(This video is recorded from a YouTube LIVE session)
data-animation-override>
“When you are having a fat attack, this is a signal that something else is going on that is upsetting you.”
Y’all know the feeling… when you wake up…
and you feel like you’ve just gained twenty pounds overnight.
That’s what we like to call the Fat attack…
“A fat attack is different from generally feeling bad about your weight. It comes on rather suddenly and is very intense.” -Anita Johnston
It is not based on reality, even though the feelings that is generates are very real.
So we think that it’s about our bodies. We start thinking about what we’ve been eating. How we haven’t had enough self control. We start replaying our past few weeks. All the drinks we drank, the cake we ate, the workouts we didn’t do… we start searching for proof to blame ourselves for our bad behavior and then we instantly switch to fix it mode.
But none of this is based on reality, it just throws us into our cycle of obsession with food and our bodies.
When you experience a “fat attack” is has NOTHING to do with your body or food. It has nothing to do with your willpower. Or your diet. Or whatever.
Your “Fat attack” is coming as a messenger. It’s coming to help you avoid something in your life.
It’s a learned coping mechanism.
It’s just an avoidance tactic. And y’all it seriously works!
Our loveability, our relationships, our enoughness, our value, our dignity, our goodness… it’s an obsession that will keep us busy for a lifetime.
But…What if the real problem is that you have a terrible relationship with your mother or you’re in a marriage that’s intolerable, or you hate your job, or you feel lonely even in a room full of people.
It creates an illusion of control and peace so we don’t have to face the real stuff that’s happening in our lives.
Focusing on your fat is an escape.
Let me say that again.
Focusing on your weight is an escape.
Focusing on your weight is an escape.
And this kind of obsession with fat is even more damaging because we are doing two things.
Avoiding the real issue
Affirming that we are broken and we need fixing.
So how can we recover from this “Fat attack?”
How can we start to uncover and be willing to look at what is below the surface.
How can we invite ourselves to feel again?
I just want to give you one simple exercise to do today.
And it’s about honesty.
You’re going to grab a journal. And we are going to use a journal prompt to invite us into honesty. To give ourselves permission to admit what the root is.
-Slow breathing…
Say: -I give myself permission to be honest right now. It’s safe to be honest. I am the only one seeing this. This starts my healing. It’s safe.
And the prompt looks like this..
There are 3 questions you’ll answer:
1. If I let myself admit it, I feel sad that… I feel mad that…I feel bad that…
2. What I’m really longing for is…
3. Last question: What am I unwilling to feel?
(This gives you a chance to try again if you felt a little stuck before above.)
The hardest part is admitting what it is that you already know and already feel.
So I encourage you to practice this journaling exercise often. I promise it does get easier to be honest with yourself. And it’s the only thing that will open the door to creating a life that your truly love. Without it, everything is just a bandaid.
