What You Need to Know to lose weight without dietingWritten by Michelle May M.D.
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You might believe that a person who eats instinctively has been blessed with willpower and a great metabolism. But truth is, we were all born Instinctive Eaters. Its just that many of us “unlearned” our natural ability to know how much to eat. The good news is that you can relearn those skills if you are willing. I did! Here are some important steps to get you started. 1.Let go of idea that there is a perfect diet that will finally solve your problems. The answer lies within you. 2.Whenever you have an urge to eat, instead of focusing on food, first ask yourself, “Am I hungry?” Remember that hunger is a physical feeling. It is not same thing as appetite, cravings, or desire to eat. 3.If you are hungry, remember that there are no “good” or “bad” foods. You are less likely to overeat certain foods if you know that you can have them again when you really want them. 4.Stop eating when hunger is gone but before you feel full, even if there is food left. Give up your membership to Clean Plate Club! 5.If you are not hungry, ask yourself if something in your environment triggered your urge to eat and what you could do to reduce trigger or distract yourself from it. For instance, could you put candy dish out of sight or do something else for a while until you are actually hungry? 6.If there was an emotional trigger, ask yourself what you could do to better cope with that emotion. For instance, if stress triggered your urge to eat, could you try a relaxation exercise instead? 7.Don’t expect yourself to be perfect—it is not possible or even necessary. By relearning to eat instinctively, you will see that eating to satisfy hunger is pleasurable and that it is good to eat foods that you enjoy. You will find that meeting your other needs in appropriate ways will bring balance and joy to your life. By learning these important skills, you will reach a healthier weight and a healthier lifestyle—without dieting!
Michelle May, M.D. is a practicing Board Certified Family Physician with expertise in the cognitive-behavioral aspects of weight management. She is the author of Am I Hungry? What To Do When Diets Don’t Work in collaboration with a Registered Dietitian and Psychologist. Visit her website www.AmIHungry.com for free health information, or sign up for fun and interactive workshops to help you achieve your health and weight loss goals.
| | Mistaking HungerWritten by Caryl Ehrlich
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If you do not eat something when you normally would have, you might be particularly motivated to reach your goal weight for an upcoming wedding, class reunion, or birthday celebration. If you use will power, self-control, good intentions, and inner resolve, you’ll find results temporary. The next time same circumstances or food appear, you may be a little less motivated or a little more angry, lonely, tired, or bored, and you’ll probably eat food, only to reinforce your old eating behavior, which is what caused you to gain weight in first place. There is no good intention, self-control, inner resolve or will power sharp enough to cut through layers and tentacles of your very practiced and polished ritualized eating habits – habits gone haywire. If you ever had good intention, self-control, will power or inner resolve, you would have used it 5, 10, 20, 30, or 50 pounds ago. If, however, you begin to change your overreaction to food by doing something else, you might end up eating object of your desire, but, you’ll most likely not put as much on your plate, you’ll eat a little less, stop a little sooner, and eat it a little less intensely than if you had not attempted some repatterning techniques. The first time you do it new way, it might feel awkward and uncomfortable. It is different from what you’ve done in past. But no matter how uncomfortable you feel at beginning of creating a new habit, nothing is as uncomfortable as having to choose what to wear based on how much of your body it will cover. Nothing is as uncomfortable as selecting what to wear based on what fits on a particular day rather than what is appropriate for a particular occasion. Maintain a positive, I can do it mental attitude, and positive results happen. Avoid negative words about yourself, such as bad or failure or I blew it. They are just words and do not apply to anyone who continues to try. “It ain’t over until it’s over,” Yogi Berra said. I believe that. For best results, attempt many kinds of change in your life. If drinking water doesn’t help by itself, perhaps water and deep breathing will be helpful. Sometimes water, deep breathing, changing location and calling a friend is what you need. It is action of taking an action — any action – that gets result. It almost doesn’t matter which techniques you use to repattern – what is important is that you take a swift, purposeful, and immediate action. The quicker action, quicker moment of anxiety passes. It is possible that sometimes you might try every technique available and moment is still difficult. It happens. But that doesn’t mean you should stop trying. It just means your results have not quite accumulated enough to effect a noticeable change. It doesn’t mean nothing is happening. It just might be too subtle for you to notice. Keep doing it anyway. It accumulates. Continue trying, and from each seemingly failed, imperfect human attempt, structure of old, destructive habit will be eroded another little bit . . . you will be that much closer to success which is eating only when hungry. It took many episodes of reinforcing old behavior to create patterns as ingrained as ones you are trying to change. It takes many steps of new behavior until you’re hooked on new way. Sometimes one technique works, sometimes another. Every food encounter is different from every other one. Everyone responds to each stimulus differently and responds to repatterning techniques in a different way, too. A combination of several techniques may be just ticket when one is not enough. Be creative. Identify your eating patterns. Even seemingly insignificant ones, such as it’s only broccoli, or I only drink black coffee add up. Do you mean an orange has same significance as a piece of candy? What ritual thinking is in your subconscious? Are leftovers a problem? Does food preparation end up being one for you and one for pot? Does someone else serve you your food at home, in office, in a restaurant? Do you finish everything served to you? One woman I teach had habit of eating after eating. She battled that habit for many months. When I spoke to her last week, however, she reported a two-week period when she did not once eat after dinner. This lifelong pattern had finally been laid to rest. She is 59 years old. If you buy, prepare, serve, and accept a little less food, you’ll eat less. Ultimately, you’ll be a little less. If you don’t bring it into house you won’t eat it. Out of sight, out of mind. If it doesn’t taste good or look good or satisfy eye and palate, don’t eat it. We all belong to a nation of people who finish everything on their plate. That is not necessary. You may leave food over. It’s okay. Food is wasted if you put it into a body that doesn’t need it. Better to throw it away. If you order less next time, there will be less to waste. When you go off your program because you’re human, you didn’t blow it, weren’t bad, or a failure. Don’t beat yourself up. Simply get back on your program at very next meal. Try to figure out what you could do next time same thing inevitably happens. The quicker you’re back on your program, more you’ll want to stay on your program. It is becoming comfortable, enjoyable, and preferred behavior. Think of things you can do if you’re thinking about eating but know you’re not hungry.
Caryl Ehrlich, the author, also teaches The Caryl Ehrlich Program, a one-on-one behavioral approach to weight loss in New York City. Visit her at http://www.ConquerFood.com to know more about weight loss and keep it off without diet, deprivation, props, or pills. Caryl welcomes questions or comments about this article and the behavioral methods she incorporates into her weight loss program. Contact her at Caryl@ConquerFood.com
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