The Weird 80/20 principle for food freedom!!

Oct 7 / May Zaki
Have you heard of the 80/20 Principle?

It applies to pretty much EVERYTHING in life... including your food.

Here it is... 80% of your results will come from 20% of your effort. See, when it comes to ending binge or emotional eating and creating a healthy, peaceful relationship with food, there are loads of things you COULD focus on...
  • Balancing carbs, fats and proteins...
  • Targeting blood sugar, insulin, leptin and other hormones that drive hunger...
  • Planning and prepping your meals and snacks in advance...
  • Managing your stress levels better...
  • Avoiding your biggest triggers...
  • Optimizing your sleep...
  • Healing past emotional wounds...
  • And a whole lot of other stuff.


These things can make a difference, if you try and focus on all of them, you’re probably going to get burned out, exhausted, and not really master or change anything.

Yet, if you only focus on one at a time, the journey will be so SLOW, you'll likely just give up.

In either case, you won't make any lasting progress, will you?

BUT, what if you let go of all this stuff, and got GREAT at just ONE THING...

Your internal dialogue.

When it comes to your eating, mastering this ONE THING will only take up about 20% of your time and effort. BUT...It will account for at least 80% of your success with food. 

Why? Because all day every day, you're listening to a nagging voice in the back of your mind that's forever telling you a bunch of crappy and dis-empowering STORIES. Stories like...

  • There must be something wrong with me  I'll never work this out
  • I'm addicted to food.
  • I'm a chocoholic.
  • I have no self-control
  • I must really hate myself to keep doing this
  • I always gain the weight back.
  • I can never stay consistent.
  • I'll start again on Monday.
  • I'll make up for it tomorrow.
  • I don't want to miss out.


Problem is, if you keep allowing your mind to run like this, it'll keep talking you into the very behaviours you're desperately trying to get rid of.

These stories are providing all the excuses, doubts, and limitations you need to explain why you can't and won't succeed.

NOT because the stories are true, but because you BELIEVE they are true. Which means, your STORIES will create your REALITY. Every. Single. Time.

And they become the psychological triggers for most of your unhealthy eating habits.

==> So every time you tell yourself you're a stress eater, the next time you get stressed, that story simply gives you the permission you need to repeat that same pattern again.
==> Every time you tell yourself you're a chocoholic, the next time you see a block of chocolate that story will instruct your brain to send you and urge eat it.
==> If you always tell yourself, you can be great with your eating all week, but then you always blow it on Friday's.

Again, your belief in this story will mean next Friday you will once again find yourself elbow deep in a bag of crisps. Your reality with food is a reflection of your STORIES.

And your stories will talk you in to or out of every food choice you make. If you expect to binge eat, you will. If you expect to fail, you will. If you expect the wheels to fall off every night after work, they will. If you expect to start over again next week, you will.

So the absolute FIRST thing you MUST do to create a new reality with your eating, is to learn how to change the relationship you have with your stories.

This is the ONE THING that will determine 80% of your success with food. In fact, sometimes it'll be the ONLY thing you need to do.

Because all the other stuff like meal plans, hormones, macros, sleep, stress, and so on won't make the slightest difference, if deep down you're still telling yourself you're broken, you lack self-control, and you're a food-addict or sugar-junkie.

So how do you do it? Well, we use a process called Storyboarding that leverages the power of neuroplasticity.

It's where you intentionally and purposefully learn how to let go of the stories that are keeping you stuck and build the neural pathways that will allow you to show up differently around food.

By doing nothing, the stories and pathways you already have, will just keep getting stronger and more persistent.

Yes, we sometimes also work on planning routines, stress, sleep, hormones and all that other stuff... 
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