Do you every wonder why you do really well with healthy food choices for a specific period of time, only to slide back into old patterns?

Consider this - Survival trumps good intentions. Every. single. time.

It all has to do with human behaviour and our limbic, or reptile brain.

And any stress in our lives puts us directly into our reptile brain and survival mode.

If you've learned to manage stress with food, (or alcohol, or material things), you will continue to do so until you untangle this unconscious coupling and learn to manage it in healthier ways.

The diet won't work.
You'll fall off the wagon.
Credit card debt will keep accumulating.

This is why we self-sabotage. Our need for immediate survival will always hijack our best laid plans.

I remember a period of time in my life where I was night-snacking almost uncontrollably. I knew what I was doing wasn't helping me, yet I felt compelled to do it anyway. I even only had "healthy snacks" in the house. But in the end that just justified my behaviour.

The first step through this messy terrain is awareness. If you are not aware of your eating patterns, and what might be triggering them you will never be able to change them.

Then you can start investigating the emotions around them. Get curious about what they might be trying to teach you. 

Not exactly comfortable. But neither is carrying around twenty extra pounds, numbing out the joy in your life, or wasting your hard-earned money.

In my Healthy Body, Healthy Mind workshop we start to investigate some of these hidden emotions. If this interests you make sure you are subscribed to Doctor as Teacher Tuesday and look for an invite later this fall.

Now I would love to hear from you! What is one thing you are doing to self-sabotage? Leave a comment below and I'll be back next week with another edition of Doctor as Teacher Tuesday!