Happy Fourth of July! If you’re in the States I wish you a safe, healthy, Fearless Fit and FUN holiday weekend, and if you’re not in the States I wish the same thing for you – it doesn’t have to be a holiday for you to treat yourself with love, respect, and good health after all.
Declare Your Independence from Food Addiction on the Fourth of July
Let’s go back in time to one year ago today when I wrote about declaring your independence from overweight on the Fourth of July – I’m recommending the exact same thing to you today! Why not go ahead declare your independence from food addiction today? Time sure does fly and it’s already been a whole year since I wrote about this topic so there’s no better time than the present to get off those processed foods filled with the sugar, white flour, unhealthy fats, MSG, and various other chemicals, additives, and preservatives.
Processed Foods – Oh so Tasty to Keep Ya Comin’ Back!
Hey, it’s just the way it is – processed and fast foods are manufactured to be addictive, to be uber tasty, and to keep ya comin’ back for more. I honestly don’t think I’m the only human on Earth who has been caught in the cycle of food addiction and compulsive overeating when living on a diet filled with processed foods and I don’t think you’d be interested in Fearless Fat Loss if you didn’t have a problem with compulsive overeating, sugar addiction, overweight, binging, and all of the pieces of the puzzle that play into this issue (yeah, your thoughts and emotions play a huge role, too).
One thing I can tell you from my own experience though, is that when I stick with the unprocessed foods, regular foods like lean chicken breasts, fruits, veggies, and complex carbs (I drink at least 100oz of water a day, too), I don’t crave food. And when you have the necessary tools to maintain your weight loss mindset, which is the Most Important ingredient to long term weight maintenance, then any issues that might crop up in your mind can be easily shifted.
Be sure to grab my FREE 5-Day e-course to discover the answer to the question, “Is Your Mindset Fit or Fat” and learn what you can DO about it!
Emotional Hunger is Not Physical Hunger
Remember that emotional hunger and emotional cravings are not the same as physical cravings, but the thing is this – In the past I did find it extremely hard to say no to the emotional cravings when I had the processed food ingredients in my system – the sugar, excess salt, MSG, white flour, that stuff plays on your body chemistry and when you add your negative thoughts and emotions on top of the pile, well it’s quite hard to say no to compulsive overeating then – at least that’s been my experience.
Declare Your Independence Now – You’re the One in Control
I invite you to leverage the Fourth of July to declare your independence from the food addiction and compulsive overeating (hey, it’s an easy date to remember and look back on!), and you can certainly start with baby steps. A very simple action you could take would be to replace soda with clean water. You’ll notice a difference in how you feel just from doing that.
There’s no reason you can’t start with baby steps and build up, the thing you want to keep in mind is one year from now, where do you want to be? Remember I wrote about this same topic one year ago from today – I for one want to look back on today’s post a year from now and be at my goal weight living with even more body strength than I have now. Where do you want to be?
Love Yourself Through it All
No matter what you do though, love yourself through the process and please don’t criticize yourself. Yes, self-love is yet another piece of a healthy and fit lifestyle. You’ve got to love and respect yourself enough to stand up and declare your independence from the back and forth tug-o-war with food and weight.
If you’re ready to live life to the fullest then you sure want to make peace with food and your weight, and I’ve found that peace by declaring my own independence from the processed stuff by eating clean and feeding my body with real, whole foods. My body loves clean fuel and I’m going to hazard a guess that yours will, too. But remember: the physical steps are only 10% of the solution. The REAL peace comes from within, where 90% of the solution is found.
That is the work that I do with my exceptional coaching clients in The Inner Self Diet, the solution for permanent weight loss. To apply for a spot complete an application now (ONLY for those who are bad-ass serious about leaving all of their lifelong food and weight struggles in the dust).
Great title, independence from addiction is a great idea, in fact it sort of serves to highlight how we are mentally tied to food.
If we could just stand up to our dependence on comfort eating, then things (including waistlines) could be so much different.
Hi JoLynn, I love the idea of declaring your independence from all those unhealthy foods.
I stopped dropping by this blog for a while, as I was drinking far too much red wine and I felt so guilty reading all your advice, then not having the willpower to follow.
Once I got to the root of the problem, I stopped drinking it and now the weight I put on is melting away. I’m looking forward to more great advice.
Cath Lawsons last blog post..Are You Ready To Give Up The Day Job?
Very very true. So hard to eat right when you’ve got the processed stuff in the body!
Great post!
Susans last blog post..Happy July 4th!
hope you had a great 4th.
here’s to us all maintaining our declarations!
🙂
Thanks for this date, decision and direction JoLynn.
I read our new car manual the other day. Now I only use the kind of gas that will get the best performance from our vehicle over the longest time.
My experience shows that life is best when I fuel my own body with the foods you suggest – for the same reasons.
I plan to ‘perform’ for a long, long while.
Roses last blog post..My husband’s pedometer is too small and unreliable
@James,
Exactly! It often is a mental tie to food, which does also tie into emotional eating.
@Catherine,
Hi, I’m so glad to hear from you!
That’s awesome that you got to the root of why you were drinking the wine, congratulations! I look forward to hearing more about your progress, welcome back!! 🙂
@Susan, thanks, and yes, isn’t that just so true – it’s very hard to deny those cravings when you’ve got the additives, sweeteners, sugar, all that stuff flowing through your body, at least it’s very hard for me to do so. 😉
@M, thanks, you too!
@Rose,
Hi, you know you couldn’t have said it better – your body responds to clean fuel just like your car does. It’s funny though, how so many people treat their car better than they treat their own body.
Congratulations on taking charge of your own health, I believe you that you’re going to be running strong on clean fuel for a long time. 🙂
Cool article… I’m so with you on removing all junk food from my ‘diet’. I never thought about it before but its true that if you have remnants of the ‘crap’ in your system, you do crave more of it! I like to have a little bit every now and again, because sometimes you can’t avoid it and I tend to think that if I go completely off it for years and then suddenly have it for one reason or another, my body might go nuts. So every now and again I allow myself to have a chip or a handful that contains MSG. It tastes good – but it almosts tastes too good. Its not too hard to resist anymore 🙂
Mckenna Wilsons last blog post..Is It Possible To Consume Too Much Protein?
Thanks Mckenna!
Yeah, getting that stuff out of your system really makes a world of difference. And to me, the longer I stay away from it and eat good, tasty, whole foods, the more the processed foods tastes like yuck to me. 😉
Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA) is a worldwide organization and 12-step fellowship that has been successful in helping thousands of people recover from the bondage of food addiction. Many men and women overate, over-exercised, binged and purged. Some had over 100 lbs. to lose while others had little or no weigh to lose. We just all had an obsession with food, weight, dieting, how we looked, etc. Check out the website foodaddicts.org for meetings in your area and any other information you may need. Bless you