For many people, simply following a balanced diet and exercising is not enough to lose weight. Many find it impossible to stick to a diet and to control what they are eating, despite their best efforts. Maybe you are one of these people?

You already know how to lose weight – you know you must eat more nutritionally but you seem to slip up at every turn. So what is getting in your way?

The answer is most likely a mix of physical addiction to food and emotional eating. Emotional eating is the hardest part to overcome and is what I will discuss below (physical addiction will be discussed in a later blog post).

The thing I have found is that a lot of the information available out there (including diet programs) is that they do not addresss this issue and if they do, they just touch on it.

However this issue is a big one and can stand in the way of someone achieving the healthy lifestyle changes they want. Especially if you are following a diet that restricts you in anyway. For some this can lead to a blind panic and before you know it you will have just engulfed a large chocolate cheesecake and will still be wanting more.

Food is a security blanket for many and to be restricted can make us feel vulnerable and exposed, even if we aren’t completely aware of it (which we usually aren’t because by the time we have become rational again, after a good old binge, we are too numb to feel anything).

What is emotional eating?

Emotional eating means to eat to satisfy emotional hunger. You eat food for comfort or a way to help you cope in life. You eat for reasons other than nutritional.

We all do this. Emotional eating is part of our culture. We use food to celebrate, to deal with upset, to deal with a hard day at work and even boredom (ever sit in front of the TV eating mindlessly?) It is a part of our culture. The problem with this is, it isn’t really seen as a problem in society, but it is one.

We spend so much time numbing ourselves, that when we do not have an opportunity to do so, we don’t know how best to deal with the emotions that arise in us. Food also has physically addictive properties within it that can affect our mood as well (I will discuss this later in a blog post) so everything can be very overwhelming. When we don’t live in the present moment and allow emotions to flow through us, but instead numb ourselves, we carry a lot of baggage around unknowingly. Sometimes this can surface in a bout of aggression or other form. The thing is, if we don’t face it, don’t learn to deal with our emotions then we just continue to live a life of numbing, of bingeing or craving. You miss out on the potential of life, of embracing emotions.

People suffering with this way of eating are driven to eat so they don’t have to face what is bothering them internally. They become addicted to the way they handle life. This is why dieting and calorie restriction doesn’t work. And since most diets do not teach you about emotional eating, we never become fully aware of it and think it is something wrong with us.

If others can do it, why can’t I?

Unless you learn to stop emotional eating and deal with your emotions in the present moment, you will find it impossible to lose weight and keep it off. Not to mention you will find it pretty hard to enjoy life fully if you are constantly battling with this issue with your weight loss.

If this resonates with you, then you are not alone and you can overcome it.

I will be writing about emotional eating this week and next, so stay tuned.

For A Complete Guide on Cravings Click Here

Part Two: What Fuels Emotional Eating

Part Three: Food Addiction & Its Origin

 Today’s health quote:

Every mirror that is sold should have an inscription:

“The person you see in this mirror is the person most responsible for your own health and happiness”

Dr. Keki Sidhwa, 1984.

Previous Post: Health Quote of the Day

 Today’s health quote is:

“If good health is the product of right living, sickness or ill health must necessarily result from wrong living. Like causes produce like effects. The effects that follow obedience and those that follow transgressions are as unlike as possible. Life is lengthened and filled with joy by living in accordance with nature’s teachings: it is not only shortened – but reendered miserable and worthless – by pursuing an opposite course”.

Dr Susannah Way Dodds, 1915

Previous Post: Fasting One Day A Month is Good

I am currently delving into the world of fasting – juice fasting, water fasting, herb fasting and all the other types of fasting out there. I am curious and interested in whether all those types of fasts out there are beneficial or just someone trying to sell you something. I am also interested in fasting myself if there is some validation in it, after I am done nursing my son. My research is a work in progress but I shall have some blog entries up soon about fasting and its benefits and negatives for health and weight loss. So we shall see if it works out.

Anyway, this morning I came across an article on The Independent website about fasting (water fasting specifically).

According to the article fasting one day a month can provide you with huge health benefits and add years to your life.

Dr Mark Mattson, of the National Institue of Ageing, an American Research body, has done a numerous amount of studies involving rats and mice. He explains that putting mice and rats on fasting diets resulted in the them living longer, developing fewer cancers and showing reduce cognitive decline in aging, compared to animals with continuous access to food.

There have also been some studies with humans that appear to back this up and I certainly have read my fair few stories about the benefits of fasting (water fasting as opposed to others).

The article suggests not only fasting to be beneficial but also calorie restriction to be benficial.

“According to Dr Marc Hellerstein, a professor of endocrinology, metabolism and nutrition at the University of California at Berkeley, our bodies are “brilliant” at reacting to not eating. “We’re not good at responding to too many calories, but we are very good at responding to fasting. Fasting, in itself, is not an unhealthy process.”

The article then goes on to talk about how difficult it can be for one to fast and have the self-control to be able to do so. I agree with this, but only because most of us have physiological addictions to foods that can prevent us from having the self-control we need. If we are binge eating as well, I don’t think fasting would be helpful unless it was supervised, controlled and for a more extended period of time. Once one has done this intitial bout of fasting (to rid ourselves of the physical addiction to certain foods such as sugar, dairy) – adding fasting in once a month may then be plausible and great.

Anyone considering a fast though should get a consultation with a professional to see if they are “suitable” for one. Not everyone is suitable so its worth making sure you are.  You should also do the fast on a day where you can rest as opposed to one where you are running about.  Your body is given digestive rest but it is also beneficial to give complete physical rest too.

I think fasting once a month is a great idea because it can teach us self control and discipline. This is what is often lacking in one’s life who overeats or is overweight, so fasting could be a healthy thing to incorporate in one’s life, ONCE they have started making good progress in their weight loss endeavours.

To read the full article:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/features/the-nofood-diet-1635808.html

Previous Post: Nutritious Snacks: Healthy Snacks for Someone Trying to Lose Weight

I am forever seeing the question “What are some healthy snacks for someone trying to lose weight?”. I have even been asked this question time after time and always answer with the same thing time after time. Unfortunately many seem to be disappointed with the answer but I think this is more due to lack of understanding than not wanting to eat what I suggest.

The answer I give is very simple but is often overlooked because people see this food as insufficient or not filling. So what is it I suggest?

FRUIT!

We have had it drilled into us that it is important to have our 5-a-day. We have had it drilled into us that a fruit snack is something like 1 banana or 1 apple. This is exactly why people do not wish to turn to fruit for snacking purposes. It doesn’t fill us up, it doesn’t provide nutritional satisfaction or emotional comfort.

Fruit is, along with greens, packed full of essentially all the nutrients our body needs, but it is not calorie-dense, so in order to be fulfilled nutritionally we need to be eating much more than 1 banana or 1 apple. Fruit is also not heavy like other foods such as grains and meat, or packed full of addictive substances, so we do not get the emotional fulfilment many of us want from food from fruit. We may not even realize that we want emotional comfort from food. I didn’t realize how much I used food as an aid to emotional issues until I started becoming aware of my eating habits. I still now find it sometimes difficult, but I find comfort in my husband, distraction or exercise.

So how much fruit should we be eating? A lot! If you find yourself hungry, eat 5-6 apples or 5-6 bananas or even more than this (or less) depending on how you feel. Listen to your body and stop eating when you are satisfied. If you incorporate fruits (as well as greens) into your diet more and more, your cravings for unhealthy snacks will decrease and you will feel much better physically and emotionally.

If you are out on the run, and lugging 5 plus bits of fruit about seems a bit big annoyance, take some dates out or maybe some sun-dried fruits. Make sure though that if you take dried fruits out with you, you have plenty of water. Whereas if you have 5 apples, they will help keep you hydrated, you need to replace the water missing from dried fruits with drinking water.

The more fruit you eat the more you will learn to love it and the more you will miss it when you don’t have it. Fruit is very good for you – it will satisfy that sweet tooth for you much better than a chocolate bar or candy will and won’t leave you moody or tired.

Previous Post: Calorie Counting: Determining How Many Calories You Need

There are lots of programs advocating the use of counting the calories you consume – some even have point systems. Although I don’t agree with such programs, as I believe we should listen to our bodies to determine *true hunger* over cravings or boredom, I think it can be useful to begin with to see a rough estimate of how many calories you need to eat as opposed to what you are eating. It can also be helpful if you are choosing to eat a high fruit/greens diet because it can be hard to get enough calories.

In order to determine the calories you need to consume, first take your ideal weight (not your current weight but the weight you want to get to) in pounds and times this by ten. This is your base need. So if you want to weight 130lbs then your base need would be 1300 calories. Add to this roughly 200-300 calories or maybe more depending on how active you are through the day. If you just sit at a desk all day you may not need anymore over 200. Then if you exercise that day add another 300-500 depending on intensity.

So for someone who wanted to be 130lbs (1300), had a fairly active day (300 calories) and had an intense work out (500 calories), this person would need to consume around 2100 calories that day.

This is a rough estimate and it isn’t strict. If you feel like eating more than you probably need to, if you feel that this is too much it may very well be. The best way to know whether you are hungry, truly hungry, is to try the fruit test. If you don’t want to eat fruit then it is probably a craving/emotion/boredom.

Try not to be strict with the calories but try to be more intune with your body and what it NEEDS. This will help you maintain your success at losing weight and will be much better in terms of not only being able to listen to your body effectively, but not having to keep a diary of how many calories you have had and if a food goes over them!

However to begin with yes working out rough estimates can be helpful and you can see if you are doing well listening to your body or not. Useful sites to help you count calories are www.nutridiary.com and www.fitday.com. It is free to set up accounts with both.

This website is a resource for those wishing to improve their health, vitality, emotional well being and physical appearance.

I put this website together to offer guidance, expert advice and information that isn’t too readily available and usually found underneath the piles of junk science scattered around our libraries and the internet!

I hope that you enjoy and make good use to what I have to share.  To find out more about me, please go to my About Me section and also take a look at the site.

I look forward to knowing you all!

Kelly