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.
