Choosing My Language Carefully: Uprooting Social Stigma
My Weight Loss Story, Weight Loss, Wellness, Health, Name My Shadows, Face My Shadows, Fight My Shadows, Understand My Shadows, Reframe My Shadows, Transcend My Shadows, Success, Failure, Epic Struggles, Everyday Actions, Shadow Boxing, Find Your Power, Lifestyle Change, My Hunger Drive, The Way Hunger Works in Me, Language Matters, Uprooting Social Stigma, Hunger Is a Physical Process, Advice Tania Lyon My Weight Loss Story, Weight Loss, Wellness, Health, Name My Shadows, Face My Shadows, Fight My Shadows, Understand My Shadows, Reframe My Shadows, Transcend My Shadows, Success, Failure, Epic Struggles, Everyday Actions, Shadow Boxing, Find Your Power, Lifestyle Change, My Hunger Drive, The Way Hunger Works in Me, Language Matters, Uprooting Social Stigma, Hunger Is a Physical Process, Advice Tania Lyon

Choosing My Language Carefully: Uprooting Social Stigma

Language Matters: Choosing How to Speak about My Hunger Drive

My story centers around drilling into a deep understanding of my hunger drive, so I could lose more than half my weight – a number well into triple digits.

I frequently talk about my hunger drive and the way hunger works in me. I have deliberately chosen these to help me speak as I break my silence about transforming my shadows around weight.

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Treat Myself like a Food Addict Every Day
Getting Started, Success, Improving Health, My Weight Loss Story, Reasons to Change, Weight Loss, Failure, Food Addiction, Self-Reflection, Start Where I Am Now, Speaking Up, Personal Truths, Personal Empowerment, Finding Allies, Help Others Help You Tania Lyon Getting Started, Success, Improving Health, My Weight Loss Story, Reasons to Change, Weight Loss, Failure, Food Addiction, Self-Reflection, Start Where I Am Now, Speaking Up, Personal Truths, Personal Empowerment, Finding Allies, Help Others Help You Tania Lyon

Treat Myself like a Food Addict Every Day

I love my smile in this video clip. More specifically, I love the fact that I can say “I treat myself as a food addict every day” with a matter-of-fact, pleasant smile on face.

Being a food addict is who I am and how I live my life. I can deny that truth, but I live with food addiction at this weight, at twice my size, or at any other weight.

My addiction will be in the center of my life one way or another. I will be in control of my addiction, or my addiction will control me.

There is no middle ground for me. I wish there was. But, goodness and hope in my life have emerged from knowing this about myself, and I feel incredible — better than ever.

To name myself as a food addict conveys a newfound self-acceptance around my lifelong shadows of weight. This self-acceptance started with silently speaking and believing that reality.

At first, the admission was harder than it needed to be. I gave too much importance to addiction as a personal shortcoming of willpower and mind and not enough to my genetic realities.

Most importantly, I did not understand my hunger drive. I would lose half my weight before I felt my hunger drive. It took even longer to understand.

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Admit hard Truths
Getting Started, Success, Improving Health, My Weight Loss Story, Food, Reasons to Change, Holidays, Weight Loss, Failure, Food Addiction, Self-Reflection, Planning, Start Where I Am Now Tania Lyon Getting Started, Success, Improving Health, My Weight Loss Story, Food, Reasons to Change, Holidays, Weight Loss, Failure, Food Addiction, Self-Reflection, Planning, Start Where I Am Now Tania Lyon

Admit hard Truths

“I will start tomorrow” has been a complex idea in my life. At its best, the idea of starting tomorrow held optimism and hope; at its worst, the idea worked as a self-delusion, enabling moments in time to swallow me whole.

Most often, starting tomorrow worked as a self-defeating form of failure, a feeling of brokenness around my weight, a reminder of what I could not get right in this aspect of my life.

Untangling the maze of meanings of “starting tomorrow” provides a complex mental challenge. The truth is that I started on so many tomorrows that the phrase was almost rendered meaningless.

Often, I felt the emptiness of starting tomorrow even as I committed to it. Many of my tomorrows ended almost as soon as they started. The pattern was predictable, whether it lasted one day, one week, one month.

My resolve started strong. Soon, fatigue around tempting foods overpowered my resolve. I careened off course, defeated and overwhelmed by what I could not get right.

I stared at the same problem over and over again. I tried the same solutions and always got the same results. Starting tomorrow happened so many times in my life that I nearly gave up hope. But never entirely.

To succeed, there has to be a starting point – there has to be a tomorrow where that day becomes the day. Past successes provided tantalizing glimpses of what could be, optimistic peaks at a healthier future. Hope.

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