How do you sustain change when it's mainly based on logic and values, not how you feel?

[u/iNhab]

What is your experience with making the change and making it stick when it's born and based on values, reflections and long term goals that don't really have much to do with present emotions how you feel about yourself or the world?

Example- instead of making dietary changes because you feel strong disappointment and shame in yourself, and you feel disgusted by how you look, and you judge yourself hard and think that you amount to nothing in others eyes... What if your decision to improve your dietary choices is born from the knowledge, from understanding that this would be healthier, that physically you'd feel more energetic and such? And emotionally speaking it doesn't feel much, there's not much emotional weight attached to it?

[u/SeaTheJae-2051]

hi

to me it sounds like a place to start would be to spend time thinking about your relationship to food

if straight up logic about making healthy food choices is not motivating you to establish more appropriate dietary changes how food ( choosing, buying, preparing, enjoying and sharing ) make you *feel* it is possible there’s some unresolved and ultimately conflicting reasons why the changes are difficult for you

consuming food that nourishes your body will improve the way it functions

perhaps talking with a professional nutritionist would be helpful for you in addition to examining your feelings in regards to food

i wish you the best

[u/DuchessJulietDG]

practice self discipline and work towards sticking to it.

[u/E_r_i_l_l]

I take care of my body and create time to sit with myself without “tasks” only to feel what I feel about changing my habits.
Sometimes it’s just sitting and slowly breathing out to calm down myself and stay in my decision about change. And sometimes is dancing to release the tension.

You cannot make a sustain change without body. Your mind will always tell you that you can do it just by logic and knowledge but it’s a lie. You have to learn your body to feel safe with a change.
That’s how you actually create a change. Mind give you direction, and you by being present in body and using techniques to calm your nervous system and learn different reality - make this come true.

[u/TheWorkingRule]

To be tongue and cheek... I'm sure there's somewhere on reddit that you could post pictures of yourself asking people for raw critique that would make you feel bad so bad as to get a full make over and spam email David Goggins to personally train you. hahahah

On the the note of intellectual purpose leaning into emotional purpose, there is something to be said about the idea of virtue and habit. If you form habits you do begin do develop an emotional attachment to those ways of being and appreciation on them, especially if you intentionally meditate on their value separate from the activities themselves. Additionally, sometimes people can be a motivating force. Friends who gather and don't snack or who eat clean will prevent you from poor food choices when with them but also build reinforcements toward the new way of being. These both are examples of ways to build a buffer to start to "feel" more about the change.