WHY?

Self knowledge is a term I use to make people think about themselves. Understanding our body and our mind is critical in how we approach both weight loss and change in lifestyle. Because so many of us become unhealthy and overweight because of our
perception with regards to food, and ideas about how our body handles food, knowing what goes on in our head before we eat, in our body while we eat, and in our organs, lean tissue, and bones after we eat is vital to success.
Let's begin by examining what we think of when we eat. Very few of us start off this journey by analyzing why we feel the need to shove food in our mouths. We just do! Unlike drugs, gambling, alcohol, and many other forms of addiction it's a socially acceptable way to compensate for our mental and physical issues. Eating can, in fact, kick off certain receptors in the brain, for instance, chocolate has been seen to affect mood in numerous studied done, a simple web search on chocolate and mood can confirm study results on the subject. But this aspect of food is only part of the equation. Other aspects of food and overeating is the concept of comfort associated with food. For many children and adults, food is their only way to hide from abuse and stress. Eating is recognized as a coping mechanism. I cannot stress how important it is for you as an adult to take the steps needed to find out why you eat. Because trying to change your eating habits without finding the root cause of them is like treating an oil leak in your car by continually adding more oil, it may remedy the situation short term, but the problem is still there. For all you big strong men out there that don't like to delve into emotions, get over yourself, strong men are men that have faced up to their internal issues and dealt with them, not men who have pushed their feeling down so deep that they manifest as hatred, bigotry, anger, stress, and a whole host of other issues (like unhealthy eating habits).
The question becomes, how does someone figure out what their issues are; and what the heck do you do with this knowledge once you think you know what the issues are? Well, that's not an easy question to answer, and there are whole career paths that focus on this type of issue, so I won't try to answer that question in full for you. What I can tell you is how to begin, and hopefully start identifying the obvious issues, and maybe clue yourself in to the possibility of deeper issues that you can explore with family, friends, or professional help. The good news with regards to this topic is that you don't necessarily need to solve all your problems in order to start becoming healthy. Identification of an issue, or even just the hint of an answer can be so freeing and motivating, that you may find yourself able to lose the weight with little or no other help. Of course for many of us, just identifying the need for resolution doesn't spell victory.