Instant Gratification: The Double-edged Sword of Weight Loss

One of the problems when you're an emotional eater, binge eater, and/or yo-yo dieter is that food can become your "fix" to help you get through the day.

Food gives you the instant gratification, just like a drug, especially if you have a sugar addiction. Certain foods can be highly addictive because with the high sugar content, high sodium content, and other ingredients which keep you eating more and more and more.... those foods literally change your body chemistry when you eat them, giving you a "high" or a "boost" because of the chemical hit you get.

I understand how addictive sugar can be! I 100% understand but this instant gratification hit from food becomes highly problematic when you want to lose weight. You see, another problem in all of this is that weight loss does not provide any instant gratification.

They Tried to Get Instant Gratification from Weight Loss

I've had weight loss coaching clients over the years (I've been a professional weight loss coach since 2009) who did try to get instant gratification from their weight loss and they way they would do that was to weigh themselves every day. But this creates another problem because weight loss takes time, weight loss only occurs over time, and you can't possibly have a daily weight loss on the scale unless you're starting out on your weight loss journey weighing 600 lbs or more, but even then you really can't expect to see a daily weight loss.

A healthy weight loss is a loss of one to two pounds per week. If you're trying to get instant gratification from weight loss what happens when you don't get it? What happens when you slide back into old eating habits which do give you the instant gratification from the chemical hit the unhealthy food choices can give you?

How do you ever end up reaching your weight loss goal when you're trying to get the instant gratification hits from weight loss?

Get my clean-eating cake recipe here (it's Free!). Use this recipe to avoid feeling restricted while losing weight. You'll love it!

Instant Gratification: The Double-edged Sword of Weight Loss [Podcast #179]

If you want to lose weight successfully beware of the instant gratification issue because you won't be able to get that weight off if you constantly give in to the urge for instant gratification from food.

It's very very easy to give in because food is easy! Food doesn't talk back and food is easy to get. But habits are built quickly and if you don't establish healthy habits over a longer time period than the number of years you've been struggling with your eating then it's too easy to slide right back into the old groove of unhealthy choices and unhealthy eating.

I've been there before too.

So how can you break free of the instant gratification trap? One thing you can do is journal. I spoke about this during this free weight loss podcast episode and you can be even more successful in moving past the instant gratification trap by using my prompted 21-day journal for emotional eaters here. My journal for emotional eaters will give you structure and power to your journaling that you won't get by journaling on your own in a "freeform" fashion.

Get my free ebook to start learning more about the critical importance of the mind-body connection in weight loss.

HINT: If you don't heal the emotional connection you have with food, how will you ever break free?

Click here to nab it now.

In this episode of The JoLynn Braley Show you'll discover:

Why instant gratification in weight loss is a double-edged sword

How important your mindset is if you truly wish to change and lose weight for good

A journaling trick you can play with yourself to work with your urges to emotionally eat and eat for instant gratification from food rather than investing the time to see it through to your weight loss goal weight.

Click the play button below to start listening to listen in now and get my...