If you're a person who has struggled with a food and weight issue for a long time, especially since childhood or adolescence, you may not know any other way to be. Being overweight or a person who struggles with food is deeply ingrained in your psyche and you may believe this is who you are. It has become an identity for you. 

When this is the case, it can also be deeply threatening to you to let go of the issue. I've had many clients say, well, if I don't have a food or weight problem, what would I have to obsess about, or worry about all the time? 

Nature abhors a vacuum. Think of all the psychic energy and brain space your food and weight issue occupies. When your issue disappears what will take its place?

You need to have something to fill that space and preferably something positive and life affirming. Many people get tied up with food and weight issues because there are empty voids in their lives that they use food to fill. There is a lack of relationships, hobbies, passions, and other interests. Food is a great distractor. It's also readily available. 

To be able to let your food and weight issue go you need to look at these empty places and begin to fill them with other, more positive things. I've had clients tell me, well, I fell in love and I no longer felt the need to overeat. Most of us have had that feeling for awhile. I wish I could bottle it!

Spiritual teacher Pema Chodron says, "Nothing ever leaves us until it has taught us what we need to know." 

I would take a close look at all the ways your food and weight issue serves you. You get many benefits from it and it's important to find better ways to meet your needs or it will be very difficult to let go of it. 

Many women stay overweight because their weight acts as a buffer and boundary against a hostile world. If fat could talk, it might say a big FU to the world, parents, or a society that has unrealistic body standards. Fat can also say, "Stay away from me", or it might say, "I'm lonely, tired, overwhelmed or angry." It may also say, "I like to eat, and dieting be damned, I'm going to eat anything I want!"

So, take a good look at the role your problem plays in your life. Look at the ways it benefits you. What do you get to avoid by having the issue? What needs does your problem fill? 

Who would you be without a food and weight issue? What do you plan to do with the empty space it leaves in your life?

If you need help working through these issues, contact me. I offer a free consultation!  Contact me. 

In  vibrant health, 

Catherine L. Taylor 

https://howyoudofood.com