Once you decide to label a lot more of your food as being unimportant, you may have to replace it with something else.
Take out a piece of paper and write the numbers from 1 to 10 down the side of the page.
Then write the word “food” in the first slot—number one on your list of important things.
Now come up with nine more items including people, things, or events in life that are very important to you. You might add your kids, your job, or your health to the list.
Once you have a total of ten items, erase or scratch the word “food” off the number one spot. Then move it to the bottom of the list and label it as number 11.
In the empty slot next to number one, write a new item. Now review your list again and think about how you could give more attention to all of the non-food items that you labeled as important.
In a delightful book called Passion, author Barbara DeAngelis recommends selecting one area of life in which you’d like to feel more passion—perhaps your marriage, your job, or your emotional or spiritual growth.
She suggests that for one entire day, you simply deepen your commitment to this area, expressing this through your words and behavior. By the end of the day, you’ll find you feel a lot more passionate and committed to that person or issue.
When you increase your commitment to these important things, you’ll find you can replace food in your life a lot more easily.
Today’s assignment (my answers are in blue)
1. From the list you made earlier, write your new number one item below as well as on a piece of paper or sticky note.
Playing the piano
2. Deepen your commitment to this item. Spend time thinking, doing, or in some other way, focusing on that item, person, or activity. Assign it a very high priority, making it far more important than food. Write down your plans for this.
Get out my music books, spend at least 5 minutes every day at the piano. Use my music for nurturing as well as stress relief.
3. At the end of the day, write a few notes about how you now feel about that item or person. Over time, do this with the rest of your list.
I love my piano, and how music makes me feel. Yet sometimes, I go months without sitting down to play the piano. I’m going to deepen my commitment to it, and make it a high priority each evening instead of looking for something to eat.
Excerpted from Day 46 in the book 100 Days of Weight Loss