Are you currently eating due to boredom or stress? Why is it that when you are in certain moods or emotional states you make poor choices?
The Elephant
We call this the elephant/rider analogy. Imagine the elephant is your emotions and it is walking along a clearly marked path which represents your roadmap to achieving your health & fitness goals.
If the elephant is hungry it will veer off the path and go and eat (irrational choices – Like that £1 chocolate bar when paying for fuel).
If the elephant is thirsty it will veer off the path and have a drink. This could be an alcoholic drink to destress in the evenings following a hard day or a sugary drink when popping into the shop on the way home.
The point is the elephant within you is not conscious of your health & fitness goals. It has no sound logic when making decisions and acts purely irrationally on emotions, causing you to move further away from your health & fitness goals (Veer off the path).
Think about it? When you are stressed, tired, or have no routine or structure do you pick the healthy balanced option? My guess is you don’t because I don’t either! Yet most people know that a balanced and varied diet of proteins, carbohydrates and fats has a positive impact on their health and fitness goals.
The Rider
Everyone has the ‘rider’ within them containing the knowledge to progress towards your health & fitness goals. The information we have learnt over a lifetime – Reduce sugar intake, eat your fruit and veg…the list goes on.
So the big question is how do we act more consistently on logical and healthy habits (listen to the rider within you)? Simple, introduce a coach/mentor.
The coach/mentors role is to show the rider (you) what healthy habits you already have. We refer to this as the low hanging fruit. Habits that already exist that we can highlight (bright spots) and build on (habit stacking), ensuring the rider finds the tasks more manageable and is more likely to succeed.
The Coach
Having a coach also means extra accountability, access to tools and resources to support your specific needs, peer support with other like minded individuals with similar health & fitness goals to share the burden and keep you inspired and so much more. They are someone that will share the responsibility of your success. Someone that you can rely on when emotions take over (the elephant) and guide you back onto the path! They provide clarity, focus and most importantly accountability.
So what are you going to do? Keep letting the elephant make the decisions? Or find a coach to get your rider back in the seat and build sustainable and healthy habits.
If you’re not sure where to start then we are offering a FREE nutrition seminar on boredom and stress eating on Thursday 27th May 20:00-20:30. Covering how to build sustainable habit based approaches for boredom and stress eating.
HERE TO HELP
Want to find out more about how we can help? You can book a Free Intro where you will meet a friendly coach, build a custom plan aligned to your goals and budget to change your life for the better! Book on the button below.
Our mission is to help first! Why not check out one of our previous blogs below:
In Health
Adam
Head Coach & Owner