Why Willpower Won’t Solve Overeating

It is impossible to will yourself to stop overeating, so stop beating yourself up when you can’t do that. You’ll stop overeating when you work through the emotional root causes.

I was watching a video the other day where a lady was recording a sort of note to her future self. She was embarking on a diet and weight loss plan and wanted to remind her future self not to go back to overeating.

She was saying, "You MUST not return to overeating. You CAN'T. Look at what it's done to you. You CANNOT ever do this again, you can't ever go back to this place. So if you want to eat bad food, just DON'T. You MUST NOT."

My heart went out to her because I've been in this place and so many people are. But the truth is, it's a harsh way to treat ourselves and it's also not a strategy that works.

You can't just will yourself to stop overeating. You can't wish yourself into not going back to junk food.

You can't hope that you won't and hope hard enough that it'll work.

Indeed, you CAN stop overeating.

But it never happens through willing ourselves, scolding ourselves, or scaring ourselves. It never happens through wishing or hoping.

It only happens through working through the root causes of why you overeat, which have only to do with your emotions and your beliefs. It is an emotional process, not a mental or intellectual one.

When you do that, you can absolutely heal overeating, heal junk food addiction, lose the weight and never gain it back. You can have peace and freedom with food, once and for all.

But please stop beating yourself up for not being able to will yourself to stop. None of us have been able to do that, myself included.

Photo by Reba Spike via Unsplash