A Simple Way To Stop Reverting Back Into Old Bad Habits
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Do you have tendency to revert back to old unhealthy behaviors, or engage in behaviors that you very well know are unhealthy for you? For example, eating an entire pint of ice cream or an entire pizza on a Tuesday night.
Most of us think that when we participate in unhealthy behaviors, we need to develop MORE willpower, or more discipline, or more self-control. But here’s the truth: That is NOT what you need to do. And in this episode, I’m going to chat with you about what you actually need to do to stop engaging in these behaviors.
if you love this episode, I know you will also love….
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, hey, beautiful human. Can I steal five minutes of your time? I have something super important to share with you, but I promise I'll be really quick. You're listening to my weekly bonus episode of Embrace Your Real with me Julie Ledbetter. I'm about to give you a quick tip for building your confidence, honoring your body and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get it. Let's go.
Hello, hello, and welcome back to another bonus episode of the Embrace Your Real podcast. Do you have a tendency to revert back to old unhealthy behaviors or engage in behaviors that you know very well are unhealthy for you? I think most of us think when we participate in these unhealthy behaviors, we need to develop more willpower, more discipline or more self-control, but here's the truth. That is not what you need to do. In this episode, I'm going to chat with you about why you actually need to do to stop engaging in these behaviors. But before I do, I wanted to share this super sweet review. It comes from Bailey1917. She says, "A million stars. This podcast has absolutely changed the way I love myself. Thank you." You guys, these super short reviews simply warm my heart just as much as the long ones do and I appreciate every single one of you taking the time to write them. They truly mean the world to me.
So if you haven't already scooched over to Apple Podcasts, first be sure to subscribe so that you never miss an episode on Monday and Thursday. And secondly, leave a review if you haven't left one or if you haven't left one in a while. I love to know what episode you are loving recently. So let's get into the episode.
If you regularly are triggered to engage in unhealthy behaviors, I want to reiterate that number one, you do not need more willpower. Number two, you do not need more discipline. And number three, you do not need more self-control. What you need is to figure out what is triggering you and address that. Because as long as you are being triggered, you're constantly going to be fighting this annoying battle. If you remove the trigger from your life, you will avoid the battle from even arising in the first place. Let's look at this example. Let's say I'm feeling super overwhelmed and stressed. The overwhelm and stress I'm experiencing in my life triggers me to eat an entire pizza in one sitting, like binge eat an entire pizza, maybe bread sticks. Then I get mad at myself for engaging in this behavior and I tell myself, okay, next time I just need to have more self-control.
Let's say another week goes by and I feel super overwhelmed and stressed again. The overwhelm and stress I'm experiencing triggers another pizza and breadsticks craving. I try to battle the cravings, but then finally after 45 minutes, give in and order the pizza and breadsticks. Then I tell myself I'm only going to have one slice, but my craving is stronger than my willpower and I eat more and more and more until the entire pizza and the entire breadsticks are gone. Again, I find myself angry and disappointed in myself for not being able to control myself. Does any of this sound familiar? You put in whatever your battle is, whatever you struggle with, with these behaviors into your own example. This approach though, it doesn't work longterm. Instead, I need to identify what my trigger is and how to remove that trigger from my life. In this case, my trigger is feeling overwhelmed and stressed.
So instead of trying to control my food cravings when I feel this way, I'm going to focus on monitoring my overwhelm and stress, because if I don't feel overwhelmed and stressed, then I will likely not have these crazy food cravings either. To control my food cravings, I'm not going to focus on having myself control. Instead, I'm going to start setting boundaries, reassess how I'm spending my time and work on taking things off my plate to help me reduce my overwhelm and stress. The next time you engage in an unhealthy behavior, I need you to start looking for a pattern. And one other thing that I always tell my women, especially inside the Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy is really try to take food out of the equation with any emotion. So whether you're feeling happy or sad, I don't want you to quote, reward yourself or punish yourself with food. You have to look for other ways.
Of course, we're going to feel overwhelmed and of course we're going to feel stressed and there's definitely ways to reduce that. But even when that stress and overwhelm does come, I try to reduce it. I have found other ways other than food to cope with that. So for me, going on a walk to blow off some steam or for me taking a bath or doing something that takes my mind off of it, that is not food, that way you don't get into this routine habit of immediately triggering that stress and overwhelm or on the flip side, being super happy and celebrating, and then using that food as a reward or punishment. So I need you to start connecting the dots to determine what is triggering these unhealthy behaviors. And once you identify the triggers, then you can come up with a game plan for reducing these triggers in your life. It's common for us to make our unhealthy behaviors the problem, but most often these unhealthy behaviors stem from a deeper and oftentimes underlying problem that needs to be addressed.
So use your unhealthy behavior as a tool to identify what those deeper problems are because they're extremely important for you to address in order for you to change the outcome of the next situation. Kapeesh? Okay, that is all that I have for today's bonus episode. I hope that you enjoyed it. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you love this episode, I know you will also love Three Things Your Food Cravings Are Trying To Tell You. I will be sure to link that in the show notes below if you haven't already tuned in there. I would love to hear what came from this and what you are planning to do to help you stop reverting back into those old bad habits. So be sure to screenshot this, post it up on your story, tag me Julia Ledbetter, tag Embrace Your Real. I love connecting with every single one of you. Have a beautiful day, and I'll see you right back here on the Embrace Your Real podcast next time.
All right, sister. That's all I got for you today, but I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you're not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so, @juliealedbetter. Yes, it's with an A in the middle, for that daily post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks, and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.