Emotional Control & Junk Food
Article Round-Up: 10.8.23
Enjoy this week’s curated round-up of articles, podcasts, and more from the web to help you live a healthier, happier life.
Featured Thoughts: Emotional Awareness
“20 Sentences That Will Give You More Emotional Control Than 95% of People”
Takeaway: You have two brains:
One is passionate. Impulsive. Emotional.
The other is calm. Strategic. Rational.
When you’re locked into the first brain, you make poorer choices. Bad decisions come from not having emotional control.
Emotional control is one of the most important skills you can develop.
This skill will improve your career, your finances, your health, and your relationships.
Emotional control begins with becoming aware of how you’re feeling in a difficult moment.
Then, once you’re aware of the emotions you’re feeling, you need to create emotional distance to get into a better frame of mind. How do you do this?
Time.
Create a scenario where you have time for the emotion to subside.
Here are some examples:
If you’re prone to emotional eating, keeping foods out of the house that you normally turn to in these moments. Now you have to leave the house (or order) the food you’d normally use to cope. That gives you more time to process emotions.
You need to have a difficult conversation with someone in your life. Instead of pursuing the topic in the heat of an emotional moment, put it off a day and give yourself time to calm down.
You’re feeling anxious about a problem. You can create emotional distance by asking, “what advice would I give to a friend in this situation?”
Control your emotions, control your future.
*P.S. I am hosting a group of individuals to help learn some of these skills (and more) inside of my Mindset Makeover 5-Week Challenge. If you complete the challenge it’s free. We begin October 16th, 2023. This is the only time I’ll pitch this to you, but if you want in reply to this email and I’ll be in touch with more details.
Published This Week:
“The Food Freedom Framework: Eliminate Food Anxiety, Get Better Results, & Have More Fun” [Podcast]
Takeaway: In this episode, you’re going to hear the full breakdown of our Food Freedom Framework, recorded live from a seminar hosted in Ann Arbor, MI on June 3, 2023.
I walk you, step-by-step, through each layer of our nutrition plan that will give you back your freedom to enjoy the foods you love, spend time with your loved ones, and reduce anxiety associated with weight gain and food guilt.
If you feel stuck in your weight loss journey, like you’re spinning your wheels with no results, then this episode is for you.
“How To Eat Junk Food: A Guide For Conflicted Humans”
Takeaway: This article challenges the idea of completely avoiding "junk foods" and argues that enjoying them can have benefits. It suggests three reasons to embrace junk food: most people will eat it anyway, it won't necessarily hinder your health goals, and reasonable amounts can actually boost aspects of overall health. You’ll also read about a 5-step process for intentional and mindful consumption of junk food.
Reader Question:
What can I do to prevent or minimize weight loss plateaus and keep my progress steady?
The Navy Seals have a saying that goes, “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.”
As you might imagine, Navy Seal deal with complex, dangerous situations. Lives are often at stake, so fumbling part of an operation can have catastrophic consequences.
The last thing a Seal team wants is for someone to mess up their job because they’re rushing.
Instead, they train seal team members to do the exact opposite of what you expect: they teach them to slow down.
Slowing down gives them time to process what’s happening, focus on their job, and execute with near perfection. Going slower allows them to be smoother. That smoothness is better than a fumbled job where you’re suddenly playing catch up.
This same principle can be applied to your weight loss goals.
If you want to avoid plateaus and ensure consistent progress, slow it down.
Most people make the mistake of cutting too many calories from their diet, too soon. It leaves them hungry, lethargic, and miserable.
Without question, that leads to binge-like eating behaviors, cheating on your diet, or giving up altogether—only to be left starting over from zero.
If you try to go too fast, you end up going nowhere.
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
Focus on slower, but more sustainable, weight loss. This will lead to seeing consistent progress from week to week.
Although it might be slower, each small loss will compound over time to lead to big transformations down the road.
P.S. Want to learn our framework for sustainable, consistent results? Click here to watch my free nutrition training.