The Power of Beliefs and Expectations

People often feel helpless when it comes to their eating behaviors and that they need to have “self control” in order to create change. But more often than not, there are circumstances and beliefs at play that make it harder to listen to and respond to the situation with curiosity and clarity.

Applying it to Nutrition

Night time eating is a common challenge for many people. Many dream of having the “will-power” to end the night time eating. Despite a strong belief that tomorrow will be better, they don’t see change. Why? It has little to do with self-control, will power, weakness or other human failing.

Let’s look at this common scenario.

So non judgmentally look at the chain of events again and you can clearly see many obstacles. Some of which are self-created and modifiable :

Fear of weight gain is driving the avoidance of candy
Subconsciously planning to fail at night drives day time restriction
Not eating enough during the day drives increased hunger levels
Distracting self all day, not making time to experience physical and emotional states drives heightened emotional state
Extreme hunger drives increased portions
Creating a list of foods that can and cannot be enjoyed drives deprivation
Needing a way to decompress at night drives continued need for food

As you can see, there are many drivers setting this person up for a really tough evening. No amount of “will-power” or “self-control” will change the outcome long term. Instead, it’s likely that the fear and avoidance of candy is really what’s at play here. It’s not helpful to say, “well just eat candy in X amount.” Because honestly, eating the candy is connected to a much deeper fear, belief, and sense of self.

Challenging Beliefs

We have many underlying thoughts and beliefs that drive our core behaviors. Some of them we’re fully aware of, others need unpacking.

Certainly there are times that fear is appropriate to drive our behavior (eg, I wear my seatbelt to protect me against the fear of a car accident. This fear and consequential behavior restricts my movement but otherwise does not harm or limit me). But there are other times fear is inappropriate and not serving us, as can often occur with the drive for weight loss and food avoidance.

Often what we do in a nutrition session is breakdown and challenge previous habitual behavior thoughts and chains and work to form new experiences that better serve an individual.

One common technique is using “if, then” statements to begin understand what might be driving an underlying thought or fear.

In closing…

Nutrition looks easy on the surface. We want to believe we decide what to eat based on strong evidence and rationale. But the truth is, we’re all human. We’re prone to deeply rooted thoughts and beliefs based on our past experiences – and that’s ok! The goal is to give those beliefs some attention to decide which ones truly serve us best.

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