Tag: Overeating

Health Habits of Happiness #1: Hara Hachi Bu

Post author By AMANDA WRIGHT
Post date February 2, 2017

I have to say, I’m a little fascinated with Japan and now I have reason to be even more so. I have been so lucky to have been able to travel there 4 times so far since my stepdaughter lives there right now, stationed with her mom and her stepdad in the navy.

Every time we travel to Tokyo and the surrounding cities, I am in awe of the culture. They are very clean people (I once saw a man who’s sole job was the clean the grates and cracks of the metal part you step on right before hopping on a escalator), they are incredibly gracious people (bowing to you every time you enter their store and when you leave it), and they are very healthy people (ranked 5th on Bloomberg’s list of healthiest nations in 2015—the US was ranked 33rd, btw).

It was of no surprise that when I was researching the BEST and most foundational habits to build in your nutrition (as is covered in my soon to be released Nutrient Based Eating book), one of the best practices for eating in moderation originated in a Japanese province.

Okinawa, Japan is considered one of the coveted “Blue Zone” areas of the world which are those cities that have a high population of Centenarians, or those people who live over the age of 100. Naturally, these populations of people cause us to look deeper into their nutrition habits and cultures to speculate what their longevity and health secrets are.

While there are some surprises we find from this population, such as while they are Japanese residents, they actually don’t eat as much fish as we would expect. Their eating is largely centered around plant-based eating and holistic food choices.

But, what is truly impactful to their longevity is the principle called “Hara Hachi Bu” (or Hara Hachi Bun Me) which means “eat until your belly is 80% full.”

It is the mindful approach to portion control and calorie restriction which has lead to an extended life and a higher quality life in older age.

According to the Wikipedia page, it is believed that the average Okinawan resident eats only between 1,800-1,900 calories per day. Whereas another study showed that the US, (once again not to be outdone!), ranked #1 with the most calories consumed per day with an average of 3,770!

So, while there will be a time and place to address WHAT you’re eating, one solid habit to form is simply HOW you’re eating.

This habit of avoiding overeating will be invaluable to your long term health and pave the way for you to be able to enjoy the foods you like the most, simply in moderation.

Can you learn to stop eating at 80% full? Yes, I know you can. Here are some mindful eating tips to help you.

1. Remember, like all habits, this will take about 63 days to form, so focus on it by itself.

Dr. Caroline Leaf and associated neuroscientists have proven that while a memory takes 21-days to form, an actual habit of automated behavior takes 63 days.

So, you need to go into the habit fully expecting the daily practice sessions to be long and bumpy. The thing about this habit is it requires several cues that we so easily forget to do simply because of the pace in which our life. So while it is technically one habit of registering fullness and stopping eating, it will involve several other behavioral habits that are the remainder of this list.

This is why, in my Nutrient Based Eating program I have all clients focus on just ONE nutritional habit at a time. Trying to achieve this while simultaneously working on food choices, eliminating food groups etc, is simply too overwhelming for our brain to handle. With this one, give yourself 2 solid months of discipline and diligence!

2. Stop Multitasking Eating

Now, I get it. With all the things you have going on in your busy life, you sometimes think the only time you can squeeze in remembering to eat might be at your office while you're fielding emails or scarfing on a snack while you’re driving, but the reality is that these behaviors are not just bad for the cause of overeating, but also for digestion and drawing out the vitamins and minerals from your foods.

Remember, while food is certainly enjoyable, it’s also designed to help fuel your body and a very important aspect of that is digestion! When you are eating too fast and eating on the run, your body does not digest the foods as well and you are robbed of some of the necessary vitamins and minerals you need! The stress levels of a hurried lifestyle impact far more than you’ve bargained for. So pencil in your meal times without any distractors! Give yourself 15-20 mins to eat!

3. Practice Registering Hunger/Satiety Cues:

On a previous blog, I went over the difference between hunger and cravings and the importance of eating when you’re about a level 7 on a scale of 1-10 of the hunger scale. Equally important is knowing your satiety scale as well. In this case, you will want to stop eating at a level 4-5 of the hunger scale and note that it will take your body 15-20 mins to fully register fullness (hormonally).

4. Remove Food From Your Sight:

We will all mindlessly eat when food is right in front of us. So going to buffets and stocking your office or home living room with candy dishes are not the way to easily achieve this goal.

As much as you can, remove food from your sight. If you are at a restaurant, simply cover it with your napkin or put the remainder in a to-go container. If you are cooking at home, put your meal on a plate (a smaller plate, at that) instead of eating out of a bag, box or while standing in front of a refrigerator or pantry! Come up with easy solutions to help you manage the mindless eating that we will all get caught doing from time-to-time.

For more great ideas of for mindless eating hacks, I really enjoyed the book Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink.

For other great blogs and resources on our appetites and mindful eating, I really enjoyed the blog posted by my certification company, Precision Nutrition. You can check out their awesome blogs here.

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Tags 80% full, appetite, binge eating, Eating, habit, hara hachi bu, hara hachi bun, hari hachi bu, Health, japanese, nutrition, one habit, Overeating, portion control., Women

Food & Nutrition Spiritual Health

So I’ve Been Hearing Brene Brown’s Voice in My Sleep…

Post author By AMANDA WRIGHT
Post date December 9, 2016

the-voice-of-brene-brown-in-my-sleep

Well, I should say, I've been falling asleep to my Audible app playing in my headphones as I sleep (is that dangerous?) and her book, "Men, Women and Worthiness” has been speaking to me as I drift off. She’s an incredible author who has researched the areas of shame, vulnerability, empathy, and love for the last 15 years.

This book, and so many of the other's she's authored, triggered a memory I had that still is with me today. It’s a story of my shame and overeating issues.

I was in college, my Junior year maybe, and my girlfriends and I were all up at my friends' parents' beach house in Newport Beach, CA.

Now, I don’t know what college was like for you, but college for me was a time that, in retrospect, I believe was my most insecure. I suffered from the “trifecta” of not feeling “good enough.”

Spiritually I felt a bit like a heathen and a harlot attending a private Christian school after having sown some wild oats in my high school days.

Mentally, I felt largely inadequate as I struggled to achieve mostly B’s and some C’s in my Biochemistry major, while everyone else, who studied less than me, scored higher than me.

Then, physically, I believed I struggled the most. I was a Colorado girl, tall, athletic, and curvy who was surrounded by a lot of SoCal girls who were beautiful, petite and small-framed.

Naturally, due to my body insecurities during this time of my life, I was a workout queen. Sometimes taking 3 classes in a row at the local 24 Hour Fitness and training for some half and (almost) full marathons, a task that I now know does NOT fit my body type.

My copious exercise routines, combined with the massive amount of stress of school, made me hungry like a Mrs. Pac-Man going rogue, especially on sweets.

As we walked into the house in Newport Beach, we learned that my friend's mom had just had a birthday and there was some leftover cake…gooey, chocolatey, overly-indulgent, cake.

Game over.

All of us gathered around with our forks and dug in. (What’s a little sick is that I can still vividly picture this cake in my mind, a good 11 years later.)

Naturally, with something so decadent, most of the girls stopped at a few bites.

And I tried.

But every time I sat down, all I could taste was chocolate and all I could think was, “Don't eat the cake, don't eat the cake..." Meanwhile all my feet and fork seemed to hear was, “Cake…cake... cake" and before I knew it, I would be up having a few more bites. Then a few more after that.

Then I heard it...

My friend, in a failed attempt at whispering, said, "God, when is she going to stop eating that cake?"

Que the spiral of shame.

I pretended like I didn't hear it and just sat down. But, I was devastated.

I wonder, do you have any memory like this?

Where someone mentioned something about your eating or your weight and it just triggered deep shame in your eating? Maybe it was a family member? Maybe it happened in school? Something that made you want to starve yourself and hide?

Or maybe a memory of someone making fun of your athletic ability and it forever changed your relationship with exercise?

My guess is I bet you do. So many of us do.

But, I bring a message of hope, because with the help of some experts like Brene Brown, and certainly with the help of the Good Lord, we can learn shame resilience and navigate out of the snare that shame can be to our mindset and emotions.

So, how do you know if you're in shame versus guilt, humiliation, or even simple embarrassment?

Well, Brene Brown says it all comes down to our self talk. What is that inner voice telling us when these circumstances arise?

Let's take my example to walk through it.

If my friend’s remark had triggered some thoughts like, "Oh my goodness, she's right. I'm totally out of control right now." Or something about the behavior, then this would be considered GUILT.

Guilt is always about, “I did something bad,” whereas shame is about “I am a bad person.”

Brene points out that guilt, while it's not an inherently positive thing to feel all the time, is capable of helping you correct bad behavior.

You essentially have to feel guilt and remorse if you’re ever going to change. But the key difference is you focus on the behavior you're doing, not who you are as a person.

Or, if on the night of my cake incident, if it has caused a self dialogue of, "I can't believe my friend just said that about me in front of all our friends! How rude is that?!" This would be a response of HUMILIATION.

It's once again focused on the behavior of the other person or the event that offended you.

Lastly, EMBARRASSMENT could have been triggered as well had I thought something like, “Ha! She totally got me. I am totally going to town on this cake huh?” It’s a more laughable, relatable feeling. Like, “I know I’m not alone in this issue,” kind of response.

So as you read my story out right, you might know yourself well enough to know you would likely respond in one of the other, slightly healthier ways. And that’s the thing we all need to recognize and empathize in others, once shame is triggered, there’s no use telling someone how they *should* feel or respond, you need to move toward helping them (or ourselves) deal with the torturous shame and condemnation.

For me, I vividly remember feeling like my friends had “found me out.” That all my dirty little secrets of being an out-of-control eater were not only out in the open, but were being judged by my closest friends at the time.

I reiterated my self talk of always “being the fat friend,” and never being “strong enough” to control my eating.

So, where does this lead us? Why would I share with you a story from over 11 years ago? Does it help anything for today?

And my answer is YES, ABSOLUTELY.

Because, what our past experiences help us understand is where the devil thought he had us. You see, Satan uses shame as one of his greatest tools to get us to turn a hide from God.

In the Garden of Eden, after Eve gave Adam the apple, what did Adam and Eve do?

They hid.

When Adam responded to God’s call, and said, “I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid.” (Genesis 3:10)

They were ashamed of their nakedness, and they hid.

Sin is what first brought shame into our lives. It has kept us bound by sin ever since.

Shame in our mindset serves as a stronghold. We are not thinking clearly of what the devil is trying to do to us, we are totally consumed by the muck of our thoughts and emotions.

But, in hindsight, if we are brave and willing to address these memories, we recognize this an evil tactic and can start re-telling our mind the TRUTH of our memory.

I had to repeat this scenario in my head and with great empathy, replay a healthier reaction based in the TRUTH of who I really am in Christ, not who the critic in my head is telling me to be.

So, I can look back at that 21-year old self and say with certainty, “You were not fat. You were not an out of control, crazy eater. You had a bad night and went a little too far on that cake. But it didn’t make you a unworthy, unlovable person.”

I can in some ways offer forgiveness to myself and let myself off the hook.

I start telling myself that the choices I make DO NOT define WHO I AM.

Only God can do that and God tells me that I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

So, sometime soon, I think it would be really helpful for you to start thinking back on some old haunting memories and correct those thoughts that you were fooled into thinking before. Maybe journal them and pray over them. Ask God to help you seek the truth.

When you break these strongholds with the truth of who you are in Christ, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." And when we are free, we'll be free indeed.

So, I'd love to hear from you on this one. Sharing these vulnerable stories are always a bit tough....can you relate at all?

Join the A. Wright Fit Daniel Challenge, a 6-week Nutrition & Discipline course and Bible study that starts on January 9!

This course is a small-group format of like-minded women who are ready for FOOD FREEDOM in 2017!

As a group, we will be challenging ourselves to a 7 to 21-day Daniel Fast for the first 3-weeks of the course and then transitioning into the Nutrient Based Eating program, the signature nutrition program of Certified Nutrition coach, Amanda Wright!

Every week, we will also be meeting online for a small-group Bible study all on Spiritual Discipline! We will dive into the Biblical principles of becoming more disciplined in the areas of: prayer, time management, health and exercise, organization, finances, and our emotions! This group will be on Zoom every week and you will be given a daily Bible study format to follow!

If you are interested in learning more or purchasing the program, you can visit this link HERE. If you have any questions, feel free to reach Amanda directly at amanda@amandawrightfit.com.

Tags brene brown, Eating, embarrassment, empathy, Faith, Fitness, Food, Guilt, humiliation, not good enough, Overeating, shame, shame resilience

Spiritual Health

4 Steps to Shift Out of Shame

Post author By Amanda Wright
Post date July 10, 2015

What is your greatest fear?

“I know everyone spouts statistics about the fear of public speaking and of spiders and all that, but in my 30+ years of experience in working with people from all walks of life, what I have come to learn is the greatest fear that people face today is the fear of losing control.”

These were the words of the famed Rick Warren, Pastor and inspirational author of the super selling, The Purpose Driven Life, as he was delivering a sermon that I regularly listen to on podcast.

For some, it might be the fear of losing their temper and letting their anger take them out of control. For others, it might be losing control over their family or safety and not being able to protect everyone. For yet others, it’s the fear of losing one’s “cool” and allowing their anxiety and nerves to take control.

For me, for the majority of my life, my number one fear has been the fear of losing control over my eating. I genuinely fear not being able to stop eating and letting my cravings rule my life, and of course gaining a ton of weight from it. His words are absolutely true for me.

The thing about our “worst fears” is that they always seem to pull us toward them. Like a magnet, the more we fear doing something, the more likely we are to do it.

So yes, I have struggled with a large appetite for my whole life and yes, especially when it comes to my “trigger foods” which are sugary, rich foods, like desserts, I can spiral out of control pretty fast.

This consequently leads to what I consider one of the most prevalent and worst feelings we can ever feel….SHAME.

I vividly remember the depth of this fear and shame in college as I was on a weekend getaway with my best girlfriends up at one of the girl’s parent’s home in Newport Beach. It was someone’s birthday and they had my number one trigger food out for us to eat…..birthday cake.

So, it started with a few bites with all of us surrounding the cake….

All my friends pulled away after a few bites….but not me.

I would sit down for a little, trying to take a break but all my brain would focus on was more cake. Then as though my legs and hands were acting in complete resistance to what my panicking brain was telling them to do, I would be back up, taking a few more bites.

It was then, that I heard one of my friends whisper, “Why does she keep eating that cake??!”

I. was. mortified. Not only was I already tormenting myself, but on top of it, I now had someone pointing it out!

Having no coping skills at this time, I shut down, stopped talking much. Then after obsessively beating myself up all that night, I got up early before anyone else and went and ran 7 miles on the beach, trying desperately to counteract my shame by “working it off.”

Well, this was over 10 years ago now. So in 10 years, I’ve obviously learned a ton more about the extreme addictive properties of food (sugar has been proven to be more addictive than cocaine!), cravings, and the psychology of eating.

Not to mention, I now have a much greater relationship with God and have SURREND’hered my health and these struggles to Him and have found such a reprieve from my old destructive fears, guilt and shame.

So, I guess I’m healed right? Fear free and shame free? Ha! Yeah. Right.

Just this week offered me another humbling example….

Last week, we were blessed to be in the foodie town of Portland, OR and then onto one of my all-time favorites, London, England and I was on track to having possibly the greatest trip of my life in the fact that I was really focused on living and eating as I always do: Eating nutrient based, getting in great workouts, not stressing about food, getting enough protein, and overall really focused on enjoying the moments and the food I got to experience.

Until 2 little words would cause my greatest fear to rear its ugly little head….”HIGH. TEA.”

High Tea is a wonderful English tradition that includes a 3-tiered plated presentation of deliciousness: little sandwiches, pastries, desserts, and English scones served with clotted cream (a fancy butter) and fresh raspberry preserves. On top of that, after this is all done, they give you a large piece of…..you guesed it…CAKE!

Having had the chance to try it before, I knew I would be indulging in this one meal as my treat meal of the week guilt free, so I planned for it with great success.

The problem was, the vacation was not over that day. The next day, we found ourselves with not much to do in the afternoon and wanted to watch some of the Wimbledon Tennis at the hotel with…another High Tea! Gah, it was so good!

So, I survived two days of my favorite thing ever and was happy to be on a plane home the next day. We had the privilege of getting to fly Virgin Atlantic Airlines for the first time and it was a really cool experience. But just when I was all set to come back to reality of normal eating life….these darling, red-suit wearing and smiling Flight Attendants came at me again with ANOTHER High Tea….on the airplane!! What the whatttt?!

At this point, I was consciously playing the role of the yo-yo dieter, the over eater, the “I’ll get back on track on Monday” girl and I was spiraling down the hole of shame once again. I reverted back to the exact girl I teach my clients to SURREND’her away from and chose True Health.

It is so frustrating to know better and to not be able to do better. As silly as they may sound for anyone that has ever overindulged on a vacation, because I get that all of us have done it, the frustration I felt in myself was deeper because of this great fear that I have—this fear of losing control and overeating. So when I did it again I spiraled down in to the feeling of shame and helplessness.

So at this point, you’re probably wondering, “Well that’s a downer of a story Amanda. You’re telling me that you still struggle with the same fears you’ve always had? In spite of having all this knowledge and in spite of your relationship with God, nothing really changed?”

The answer is, of course not!

In spite of the similar experiences, in spite of the similar emotions and the fears and shame emerging their raging little heads again, I AM definitely different now than I was 10+ years ago.

Because now, even though I can admit that I felt HELPLESS, the difference is I am not HOPELESS.

All the work I’ve been doing to become WISE’her and SURREND’her my health UP did not prevent me from my old destructive ways completely. But, it completely changes my RECOVERY from it.

I took 4 critical steps to change how I processed these feelings and they made all the difference in how I was able to SHIFT OUT OF SHAME.

REST:

My shame wanted me to get up early work off my overeating in a double session at the gym. My shame wanted me to do an all day fast or a juice cleanse to “punish” my body back to healthy eating. Luckily, through prayer, I recognized these negative thoughts as my own and not from God. When I quieted my heart and gave this shame UP, I heard the need for REST to connect better to Him and steer away from doing things “my way.”

Every week we really do need to take a Sabbath day—a full day of rest. This is not a request from God; this is one of His commandments! It is imperative that we take a day to worship Him and rest our minds and bodies. After traveling and working all day on Sunday, my typical Sabbath day, I knew I needed a real Sabbath. So I was obedient to this calling.

I spent the day venting my frustration to Him, crying some, praying a lot, reading a lot, and then napping, walking and recovering.

{I realize working for myself and not having children full-time gives me this luxury, but if you’re caught in the same position where you are deep in some negative emotions like shame, I do suggest these times to be a perfect “personal day” off of work or at least taking 1-2 hours of time to yourself away and with God. Do you best in finding a way to listen to what God desires for you.}
REPENT:

One of the things I’ve come to learn is that God uses PAIN in our life not as punishment but as a pointer to shift our thinking to what is True. The pain I face when I do over eat is tied to the sin that it is. I’m not trying to sugar coat this for myself. But constantly over indulging and treating food as these intense rewards that I lose myself for is gluttony and it is food idolatry.

“When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony. Do not crave his delicacies for that food is deceptive.” (Proverbs 23: 1-2 NLT).

In spite of my sin, I realized God was not shaming me for my wrong, I was shaming myself–an incredibly important distinction. It was not God that caused my shame; that is not how God works. God is ever loving and ever giving of Light of Peace and Love. God will give us Conviction of our wrongs, but we make it into shame and distance ourselves from God as we do this. God hates the sin but never hates the sinner.

Confessing this to God and praying for forgiveness and believing, in Faith, that God will forgive these sins was the key to me being able to turn back to God and move forward, walking in His Light again.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9 NIV)

REACH OUT:

If it appears that I was naturally able to rise above the pit of shame I found myself in, I can assure you I was not. Shame is a heavy cloud that envelops one’s soul without recoil. So many of us have lived in shame for our whole lives, sometimes caused by others without our conscious consent. Giving this emotion a name, giving it awareness, was key in overcoming the negative emotion. But then I needed someone to help me too.

So, I reached out to my prayer partner and one of my best friends, Jennifer, for our weekly call. It is invaluable to have just one person we can be vulnerable with, that we can talk about our deepest fears and needs and they will not just console us, but to remind us of God’s love and pray for us.

Jennifer at first kinda laughed and knew the “guilt” of overeating that we all can have, especially on vacation. But as I explained the depth of the shame that can wave over me from these acts, she listened sincerely.

Then she said, “I understand completely. But remember, you have prayed for forgiveness and God has granted it for you and He has wiped it clean. You must now walk in that forgiveness and move forward.”

Simple, yet, so profound. So often we will feel the trap of our shame that just keeps us dwelling on the guilt for so long. Yet, God promises to forget our sins, “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Heb 8:12). I needed that reminder from Jennifer to help me move forward in that moment.

Find that person, your person, that you can trust that when you reach out, they will help you stand and walk out of your shame. If you are having a hard time finding that person to trust for you, try to be that person for someone else first. Helping others can be an incredible way to help yourself. Over time, you teach them how to reciprocate.

REFOCUS:

As I needed to walk out of my shame, I needed to refocus my heart and my attention on “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (Phil 4: 8-9 NIV).

So, I took the time to refocus away from the shame onto my fruits of the Spirit that God promises us. I listed out all 9 fruits and wrote out all the ways that I feel and show those emotions. This reminded me that I was Good and I was a child of God.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22 NIV)

From this refocused position, I became the real me again.

Shame is not who we are, no matter how long we may have suffered in its existence. Some things we have done in our life might cause a sense of shame that runs much deeper than something as trivial, even though it is serious for me, as overeating. But these four steps can be your way to SHIFT out of any SHAME. There is not allotted time limit it might take you, but work through each step fervently, giving yourself as much grace and love as possible, and sure even, you’ll SHIFT out of your SHAME too!

Tags cravings, fear, Food, forgiveness, God, nutrition, Overeating, reach out, refocus, repent, rest, shame, shift, travel

Food & Nutrition Goal Development Health Coaching Spiritual Health Uncategorized

7-Steps to Conquer Emotional Eating (Part 2)

Post author By Amanda Wright
Post date April 30, 2015

“I’m not hungry but I really need something sweet right now. Well now that I’ve had one bite how about another bite…. and then….ok just one more.”

This is essentially my inner monologue several times per week. I am thinking these thoughts usually in the evening, after I’ve had a healthy dinner, my body feels satisfied, and I could easily go to bed content.

But, I don’t.

Why? Because usually at that time, I also have this little nagging feeling in my head, mouth and stomach. As though there is this little creature that is screaming “I need something sweet! I need a treat!” Sure enough, I wind up in our pantry munching just for the sake of munching. I’ve learned to have healthy sweet treats on hand, thankfully, but when we are away from home, forget about it! I get myself into some precarious, overeating situations quickly!

I know I’m not alone with this little creature in my head. For me it’s all about the sweets. For you, it might be salty/crunchy variety. But we can all easily suffer from CRAVINGS for food that is not about hunger at all.

Yesterday, I wrote about reading a very relatable book called, ‘Made to Crave’ by Lysa TerKeurst, where she wrote about her journey of trying to refocus her Cravings to God instead of the junk food she felt controlled by.

Her book and scriptures prompted me to take a deeper dive into what the bible actually has to say about food and cravings too! Surprisingly there was a lot! It made me feel more “normal” knowing that if God uses food as an example in the Bible, then I’m not the only one out there exploiting and idolizing the role of food in my life. It also gave me Hope because it gave me some scriptural places that I should be focusing my attention and cravings:

The Word of God
His will for my life (i.e. My Greater Purpose).

This begs the question, however, how do we apply this to our every day life? How do we actually take such a challenge and convert it into applicable, every day ACTION toward lasting success?

For me, the answer is easy because I’m going to use the same strategy I implement for ALL changes I want to make in my health and in my life.

Make a goal out of it.

Not just any goal, mind you. No, as a woman of Faith, I know that this kind of challenge (which clearly has some Spiritual depth to it) means I need to make this a SURREND’hered goal!

I will use my 7-Steps to SURREND’hered Goal Development that I will use to effectively plan and implement this new way of health to defeat my affinity toward emotional and overeating.

I recently offered an 8-day workshop explaining all 7-Steps to SURREND’hered Goals to an amazing group of individuals that included daily emails, examples, resources and videos of me explaining each step. Sorry if you missed it!

Lucky for you, however, because I have actually turned all 7-Steps into an Ebook that I am now offering for FREE to all email subscribers. The book includes an in-depth look at all 7-steps to succeed in any goal, a list of books and references, PLUS a bonus of my fillable forms and charts that will help you effectively plan your own success! You’ll see more of those is this very article.

Click this link to receive your FREE copy of this Ebook here!

My 7-Steps to SURREND’hered Goal Development are:

So, while you get the full in-depth explanation of all of these 7-Steps in my Ebook, I wanted to offer a living example of these 7-Steps to SURREND’hered Goals as they apply to this goal I have of overcoming my emotional and overeating!

Step 1: SURREND’her It:

As I explain in my ebook, this step is all about offering my goal as a living sacrifice to God. This is recognizing that I will need to depend wholly on God’s strength to actually be able to conquer this dream. To effectively practice this art of SURREND’hering I know I will need to do both PLANNING + PRAYER. From one of my favorite books, The Circle Maker, by Mark Batterson, I have to do as he advises:

“Plan like it depends on me, but Pray like it depends on God.”

Also, even the Bible reinforces that to achieve any dream there is much activity required.

“A dream comes through much activity, and a fool’s voice in known by his many words.” Ecclesiastics 5:3

So, I’m not going to be “all talk,” or even “all prayer”, I am going to make a plan and put it into action!

Step 2: DREAM It!

As I also explain, while I say my goal is to “not overeat or be an emotional eater” I know that this is not actually how I am to phrase my goal. Nope, my goal needs to be AUDACIOUS, S.M.A.R.T., stated in the POSITIVE and PROACTIVE tense, and is BALANCED to include not just BODY goals but also MINDSET and SPIRITUAL goals too! (You’ll have to read up to know what all of these rules mean!)

So my dream is actually:

To go 6-months straight of emotionally disconnecting from my food, intentionally “eating to live,” only eating until I’m 80% full, planning and eating on a timed schedule, and use the act of eating to draw me closer with God, my Greater Purpose and His Word. I will measure my success by body measurements as well as journaling/emotional comparisons.”

You can see that my above dream is measured and includes BODY, MIND and SPIRITUAL aspects to conquering this dream.

Step 3: DIVIDE It!

As you’ll see, again, in the ebook the purpose of DIVIDING your ultimate goal is to create short-term “Phases” of goals that you focus on. This will help not only help avoid the feeling of “overwhelm” by such an audacious goal, but it will also provide opportunity for the very important REST periods and CELEBRATIONS after I accomplish each Phase Goal.

For this ultimate goal, I will divide all 6-Months up into 6 Phases:

Phase 1 (Month 1): For 70% of the first 30 days of “eating to live,” only eating until I’m 80% full and eating on the planned schedule, and journaling and praying for each meal.

(*note* this will be broken down into “Mini-Goals” for this first Phase as is covered in the ebook)