Mindful and Gentle Eating Process - How to Interrupt the Pattern of Emotional Eating

If you're a woman struggling with emotional eating, you probably often feel like you have no control around food. Because you've probably used food for so long to medicate your emotions, it's become second nature. You don't have an accurate picture of it anymore. This is why you probably swear that you can't live without M&Ms, your favorite cheesy puffs or Mom's homemade lasagna. But it's not the food that's hitting your happy spots, it's the connection to those memories. Right now you're linking extreme pleasure to eating the food and the consequence of that is that you can't seem to ever get enough. The truth is you can't get enough of it, because it's not what you really want. You're really seeking the opportunity to re-experience the positive memories that come with eating the food. However in order to extract those feel good feelings, you don't have to overeat the food.

The following method is to be used in conjunction with a permission based eating approach to food called Intuitive Eating. If you are dieting or restricting the foods you eat, you will have a much harder time with this exercise. This is because as a dieter, you will always want what you think you can't have. If you believe that you can't or shouldn't eat chocolate, then it will be extremely difficult for you to feel the level of safety intended in this exercise that comes with knowing that you can eat what you want whenever you get hungry.

in order to fully overcome emotional eating, it is essential that you find resourceful ways of dealing with the often uncomfortable emotions that drive you to eat. It is also important to be able to neutralize these emotions and deal with them so that they do not trigger the desire to overeat. For this, I heartily recommend the use of doing whatever you have to do to cope aggressively with the stress in your life. I teach my clients a variety of techniques listed under the umbrella category of energy psychology tools or energy therapy. They function to eliminate painful emotional and physical blockages in the body. One of my favorite processes is based on the science of acupuncture. It's called Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT.

I've created the following exercise for my Say Goodbye to Dieting Program. I recommend that you use this Mindful and Gentle Eating Exercise to become more conscious of your eating, slow yourself down and refocus on how the food makes you feel and notice how it feels in your body in the moment and over time.

The intention of the exercise is to begin to reawaken your sense of how to eat more mindfully, in full conscious awareness of your thoughts and feelings as you eat. If you're inclined to be a fast eater like me, I know how hard it is for you to consider eating more slowly. Eating fast is a sign of compulsion, that stems from fear of lack. Many non diet weight loss programs only advocate eating slowly as a means of breaking the habit of compulsion that drives the speed eating. I don't agree with that. As a gal who has always eaten very fast, I resented it when anyone told me to eat slowly. The resistance you feel is that little survival part of you that refuses to be made to feel unsafe ever again. I promise I won't ever take anything away from you. My only desire is to add to what you already have.

As a Master Practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming, I encourage you to learn by giving you the opportunity to enjoy contrast. I believe that choices are essential to being happy and in order to create new habits effortlessly, you have to feel really good about what you choose. You'll notice in this exercise, I'll ask you to eat slowly and then I'll encourage you to eat at your normal pace, whatever that may be and then alternate between the two speeds. That is done so that your brain can reorganize itself and find an intermediate speed that will become a new comfort level for you. To prepare you to do the exercise, please do the following 5 intermediary steps, A-E.

You may choose to eat anything that you want. The choice is up to you. This exercise is done to consciously slow you down. You may find it a challenge at first, later it will become a great joy.

A. Find five emotional food connections in your life that have in the past compelled you to eat when you were not hungry.

B. What has that food meant to you?

C. What memories rise to the surface when you think about it?

D. Go out and get one of those foods or all of them, bring it home or prepare it. (For best results, you'll practice this exercise each time with each of the individual foods you've chosen)

E. Before you are ready to sit down and eat your chosen food, set your place with the appropriate silverware and a napkin (even if you are eating a pint of ice cream, make sure that you have a napkin) You don't have to serve it in a bowl unless you choose to do so. Now you're ready to begin.

Mindful and Gentle Eating Process

1. Bring your journal to the table

2. Have your silverware and optional plate or bowl ready along with your napkin

3. Place the food on the table

4. Sit down facing it

5. Look at it

6. Smell it

7. Be present with your feelings as they surface

8. Notice those feelings

9. Sit for a few moments and write down your observations of the food and your feelings connected to it

10. Close your journal

11. Pause and think for a moment, offering thanks for this food

12. Pick up your utensil

13. Take a small bite or spoonful.

14. Place the food in your mouth and allow it to rest on the tip of your tongue.

15. Swirl it around in your mouth for about 3 to 7 seconds

16. Notice the sensations that come up for you

17. Slowly chew it or allow it to gently glide down your throat.

18. Put down your fork or spoon and resist picking it up for a moment. If you have to sit on your hands, then do it

19. Just sit with those feelings for about 10 -15 seconds

20. Repeat the process from stage 12-19 until you are satisfied. Notice the degree of that satisfaction. Do this at least 3 times during the week. The rest of the times eat at your normal pace. See what you discover.

And to learn more about how to how to make peace with food and friends with your body go to http://www.thejuicywoman.com and learn the strategies I use every day to be curvy and confident at any size

From Andrea Amador - The Juicy Woman

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Emotional Eating - Self Sabotage

Do you ever eat when you're not hungry? Do you ever eat without realizing that you are eating? Do you often eat alone, whether at home, in you car or elsewhere? Do you crave specific foods when you are feeling down, pasta, fries, chips, chocolate, ice cream? Does eating when you're down make you feel better or less focussed on your problems? Do you feel guilty or ashamed afterward? Do you eat because you feel like there is nothing else to do? If you answered yes to any of the above questions chances are pretty good that you have a tendency to let your emotions dictate what, and how much you eat.

Emotional eating is much like any addiction, but instead of turning to drugs or alcohol to remove you from reality, you turn to food for comfort. Whether done consciously or unconsciously, you're strongest tendencies to overeat will happen when you are at your weakest point emotionally. In effort to suppress or soothe negative feelings, emotional eaters binge when they are sad, angry, anxious, bored, confused, lonely or upset. Things like health problems, break ups, arguments, unemployment and financial uncertainties are all common triggers. Others may not be so obvious; daily life hassles, waiting in long line ups, pressuring deadlines, stressful driving conditions, bad weather, re-locating and changes in your daily routine can also affect your emotions negatively. This might not be so bad if you were binging on a vegetables, eating too many carrots or too much salad. Unfortunately, most often the foods that feed emotions are high calorie, sweet, salty and fatty foods that will sabotage any weight loss efforts.

Emotional eating is a vicious cycle of self sabotage. While you're eating, your focus is on food, distracting you from what's really bothering you. But the distraction is only temporary. When you're done over eating, your focus will return to your problems and whats worse is now you will be dealing with an added stress; the guilt of over eating. Unhealthy overeating leads not only to weight gain but to a destructive pattern of anxiety and self loathing that's tough to break on your own.

Alike any addiction, beating emotional eating can be a terribly difficult thing to do. The first step to over coming the gravitational pull towards food when your upset is understanding why you want to eat. Identify the things that make you feel pressured, sad, angry or anxious. Once you understand your triggers, you can break the cycle and start regaining control of when, why and how you eat. Acknowledge the feeling(s) that you are trying to avoid, as painful as they may be, for you will never get past what you are feeling until you "let it be". It's perfectly normal to have negative feelings, it's an un-avoidable part of life. Whether you allow yourself feel them or not will determine how the feelings will affect you. Consider a the old bandaid analogy: you can rip it off in one quick pull, and there will be pain, it will hurt for a short time but before you know it the hurt passes. The other, less desirable option is to slowly peel the bandaid back, bit by bit, taking small breaks, aggravating every millimeter of the affected area, drawing it out, making the painful experience last much longer. Emotional eating makes the experience last much longer and often times you never actually "get the bandaid off". Dealing with your feelings is step one. Face your issues. Bring them out of your subconscious and into your conscious reality. Accept that you are angry, lonely, stressed out or upset. Try to figure out why you feel the way you do and take steps towards solving the problem. If you can't do it on your own, see someone, a councillor or a therapist. It is their job to help people get through tough times, accept and deal with negative emotions, better understand themselves, the world around them and move on. If you don't deal with the root, the cause of the problem, you will never be able to move through the feelings that it brought on.

Although getting to the root of the problem and dealing with what bothers you is the biggest part of overcoming emotional eating the following tips will help:

Look elsewhere for comfort. Instead of reaching for the ice cream pale or the cookie jar, have a cup of tea, take a walk, phone a friend, watch a movie, listen to music, read or hit the gym.

Take ten minutes to pass. When you have a craving, accept it but don't act on it. Generally with emotional eating, the problem comes when people act immediately on a craving. It you give yourself some time to "think it through" it will pass. Curb cravings with flavoured herbal tea, they are healthy, tasty and will satisfy your oral fixations.

Don't bring junk food home. If it's not there, you can't eat it. If you are craving something un-healthy, you will be less likely to eat it if you have to go to the store to get it.

Make the TV room a "no food allowed" zone. So many people sit and eat mindlessly in front of the television. Avoid over eating by sitting down at the table and eating.

Always leave something on your plate. Even if it's just one bite. This reminds you that you are in control of the food, not the other way around. A little bit of empowerment can go a long way!

Eat right. If you aren't getting what you need from your diet you will be much more likely to emotional eating. Always eat breakfast following which eat a small meal every three to four hours. Your diet should consist of lean proteins, whole grains, fruits and vegetables.

Exercise and sleep. When you are working out and sleeping regularly you feel better and are able to better deal with stresses.

Make a healthy choice. If you must "fill the void" have fruit, vegetables with dip, or unbuttered air popped popcorn.

Stacy Lynn Zeman

Personal Trainer & Group Fitness Instructor

[http://www.thefitnessclubkelowna.com]

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How to Stop Binge Eating - Simple Ways to Deal With Emotional Eating

If you are one of those who are eating because they are bored, depressed or stressed then you are binge eating engaging in emotional eating. Why is it important to stop binge eating? The number one reason why you must stop emotional eating is that it leads to weight gain overtime. A binge can last for short as hours, days or even as long as weeks and months at a time. Binge eating is not good for any one who has lost weight and trying to maintain their current weight or those who are still trying to lose weight. This article will help you know how to stop binge eating.

The first most important thing to do if you must stop binge eating is to get rid of unhealthy junks from your home. One thing you should know is that there is no way you can eat those unhealthy junks if you don't have them handy therefore fill your home with healthy and nutritious foods such as fruits and vegetables. But if you are one of those who are depressed and find solution to depression through binge eating, then eat healthy foods only in order to avoid gain more unwanted extra pounds.

Another way to stop emotional eating is keeping all foods in the kitchen and out of sight. The point is, the more you see foods, the more likely you are to feel hungry. Many people binge eat mainly because they don't pay close attention to know when they are truly hungry or not. Many people who find fun in keeping a bag of chips on their laps or close by while eating will find out that before they know it, the whole bag is gone. The simple reason is that their mind was occupied by the television program which is why it is very important to always keep all foods out of reach if you must stop emotional eating.

Another powerful way to stop emotional eating is drinking more water. It is important that you drink between 8-12 glasses of water daily. Drinking say 10 glasses of water daily will help fill you stomach and also help you deal with false hunger - which leads to binge eating. You don't have to drink 8-12 glasses at once, just spread it throughout the day. Drink more plenty of water between and after meals. One thing you should take note of is that you can not replace water with soda, water is got to be water. Drink water only and not soda.

Boredom or depression leads to binge eating. My suggestion is, whenever you find yourself idle and suddenly feel hungry ( false hunger), find something to get yourself busy and before you know it the false hunger will disappear thereby saving you from binge eating. You can walk out with a friend, play games or read - point is, get busy and the false hunger will disappear.

If you are one of those who find themselves in stressed or emotional state, then find something better and healthier than eating to deal with your pain. You may also talk to a counselor in order to identify the main problem and design a way to solve the problem. Binge eating anytime you are stressed or emotionally disturbed, then you are forming an habit that will at the end become more deadly than you can ever imagine. Don't be one of those who whenever they find themselves binge eating tell themselves, I will stop binge eating when I am no longer stressed or emotional.

People who binge are those who lack self control - do you have to be one of them? Always know that it is only you and you alone that can tell yourself to eat and it is also you and you alone that can stop yourself from binge eating. If you are seriously concerning about putting your weight under control then you must develop a serious mindset, a will power to stop binge eating.

Visit http://onlineweightlossexpert.com to discover how a former food addict overcame binge eating and lost as much as 35 pounds in no time.

http://onlineweightlossexpert.com

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Overcoming Emotional Eating - How to Stop Emotional Eating For Good

We all partake in emotional eating. Whether we are celebrating someone's birthday or mourning the loss of a loved one - food is rarely ever uninvolved. Comfort foods remind us of when we were young and even just the smell can make us feel safe and secure because it is a reminder of our childhood. We often crave these comfort foods most when life gets challenging or stressful.

For most of us we don't realize we are an emotional eater or we don't think it is that serious. For some of us emotional eating doesn't lead to feelings of guilt or weight gain. For some of us we can comfort eat and think its no big deal, but it really is. For others, emotional eating is out of control and something that can rule our lives on a daily basis. This can seem like overwhelming cravings or hunger, but really it is the emotions that we feel making us feel hunger, desperate and adding to our weight.

Comfort food gives us instant gratification and takes away our ability to feel. Digestion and feeling both take up a lot of energy and therefore the body cannot do both. Comfort eating allows us to not have to deal with the emotion as we overload our digestive system with toxic rubbish.

When we feel emotional, it can be normal for us to feel a big empty hole inside of us like we are hungry. Instead of facing what this means - i.e. our emotions, we stuff it down. In society it seems as though we have become scared to feel so much so we don't even realize that we are hiding from our emotions most of the time.

When we don't allow ourselves to feel, we repress it. When you learn and begin to allow yourself to feel the emotion or emotions that arise and stop stuffing down you can feel very overwhelmed. This is because your body will be releasing past pent up emotions and thus it can hit you very hard. This is why it can be hard to let go of emotional eating, because we have to get past that first initial "scare" in order to move on and start learning to appreciate emotions for what they are. Being in the present moment, allowing a feeling to wash over us is wonderful and should be appreciated. The more you allow yourself to be in the present moment and feel, the less emotions will consume you and the less scared you will be of them. The intensity of the emotion will also drop. You will become stronger mentally and physically. You will feel so much better once it's off your chest, instead of suppressing it with food.

Of course getting to this point isn't necessarily simple. Some people can break their emotional eating by nourishing their body properly to get rid of physical cravings and getting support from others when they feel stress or emotional. Essentially replacing the comfort with a person instead of using food.

If you want to break emotional eating, you need to become aware of how and why you eat. Take a day out to observe yourself and what triggers you to eat. Are you eating out of true hunger? Most people don't even have an understanding of true hunger!

If you find yourself eating for emotional reasons, can you stop yourself? Instead of eating can you sit and allow the emotion to wash over you - give yourself time to feel it and move pass it? Or can you turn to someone to talk about how you are feeling?

Don't be hard on yourself. Emotional eating is probably something you have done from a very early age and so is a part of your make up. It is a learnt habit and it is how you have learnt to cope with the world. To undo something so ingrained in you will take time, so if you find yourself eating out of emotion - if you slip up - learn from it, don't feel bad about it just move on. The first step is recognition. Once you know that you are eating out of comfort, you are able to overcome it.

Journaling can also help you pinpoint patterns in your eating. Write down how you feel before, during and after a meal. What triggered your eating - was it genuine hunger?

If you start doing this, you should, within time, be able to overcome your emotional eating and be able to feel and look after yourself properly. If you find it too hard or daunting to battle emotional eating yourself, you could try seeing a counsellor or there is a great program online that can help.

Kelly Aziz is an expert in the field of nutrition and addiction psychology. She is the author of the acclaimed "Free to Eat" Combat Your Cravings Ebook & Natural Weight Loss Program that helps you eat well and combat cravings for good. For more information please visit: Cravings

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Stress Eating - When Emotional Eating Hurts

Recognizing Stress Eating Characteristics

Do you find yourself reaching for a snack when:

you're anxious? You're worried about what might happen, what didn't happen, what you want to happen, what you don't want to happen?
you're bored? There's nothing to do and so much time to not do it in.
you're unhappy? Things just aren't working out the way you want them to, and you're looking for a little comfort.
you're tired? You're dragging and need a boost?

Or do other feelings send you straight to the cookie jar, often without you even realizing it?

You're not alone. In fact, eating in response to emotions is part of normal eating. It's just when emotional eating is your primary -- or even only -- way to cope with stress that it becomes a problem.

That's typical of people who struggle with weight. Whether it be due to feelings of deprivation that send them to food in times of difficulty, or something else we don't understand, people who 'watch their weight' tend to be most susceptible to emotional eating or stress eating. And of course, emotional eating really doesn't take care of the stress. It just adds to it.

Stress Eating Strategies

Consider these steps for taking charge of emotional eating or stress eating.

Keep a food diary of what, when and how much you eat, and how you feel before and after. Note whether you are hungry when you begin eating. Tip: Forget judgments. The purpose isn't to 'control' your eating; it's to discover it. Often we aren't aware when we eat in response to emotions or stress.


Plan ahead. You will likely find there are patterns to your emotional eating or stress eating -- you've developed a habit of eating in response to certain situations. It's time to start a new habit. Plan what you can do differently next time. For example, for mid-afternoon urges that have nothing to do with physical hunger, plan a brisk walk around the building (or wherever you find yourself). To manage feelings of loneliness, keep a list of good friends you can call for a pick-me-up, or seek out places to volunteer that will get you out and feeling better.


Manage stress. Stay active with regular physical activities such as walking, swimming, biking, skiing, dancing, whatever you like that keeps you moving. Add regular relaxation techniques such as mindful meditation, yoga, Tai Chi or the like. Practice breathing -- yes, breathing. Breathing exercises can reduce anxiety, depression, irritability, muscle tension and fatigue.


Eat mindfully. One of the primary principles of mindful eating is to eat when you are hungry, and don't eat when you're not (at least most of the time). Check in before you eat to see if you're physically hungry. If not, then try something else to help you relax.

Usually, stress eating or emotional eating hurts more than it helps. Take steps today to develop new habits that will support your well-being.

Currently the Director of Nutrition at Green Mountain at Fox Run, Robyn has a varied nutritional background, having worked in hospitals, resorts/spas, clinics, wellness centers, schools, with supplementation, and in providing one-on-one counseling. Robyn enjoys making a positive difference in the lives and health of so many women.

Since 1973, Green Mountain at Fox Run has developed and refined a life-changing program exclusively for women seeking permanent strategies for healthy weight loss and health. More than just another weight loss retreat and spa, Green Mountain combines proven science with what works in the real world, to offer an innovative non-diet lifestyle program. Our core weight loss program offers an integrated curriculum of practical, liveable techniques that helps women take charge of their eating, their bodies and their health. Unlike health spas or adult weight loss camps, our approach is not focused on just losing weight but on how to keep it off for a lifetime. Our participants' long-term weight loss success is among the highest of any program, as documented in peer-reviewed scientific literature. Learn more about our fitness and healthy weight loss retreat.

c2007 Green Mountain at Fox Run, Ludlow, Vermont. This information is the property of Green Mountain at Fox Run. Permission to use single copies for personal, noncommercial use is authorized.

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Are Hoodia Diet Pills Useful For Emotional Eating?

If you suffer from emotional eating, you know that you don't eat out of hunger. Instead, you eat because you are depressed, angry, frustrated, and maybe even excited. Your emotions dictate when and how much you eat. Emotional eating often leads to overeating and if it's left unchecked, can result in significant weight gain. To prevent this from happening, it's important to learn how to manage it.

One solution emotional eaters consider is hoodia diet pills. Hoodia gordonii is a natural appetite suppressant with virtually no side effects. The plant is found in the Kalahari Desert of South Africa and also in Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and in some parts of the United States. Just a small piece of the plant can suppress appetite for hours. It is found in powder or liquid form in a variety of diet supplements. The idea behind hoodia diet pills is that if you feel full, you'll eat less. Thus, you'll lose weight - or prevent any weight gain.

While hoodia holds some promise for weight loss, it is ineffective in curbing emotional eating. As I mentioned, emotional eaters don't eat out of hunger. They eat as a result of their emotions. Hoodia gordonii suppresses your physical hunger, not your emotions - or your response to your emotions. This is an important distinction. Hoodia diet pills may make you feel full, but if you suffer from emotional eating, you're going to eat anyway!

The key for emotional eaters is to recognize and understand the relationship between their emotions and their eating habits. Once they do that, they can learn specific strategies to deal with those emotions other than turn to food. Here are a few things that can be done to help manage emotional eating:

1. Write A Food Journal. Most people don't like to journal but it is an important first step to combat emotional eating. For a couple of weeks, keep track of what you eat, when you eat, and why you eat. Take careful notes of the emotions you experience when you eat. When you look back at your journal, you will likely see a pattern. For example, you may notice that you tend to binge eat when you are bored. These trends are important clues as to what triggers your eating habits.

2. Stock Your Kitchen With Healthier Foods. When we eat as a result of our emotions, we tend to turn to comfort foods which are high in fat, sugar, and calories. Ice cream and candy bars are perfect examples. The easiest way to prevent turning to these foods for comfort is to leave them out of your home in the first place. If low fat microwave popcorn (the snack-size bags) is all you have in your kitchen, then that's the only choice you'll have when you are going through an emotional eating battle.

3. Exercise. The next time you are stressed and find yourself heading for the freezer for a scope of ice cream, go for a walk outside or jump on your treadmill if you have one. Also try to get on a daily exercise routine. Regular exercise will help you manage stress more effectively.

4. Relax. Meditation, yoga, and even a nice warm bath can help manage stress and emotions. Turn to these relaxation techniques instead of food.

5. Get Support. Friends and family can help. Surround yourself with positive and supportive people. Online resources such as forums and message boards can be an outlet for support as well. And if necessary, don't be embarrassed to seek professional help and support.

6. Maintain a Balanced Diet. If your diet is a train wreck, it will only make your battle with emotional eating that much harder. For example, if you're not getting enough calories in the day to support your minimum energy needs, you'll be more likely to succumb to emotional triggers. And if you're getting a lot of empty calories such as foods high in sugars, then you'll feel more hungry throughout the day.

Eat small meals throughout the day and try to include more whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and lean protein sources in your diet. These foods are not only healthy for you, but they will give you energy and help you feel fuller throughout the day.

While hoodia diet pills - or any supplements for that matter - aren't effective in combating emotional eating, implementing the steps outlined here are the important first steps in getting your eating habits under control.

Are you overweight and looking for something that works to control emotional eating? Visit http://hoodiaandweightloss.com to read about an effective fat loss training program that can help!

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Recognizing Emotional Eating

You eat when you're hungry. You also eat when you're not. If you find yourself eating when you're stressed, depressed, tired, angry, bored, lonely, frustrated or anxious, you are an emotional eater. It has happened to most of us at one time or another. When it becomes a habit, then you need to do something about it. Once you do, you'll be able to stick to your weight loss goals.

Why are our emotions connected to our eating habits? Simple. For many of us, it began when we were children. We were given a treat to calm us down, make us feel better, and as a reward for good behavior. Fifty years ago, doctors and dentists gave treats to children who were "good" patients. Over the years, we came to associate good feelings with treats. Today, we eat to celebrate special occasions, such as birthdays, anniversaries, promotions, and weddings. It is not uncommon for surviving husbands and wives to hold meal functions after the funeral of a loved one. We eat as a reward for completing something especially hard or challenging. We eat to make ourselves feel good when we are experiencing emotional ups and downs. We also eat when we watch TV, go to the movies or when we are bored. But, as we all know, eating like this continually over time results in weight gain.

Stress is one of the key reasons that people have for using food as a coping mechanism. It increases the level of cortisol in your body and enhances your desire for sweet and salty foods. Cortisol can also slow your metabolism, causing more weight gain than usual. Although there are products available which claim to be able to reduce cortisol levels, there is no clinical proof that they work. More importantly, you need to understand that the trigger to make you want to eat is not the cortisol, but the stress you are experiencing that produces it.

How can you tell emotional hunger from physical hunger? Emotional hunger occurs rapidly in response to a stressful situation. You must eat right away. It is satisfied only by specific foods (cravings). The portions of these foods are unrelated to actual hunger. You'll eat past the point of feeling full. Finally, emotional eating can make you feel guilty, making you want to eat more. These things do not happen when you are physically hungry.

The first step to eliminating emotional eating is first to establish if you are an emotional eater. You need to do some soul searching to discover what triggers your eating habits. It might be your job, home life, relationships or a variety of other factors. Simply put, it is anything that makes you crave food other than when you are actually hungry. Keep a food diary. Write down everything that triggers the desire to eat. Once you recognize the triggers you can deal with them.

Be realistic! Just as it took time to develop the emotional triggers, it will take time to eliminate them. Consider some alternatives to eating when you are stressed. A regular exercise program, walking or jogging can help reduce your stress levels, increase your energy, and make you feel better about yourself. When you see positive results, such as body toning and weight reduction, you'll find the switch from eating to exercise as a coping mechanism much easier. There is truth in the old adage that "music soothes the savage breast." Listen to your walkman or MP3 player as you exercise. Find time to listen to music before you sleep. Your music will make you feel better and may help reduce your need to eat. Try doing some yoga. It can help your mind and body to relax, eliminating stress.

Find alternative food and drinks for eating when you feel stressed. Instead of sugary drinks, try filling up with water. You will feel full. Instead of candies, try fruit. The natural sugar in fruit will satisfy your sweet tooth. Be creative in selecting what you eat and how it is prepared. The same meal(s) prepared the same way will become boring and make you want to snack. There are dozens of food shows on TV. Watch and learn. Many shows will discuss the preparation of wholesome foods and expand the range of foods that you can eat.

Keep a food diary! Record your successes and non-successes alike. Learn from your mistakes. Beware of diet pills and supplements that promise one-step, easy solutions. Their claims are rarely confirmed in clinical trials and most never undergo clinical testing. Join a support group. It helps to have someone you can talk to who understands your problem. They can give you tried and true advice. In time, you'll learn how to control your eating habits and become less dependent upon food as a coping mechanism.

Wayne Mcgregor has studied nutrition and dietetics at university. He holds a diploma in fitness training, and also has a wealth of experience in helping people through their difficult weight loss. He has further experience in help others gain body shape and build muscle. His website provides hundreds of free weight loss articles, including exercise help, sample diets, fitness tools and charts of calorie values in common foods.

http://www.weightlossforall.com

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Emotional Eating - How to Take Charge

Are you sick of yo-yo dieting?

Do you weigh yourself more than once a week?

Do you spend more time thinking about food and diet then you spend thinking about your life?

For many women (and men, but especially women), making peace with food is a crucial step in getting on with their life and creating the life they want to live. Many successful, intelligent, highly talented people tell me that food/weight/diet is the one area of their life in which they feel incapable.

Diet's don't work--they just keep people dieting (and gaining and losing and binging and miserable). Making peace with food not only allows people to begin eating normally again, it really allows you to get on with your life, without food and weight and eating decisions swallowing way-too-much of your energy.

Emotional eating is a term that is used to describe eating in response to our emotions or feelings vs. our physiological hunger.

Top 10 signs that you are eating emotionally:

1. The hunger comes on suddenly and the need to eat feels urgent--physiological hunger comes on slowly and it's okay to delay eating.

2. You keep eating even if you aren't hungry anymore or the hunger doesn't go away even though you are full.

3. You eat to the point of physical discomfort.

4. You don't know whether you were hungry or not when you ate.

5. After you eat you realize you aren't really aware of how much you ate or how it tasted.

6. You have feelings of shame, guilt or embarrassment after eating.

7. You eat because you are bored, tired, lonely, excited.

8. Hunger accompanies an unpleasant emotion--anger, hurt, fear, anxiety. Emotional eating begins in your mind--thinking about food--not in your stomach.

9. You crave a specific food and won't feel content until you have that. If you are eating for physical hunger, any food will fill you up.

10. You keep eating (or grazing, or nibbling) because you just can't figure out what you are hungry for. Nothing seems to hit the spot (physical hunger goes away no matter what food you choose to fill up on).

Mindful eating is a term used to describe a way of eating which uses internal cues about hunger, appetite and fullness to guide our relationship with food. It involves listening to your body to know what and when you need to eat. Dieting, restricting and counting calories or fat grams and focusing on weight are not components of mindful eating.

Mindful eating requires learning what to do when what your body and mind need and want are not food.

If you struggle with emotional eating, here are 3 things you can do to begin to transform your relationship with food:

1. Slow down

Learning and change don't occur when we are operating on auto-pilot. Slowing down allows us the space to make conscious observations and choices about our behavior. Slow the pace of your eating. Put the food on a plate. Don't multi-task while you are eating--give your food your complete attention.

2. Pay attention to hunger

Make it a practice to notice how hungry you are before you start to eat. If you don't feel physically hungry, notice that and begin to investigate what that's about. Notice when you choose to stop eating and how full and comfortable or uncomfortable you are at that time.

3. Ask questions

One of the most powerful things you can do is to work at cultivating curiosity about your feelings and your behaviors. If you find yourself eating because you are stressed, tired, angry or bored, ask yourself what other coping strategies you have for dealing with these feelings. What choices do you have besides eating?

Is emotional over-eating an area you need to work on? Taking control of emotional eating is a process, but one that is well worth it. Taking the time to learn the tools to re-create your relationship with food and your eating allows you to move beyond the restrictive, self-critical diet mentality and get on with our life.

Starting with mindful eating creates a ripple effect--like throwing a pebble into a pond. When you learn to slow down and be mindful of your eating, learn to recognize and respond to your hunger cues and cravings (no small tasks!), you realize that most of the time when you are obsessing about food, you aren't really hungry. When you can figure out what to be mindful of and what to do instead of focusing on food, the ripples lead most people to lives where food takes up so much less time and energy and their minds are freed up to do much more powerful things.

I see people who tackle mindful eating grow and expand in so many different ways when they are no longer trapped in the food-diet craziness. It's so powerful that it's become a major area in which I work with people.

Melissa McCreery, PhD, ACC, is a Psychologist, ICF Certified Life Coach, emotional eating expert, and the founder of http://www.TooMuchOnHerPlate.com, a company dedicated to providing smart resources to busy women struggling with food, weight and overwhelm. Find out more, read tips and articles, and pick up her free audio series: "5 Simple Steps to Move Beyond Overwhelm with Food and Life" at http://www.TooMuchOnHerPlate.com.

Copyright 2009 - Melissa McCreery, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way, and provide full author credit.

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Choose to Lose - The Simplicity of Weight Loss and Understanding Emotional Eating

Permanent Weight loss is not about Diet. If you are looking for the latest pill, magic potion or perhaps some celebrity's amazing secrets, then you've come to the wrong page. However, at some point you will be back because at some point you will realize that unless you address the cause and the truth about your eating habits you will end up on the merry-go-round again. There are many products and services promising fantastic results. Some are good, most are average, usually they cost more than they are worth, and some are outright dangerous. Losing weight is a simple matter of either decreasing calorie intake or increasing energy output. Most people combine both to achieve fast results.

Most people have tried this method often enough to know that it works and I have found that most dieters know more about food than anyone else. My main aim is to address the many causes of weight gain and focus on the creation of new habits in order to bring about permanent weight loss maintenance.

I once worked in a very innovative weight loss clinic. The programme focused on Nutrition, Relaxation Techniques, and Psychology. I was a counsellor at the time and worked there for almost 10 years. Although I was working as an expert, I think I learned more from my clients than I did from my textbooks. I counselled thousands of people over the years and it became very obvious to me that they all had a lot in common. Almost without exception they all had an emotional connection or response to food. Their eating habits had become an automatic response. They all knew a lot about food and calories and they all knew how to lose weight. They had all lost weight and regained it a number of times. This we referred to as the "yo-yo syndrome".

If you happen to be one of the very few people who do not understand diet, I will lightly touch on it to give you a crash course in weight loss. The most important thing I learned about diet in relationship to losing weight is this:

There is no such thing as a fattening food.

No one food is either fattening or slimming. It's this simple: Food contains calories, calories are units of energy. There are no fat calories or thin calories, 2000 cake calories are exactly the same as 2000 celery calories. Calories are burned by the body to produce energy. Just being alive burns calories. However, the more active the body the bigger the burn. If you burn the same amount of calories as you eat then your weight will remain the same. If you eat 3000 calories and burn 2000 then 1000 are stored. (as fat)

It's the same as banking; if you put $100 in your account and only spend $80 then $20 is saved. If you did this for 10 weeks then $200 will be saved. Overweight people do not necessarily eat a huge amount of food or a huge amount of, 'bad food', they simply consume more calories than they need. The unused calories are then stored in the body as fat. If you put too few calories in, the body will take the stored calories (fat) and use that for energy, thereby, creating weight loss.

I am not going to go to any great length to discuss food or diet on these pages. It is my experience that overweight people know as much as I do about food and calories. If you wish to know more about food or nutrition there are many books available. (See the links page.)

One point I do wish to make about food is this: Vitamins, Minerals, Protein, Carbohydrate, Fat, etc. are vital to maintaining health. Foods heal, build and repair. Foods balance your metabolism and produce energy and well-being. You will not get fat from eating cakes and drinking soda, however, if you are putting in calories that have little or no nutritional content, you will become tired, depressed, unmotivated and ultimately, very sick.

When you decide to use fat storage for energy you will lose weight. As in the banking analogy above, put less in and use more, then you will burn up the balance.

Let's say your weight maintenance requires 2000 calories a day. You decide to put in 1000 a day; your body will then rob the fat stores of 1000. This is where food choices are most important. Because you are reducing the calorie intake by 1000, you need to be very diligent about getting the maximum amount of nutritional benefit from the food you eat.

Most diets emphasis fresh fruit, salad, grilled or boiled fish or chicken etc; not because these foods are thinning, but because they have the most amount of food value (nutrition) for the calories.

High nutritional foods give you vitality and well-being. Low nutritional food will make you feel tired, grumpy, and unmotivated (making it more likely to binge eat).

Reducing calories will get you to your ideal weight. The purpose of this page is not to motivate a diet; this is about looking at long-term habits and changing those habits so that your future behaviour will become automatic, without conscious thought or will- power. By following the guidelines below you will lose weight, keep it off, and maintain health, vitality, and well-being.

Your weight can be about many things or a combination of many things. Overeating may be part of the problem, but what is the cause of overeating? Your reasons may be unique, but many of the common causes are:

Boredom,

Depression,

Fear,

Tiredness,

Loneliness,

And Tension.

Many facets are related to body image, self-esteem, and even sexual issues.

You may, on a very logical level, desire a thinner body. However, subconsciously you may associate being normal or comfortable with the shape of your mother, siblings, or friends. If you are a wife or mother yourself, you may subconsciously feel that your body image should not suggest you are a single or available woman. Sometimes becoming a wife and mother creates conflict with being sexually attractive to other men. Maybe being a good mother requires a motherly look?

Some people feel safer or stronger by being bigger and may panic or feel insecure when they have lost weight. Sometimes weight can be thought of as being 'Big'. If you have a history of being bullied or made to feel small in some way you may use this 'Being Big Image'.

Being overweight can often be used to repress sexuality. Teenage girls often find sexual advances intimidating and sub-consciously put on weight as a barrier, which continues throughout life.

If your sex life is unsatisfying you may unconsciously use your weight as a turn off. Maybe you are so self-conscious about your weight that you deny yourself your sexuality. Some women who have experienced sexual abuse will use their weight as a sexual defence or a personal barrier.

Binge eating is usually about punishment; this is very common in high achievers. (Anorexics and Bulimics are often in this category as well.) Bingeing is about trying to get it perfect and then destroying all effort if there is a slight slip up. This is the 'All or None Approach'.

Binge eating is also very common with Pre-Menstrual-Syndrome.

P.M.S. can cause women to be emotionally fragile. Their thinking can be fuzzy, their body may retain fluid meaning their body feels fatter or bloated. There is discomfort in the stomach area and sugar cravings are common. If you are serious about long-term weight maintenance you must be prepared for this. You must plan alternative actions; like being kind to yourself, more flexible, self-loving and forgiving. Keep a calendar and be prepared before you hit crisis point.

Eating Emotions.

Some people find they that have an emotional attachment to food. If you were rewarded with sweets for good behaviour or sent to your room without dinner for bad behaviour, you may very well be treating food as a reward or a punishment. Your eating habits may have become confused with approval or disapproval.

If your family was poor you may equate food with being prosperous or successful.

For most people the stomach area is the emotional centre of the body. Stress, worry, fear and unhappiness will create tightness there. Often overeating is an automatic response to releasing this tension.

Observe yourself for a few weeks and you will notice how easy and common it is to push food down into the tightness of your stomach area when you are stressed.

You may use food to release and stretch the area, this is particularly obvious in a binge eating session.

Food can nurture and food can provide comfort. By detached observation you learn a lot about yourself and your food habits. Watch yourself without judging yourself for a few weeks and you'll be amazed at how often you are feeding your emotions

I am only touching lightly on some of the issues here. I hope this information may lead you to considering some of the many facets that create a habit. Some of the issues will be common to most people or at least make you start thinking about your own unique psychological make up.

By understanding your eating behaviour you will be in a better position to bring about permanent changes and lose weight without great effort.

There are some basic principles that need to be addressed and explored if you sincerely wish to lose weight and keep it off.

Food

Eating well means providing your body with the highest nutritional values. If your nutritional needs are not met, you will quickly become tired, unhappy and unwell. The right foods help to rebuild and repair your body, increase energy, improve immune function, detoxify, build muscle tissue and eliminate waste products. Most importantly, the food you eat can influence how you feel. How you feel influences your behaviour. Within just a week or two you may be happier, more energised, more motivated and slimmer. From this point the food thing becomes easier and easier.

The foods you choose need to be enjoyable. There are many options and a huge variety of choices. Don't eat things you hate just because they are low-cal. The money you save on some things can be put back into more expensive and enjoyable options.

If you reduce the quantity then increase the quality; swap sausage for crayfish, biscuits for mangoes. If you like seafood then buy oysters, prawns, smoked salmon and expensive fish. Don't just eat lettuce and carrots; explore all the fruits and vegetables.

Make your food delicious and special; cook with herbs and spices; garlic, chilli, basil, or coriander etc. Turn ordinary food into something special.

Keep a good veggie soup in the kitchen for those times when you will be tired, cold and starving. Soup is quick, hot, and filling.

Eat less and more often. Large meals zap your energy. Too much food, particularly high in animal fat or too many protein combinations, will almost put you to sleep. Remember that being tired physically or mentally will be the biggest enemy to your success.

Diet Fads.

Dieting is the easiest thing in the world to understand. I have previously pointed out that you need to put fewer calories in or more energy out. Eat high nutrition and eliminate or greatly reduce empty calories.

Eat 5 serves of vegetables a day and at least 2 pieces of fruit. Minimize or eliminate fat, sugar and flour. How simple is that?

All diets will have this information within their content, but to sell a magazine, pill, potion, video or book you will be led into some spin on 'Scientific Research' and some fancy talk justifying its merit. This is not about you, this is about selling a product.

For the Kids.

You do not ever need to have 'Junk Food' in your Home. If you make a conscious decision to eat junk food, then at least make yourself go out of your way to get it. If you need to walk to the shop to get a chocolate then you may just have a little time to re-consider it. No one is so strong willed that they will not go reaching for ice cream on a stinking hot day. Who wouldn't be temped to grab a slice of cake if it's sitting in the fridge every time you open it? If it's in your home you will eat it by impulse.

If you really want it, make a conscious decision to eat it, enjoy it and then forget it.

But don't just grab stuff just because it's there. Almost every dieter I have spoken to says, "I need to have it there for the kids".

The eating habits of your children will become the eating habits they will carry throughout their lives. Do you really want your daughter going through what you have gone through? Are you depriving your child of sweets or are you depriving your child of adult obesity?

If you were giving up smoking or alcohol, would you leave cigarettes and a bottle of scotch around just in case the kids might enjoy them? Would you reason that just because you are giving up smoking it's not fair to make your children go without something they may enjoy?

The habits that kids learn in childhood are the habits they carry for life.

When your 25 yr old son is lying in the Coronary ward of the hospital, are you really going to say, "I thought I was being kind by giving you treats?"

When your 30 yr old Daughter is 100 lb overweight and won't leave the house any more, will you convince her, you were being loving?

Heart disease, Diabetes, Menopause, Obesity and Infertility are now being seen in very young people through-out the Western World and most Doctors will point the finger at one cause: Diet.

Habit.

A habit is a behaviour that is repeated to such a degree that the sub-conscious mind computes the entirety of the information and creates an automatic behaviour. Eating habits are usually formed in childhood and changes will require conscious awareness, alternative reactions, and repetition of new behaviours. Ultimately your new eating habits will become your new automatic behaviour.

The goal is to get to the point where you do not think about food at all. The amount of food and the type of food you are used to are already set habits. The time of day you eat is also a habit.

What you may not have explored before are the emotional habits that drive your decisions. Food can pick you up when you are feeling tired or out of sorts, food can calm you down when stressed or anxious, food can replace boredom or loneliness. Food is used as a celebration, a reward, a comfort and an expression of friendship. Food can also be used as a punishment.

Most people do not break their diets because they are hungry. Most diets are broken because of the sense of losing an emotional crutch. In a way, food has become a lifelong friend and quite often dieting feels like losing a friend.

To successfully change and maintain a habit, you must know what your emotional connections are and have in place better alternatives. Food is a short-term diversion, and within an hour or two your stress or boredom will still be there plus the disappointment and remorse of having failed.

Seriously, food does not reduce anxiety, it will mask it for a while, but unless you pin point your issues you will keep yourself in this cycle.

Stress needs to be addressed at the onset not swallowed at the crisis point.

Don't eat your anger! Consider this:

Every pound of body fat could well be the weight and shape of last year's disappointments.

Body Image.

Your body is the most valuable asset you have. It is smarter than any computer, there is no scientist, doctor or chemist able to heal, repair, or protect you like your own body can, it is your home and your vehicle. There is no person and no thing in this entire Universe that will serve or protect you like your own body. Your life, freedom, happiness, pleasure, vitality, and health are all gifts to you from your body.

The most amazing thing to realize is that most people disrespect and sometimes even hate their bodies. Many people poison their own bodies. Certainly in our culture we have somehow taken on big fat lies about our bodies.

Stop for a moment right now and consider your attitude to your body. Is there a sense of shame? When you think or speak about your body, is there respect and admiration or self-loathing, criticism and indifference?

If you apply truth and logic, you will know (or you will come to know) that your body is the most fascinating, intelligent, and valuable possession you have.

You may spend most of your income on your houses and cars, yet neither will compare to your own body. You probably design, renovate, and maintain your home with unlimited commitment and yet you won't consider how little your body asks and how much your body does.

Your body requires air, water, food, sleep and movement, and that's all!

Think about what your body will do for you in return for these few simple requirements. Do you fill your car with sugar? Is your house filled with toxic matter and garbage? How much time, effort, and thought go into the décor of your home compared to the consideration of your own body? Surely you can see the reality of what I'm saying.

How much body disrespect has your weight created? Think about the unloving thoughts and feelings you have directed at your body.

Weight is simply too much body fat kept in storage; it's no big deal!

Have you ever really stopped to consider the billions of wonderful processes within your body or do you simply focus on fat and divorce your body from yourself?

Eating Lies.

Lies, or BS as we affectionately refer to them, are the single most fattening things you ever swallow.

In the past few decades BS has become fact and fact is no longer considered. We have all been conned into believing that our own self-worth is created by how we look, what we do for a living and how much we earn. Advertising, media and marketing have taken over truth and common sense. If there is a buck to be made, then the marketing people can convince us of anything. Look at how bombarded we have become with the beauty myth. We starve ourselves, surgically remove body parts, and practise acts of self-abuse in the great quest of beauty.

Be Beautiful and you will be happy and valued.

Rubbish! Take 2 minutes to think about the 5 most important people in your life. Consider your reasons for their value, I am sure that being good looking or thin does not even come in to it.

There is a lot of money to be made by others from your believing that you are unattractive, unacceptable or unlovable. Think about it, who in their right mind would buy a $500 bottle of perfume simply to seduce a man? When was the last time you smelled aftershave and were overtaken by sexual desire? We spend thousands of dollars on health spas and convince ourselves that rolling around in mud will make us beautiful. Look in your cosmetic cabinet and see the money spent on all those potions. Do you look like a movie star?

Think about the books, pills, supplements, clubs memberships and machinery you have purchased to lose weight.

Don't allow your self-worth to be manipulated by propaganda and clever marketing.

Stop getting caught up in one or two minor imperfections. Change only the things that you yourself decide to work on. Don't take on other people's neurotic concepts about yourself.

If you lose weight for your own reasons, with your own values and within your own truth, it will be easy.

When losing weight becomes a gift you give yourself, because you love yourself, it will be achieved effortlessly and with pleasure.

Copyright Sonya Green http://www.reinventingmyself.com

Sonya Green West Australian author and webmaster of http://www.reinventingmyself.com Weight loss consultant and personal growth course facilitator.

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Emotional Eating Disorder Treatment

Emotional eating disorder treatment is very possible even though emotion eating is generally not thought of as an eating disorder, as doctors do believe it is similar to other "eating disorders" in that it does relate to an unhealthy relationship with food.

Emotional eating disorder treatment stems from the act of using food to manage emotions and mood. Many of us eat out of emotion, not hunger, but some us are even more vulnerable to emotional eating than others.

If you are wondering if you might be an emotional eater, ask yourself these questions.

Do you find yourself consistently eating when you're not truly hungry?

Do you look at food as "comfort food" when you are feeling sad, lonely, stressed out, or just bored?

Do you think of food as a distraction or a way to escape your current problems?

Do you have trouble differentiating between true hungers and just snacking?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you ought to look into emotional eating disorder treatment.

Emotional eaters tend to obsess about the food they eat and often rely on food to soothe themselves at stressful times and/or use food as a reward, or as a source of comfort during difficult times. For most emotional eaters, food acts as their primary means of distraction or entertainment, taking on a significant role in their life.

If you think you may be an emotional eater, what can you do to cultivate a healthy relationship to food? First, understand that food is an important part of our lives, and it is not unhealthy to have a strong passion, interest, or desire to eat food.

Food is a part of the most important moments of our lives: weddings, birthdays, anniversaries and other important celebrations all use food as an important part of the celebration. This is normal and healthy. However, food should not be used as a tool to soothe hurt feelings or compensate for something that is missing from our emotional lives.

Part of helping to stop the urge of emotional eating is learning to become a more mindful eater.

Have you ever plowed through a bag of chips, yet still felt unsatisfied afterwards? How about gulping down a can of soda with barely getting a taste of it?

Many emotional eaters eat without thought or consideration of what they are eating. As an emotional eater, you must learn new eating habits and skills to help you get past your emotional eating tendencies.

One of these tools is keeping a food journal. Keeping a food journal is an easy way to become more mindful of what you eat and why. Simply buy a small notebook where you can write down everything you eat in the course of one day.

Keep your journal somewhere it will be handy and where you will see it. On the kitchen counter, or posted on the refrigerator are both good locations. Simply write down everything you eat. If you can, write down the time and how you felt at the moment.

This can help you locate any emotional eating patterns that you may have never noticed before. For instance, maybe you tend to snack after getting home from work, as a way to relieve stress. Keeping a food journal is an excellent way to locate such emotional eating patterns.

Once you have charted these patterns, come up with strategies to keep you from emotional eating. Maybe you can take a walk right after work, or prepare a healthy snack that is right at your disposal.

Do you find yourself or anyone around you suffering from an eating disorder and want to know more about the media's influence on eating disorders [http://www.4HealthConcerns.com/EatingDisorders/the-medias-influence-on-eating-disorders.htm], click on over to Mike Herman's site [http://www.4HealthConcerns.com/EatingDisorders] Get my newsletter and FREE ebook in regards to eating disorders and get on the path of correcting the problem.

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Emotional Eating

Occasional emotional eating is normal. Everyone has celebrated with food before, that's what birthday parties, Christmas lunch and BBQ's on SuperBowl Sunday and the Forth of July are all about. But emotional eating can become a serious problem when it leads to negative emotional and physical imbalances in our lives.

Frequent emotional eating can easily become a destructive cycle. Emotional eating becomes entrenched in the lives of its sufferers when they use food to regulate their mood, cope with stress or overcome feelings of anxiety or boredom.

This type of behaviour can easily lead emotional eaters to become overweight or obese because many of them feel hungry most of the time.

"Satisfying" this insatiable hunger with food, many emotional eaters consume far more calories than their body needs and they gain a lot of weight which becomes extremely difficult, if not impossible to lose.

Common signs of Emotional Eating

Here are some common signs of emotional eating:

Eating when not physically hungry.
Eating during times of strong emotions, like anger or depression.
Eating when bored.
Rapid eating.
Eating immediately after arriving home from work.
Eating alone out of embarrassment at the quantity or type of food being eaten.
Eating until uncomfortably full.
Feelings of disgust, depression, or guilt after overeating.

Recognizing emotional hunger

Recognizing emotional hunger (as apposed to real physical hunger) is one of the keys to overcoming or staving off frequent emotional eating.

Some of the characteristics of emotional hunger include:

Emotional hunger comes on suddenly.
One minute you're not hungry at all and the next minute you're starving.
Emotional hunger often craves specific food, like pizza, candy or a cheeseburger.
Emotional hunger begins in the mouth and the mind, not the stomach.
Emotional hunger often accompanies an unpleasant emotion.
Emotional hunger involves automatic or absent-minded eating.
Emotional hunger isn't satisfied when you're full.
Emotional hunger makes you feel guilty.

Are you an emotional eater?

To find out if you might be an emotional eater, rate yourself on the following statements about your current lifestyle (adapted from the book Fattitudes: Beat Self-Defeat and Win Your War with Weight, by Jeffrey R., Ph.D. Wilbert, Norean K. Wilbert, St Martin's Press, NY, 2000.) using the scale:

0 = Never

1 = Rarely

2 = Sometimes

3 = Often

4 = Almost Always

1. I've try to lose weight, but always fail.

2. I don't feel in control of my eating.

3. I often eat when I'm not hungry.

4. I eat food when I'm stressed or upset.

5. I eat food for pleasure or as a reward.

6. I think about food a lot.

7. I can't stay on track when dieting.

8. I binge eat.

9. I feel ashamed of myself and my eating habits.

10. Food helps me deal with feelings.

Add up your TOTAL SCORE

Interpretation:

0 - 10. It is very unlikely that you are an emotional eater.

11 - 20. You engage in some emotional eating but it's unlikely that it is harmful.

21 - 30. You are a moderate emotional eater and should consider professional assistance.

31 - 40 You are a heavy emotional eater. Professional assistance is highly recommended.

What to do if emotional eating is a problem

Here are some suggestions that may help you overcome problematic emotional eating:

Become aware of your motivations for wanting to eat.
When you feel like eating, ask yourself if you could possibly be upset instead of hungry.
Keep believing in yourself. You are in control and have the power to make changes in your life.
Develop new mood regulation strategies. For example, share your problems when anxious and exercise when you're bored.
Remember support is available. If you need to, find a weight loss class, hire a lifestyle coach or engage a licensed therapist.
Focus on the things that matter. Like taking care of yourself, improving your emotional well-being, eating well and exercising.
Be wary of using diets. Dieting can lead to more emotional eating and won't help you to address the underlying reasons for being overweight.
Love yourself for who you are and forget about trying to be perfect.
Don't swallow your emotions for the sake of sparing others from getting upset. If they've upset you, let them know about it and tell them that you won't tolerate that kind of behaviour in the future.
Make yourself - not a diet - responsible for what you eat.
Focus on the cause and solution rather than the affect. Constantly focusing on the negative symptoms of the problem won't help you solve them. Focus on what you're going to do about your current circumstances rather than the circumstances themselves.
Take responsibility for your life, stop thinking about food and LIVE!

Conclusion

Remember, we're all emotional eaters to some extent. It's nearly impossible not to be in America, where eating is an integral part of our celebration rituals and a fundamental aspect of our family and social life. But when emotional eating interferes with your health and happiness you know it's time to do something about it and the sooner the better.

Scott Haywood is the editor of Australia's leading weight loss and healthy lifestyle website weightloss.com.au. Weightloss.com.au is a free weight loss resource and weight loss products guide.

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How to Eat to Lose Weight and Stop Emotional Eating

Losing weight should be easy! It's a simple calculation based on taking in less energy that you expend. So why is it so hard for most people to achieve and, more importantly, maintain weight loss?

In this article we will look at the problem holistically, i.e. what to eat to lose weight and how to eat to lose weight. Why both? Well they just aren't the same things. One deals with the physical needs of your body whilst the other deals with the psychological effects of eating and dieting, and it is this that you need to change if you have any hope of effectively losing and maintaining your weight loss.

What to Eat to Lose Weight (Basic Guidelines)

Eat three, balanced meals (containing protein, fat and carbohydrate) per day with an emphasis on nutrient dense foods designed to improve nutritional and biochemical status e.g. plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, complex carbohydrates, wholegrains, quality protein, pulses, beans, nuts, seeds and small amounts of oils for essential fats.
Include 2-3 small snacks daily of fruit and vegetables with proteins (e.g. nuts, seeds or cheese) and avoid snacking on sweets or refined carbohydrates.
Treat food as medicine and eat at least every 3-4 hours to balance blood sugar and insulin output. Three to four hours between meals and snacks matches the liver's capacity to maintain blood glucose levels with stored carbohydrates (glycogen). Depletion of glycogen is associated with feelings of hunger. Structured eating in this way often helps eliminate overeating and weight gain and allows the body to find its natural weight.
Ensure that each meal includes 20g of quality protein from organic meat and poultry, fish, eggs, low-fat dairy products, pulses, tofu and nuts. This helps to reduce cravings for refined carbohydrates and improves mental and emotional functioning. Without sufficient protein, the body is unable to provide sufficient muscle, hormones and neurotransmitters.
Include some 'good fats' each day for health and to manage appetite e.g. deep-ocean, oily fish (Remember: SMASHT - Salmon, Mackerel, Anchovies, Sardines, Herring, Tuna), nuts, seeds, olive oil, avocado. Tip: keep a mix of 4 seeds in a jar in the fridge (hemp, flax/linseed, pumpkin & sunflower) and use as a seed mix. Grind fresh each day in an electric coffee grinder. Have 2 dessertspoonfuls each day.
Eat unlimited amounts of green vegetables with protein foods and include some red, orange, purple and yellow vegetables as well. Vegetables supply carbohydrates for energy and are also a very rich source of minerals and phytonutrients. They also provide enzymes, vitamins and some protein and help to sustain the alkaline balance of the body.
If dysbiosis and low blood sugar are not an issue, eat two to three raw fruits per day. Fruit provides more digestive enzymes than any other food because we tend to eat it raw. Cooking kills enzymes in foods. Fruit is also key for its fibre, vitamin and mineral content and it supports the alkaline balance in the body.
Ensure adequate fluid intake (1-1.5 litres per day).
Eat enough - often people will not start to lose weight until they are eating sufficient in terms of calorie intake as the body will seek to 'hold on' to whatever is available where calorie intake is very low.
Avoid or reduce sugars, refined foods, additives, white flour products and stimulants such as tea, coffee and alcohol wherever possible.
Eat foods high in the amino acid tryptophan - chicken, turkey, tuna, kidney beans, oats, lentils, chickpeas and seeds. This can help to raise serotonin levels enhancing mood and controlling cravings.
Eat a good quality breakfast and ensure to eat some protein food.
Eat organic foods where possible. They are usually richer in minerals than other produce and do not contain pesticides and chemical residues. They also taste better.

How to Eat to Lose Weight (Basic Guidelines)

The problem people have when they lose weight is that they tend to deny themselves, restrict food, and change their diet for a fixed number of months to achieve weight loss. The problem is that they then go back to their old ways and wonder why they put it all back on, and usually more! They need to learn how to eat to lose weight.

There are a number of behavioural and psychological changes that you need to make to effectively lose weight and maintain it and if you're quite overweight you might need specialist help to overcome emotionally charged overeating issues such as comfort eating, binge eating, and compulsive eating. According to the National Weight Control Registry in the USA (a register of people who have maintained a large amount of weight for five years and more without fluctuations) there are seven principles that you need to incorporate into your daily life. Here are some examples of how you can begin to incorporate these five principles to lose weight and maintain it.

Plan ahead: When you're trying to lose or maintain weight planning out what you are going to eat is really important. If you don't know what you're going to be eating for that day and have the stock in your cupboards you could be caught out and faced with the situation of having nothing suitable to eat when it comes round to meal times. This is when everything can fall apart and you just reach for whatever food is in the house. So, if you want to be a weight loss success plan ahead, ideally for a few days, and buy in the ingredients for the meals that you're going to have. Even better, make some of your meals in bulk and freeze them so that you've always got a ready supply of nutritious food.
Become a problem solver: Becoming a problem solver is an important key to weight loss success. Like planning ahead, if you don't become a problem solver you set yourself up to fail. Take the following scenario as an example; you're trying to lose weight and so far so good but you've been invited out by friends for dinner and although you want to go you're worried about breaking your diet. Your friend always cooks lovely food and there's always a wonderful dessert and you don't want to offend her by turning it down when it is offered. What do you do? If you're not a problem solver you might just go along and break your diet and even eat more than normal because the 'I've ruined my diet I might just as well enjoy myself' dialogue comes into play. However, if you are a problem solver you might call your friend in good time and explain that you'd love to come to the dinner party but you're trying to lose weight and hope that she won't be offended if you turn down dessert. You might be surprised and find that on the night there's a lovely array of healthy alternatives for you to choose from!
Make small changes: Rather than making drastic changes to your lifestyle and eating make smaller changes because you have a much greater chance of making them permanent. For example: choose a healthy topping for your baked potato rather than cheese or tuna mayo; eat oven chips (fries) rather than ones that have been fried; have a poached egg instead of a fried egg, and so on.
Have No Specific Weight Goal: We diet to lose weight and most of us have a 'magic number' that we want to attain, whether that's a particular dress size or a particular weight. So instead of eating to lose weight, eat to become healthy, and rather than weighing yourself measure your success by how much more quickly you can walk or how much more comfortable your clothes are.
Always Have Breakfast: This is an essential requirement if you want to lose weight. Skipping breakfast sets you up to fail if you want to lose weight. Skipping breakfast slows down metabolism and can lead to cravings in the afternoon and evening. Eating more protein for breakfast can often really help to reduce cravings and compulsive eating.
Get Active: You can't be active when you eat but you can certainly be active after you eat. There is some research to suggest that people who have weight issues often do not like preparing food that is messy to avoid cleaning up afterwards. Instead of popping that ready meal into the oven cook from scratch and rather than avoiding doing the washing up get the kitchen cleaned before you sit down for the evening. There's strong evidence that activity rather than exercise is the key to long-term weight loss and maintenance so use the stairs instead of the lift!
Eats Foods With High Nutritional Density: Eating foods that are low in nutrition such as white bread, cakes and biscuits not only sets you up for mood swings and binges but it piles on the weight. Eating foods that are highly nutritious such as whole foods and superfoods, will help to turn your body into a fat burning, rather than a fat making, machine. So eat for optimum nutrition and watch the weight fall off.
Keep a Food Diary: Keeping a food diary to help you keep track of what you are eating and to also help you to see which foods help to sustain your energy levels, which foods can be linked to cravings, as well as to help you link your emotions with your eating behaviours

Learning how to eat to lose weight is a complex process and there are of course many other behavioural changes and psychological techniques that you might need to learn in order to lose weight and maintain it which might include stress reduction, mindfulness, mindful eating, behavioural flexibility and so on, but these seven principles are the common denominators for weight loss success and will help to stop emotional eating.

Rebecca Farnham is a Health Coach at Comfort Eating Coach specialising in helping women overcome emotional eating and lose weight. For more information about how to stop emotional eating you can visit http://www.comforteatingcoach.com

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

The Psychology of Food Cravings and Emotional Eating

Why Do We Have Food Cravings?

One important factor which may influence appetite control is the notion of food cravings. This overwhelming urge to consume a particular food appears strong in overweight dieters, and many theories has posited why this is so. The nutritional and homeostatic role of food cravings is described by physiological theories and explains why cravings might be more present in people who are deprived of food. The psychoactive abilities of certain foods to trigger cravings are likened to a self-medication behaviour and thought to relieve a central serotonin deficits. Psychological theories stress the role of negatives emotions (e.g. anger) as triggers for cravings and learning theories claim that cravings are a positive learnt response to cues (sensory, situational) and giving into a craving results in a pleasurable consequence. What is evident here is that food cravings are a multi-dimensional and complex occurrence, one which possibly involves aspects of all of the proposed theories.

Whatever the reason, it is suggested that food cravings frequently lead to consumption of the craved food and elevated Body Mass Index is associated with food intake and preference for high fat foods. Even in non-clinical samples, food craving has been found to be related to body weight, suggesting the significant role of craving in food consumption. Early identification of elevated body mass indexes (BMI), medical risks, and unhealthy eating and physical activity habits may be essential to the future prevention of obesity. One crucial question is the role food cravings may play in maintaining excessive eating patterns observed in other problems with eating behaviours: binge eating, bulimia, and obesity.

Food Cravings and Weight Gain: The Missing Link

There is thorough and outstanding evidence regarding the increase in worldwide rates of obesity and the projected outcomes if this is not addressed. Children in particular are noted as being especially at risk of future long term health problems. While dietary restraint, more nutritious eating habits and physical exercise have always been purported to be the answer to the obesity crisis in adults, adolescents and children, long term meta analysis and follow-up studies indicate that weight loss is not maintained (and indeed the more time that elapses between the end of a diet and the follow-up, the more weight is regained). Unfortunately, several other studies indicate that dieting is actually a consistent predictor of future weight gain.

A recent study conducted by Patricia Goodspeed Grant (2008) involved investigating the psychological, cultural and social contributions to overeating in obese people. She found that eating for comfort for the morbidly obese is rooted in using food to manage experiences of emotional pain and difficult family and social relationships. Her participants reported that what had been missing from all treatment programs they had tried was the "opportunity to work on the psychological issues concurrently with weight loss".

It appears that a missing link in the treatment of overweight and obesity is this concept and issue of addressing the psychological contributors or emotional drivers that are leading people to overeat. Relying on willpower and education is clearly not enough.

Motivation Issues

Humans are only motivated by feelings (i.e. sensations). There are basically three types of feelings; pleasant, neutral and unpleasant. The motivation we get from the unpleasant feeling is to move towards a feeling we do not have, but do want. We move away from the unpleasant feeling by replacing it with a different pleasant (or neutral) feeling.

Hunger, is an unpleasant sensation (for most people) and is relieved by the pleasant sensation (for most people) of eating and the taste of food. Like other basic functions, this is so that we can survive, individually and as a species. Most of us prefer pleasant sensations over unpleasant sensations. But pleasant sensations are not always matched with the outcome that they were designed for. Many people eat, not because they need nutrition, but because they feel an unpleasant emotion, like rejection, loneliness, distress, depression, fear, betrayal, worthlessness, defeat, helplessness or hopelessness. This emotional over-consumption of food often leads to fat-gain and other health problems. This can then create a vicious cycle of more emotional eating to manage the emotional consequences of becoming overweight and unhealthy.

For children, excessive eating and binging are often a consequence of boredom and habit behaviours. Food or drinks are used to relieve the monotony. They can also be used as a coping strategy to deal with problems arising from anxiety, depression, stress and conflicts. Although they may feel comforted after consuming an amount of food, the person has not dealt with the underlying cause of these problems. This sets up a reward cycle of using food to get a better feeling. Consequently, there is no reason why they will not reoccur in the future. This can become a vicious cycle.

If a parent deals with their own emotional issues by eating and or over eating it is highly probable that the child will also do so. This pattern for coping is being modelled. Parents often find it difficult to tolerate their child's disappointment or pain and are motivated to take this away. If food is used regularly as a means of doing this, for example, "Never mind not getting invited let's go get a chocolate sundae," a parent can be setting up a cycle of soothing uncomfortable feelings with the pleasure of food. This again can set up a pattern of eating to manage feelings. This is particularly a problem when there is no real discussion of the child's pain or disappointment and instead food is just offered.

Have a think right now: why is it that you want to stop emotionally eating? You might immediately know, or you might have to think for some time. Finish this sentence out loud:

When I stop eating in response to my emotions, I will...

Your answer/s will give you some insight into how you are motivated.

If you are motivated towards pleasurable outcomes, you might have said things like:

• When I stop eating in response to my emotions I will be able to buy clothes 'off the rack' in the shops

• When I stop eating in response to my emotions I will be happy

If you are motivated away from negative outcomes your answers may reflect:

• When I stop eating in response to my emotions I will not be uncomfortable in my clothes anymore

• When I stop eating in response to my emotions I will be able to throw away my 'fat' clothes

You have probably noticed the patterns here. Moving towards pleasurable outcomes or away from a negative one, affects how we think, feel and behave. You might find that you have a combination of moving towards some outcomes and away from others. This is fine too. More often than not, we are primarily subconsciously motivated in one direction.

Motivation has also been shown to exist either as an internal characteristic or as an external factor in people in general. Internal motivation is linked to neurological circuitry in the left prefrontal lobe; the feelings of accomplishment, passion for work, excitement in our day all link to the left prefrontal cortex. It is this area of the brain, which governs motivating behaviour. It discourages pessimistic feelings and encourages action. The reality is that some people naturally possess a high level of this internal motivation; those who focus on the internal feelings of satisfaction they will attain despite any difficulties they face along the way. However others require more than this.

External motivation is any external influence or stimuli to generate positive behaviour. These might include monetary rewards such as bonuses, tangible recognition or honour, prizes, or other incentives. The reality is, despite such rewards motivating behaviour in the short term, it has been shown that no amount of bonuses or acknowledgment will inspire people to use their fullest potential to keep moving towards their goals. So what does it take?

You might have already noticed with exercise that no matter how many personal trainers you hire, how many motivational exercise tapes you purchase or classes you attend, eventually you lose interest and go back to your old behaviour. This is because all of those things are forms of external motivation. There is nothing wrong with them - some people thrive on external motivation and do very well with it. However, sometimes your behaviour does drop off when you cease getting the drive from an external source. Let's face it, if you had a personal trainer at your door every single day for the rest of your life and a personal chef in the kitchen preparing nutritious balanced meals forever, then yes, you would be motivated to lose weight and become fitter. Such full time assistance is not a reality for most of us.

Sometimes people FIND the internal source of motivation they need to lose weight from an external source and this can help them get started. Here's Mercedes' story.

Mercedes had tried to lose weight for years. She was a clerk in the local library and thoroughly enjoyed her work and her food. She noticed over years of living a fairly sedentary lifestyle, with little exercise and a whole lot of reading in her spare time that the pounds had crept on. She was an accomplished cook and took pleasure in preparing meals for herself out of gourmet magazines from the library. She wasn't really worried about her weight but it was always in the back of her mind that she should do something about it. It wasn't until she noticed a regular visitor to the library every evening that she paid attention.

Jon was studying for his final exams in accountancy and because he still lived at home with his rowdy younger brothers and sisters, he began taking to the library every evening for the peace and quiet. He found Mercedes to be very knowledgeable and helpful with finding him necessary reference programs and they struck up a friendly rapport. Mercedes noticed that she started to look forward to her time every evening chatting to Jon and after the first compliment he made about her hair, she proceeded to take more time with her appearance. Jon was really the first man who had ever noticed her as a woman. Unbeknown to him, Mercedes began watching her meals and even started parking her car further from work to get some exercise each day, in the hope of slimming down.

Mercedes and Jon remained good friends and while nothing particularly romantic ever happened between them, Mercedes felt inspired to continue her grooming routine and eventually met her future husband while power walking on the weekend. He had lived two doors from her for years and they had never noticed each other!

Are you motivated toward a reward? Or away from a painful outcome?

Your subconscious mind is actually equipped to lead you towards something you want, rather than away from something you don't want.

The same happens when we need to achieve a goal such as weight loss - we need to look where we are going. When focusing on losing weight most people are focused on wanting to move away from what they don't want, or the negative situation. Rather than focus on wanting to loose weight to move away from your current position, focus on the positives of becoming slim, healthy or fitter. This is moving towards the positive rather than moving away from the negative.

Here is a simple exercise which will prove to you your subconscious is on the alert 24 hours a day: on the way home today, choose a make, model and colour of vehicle- anything will do. Start to think about it consciously. And then start to look around and see how many you can count on the way home. Really look hard - you will find them everywhere! How was it that on the way to work you didn't notice any? You were not tuned in, that's all.

What's Driving Your Eating?

Many people suffer from food cravings at times when they are having a strong feeling. Others report a history of feeling criticized and judged by important others for their choices or the way they look, eat or feel. Feelings of shame and guilt about eating behaviours, looks or perceived lack of control are also common for people. Others report anger and annoyance that to be the shape they want, they have to eat differently to others and feel deprived (victimized/ not normal). Many are afraid to change their shape because this has helped them hide or protected them from hurt or intimacy. Many have tried changing their body shape so many times they do not believe they can succeed, or feel undeserving of success because they have a deeper sense of unworthiness.

Emotional Eating

Emotional eating is the practice of consuming quantities of food -- usually "comfort" or junk foods -- in response to feelings instead of hunger. Experts estimate that 75% of overeating is caused by emotions. Many of us learn that food can bring comfort, at least in the short-term. As a result, we often turn to food to heal emotional problems or take away discomfort. Eating to self soothe becomes a habit preventing us from learning skills that can effectively resolve our emotional distress.

Depression, boredom, loneliness, chronic anger, anxiety, frustration, stress, problems with interpersonal relationships and poor self-esteem can result in overeating and unwanted weight gain. There are 2 types of emotional eating in which people engage:

1. Deprivation-sensitive binge eating: appears to be the result of weight loss diets or periods of restrictive eating (yoyo dieters)

2. Addictive or dissociative binge eating: process of self-medicating or self-soothing with food unrelated to prior restricting (have you ever eaten a whole packet of something, before you realised it was gone?)

By identifying what triggers our emotional eating, we can substitute more appropriate techniques to manage our emotional problems and take food and weight gain out of the equation. Situations and emotions that trigger us to eat fall into five main categories:

1. Social. Eating when around other people. For example, excessive eating can result from being encouraged by others to eat; eating to fit in; arguing; or feelings of inadequacy around other people.

2. Emotional. Eating in response to boredom, stress, fatigue, tension, depression, anger, anxiety, loneliness as a way to "fill the void" or in response to feelings arising from memories of past negative experiences.

3. Situational. Eating because the opportunity is there. For example, at a restaurant, seeing an advertisement for a particular food, passing by a bakery. Eating may also be associated with certain activities such as watching TV, going to the movies or a sporting event.

4. Thoughts. Eating as a result of negative self-worth or making excuses for eating. For example, scolding oneself for looks or a lack of will power.

5. Physiological. Eating in response to physical cues. For example, increased hunger due to skipping meals or eating to cure headaches or other pain.

Some useful questions to ask yourself that might help you find some of your beliefs or issues include:

• Do you remember any times you were ashamed about your body or had others say things about you that you felt ashamed of yourself?

• When was the last time you were at your goal weight/shape? What was happening at that time?

• What are your attitudes about overweight people? What were the attitudes of important others about overweight people?

• What patterns exist in your family about food? Was it used to show love or as a punishment?

• What statements do you say to yourself that are self defeating, hurtful and holding you back from getting what you want. Some examples include:

- It's in my genes,

- I've never been slim so I can't be

- I'll always be fat

- I'm the fat funny one

- If I let anyone get close to me they will hurt me

- My friends/family won't like me anymore

It is useful to ask yourself:

1. What are the benefits of staying overweight?

2. What do you have to give up to achieve your goal?

3. Do you use food as your main reward either for yourself or your children?

Read these questions out loud then sit quietly and listen to what you say to yourself. Write down your answers. Remember, the more honest you are with your thoughts and feelings, the more profound change you are able to achieve.

Recent Research Tackling Food Cravings!

A recent randomised clinical trial tested whether The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) could reduce food cravings in participants under laboratory-controlled conditions. Ninety-six overweight or obese adults who were allocated to the EFT treatment or 4-week waitlist condition. The waitlist condition received treatment after completion of the test period. Degree of food craving, perceived power of food, restraint capabilities and psychological symptoms were assessed pre- and post- a four week EFT treatment program, at 6- and 12-month follow-up. EFT was associated with a significantly greater improvement in food cravings, the subjective power of food and craving restraint than waitlist from pre- to immediately post-test. At 6-months, an improvement in food cravings and the subjective power of food after treatment was maintained and a delayed effect was seen for restraint. At 12-months an improvement in food cravings and the subjective power of food after treatment was maintained, and a significant reduction in Body Mass Index (BMI) occurred from pre- to 12-months.

EFT as a therapy belongs to a group of therapies termed 'energy psychology' (EP) and similar treatments would include Thought Field Therapy (TFT), EMDR, and Tapas Acupressure Technique (TAT). EFT was originally designed as a simplified version of TFT. Based on acupuncture principles, Callahan (2000) suggested that a brief tapping procedure may be successfully used to treat almost any emotional disorder. Specific problems have a tailored procedure and after diagnosis, the process involves tapping on specific meridian points on one's body while focusing the mind on the source of the distressing situation. The tapping is suggested to create energy.

It seems EFT can have an immediate effect on reducing food cravings, result in maintaining reduced cravings over time and impact upon BMI in overweight and obese individuals. This addition to weight loss/dietary programs may result in assisting people to achieve and maintain reduced food cravings and lose weight.

References:

Callahan, R. (2000). Tapping the healer within: Using thought field therapy to instantly conquer your fears, anxieties, and emotional distress. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Goodspeed Grant, P. (2008), Food for the Soul: Social and Emotional Origins of Comfort Eating in the Morbidly Obese in Psychological Responses to Eating Disorders and Obesity (pgs 121-138) Wiley and Sons, UK.

Dr Peta Stapleton

Terri Sheldon

Dr Peta Stapleton and Terri Sheldon are two well known Australian psychologists with 37 years of combined clinical experience. They have developed the SlimMinds Program that teaches the latest effective psychological techniques to break out of that YoYo failure cycle that so often occurs with traditional weight loss programs. See http://www.slimminds.com and http://www.foodcraving.com.au.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.