O U R D A I L Y B I T E -====== Relief from the Food Pushers

I know a healthy, trim fellow who believes he needs to lose some
weight. He claims his doctor told him to lose 20 lbs., and he is
making an effort to break his sugar habit. This fellow routinely
eats well all day but loses control at night, a fairly common
pattern.

At an office luncheon when dessert was being served, he said, "No
thanks, I don't want any." A well meaning co-worker then foisted
dessert on him anyway, shoving it in front of him and saying,
"You're doctor is wrong, have some," leaving him now staring at the
dessert, looking sadly around at the rest of us happily eating.

The well meaning person is not out to sabotage you, but is
remembering the last time she said no when she wanted to say yes.
She wished someone would have made the choice for her, and given her
the dessert, so she is now she's doing you the favor. She is wrong,
but there it is. Devise a plan in advance for dealing with this
situation.

First, if you do want some, have some, enjoy it and move on with
your life. It is not a big deal to have a dessert, even if you're
already over full. It's your choice, but back to our dilemma, when
someone else tries to make that choice for you.

If you're making an effort to make better choices, choosing to eat
only foods that really appeal to you, learning to say no when you
just don't want any, you can tell the food pusher, "No, thanks, I'm
feeling a little queasy," or "I think I'm having an allergic
reaction to something I ate, my skin feels funny," or "I can't eat
another bite," and then when they push the food in front of you,
just pretend it is made of plastic, like the display in a Chinese
restaurant. It's not meant to be eaten, just admired.

Why do we need to resort to trickery to make our own food choices?
Because food pushers are not going to accept your arguments, no
matter how well you state your case, so don't bother fighting a
battle you can't win. You can't change other people, you can only
change yourself.

Remember the next time you feel the urge to push food on someone,
food means love in our society, but choice means more.

If you've got ideas for dealing with food pushers, please send them.

EFT ideas:

If you feel like the issue is caused by someone else, the food
pusher in this example, then your efforts at using EFT to change
yourself aren't likely to have much effect, or are they? What if you
considered the feelings and emotions that come up when you aren't
allowed to make your o.wn choices. Is it anger, annoyance, or
something else?

If you know in advance these things are likely to occur, you can
preempt some of the emotional sting by using a round or more of EFT
such as:

"Even though I know my mother will try to get me to eat more than I
want, I deeply and completely accept myself, and I accept her as
well."

"Even though I know I'll give in and eat when food is being pushed
in my face, I deeply and completely accept myself anyway."

"Even though I wish people would just leave me alone and let me eat
what I want, I deeply and completely accept myself and forgive them
for being so idiotic."

This is a good time of year to start working on this because the
plates of goodies are starting to show up. Practice and let me
know if this helps you with the food pushers in your life.

Until next time, eat well, be happy, enjoy life,
Kathryn Martyn, M.NLP