Why you overeat

Why do you overeat?

The answer is simple: because you want to feel good.There are other factor that have nothing to do with you; they will be addressed in an other article. For now let's look at your part.

Maybe you were in pain, and eating took the pain away (at least for a while), or maybe you were okay, it’s just that eating made you feel better, maybe even really good.

Congratulations, you’re normal and healthy.

Wanting to feel good is a sign of good health, and you learned real quickly that overeating makes you feel good.

At least for a brief moment, or at least it used to. And be honest, it still has its benefits, doesn’t it?

But if you’re really honest, it costs too much. Doesn’t it?

What happened? And why not just stop?

It’s as if we have two brains, the upper rational, thinking brain, and the base, reactive brain (the limbic system). The base brain drives you to seek pleasure and avoid pain. It’s the part of your brain that drives you to eat, reproduce, fight or flee. It’s a wonderful machine, and it is very good at keeping us alive. It is the brain that never sleeps, the brain that to keep us breathing all night long, and the brain that monitors your heart and keeps it going at the correct rate day and night.

As wonderful as it is, the base brain has its shortcomings. It demands instant gratification. "Food now! Sex now! Feel good now!" This part of the brain is totally incapable of logically thinking about the long-term consequences of overeating. Also, this part of the brain is easily confused, so that it can’t tell the difference between those things that are, or were pleasurable and those that are necessary for survival. To it, everything is a need. To the base brain overeating is a need as much as healthy eating; and it’s all mixed up with legitimate needs, such as survival, security, acceptance and love.

This isn’t to say it is your base brain that makes you overeat. It’s not something in your past, in your genes, your brain, or in your personality that makes you overeat. These are factors, no doubt, but ultimately overeating is voluntary, purposeful behavior. The reason you overeat is because, up until now, you have wanted to more than you want to stop, and most likely, you have never learned to do without overeating.

But that was then, and now is the time to learn to do without overeating, and a new way of relating to your base brain that’s driving you to overeat.

Are you ready?