High Calorie Emotionsby Sonya Green

Weight Loss and body Image
Permanent Weight loss is not about Diet. 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. My main aim is to attack the many causes of weight gain and focus more on the creation of new habits to bring about permanent weight loss maintenance.

There is no such thing as a fattening food.

No one food is either fattening or slimming. It’s this simple: Food contains calories and 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).

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.

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.

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
Tiredness
Loneliness
and Tension.

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

Body image often relates to many weight issues. You may, on a very logical level, desire a thinner body. However, sub consciously 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, as a wife and mother, conflicts with the body image of a single and available woman. Sometimes becoming a wife and mother creates conflict with being sexually attractive to other men.

Some people feel safer or stronger by being bigger and may panic or feel insecure when they have lost weight.

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.

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

Binge eating is also very common with Pre menstrual -syndrome. PMS can cause women to be emotionally fragile, their thinking can be fuzzy, their body can retain fluid, which means 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 and being 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 were poor you may acquaint food with being prosperous or successful.

For most people the stomach area is the emotional centre of the body. Stress, worry, and unhappiness will create tightness here; often overeating is an automatic response to releasing this tension. Interestingly, some people find that under stress or in a state of unhappiness, they actually can’t eat at all. Usually overweight people, 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 judgement for a few weeks and you’ll be amazed at how often you are feeding your emotions.

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 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.

Eat smaller and more often. Large meals zap your energy. Too much food, particularly high 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.

P.M.T.
Pre Menstrual Tension. Ah! That time of month.
PMT can create the monster. Some women go through hell at this time of month. You must tune in to your body and get to know the signs. A few women have little discomfort for a day or two before a period but for many women PMT can bring about a week or even two weeks of emotional chaos.
Fluid retention (bloating) is very common and extremely frustrating to a diet. This is the time when you feel fat, your thinking is fuzzy, your emotionally touchy, little annoyances become major frustrations, you face breaks out, your hair is lifeless and your craving sugar, bread and salt. Headaches and stomach pain is common, Muscles feel achy, feet swell and you feel Tense and stressed out.
Use this time to do something special or simply pull back and only do the absolute necessities. Pamper your self a little (or a lot) If you break the diet be kind gentle and forgiving.

Fluids
Fluid retention is not caused by drinking too much fluid. Fluid can fluctuate due to hormone levels, too much salt or too little exercise. Often the body retains fluid in people who habitually don’t drink enough. People often mistake dehydration for hunger, water helps digestion and elimination. Dehydration can cause headaches, fatigue and constipation. It’s also great for your skin.

BREATHING.
Many people use food as a stress buster. If stress is left unchecked it will build and accumulate. Quite often we do not even realize we are stressed until it is too late. It’s very difficult to reduce stress when we are stressed. Deep slow breathing must be incorporated into your weight loss plan. By deep breathing through out the day you will be able to diffuse stress and prevent the build up.

Keeping up your oxygen levels further helps by improving digestion and releasing toxins. When you are stressed your metabolism is impeded, your muscles tighten and you become exhausted.

Breathing will keep your energy levels up, and Improves your sense of well-being. You may already have a habit of stretching your stomach muscles by eating, why not replace this habit with stretching and releasing the stomach muscles with calorie fee air?

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 will require conscious awareness, alternative reactions and repetition of new behaviours. Ultimately you will bring your new eating habits into an automatic behaviour.

The goal is to get to a point where you do not think about food at all. 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 be an expression of love and friendship. Food can also be a punishment.

Don’t eat your anger. Consider this. Every pound of body fat could well be the weight and shape of last years disappointments!

CREATIVE VISUALIZATION
This is the easiest and most effective way to bring about permanent change. It is an excellent technique for exploring the sub conscious mind; It’s deeply relaxing as well as energizing. Most importantly it can greatly lock in new habits in the fastest easiest way possible.

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 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 or indifference?

If you apply truth and logic you can only know that your body is the most fascinating intelligent valuable possession you have.

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, its no big deal. Have you ever really stopped to consider the millions of wonderful processes within your body or do you simply focus on fat and divorce your body from yourself.

In summary I would like to simplify the most important aspects of permanent weight loss maintenance.
1. Make your decisions based on your own truth.
2. Choose food based on high nutritional content.
3. Breathe deeply and often.
4. Practise creative visualization daily
5. Eliminate or minimize fear stress and worry
6. Replace eating with the pursuit of other pleasures.
7. Observe your emotional responses and habits.

Excerpt from www.reinventingmyself.com by Sonya Green


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