Willpower vs Confidence I posted a picture in my stories of some food I was eating the other day and I got this message from an Instagram follower simply saying “willpower” And I replied “never! Confidence” And it got me thinking about the difference between these two when it comes to weight loss My name is Hayley Sohn, I am a nutritionist and brain training weight loss coach specializing in helping women lose 30lbs in 90 days without dieting by eliminating emotional and stress eating. Work with me: basicallyitmeals.com I used to use willpower. Every morning i would wake up and tell myself Today is the day i have enough willpower to not want to eat handfuls of cereal out of the box To not overeat dinner To not snack until i felt sick and it was time for bed I would make a ridiculous diet plan for myself And then 3pm would roll around I would be exhausted from the day Hungry from my diet and i didn’t know how to handle it I believed i had no control over my desire to eat other than just “trying not to eat” and i would tell myself that- i have to try not to eat all the crap But trying wasn’t enough Telling myself i wanted to but i can’t wasn’t enough Telling myself it was gross, it was bad, it just never was enough Ultimately i still wanted to eat all the time, i was still thinking about food all the time Willpower for weight loss This is our go to…why? Two big reasons Becasue its what we are told we need Because we lack belief in our ability to not want to eat something C T: I have to use every ounce of willpower i have to not want to eat this food, i can’t not want to eat, i want to eat it but i can’t F: willpower A: think about food all the time, tell yourself you wont eat it, make up diets excluding foods, skip social events R: you still want to eat the food The results of using willpower You still want to eat the food Sometimes you might not eat it, but ultimately you always feel like you want to If you dont eat it, if you drop weight, you ultimately cant keep it up You feel out of control You never feel like you are in control of your desire to eat or your weight You never learn to not desire food! Food will always be the only thing that can help you in the way it is helping you now Help you unwind, disconnect Help yuo destress Help you with anxiety Be the thing you love to have on the couch after your kids go to bed Be the thing you obsess over Essentially, you are always going to have the same relationship with food that you do now Confidence for weight loss When i realized there was an alternative to using willpower to lose weight i began to focus on building my confidence around food What this looks like C T: i want to feel confident around food, here are the areas where i already feel confident around food, this is a huge reason i believe i can feel confident around food, feeling confident around food is possible for me T: now its- you can put any food in front of me and i am in complete control of if i eat it or not, i don’t desire foods i don’t want to desire, i never overeat, i don’t eat if im not hungry F: confidence A: don’t overeat, don’t eat when not hungry, don’t think about food when im not about to eat, i easily listen to my body signals and eat only for that R: i can weigh what i want with ease, i know that how i feel about food and around food are within my control I now have a completely different relationship with food than i did before This picture of some tempting food that i previously would have had to use willpower to get through was not like that for me at all. I was enjoying time with my family, there happened to be food there. I wasn’t thinking about it, worrying, obsessing, counting, i was just there enjoying