Stop making the hard thing harder

Day in and day out I work with clients who have long struggled to lose weight. They feel that there is something wrong with them because they see success in others but can’t find it for themselves. Yet the biggest obstacles they face are often out there by themselves.

We’ve all heard the phrase “make the hard thing easy”. But what does that mean? In nutrition counseling we focus on strategy first. Environment is the biggest influence on our behaviors in the moment and our first priority should be to control it the best we can. This includes identifying potential triggers, be them foods or events or situations. If we can remove these triggers we can help to develop a better environment for change. We’ve made change, which is the hard thing, easier.

Yet the biggest barrier to change for so many is themselves. Refusal to remove trigger foods, avoiding self care that can mitigate emotional dysregulation around events or relationships, capitulating to others’ food choice. The decision to engage in a behavior that is antithetical to our goals happens long before we take that bite. Yet we act surprised that we “couldn’t control ourselves”.

I get it. I don’t do well with certain foods. For me all ice cream is served in single serving containers, be it a scoop or a gallon. Oreos? Forget about it. I can’t even keep peanut butter in the house. So I don’t. I don’t stand in front of a speeding train and then act shocked when the train had the audacity to hit me. Yet that’s how most of us act when we overeat. Like it was some act out of our control.

Controlling our emotions in the moment is difficult and requires consistent work and skills. So until you have a handle on emotion regulation why would you continue to test yourself? Why would you continue to set yourself up for failure? Control your environment first. Make the hard thing easy.