I recently came across the most beautiful quote from one of my favourite authors, Geneen Roth, and I wanted to share it with you.

What do you want? Because if you’re going to stop at five on the hunger scale, instead of going over to seven, there has to be something you want more than those couple of more bites of food. You want to be in your power. You want to be in the center of your own life. Geneen Roth

I’ve been reading her stuff for years, and continually go back to it again and again, each time gleaning something else from it. I’ve only recently begun to truly understand her well-written and poignant advice, and this time is no different.

Her words to me mean this: Every time you eat when you aren’t hungry, you are letting that moment define you. You are letting food take the place of your life, however messy your life is. If you want to escape, you have to find what you truly wanted beyond calming in that moment. You need to revel in life’s messiness. It takes courage, conviction and desperate wanting to be yourself.

In order to go beyond that moment, of the food and you, you must make an active choice. I find the easiest way of doing this is by arming yourself with a list of things that you desperately want to feel more than the relief/comfort or whatever food gives you.

Things I want more than food:

  • To feel free
  • To not be anxious
  • To take pleasure in eating what I like
  • To be here in this moment, every moment

Every time you want to eat when you are not hungry, come back to this list. When you want something fiercely, more than food, food ceases to have control. For me, I ask “Is this extra mouthful worth giving away my power for?”. Often, the answer is no. But if I eat anyway, that’s also okay.

Every day this journey is easier. I promise it will feel the same for you.