Your Internal Feelings about Food and Weight

This exercise is designed to help you turn back the clock and get to the heart of why you overeat. Get a pen and some paper and write down your answers to the questions below. 1. When did you start using food for non-nutritional reasons? Why was it that you started medicating yourself with food, taking care of yourself with food and comforting yourself with food? Go back to that time and write down what you were feeling and experiencing at the time. 2. Write down all of the insecurities that you're feeling right now. 3. Now look at your answers to question one and question two together. The answers to question two may be more specific because you don't have to remember as far back, but do you see similarities? 4. Now take every comment, fear and anxiety that you wrote down in response to questions one and two and challenge them. In writing. For example, if one of your fears is, "My spouse isn't really attracted to me because of my weight," challenge it by writing down a piece of evidence. Evidence isn't, "Because that's the way I feel." Write down any facts you have that can support your challenge. For example, "My spouse met, fell in love with, and married me while I was at my heaviest weight." Challenge every fear and negative thought you wrote down in this manner with facts you can support.