Janpartly wrote: It takes a whole lot of effort to do this and no effort at all to scoff rubbish
A hand wave apology to those who've seen me quote this previously on the topic of habits (and self-sabotage, negative self-talk, negative beliefs about the self are mostly all habits rather than grounded in reality).
A good analogy I got from Gary De Rodriguez on conditioned behaviour was likening neural pathways to tracks in a forest. When choosing a path through a dense forest, it's generally your first response to take the pre-existing, well established clear path available rather than create a new path by smashing straight through the thick scrub into the unknown. The well worn path may not be the quickest or most direct route or even take you to where you want to go but when making a quick or unconscious decision it seems the obvious option - just go the way you've always gone. Changing where you go requires creating a new track which is not easy and even after you make a new path for the first time, the next time you come back, the old familiar well worn path still has its appeal compared to the skinny, faint little track you just hacked. The choice is still there to take the old track. Not only do you have to repeatedly keep taking the new route to make it become the most obvious option, you have to stop using the previous track to let it overgrow and fade back into the forest to where it appears like it was never there.
Sometimes, you've been doing really well on establishing a new path. But, a stressor starts directing you away from the new path, and the next thing you know, you've broken through the over-growth and you're back on the old, familiar way. (And maybe the path of regain.)
Reflecting on false beliefs can be helpful - and some people do that as a prelude to thinking: "I'm doing that weird thing again where I want to eat to distract myself from what I'm feeling". What is useful for some people is to observe yourself thinking that, to abstain from judging yourself for having that thought, or a desire to eat when you're not hungry, or to "scoff rubbish" and to be aware that having that thought or drive doesn't necessarily mean that you are compelled to act upon it. And, the more frequently that you can have that thought or drive without acting on it, the more opportunity there is for the original habit/way to lose its attraction, and the practice there is at behaving differently or following the new track.