Do you feel like you 'try so hard to eat healthy all day only to then ruin it in the evening'?
This would have to be one of the most common statements I hear so I want to shed some light on this.
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We are all programmed to receive pleasure on a regular basis, even more so, we actually need to make sure we receive enough pleasure regularly. Our brains are programmed to make one of two decisions – receive pleasure or avoid pain. We are reward-driven and we are extremely motivated by pleasure and ‘feel-good’ experiences. Four of the most natural pleasure’s for humans are food, water, exercise and sex, and if we allow these to be utilised properly in our lives then we receive all the pleasure we need to be happy on a regular basis. When we deny ourselves enough pleasure our need for more increases, and we crave and search for ways to get that pleasure. Some turn to unhealthy methods such as drugs or alcohol, others find obsessive behaviours, or others binge on these natural pleasures in unhealthy ways – such as food, sex or exercise. If we look at food as an example, the ability to enjoy food and gain ample pleasure from it has been destroyed in so many people by this diet-obsessed world full of restrictions, banning and guilt. Too many people won’t allow themselves to gain pleasure from the food they eat because they are so wrapped up in feeling guilty about every wrong mouthful they have. We are made to feel worthless or not good enough if we overindulge in unhealthy foods, which in turn destroys the ability to draw pleasure from it. It’s rather ironic that we are now so obsessed about eating healthy, but it’s that obsession that is creating the inability to gain the pleasure. We are all emotional eaters to some degree, that is how we are programmed, but the emotional eating is not the issue. Everyone can emotionally eat from time to time and there need be no negative side effects. The issue doesn’t lie in the emotional eating, it lies in the way you perceive your food and the way you choose to eat your food. If you know you struggle with control over food and use food emotionally more than you would like just allow yourself the ability to gain pleasure from your food. I always say to people, if you are going to make the choice to eat it, then eat it with the utmost pleasure and enjoyment you can, because if you don’t, then you really won’t satisfy your pleasure needs and will continue to crave and binge on more in this desperate need to get that pleasure. Regardless of whether it is healthy and going to compliment your body or not, if you are going to eat it then I really encourage you to, firstly, sit down with the food at a place you associate with eating, remove any distractions such as phones and TV, then wholly focus on the food you are eating, savour every mouthful you are having and feel how good it tastes and how much you enjoy it. Eat slowly, letting the food digest, letting your brain absorb the pleasure and realise that you are actually allowed to enjoy nice food, and that you are actually good enough the way you are. Don’t make excuses for why you are eating, and don’t feel the need to justify it to anybody, yourself included. The next step to the emotional eating picture is to focus more on areas outside of just the food to gain your pleasure requirements. Some people require more pleasure than others, and this is a whole new topic on its own, however just look at your life and find ways that you can enhance as much pleasure as you can, aside from food. Exercise is great as it really triggers the pleasure centres within your brain, but again don’t do it because it’s a chore, find ways to move that you love (conventional exercise or not, doesn’t matter), and when you do exercise, focus on how much your body is receiving the ‘feel-good’ feelings from it. Breathe deeply through your exercise, admire how it makes you feel strong and love the feeling of sweating because it detoxifies your body. Look always at the good it does to your body. Don’t focus on how you have to do it to lose weight, focus on why your body loves it. Emotional eating is a huge topic on its own, but just begin by knowing everyone is an emotional eater – you are not in this on your own. It is one of the only ways you can fill unhappy voids within you without people noticing. Those voids within you are created through many reasons, but one being that of lack of pleasure. Fill yourself with as much pleasure as you can, completely guilt-free, and you will find your attachment to food will be easier on you. Always, and always, be kind to yourself though, because you are good enough, regardless of how much you eat. Have a great day and deep breath! Kerri x As a health, fitness and nutrition professional, possibly one of the toughest mind sets to change in people I work with, in regards to weight loss, is that dieting does not work. Often no matter how in-depth or lengthy the explanation I give, people will still be hung on the every word that these seemingly wonderful ‘lose 10kgs in 10 week’ type diets offer. To be fair though, if I was overweight and didn’t know better, I would too. I mean, who wouldn’t love to drastically lose weight with little effort required? That, unfortunately, is the emotion that all those many, many weight loss products, diets and treatments work on. It may not come as a surprise to you, but the weight loss industry is one of the wealthiest industries in the world…but it is also the leading industry of fraud in the USA. When we look at these diets that offer wonderful results, we are looking in the now, in the present moment, what you will get today and within a few short weeks…which for life in general is a great way to be…but for weight loss the focus needs to be on the past, the now and the future. You need to understand that you are overweight for a reason. You didn’t just get landed with a body a few kilo’s heavier than others. There is always a reason why. For some, this is a simple and easily changed reason, such as a bit more exercise or eating a little less sugar and fat. But for others, and the majority of overweight people, you are overweight from years of poor and unhealthy habits, mind sets, and lifestyle choices. These, I’m afraid, are not going to be changed in a short few weeks by eating nothing other than soup, eating no carbs from 4pm, or by drinking overpriced and ‘under-nutritious’ protein shakes. Why do these not work, I hear you ask? Well, perhaps I am telling a lie. Perhaps I should point out that they do actually work! Pretty much any diet you can lay your hands on if you adhere to it entirely you will be guaranteed to lose weight. Fantastic, right? Yes for the short period of time that you maintain that weight for. Unfortunately, that’s where it stops. When we follow these strict and generally calorie-deprived diets, we are eating and living in a way that is not maintainable for any length of time. Sure, they will make the figure on the scales look exciting, but they are not going to help keep you at that weight in the long run. During the course of the diet, often you will be told what to have and when to have it, this makes it so easy to follow and no hard work required, but it’s teaching you nothing about a sustainable way to live for keeping the weight off. This means, when you have finished the duration of the diet, you have no choice but to go back to how you previously were eating and living, as you haven’t learnt anything new and the strict regime you were following just can’t physically be kept up. But those previous eating and living habits were the ones that made you overweight in the first place. Maybe you can figure out where I’m going with this…you end up back at square one, right? No. You end up worse off than square one. Here’s how… Firstly, your metabolic rate, in a nutshell, controls how quickly you convert food to energy. If it’s fast, you convert food quickly, if it’s slow, you convert food slowly. More to it than that, and you will get an entire understanding of how to make this amazing body process work on your side for weight loss in The Body Essence Weight Loss Programme. Getting to the point however, when we do a calorie-restrictive diet we dramatically reduce our metabolic rate, resulting in a slow food-to-energy conversion meaning the food we consume will very rarely have time to be used as energy before we next need to eat – not what we want for losing weight. Secondly, our bodies are physiologically designed to want to do everything in their power to keep a steady body weight, and when they sense a drastic change in the way our body receives food (through dieting), they will produce more fat-storing enzymes and hormones that try and maintain the fat level that we are at. So, instead of simply gaining back the weight you lost on your diet, you gain more because your metabolism is slower and you have more fat-storing enzymes and hormones. Not at all what you were hoping for when starting out on your diet, I bet. My recommendation to you, if you are at a point where wanting to lose weight, find a plan to follow that takes you slowly through how to make gradual changes to your way of life, teaches you how to break those unhealthy habits that you have built over a long time, and gets your body into a place of eating, exercising and living in a way that it is designed to…all without making your body think it is on a diet. Commit to whatever you choose to do knowing it is a lifelong change, not a quick-fix. You must remember though, there is so much more to weight loss than eating and exercise. Learn how to get your body into a happy, healthy and sustainable place with The Body Essence Weight Loss Programme. I will teach you how to get your body on side with losing weight, rather than working against it. I don’t want you to ever have to go through another diet again, so let me show you how to make the change for good. For the rest of your life. Warmest regards, Kerri van de Loo Author of The Body Essence Weight Loss Programme Health, Fitness and Nutrition Professional |
Kerri van de Loo - Mindfulness coach, Personal Trainer, Nutrition Coach & SELF-LOVE COACH:Join our Online Wellness Club here: https://www.bodyessence.co.nz/wellness-club.html Categories
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