CRAVING

Most of us don't stop and take a good look at our lives until we're confronted with some facts that force us to reassess.

Yep... me too.

But do we have to?

At 40 I was told I had fat in my liver and was pre-diabetic. I learned that sugar, refined carbohydrates, and drinking too much were the cause of this condition.

I was then confronted with two choices.

I could have done nothing. After all, a diagnosis gave me an out card. For a moment I saw an acceptable way of easing some of the burden of my responsibility.

Or the only other choice I had was that I could confront the reality of changing my behaviour.

To be honest, at the time, neither of these options sounded appealing.

In the end, I opted to change my diet. Little did I know it would be the beginning of a total life transformation.

In so many areas of my life, I had to go against the grain. I had to change what I believed it took to be healthy.

I had so many experiences that were uncomfortable that my mind constantly offered up thoughts that said, it’s too hard, don’t do it, just go back to doing it how you were always doing it.

It’s far safer that way.

And many times I listened to those thoughts and did exactly what it said.

But nothing was harder for me than confronting myself in the early hours of the morning after I had spent the evening before drinking too much and eating biscuits and ice cream… even though I knew they were making me sick.

I braced myself every morning because I knew what was coming. The same promises that gradually throughout the day would be gone as soon as 5 pm came.

I couldn't possibly manage the stress of young children without drinking and eating. How could I possibly relax without these things?

It took me until I was 44 (4 years after my diagnosis) to see the truth about how change works and to start to break free from the grips of these habits.

To see if I could stop believing everything my mind was saying to me.

You’ve heard the quote “Knowledge is power” by Sir Francis Bacon. In 1597, knowledge was indeed power.

Now, in 2023, we are drowning in knowledge, yet starved of insight. Why is this?

I believe it’s because Knowledge isn’t personal. Knowledge is information that may or may not mean anything to us. Yet we keep searching for more knowledge in the false hope that just ‘knowing more’ will lead us to ‘doing more’.

But this rarely is the case.

Yes, I gained the knowledge that alcohol, sugar, and processed foods were making me sick.. and yet that knowledge remained impersonal to me until I did the work to make it personal. For 3-4 years, on and off, I stood in my kitchen at 5 pm and I still opened that bottle of wine convinced I could just have one. I still opened that packet of biscuits dived into that ice cream and promised myself tomorrow I would begin. That after the crappy day I had, I simply deserved all of this. And for 3 to 4 years on and off, I still woke up at 5 am every morning trapped in the shame of my behaviour the night before. And let me tell you, I had all the knowledge to know I was continuing to damage my body.

But knowledge is never enough, because it is insight that is what gives you power over yourself.

Occasionally, I would be able to white-knuckle my way through it for a bit. But after about a week, the familiar thought came up to offer up some relief of my day with food and wine. The funny thing was, they were strangely comforting, simply because they were familiar.

And then very quickly another thought would follow that said, “Come on girl, you deserve this, you’ve managed a whole week without having any! Come on! One bit won’t hurt.!””

And then the spiral downward continued.

So how did I get off?

How did I manage to find peace from my daily battle with drinking and sugar?

If I did it, and many of my clients now have, you can too.

If you can learn one way of coping, you can learn another.

Humans are incredible that way.

Come and join my 6 week exploration that covers mind, body & soul when it comes to ending the battle with CRAVING.

This 6-week, online and LIVE program will show you the very real, and very lived experiences of myself, and my clients.

If you resonate with anything I’ve said, I hope you come along.

Begins Tuesday 16th August 2024.

traceymcbeath.com.au/craving/