Why Settling Sucks (Especially When It Comes To Your Relationship with Food)

Why Settling Sucks Especially When It Comes To Your Relationship with Food

Raise your hand if you've ever settled for something...Your job?

Getting taken advantage of when you took your car in for repair? Your husband or wife?

The word "settle" is equated with "compromise" and, in many cases in our culture, it's an emotionally charged term. For example, how many of you have friends who say, "Don't settle! It's better to be alone than to be unhappy with someone." We accept this to be true.. but can you see the invisible scripts in that advice?

We might have settled for a job. When you were fresh out of school, would you have imagined you'd be working where you are today?

What did you dream your job would be in the future? Did you settle on that? Why?

We also settle on our health. ("I could never be that thin…plus I really love pasta and bread, ugh.")

It's natural to settle for certain things. Guess what? I don't really care about finding the world's best toilet paper, so I‘ll settle for whichever one is soft and on sale.

But it SUCKS settling on important things in life.

One of my life's greatest fears is looking back and realizing, "Yeesh, if I had just done that years ago, I would have been in a WAY better place."

Ever notice how, as we age, our "settling" starts to turn into regret?

First, let me point out one thing: we ALL settle in one way or another. It's a normal part of life, and you're not "wrong" or "bad" for feeling guilty about it. Life is about measured tradeoffs.

We pick our jobs, our partners, our homes, our pets, our clothes, our food, our entertainment. A lot of times that means we might settle on some things while gaining others.

But it's when you settle on the IMPORTANT parts of life -- your partner's values, your social circle, your job, your health -- you're in for a long, grueling life experience.

Well, duh, right?

It sounds obvious enough. Yet often we hear the OPPOSITE advice in our society!

"You look fine.

Stop stressing

about your outfit." "You should

just stick with him, he's such a nice guy. You're

too picky."

"You should feel lucky to have any job

in this economy."

I think for the longest time, I was settling on my relationship with food.

I figured I'd tried every diet I had heard about, I tried books and workshops and STILL I seemed to eat gobs of food regularly.

I'd watch myself do it, knowing what I was doing, and still did it.

About the time I was going through a breakup, I realized how I was willing to go through the pain and agony of breaking up with someone in order not to settle.

But somehow I was willing to settle on eating in a way I didn't like because I didn't know what else to do.

Noticing the patterns in my eating, I knew I had formed habits that would take a commitment to break. The longer I continued to react to my urges to eat in the same way I always did, the stronger my habit became…and the more I continued to settle.

It takes serious self-reflection and honesty to acknowledge that happening -- and then to care enough to want to do something about it.

When you feel an urge to eat (or keep eating) and react to it like you always do, it's like settling.

But when you feel the urge to eat and you let it run its course, you allow it to be there without reacting as usual. The urges continue, they grow louder…and then

they lose steam. You can watch the process, knowing it's your animal urges welling up out of habit.

URGE

Then you can make a conscious choice as to whether you want to continue eating -- savouring every bite to squeeze out as much pleasure as possible -- or if

you want to do something else.

Eat Play

That's not settling. That's breaking an old habit and creating a new one.

And that's a road that leads to victory.

YouNew Habit

Old Habit

For a free video course plus more resources to help with overcoming binge

eating and food addiction, visit

www.BingeEatingBreakthrough.com