cannot understand.  The Devil is always right their waiting to jab his or her horns in the door.  Many of us are emotional eaters-I am!  We have it all wrong in our heads.  Not sure why, but we have this thinking process that when we feel sad, hurt or anxious, food makes it all better, and briefly it  does-I tell no lies.  What we have to start understanding is immediately after we cram our faces in a desperate attempt to find comfort, peace and happiness, we have just made things worse.  Why?  Because we have added to our anxiety and guilt for overeating.  So now we are not only upset about the original sitaution, but we are mad at ourselves for feeding our “she devil.”  Our she devil wants us to be emotional eaters.  You know her, that voice in our head that says I really want to eat that gallon of ice cream right now, and I will feel a lot better.  She wants us to turn to food instead of God, a friend or an apple!  I promise you when you are felling desperate for comfort, an apple with a little low fat peanut butter, a quick prayer and a brisk walk out in the fresh air will do you a lot more good than that gallon of ice cream!

Listen!  We are all going to mess up.  We are all going to binge sometimes.  Frankly, I think we have to fail sometimes in order to know why we want to get back up.  Also, if we never allow ourselves a few parties in our mouth here and there, then we are setting ourselves up to fail due to deprivation.  So tell yourself right now, I am human and I am going to make mistakes, but what matters is what I do in reaction to my mistakes.  Now breathe and smile !

Smile!

A smile confuses an approaching frown.  ~Author Unknown

So, let me tell you a personal story of my own failures and triumphs, because in this life we are going to have our ups and downs.  It is acknowledging them, and using them to help others that helps us grow and understand our own selves better.

In July, while on a wonderful family vacation in Destin, my family received some devastating news.  It snuck up on us like a thief in the night, very scary, unexpected and devastating.  I was in a fog forever it seemed.  When something so shocking and confusing happens, you feel like this isn’t even your life and you are in a bad dream.  Well guess what folks, reality eventually sets in, and sometimes reality really bites!

After realizing that this was not something that would be quickly resolved, and that it was going to be lingering around recking havoc on our family, I felt physically sick for a period of about two weeks.  I could not eat, and really did not want to eat.  So, I quickly lost 6 lbs.  This wasn’t  entirely awful because I did indulge heavily while at the beach, and honestly probably gained 5 lbs there.  The problem was, as my anxiety and fears kept increasing, my “she devil” made her move.  She knows I can be an emotional eater, and suddenly sweets and unhealthy foods were all I wanted.  I was feeling on some level, even though my head knew it was wrong, that eating cheese puffs, (lots of them), boxes of sugary cereal, butterfingers and ice cream would make my problems all better, and on a temporary basis, it did.

I am a hard learner!  It wasn’t long after going on all these binges, mostly before bed, when my anxiety is the worst, that I had gained that 6 pounds back plus some extra.  I personally love the idea of a weight threshold.  I think all smart eaters who are serious about staying fit should set a threshold weight to never exceed and stick to it.  You see, once you exceed that threshold, it makes turning back a lot harder.  I give myself a three to four pound cushion for things like weekends or vacations.  Once the party is over, though, I know it is time to get off the train, it is leaving and I don’t want to weight it down.  Plus, the ride back home is often long and hard.  So, do some research about a healthy weight range for you.  You can google healthy weight ranges for men or women and it will give you a range based on you age and height.  Find a number in that range you are comfortable with, get there, and set it as your threshold.  Try your best and stick to that threshold like white on snow.

One day during this mess, I finally pulled myself out of bed and decided to quit giving in to my “she devil” and kick her to the curb.  These awful circumstances were going to be around for awhile, and I needed to take back control of my emotions, and my eating.  If for no other reason, just to feel better physically.  I also had to realize that food was not fixing my problems, only compounding them

Now, if you read me regularly, you know I like clean eating, and for the most part I follow that principal of eating.  I felt, however, that my life was in such chaos that I was going to need a more structured eating plan at the time.  That is what staying fit is about, finding what works and when it is not working any more, tweak it to make it work for your current circumstances.

As I said, I felt I needed more accountability and structure or my circumstances, and my “she devil” would conquer me.  So I turned back to Weight Watchers online which I used many years ago after my second child.  Weight Watchers has revamped their program, and you get more points than you previously did, and most fruits and vegetables are free-this was appealing to me.  In addition, Weight Watchers gives you an objective system for keeping up with your points to help achieve success. So I dug deep back into my Weight Watchers vault from the past and remembered all the things I loved to eat when I was on the plan.  I am proud to say, it worked very well for me, and I am now back under my threshold.

One thing I love about the new Weight Watchers System is that you can follow the program and still eat very clean, but at the same time it gives you room for a little daily splurge here and there.  At this time in my life, I am needing a little splurging.  We are dealing with a lot of stressful issues, and I have found that if I give myself that daily splurge, (even though it is a mini Butterfinger and 4 Gingersnaps), I am totally satisfied, and there is no desire for binging.

I cannot say it enough, as your life and circumstances change, so needs your diet to change.  If you don’t mold your eating patterns to fit into where you are in life, then being fit is going to be hard.  Just remember, whatever plan you are following, keep it as clean as possible, keep it as lean as possible, and most importantly give yourself a little room for a treat here and there.

If you are struggling to shed weight, I strongly suggest you take a look at the new and improved Weight Watchers System.  You can do it online or go to meetings.  You have to decide if you can be accountable enough to only yourself.  I also like The Five Factor Diet, which you can pick up the book in book stores, and of Course The Eat Clean Diet (Tosca Reno), which of course is a lifestyle, not a diet.

Let me hear about what works for you.  Is there a time when you have really struggled and been a victim of your “she devil” and the emotional eating she loves to feel our heads with?  How did you turn it around?  Are you still trying to turn it around?  I would love to chat with you about it.

You can also find me on Twitter @by_by_fat_genes.

connect with me on Twitter!

So here’s to kicking that pesky devil to the curb, and setting yourself free.  It is never to late!  There are a million excuses why it is never a good time, but the truth is that the only good time is NOW.

Set yourself free girls and guys.  Let me hear from you!