Ep 140: GREATEST HITS - How I Did it, Part 3 - Over Desire
06/30/24 | 19:49 | Episode 140
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Audible | Amazon | iHeart
This is part three of a four part series of how I lost 30 lbs and kept it off for nearly five years now.
Today on the podcast we are talking about the third problem that needed to be solved in order for me to lose weight, without dieting, for good and that is the problem of Over Desire.
I define over desire as either experiencing strong cravings for certain foods and/or constantly thinking– or obsessing, really– about food. When we experience these strong cravings– for me it used to be for ice cream, or nachos, or corn tortilla quesadillas– not just one, btw– or wine– we feel like these foods have power over us. We feel powerless to resist. It’s the feeling of the brownies calling to you from the kitchen, or your kids french fries taunting you from his plate. You think of nothing else while your choking down your salad except for how badly you want to eat his fries and how you “shouldn’t”. THAT is overdesire. It is the miserable preoccupation with so-called tempting, forbidden foods.
Here’s how we typically try to solve the problem of over desire: we try to use willpower, discipline, and resistance to conquer it.
We wake up every day and put on a suit of armor, ready to head into battle with sinful sugary treats, wicked buttery carbs, and tantalizing bottles of wine.
Guess what, I don’t need to tell you this but I’m gonna– war is exhausting. Battle is depleting. And no one can keep it up for a lifetime.
Because when you’re battling such a powerful desire, you’re destined to lose due to exhaustion.
And I have good news for you– you don’t need it. It doesn’t work anyway! But you really don’t need it.
There is a reason you’re experiencing over desire– and no, it’s not because you're inherently flawed or there is something wrong with you.
When we eat any food, we get a neurological response in our brain in the form of a dopamine.
Dopamine is a feel-good neurotransmitter released in your brain to signal that whatever you just did was good! This is our body’s way of keeping us alive.
When we eat highly processed foods such as mass-produced breads, cookies, chips, cakes, ice cream, etc. our brains release higher levels of dopamine than if we eat, say, a salad.
So having a strong dopamine response will keep you CRAVING that food.
And highly processed foods will give you a strong dopamine response.
That means when you eat highly processed foods you’ll get a big dopamine hit, and when you get a big dopamine spike, you’ll desire that food even more.
It’s a vicious cycle.
The more I ate it, the more I wanted it.
AND, the inverse is true: the less I ate it, the less I wanted it.
Understanding how our over desire is driving the perpetual, miserable cycle of overeating foods that sabotage our goals was a massive step in changing my habits with food– but without willpower.
I learned that the less I ate these foods, the less I wanted them and therefore my desire decreased to minimal, manageable levels. Once you decrease your desire you can relax and feel freedom around food.
In my 90 Days to Food Freedom program I take my clients step by step through the process of dismantling their over desire and what they are constantly mind-blown just like I was that this is even a thing… that this is even possible.
But it is. It was possible for me and it’s possible for you.
If you want to learn more head over to liapinelli.com and book a call with me so we can have a conversation to see if I can help you like I've helped countless other women just like you.
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