You will never score a goal in a basketball game by wandering aimlessly. Your opponents will easily grab the ball from you. To be a great basketball player, you have to go through a regimen of training. It is not an easy task. There are many obstacles and trials to overcome. But it is your resolve to be successful in basketball.

You cannot overcome compulsive behavior without a plan and being determined to reach that goal. Just like scoring any goal on the basketball court, you have to get pumped up, determined, and focused. Set realistic goals… pace yourself.

Here is a list that will help you overcome compulsion:

Resolve to be stubborn
It is not your opponents that will weaken your resolve to overcome compulsion. You must be determined in the face of temptation. Be resolved to stay focused. Do not allow thoughts to drift into your subconscious, gab your resolve and chase them out, they will weaken your decisions. In the face of temptation, be firm. Be on the alert that you are being tempted, accept it but refuse to give in. Be stubborn, even when friends are tempting you, refuse to eat junk food with that same power of conviction. Give yourself encouragement when you succeed..success is infectious, spread it around.

It’s a stronger conviction to refuse to do something than it is to – try to do something. Which statement is more positive, “I will try to eat better” or “I refuse to eat junk food.” Stubbornly refusing to do something has power. It is absolute refusal that makes decisions resolute.

Resolve to be intent
Being intent is to be fixed on something. Be like an athlete preparing for the challenge. Be fixed on what you intend to achieve. Do not be distracted. Just as an archer aims for his target, he is intent to hit the target. Once he has fired his arrow, he relaxes and gets ready to become intent again. The focus is exhausting. It requires 100% attention. You can be like that. Set the goal and become totally fixed on it everyday, especially just before you eat or face temptation. Once it is over, you can relax till the next target comes up. The mind can be very determind also, and you will often find that you have failed with out being aware until  it’s too late…don’t be put-off. This happens to us all. It can give you a boost of resolve to be more vigilant. Look at how it happened, and how you were hood-winked, and see if you can “catch” yourself next time.

Resolve to end mental war
Resolute decisions end mental wars. Weak decisions are useless. There will be times you will compromise and feel like a failure. Make your decisions resolute. If you have made the decision to eat one bowl full of food per meal, resolve to feel hungry before eating. You have made a decision! “I am not getting pushed around any more. I refuse to be controlled by food. Cravings do your worst. I will not budge. I am standing firm. My decision is unchangeable. I will not give in.” These ends the mental war.
Resolve to succeed
You have made a resolve to succeed. Every day you have to go over the reasons as to why you have made these decisions. As soon as you weaken in your decision, the battle starts. Fortify these decisions because you know you will succeed.

Compulsion is a vicious cycle. Pain comes in, emotions stir to a storm: fear, insecurity, anxiety, feeling empty and deprived. These feelings will not exist if your decision is resolute. They come because you are allowing yourself to consider breaking your decision. Even if you do not break, those feelings will have weakened your decision and you will need to rebuild it. If you do not, you will fail.

Your eating habits can increase or decrease compulsive eating. Here are some good habits that you need to develop:

Healthy Eating Habit 1: Prepare with Flair

Prepare meals with anticipation, creatively, with color, taste and smell that appeals to your senses. Instead of just chomping on a cantaloupe, cut it up into squares, chill it in the freezer for 15 minutes and serve it in an oval plate. Observe how different it feels when you add a bit of flair.

Healthy Eating Habit 2: Eat Hungry

We eat three times the amount of food we need to maintain health, and constantly eat without hunger. Most people eat a meal that could sustain an entire family in Africa for one day. Do not confuse natural hunger for cravings. A growling stomach with a ‘blah’ taste in the mouth is not hunger. Eating to relieve grumbling caused by gastric irritation will only leave you feeling sluggish and lethargic. Wait until you are hungry. You will not die of starvation. Most people have experienced true hunger only a few times in their life. Fighting hunger is like fighting Goliath. You put up a fight, he will run. If you are not hungry, do not eat. This is an opportunity to delay eating. Skip breakfast or the occasional meal and feel the intensity of your hunger build readiness.

During hunger, the sinuses clear, the stomach becomes ready and the sense of smell reaches its peak. Best of all, taste is enhanced. You will feel your salivary glands activating so that eating gives more satisfaction. A burst of energy and a feeling of well being is achieved if you eat healthy food. Wait until your body needs nutrition, eat raw foods, and chew your food well. If you eat this way, you will not have the desire to keep on eating. You will now be satisfied with smaller portions which is the way it should be. There will be times you will feel gastric irritation making you uncomfortable, eat small amounts of fruit or vegetable to help relieve it.

Healthy Eating Habit 3: Chew, Chew, and Chew

Learn to chew your food. It is better than swallowing. We make swallowing the big event, but it is in fact the anticlimax. Chewing is the build-up and it is the prelude to swallowing. As the digestive enzymes in the saliva start their work, the food changes flavor, and with each chew, explodes more taste sensations. Soft warm textures massage the tongue. Digestion starts in the mouth as well as contentment. Chewing greatly increases the health value of the food. Aim for thirty chews before swallowing.

Healthy Eating Habit 4: Eat Stress-Free

Learn to relax before a meal. Let go and be at peace before you eat. A plate of worry is bad for the belly. Turn on some relaxing music and take your meal to bed if you have to. Go outside if it is warm. Learn to slow down, do not rush, and enjoy each mouthful. Do not let your mind drift to problems and worries. If you are going to eat, stay focused. If you have to worry, stop and worry but limit yourself to a few minutes then get it out of your system. When you are ready to eat, be aware of the taste, be conscious of your breathing. Be alert on how the food feels in the stomach. Enjoy the experience as much as possible. The more you enjoy it, the more satisfied you will be.

Healthy Eating Habit 5: Feel Good as You Eat

Feel good about your achievement. You are eating health giving food with discipline. Be proud of that accomplishment. Take the time to enjoy being content with feeling full.

Healthy Eating Habit 6: Be Thankful

Count your blessings. Be thankful of what God has given you. Acknowledge Him by saying grace before meals. He loves you and is sustaining you. He is with you as you eat. Food has been brought from all over the world just for your benefit. It is a manifestation of His promise that He will never leave you nor forsake you.

Healthy Eating Habit 7: Love the Foods that Love You

Look at your food straight in the eye and ask questions: “Do you love me? Will you support my cells and care for me in old age? Are you loving my body or is your love artificial? Do you really love me or are you just flirting with my taste buds?” If you want to be healthy, love the foods that love you.

Healthy Eating Habit 8: Eat Simple

Simple food is healthy. The silkworm lives on mulberry leaves. The koala lives on eucalyptus leaves. Cows live on grass and do just fine. Humans are the only creatures in the known universe who eat every food type in one meal. The food industry makes intricate combinations that make digestion more difficult.. It is because of this that we burp, expel gas and abuse our colon by over-working it. Stomach ulcers are results of our carelessness. It is time we go back to the basics. Pretend you are in Eden and enjoy eating from one tree at a time. Aim for a simple and nutritious diet; your stomach will love you for it.

Healthy Eating Habit 9: Eat More Raw Food

Heating drastically alters the precious nutrients which our body needs. Cooking kills! As you drop your veggies into a pot of boiling water, listen closely. You can hear the enzymes screaming with pain as they die. That poor little enzyme was just trying to build your health. An 80% raw diet will provide you with optimum health. Give enzymes a break. Allow them to work into your body the proper way.

Healthy Eating Habit 10: Spice is not Nice

Excessive use of salt and white vinegar is addictive and hard on the stomach. Food becomes tasteless and bland without them. Use condiments in moderation.

Healthy Eating Habit 11: Savor the Food

Learn to enjoy and relish with gusto everything that you put into your mouth. Get those dopamine pleasure molecules working overtime by really savoring each bite. The more you enjoy the experience of healthy eating, the more satisfied you will be. The more you find contentment, the easier it will be for you to stay focused on healthy eating habits.

This is a 30-day program to fight obsessive eating. This program is called the raw food diet.

We recommend 30 days on raw fruits and vegetables. Raw food is used by sanitariums in the healing of disease because it is similar to a juice fast in detoxifying the body. The process is slower, but the effect is the same; you will be revitalized. If you stick to this program, you will experience an exhilaration that you have never known. You will feel vitally alive. As your blood clears of all addictive substances, you will feel great. Any health conditions will be noticeably improved or even healed. Your sinuses will clear of mucus and you will be able to smell even the faintest of scents. You will be able to breathe deeply, feeling each breath enter the lungs. The mental fog will lift and your mind will become more alert. Your skin will soften and feel sleek. You will feel 10 years younger and look like it.

Raw food is loaded with enzymes, vitamins and minerals. For the first time in your life, your body is functioning free of heavy proteins, milk fats, animal fats, cholesterol, mucus forming starches, trans fatty acids, food additives and high doses of salt and sugar. You have given your body a time of rest and healing.

The first week will be the hardest, especially the first few days, for that is the time when the body undergoes the most intense cleansing. As the weeks progress, you will feel better and better.

Although juice fasting is superior in its healing effect, the challenge of a raw food diet is better than juice fasting at developing the skills to control food intake. When a compulsive eater juice fasts, he feels free from food addiction, but as soon as he starts to eat, hunger triggers all the compulsive desires and distorted thinking patterns that were never dealt with. The result is a binge. The benefit of a 30-day fast can be lost in three weeks of indulgence.

Juice fasting has more amazing benefits than a raw food diet, but first you must develop the skills to combat compulsive eating. By occasionally replacing meals with fresh-made juice, you are gaining the benefits of juice fasting while battling compulsive eating. For this reason, juice is an important component of the raw food program. Try to have freshly made juice each day.

In our book, God’s Banquet Table, you will find juice recipes, fruit recipes, blender recipes and raw vegetable recipes that will make your thirty days a pleasurable experience. The book also includes raw nut recipes, grain recipes and bean recipes and, although these are healthy in moderation, wait until the thirty days are over before adding them to the raw fruit and vegetable diet.

Thirty days of raw food is a challenge that will powerfully affect your life. These diet restrictions are difficult to face, but in doing so; you will bring about healthy changes that will benefit your body and mind. Healthy changes are an investment in your future.

The raw food diet includes:
1. Raw fruits and vegetables
2. Fruit and vegetable juices
3. Herbal teas
4. Honey and natural sweeteners
5. Frozen juice concentrates
6. Frozen fruit

You can develop a healthy lifestyle by doing the following:

Compulsive Eating Program Check List

1. Buy nutritious foods.

2. Know the triggers and the weaknesses and have a plan to deal with them.

3. Decide on an exercise program.

4. Write your reasons for quitting.

5. Take steps to make first few, hassle-free days .

6. Share your intention with a friend.

7. Have quiet times to strengthen your resolve.

Making A Daily Journal

In your journal, write the lessons you have learned, the good that you do, the good that happens to you, any insights, your successes, and your mistakes. Consider each day then review to see how you are doing. Each day, encourage yourself with your successes and bring the mistakes into perspective. Observe patterns and look for ways to change those patterns. Recovery is not a straight line process. If you were to chart your progress, it would look like the graph of the stock market. Just when you think you are doing well, the graph takes a dip. So expect it. Writing in a journal will give you a better perspective in life. It helps you look at a bigger picture and see how you are getting there, one step at a time. It will remind you of all the little things you have accomplished.

Negative decisions are the root of compulsive behavior. Healthy decisions reduce compulsive behavior.

If you were on a diet and you ate a banana split, you made a decision. You thought about it, weighed the good and the bad, then chose to eat ice cream. Your desire for fudge syrup, whipped cream and pineapple topping was stronger than your desire to stay on a diet, so you made a decision.

After the decision, you instantly blasted yourself with “I shouldn’t have done that.” If water flows down a predictable course, why should it flow down another? If you have a pattern of blowing your diet by eating ice cream, that pattern will continue until you change it, so how can you say you should not have eaten the ice cream? Your predictable behavior is to eat ice cream.

If you choose to eat ice cream, enjoy it. Make the best of the decisions you make. It wasn’t the best decision, but you don’t have to be perfect or make perfect decisions. Every decision requires you to weigh the good against the bad; otherwise, it would not be a decision.

Blowing a diet by eating ice cream does not make you a failure. Who said that you shouldn’t fail? Was it your parents? Society? Your peers? How can they expect you to meet a standard that they themselves can’t keep? We all fail as humans; it is a part of life. When you are disciplining yourself, you will fail. And that is acceptable. It is OK to fail.
Guilt and the feeling of failure focus on the loss. We need to be focused on the challenge. No one would be reading this book if it were easy to stay on a diet program. So let’s get realistic. You are not a failure. You made poor choices. Although you may know that, the is inevitable and you need to be ready to face it with courage. feeling of failure

No Good “Should”

Get rid of the word should. Should looks back. There could be a million things that we should have done, but we can’t linger in the past; we are moving on to the future where we make the best of what we have and go on.

Instead of saying I shouldn’t have eaten that, say:

“It would have been healthier if I had not eaten the __________.”

“The best choice was not to eat the __________.”

“The most disciplined choice would have been not to eat the __________.”

“I would have felt better if I had not eaten the __________.”

“Should” statements punish.
Punishment causes resentment.

Positive statements focus on the reward.
Rewards motivate.