Archive for the ‘Emotional Eating’ Category

MORE ON WEIGHT LOSS LIMITS….And Eating Sanely

Friday, January 27th, 2012

While we’re still thinking about “The Fat Trap” and how hard it is to lose (see 1/13/12, below), let’s return to the “What can you do?” question.  The blog ends with a few key ingredients that lead to better weight, despite the built-in challenges discussed.   More or less, they consist of:

            *know what you’re up against
            *make the habit changes you can
            *exercise
            *be kind to yourself
            *address emotional overeating
           *do all you can to keep it up
 

  These ingredients have also formed my working definition of sane eating for the past several years.  You’ll find this in the Eat Sanely workbook’s first pages:

We must find a way to eat that maintains a healthy enough weight,
 without worry or guilt,
  that we can more or less stick with forever,
 not just for the course of a diet.

            And the steps then outlined for eating more sanely:

1.      Know This Problem is Overdetermined (it’s not just you)
2.      Start With an Understanding of How You Change
3.      Know What Kind of Eating Plan Works for You (what’s to eat?)
4.      Obstacles Will Occur and Must be Understood and Resolved
5.      Movement Has to Happen
6.      Keep it Up and Get Help Where Needed The components this definition and plan mesh with the “what can you do about it” conclusions.  It may well prove, for example, that many overweight and chronic dieters will lose weight only slowly and with difficulty.  Realistic weight loss goals, though, improve chances of success.   Focus on what’s achievable, and you’re more likely to relax and feel good about progress.  You’ll less likely give up in frustration.  You’ll be building the kind of consistency that leads to change that can finally last. (more…)

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How Much Weight Can You Really Lose?….And what can you do?

Friday, January 13th, 2012

Here is a recent post from my Psychology Today blog (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/thin-within)  These recent studies confirm the wisdom of a sane eating approach….

Just as we all start resolving to lose, we’re hit with the news that it may never work.  If you’ve been overweight for a while, if you’ve dieted only to keep regaining, the problem may well exceed willpower.

In this season of “20 Lbs in 20 Days!”  other headlines ask “Do You Have to be Superhuman to Lose Weight?”  Or, “Are We Programmed to Pack on Pounds?”  Unpopular questions, for sure, but ones to which science increasingly answers “probably”.

Research from around the world concurs.   Once we’ve carried the weight, our bodies seem to adjust to that new “normal”.  Our chemistry then seems to fiercely defend the larger body size.  We’ll experience this as relentless hunger as well as painfully slow losses and discouragingly quick regain.    The ramped-up hunger, the sluggish metabolism, the rapid accumulation of fat:  all of these are hormonally driven, arising from the extra weight itself.  Losing weight, then, becomes at the very least a mighty struggle against biology. (more…)

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IF WOMEN STOPPED HATING THEIR BODIES

Thursday, December 8th, 2011

Here’s a radical question:  “What do you think would happen if women stopped hating their bodies?!”  The revamped Overcoming Overeating website (www.overcomingovereating.com) asks just that.  OO follows the work of authors Jane Hirschmann and Carol Munter, who see compulsive overeating as a “dieting disorder”.   While they offer some solid answers of their own, my thoughts run to sane eating, and how much easier that is, when we’re not hating ourselves and trying to whip ourselves into shape. 

So eating sanely:  learning to eat the foods and amounts that support healthy weight.  That nourish the body and keep it strong.  That don’t cause suffering and worry and loss of control.  All that becomes much more possible when we’re not fighting ourselves.   Revisiting the OO materials, I think of the work on self-compassion and diet that I wrote about earlier this year (4/8/11, 4/11/11), as several new books on that topic emerged.  Change happens more easily when we’re calm and accepting.   And it’s hard to tolerate abuse of the body—which overeating and weird diets both do—when we’re caring about it.

We’re so immersed in the culture of craziness around food and body size, especially for women, that can be hard to imagine getting comfortable with a less-than-perfect-physique.   Fighting it doesn’t work, though.  Paradoxically, we can care for ourselves better when we accept where we’re starting from.  Easier said than done, yes.  But not impossible—and there’s help, too, as  more people recognize the craziness for what it is.

 

 

 

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WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY Part 1: Neither Nightmare nor Magic Wand

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

Mention weight loss surgery, and you’ll get some strong reactions.  “Surgery!?” , some will exclaim, as if you’ve suggested amputation for a scraped knee.  People just have to eat less, or deal with their emotional problems, is usually the thinking here.  At the opposite extreme, there are those who believe their lap bands will finally free them from diet struggles.  “At last I’ll be like everyone else, not always thinking about food.”   Both of these surprisingly common views distort reality and don’t support real solutions.

Recent statistics suggest that about two thirds of American adults qualify as obese (with children’s rates catching up).  Nearly 250,000 people had bariatric (weight loss) surgery last year alone.  Increasingly, the overweight turn to surgery as procedures become safer, insurance-covered, and effective against illnesses like diabetes.  Given these facts, a discussion of sane eating, and how to achieve it in life, must make room for these realities.  To fit them into the discussion, we first must confront those harmful misconceptions.  (more…)

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IF SELF-CONTROL’S A MUSCLE, WHY CAN’T I EXERCISE IT?

Friday, September 9th, 2011

A new book on willpower asserts that it’s a muscle.  That is, you can strengthen it with practice, and you can exhaust it with stress and overuse.  This makes sense, and years of research back the idea.   For those trying to eat differently—to lose weight or simply to choose more wisely—the strength of this muscle can determine whether change occurs or not.   As with physical exercise, many of us struggle to start and stick with it.   However, even those who can flex the muscle in other situations can find it too weak to budge when it comes to food.  So if self-control’s a muscle, why can’t you exercise it here, too?

The book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney, draws on Baumeister’s work on self-control.  The benefits of self-control have been documented for decades.   And studies have established that practice indeed bolsters self-control (even if people vary genetically in that trait).  Baumeister’s work goes farther, finding that self-control can fizzle out—when people’s minds are taxed and fatigued, when they’ve been struggling at self-control for too long a stretch at once.  Here is more solid evidence against restrictive dieting.  And here is support for the idea that small, persistent efforts will become habits.  That’s all good news, and helpful for those working to lose weight.

It can be hard to see, though, how this applies to those who say “It feels like a force comes over me”, as they head for the ice cream.  Or:   “I just wasn’t thinking,” as they pull into KFC.   “I knew I was doing it but didn’t care,” as they attack the brownies.

And what’s going on when a person’s done well for months, then suddenly finds herself slipping into old ways, regaining every lost pound?  These are the stories of many, maybe most, overeaters. (more…)

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Deprivation is Not Good

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

This article recently appeared at http://www.yourtango.com/tereseweinsteinkatz

Isn’t deprivation a built-in part of losing weight?

Maybe.   Yet people report feelings of deprivation as a primary reason for abandoning weight loss efforts.  Often these feelings lead to overindulging in sweets, high-fat, and junk foods and in binge eating.    To lose weight, to make changes for the better, does require eating less of such things.  Is feeling deprived, then, inevitable?  I think to make changes that last, that become part of us, the answer has to be “no”.

Part of what has to happen, I think, is a change in perception, in how you think about and conceive of these foods in your life.  People who come to successfully manage their weight start to recognize the role of choice.   Their inner dialogue will tend to some form of:   “Yes, of course I can have that slab of mud pie…but do I really want all that goes with it—feeling stuffed, guilty, and then struggling forever after with the weight?”  Taking care of themselves, then, is doing what leaves them feeling more peaceful and on track with longer-term goals, not what immediately pleases the senses.

This change in perception doesn’t happen overnight.  Many only come to it after years of struggling with diet.  It can help, though, to consider the following. (more…)

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INTUITIVE EATING: A plan can help you get there

Friday, July 15th, 2011

This recent post appeared at  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/thin-within

Eat when you’re hungry; stop when you’re full.  The perfect prescription for weight management.   Well, maybe.  As with much related to food, it gets complicated.

“Intuitive eating” is the popular term for attending to inner hunger and fullness cues, and eating accordingly.   The idea of intuitive eating appeals to those who know that we overeat for emotional reasons, and that diets make it worse.   If you tune into your body, trust it, and eat what it’s asking for, you won’t get caught up in diets.  You’ll separate emotional hunger from true physical hunger.

Studies indeed corroborate that those who follow inner satiety cues manage weight more successfully than those who diet.  Many people fail instantly, however, on trying to do this.  It’s not their fault.   Years of overeating, years of dieting, and years of binge-worthy food all confuse the inner appetite meter.  Paradoxically, planned, rather than intuitive eating, can help bring it back to work. (more…)

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“I WANT WHAT I WANT”: Taking Responsibility and Weight Management

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

I’m reprinting here a recent post from my Psychology Today blog: 

            Recently, a reader posted this question:  “Why is there such a lack of ownership when it comes to food?”

             This reader noted that people express such unhappiness with their bodies, yet don’t necessarily do much to “learn about food”.  The outpouring of weight loss books and shows might suggest otherwise.  And yet….we know that many face medical crises, live with poor self-esteem and worse, while remaining loyal to “I want what I want.”

            To some extent, this is the air we breathe.  We go to the market, we buy what’s there.  What’s there often contributes to weight gain.    We then go on diets with no real shifts in how we live our lives and think about food.  Almost always, diets don’t work for long.  Understandably, many people stop trying, even if they gear up for another diet on occasion.  Thinking about “diet”, too, in the sense of something to be endured for a time, leads to feelings of deprivation that no one likes to live with.

            Much of my writing has focused on how to eat more sanely in a “food crazy” world—which includes this no-win diet cycle.  Recently I posted a 3-part blog on the subject.  But what does this shift from food craziness to sane eating look like in real life?    I can tell when someone’s reached that better place when:   They report choosing healthier foods more often and more consistently.  They notice they’ve bypassed something once irresistible, and not only because they’re “dieting”.  They feel more capable of using conscious coping strategies to stay on track when stressed.  They deal with anger or sadness or fear without food.  Also, they realize “I want what I want” doesn’t necessarily make sense anymore. (more…)

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Sane Eating – Part 3: A Road Map

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

 Many thousands of entries pop up when you enter “diet” on  amazon.com or any search engine.    At the very least, this confirms the fact that what works for one person may not work for the next.  But if you’re asking yourself how to manage weight and eat more sanely, you can come up with a few rules of thumb to follow, no matter who you are.

To start with, keep in mind that any eating issues exist in a complicated social, biological, and psychological environment.  If you’ve reached a point of discouragement because of repeated weight loss failures, this will hopefully feel at least a little freeing to you.  It’s not your fault, and you can learn some new ways.

So, first, you must figure out what is the best way for you to eat.  Many healthy diets exist (and of course the books to explain them).  Each and every one of us must learn what foods, in what quantities, contribute to our maintaining a healthy weight.  This must be a pattern of eating and food choice that you can live with forever, period.  Anything that is short-term will likely lead to regain and a return to diet craziness.  Furthermore, diets that require special foodstuffs and odd concoctions won’t last for the long run.

Finding a diet pattern you can live with usually takes some trial-and-error, paying attention to how you feel physically, whether or not you feel satisfied, how the plan fits with your lifestyle and preferences.  Many people need help with this part of their plan—for example, from a coach, nutritionist, or doctor.  On the other hand, many, maybe most, former dieters know what works for them and feel that what they really need are better skills for sticking with it. 

Then, you get started, with the intention of creating a path and a chain of habits that can survive a lifetime.  How do you prepare yourself to get started?  Do you start all-at-once or in baby steps?   Understanding how change happens, and what helps you to change, can help. (more…)

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Sane Eating – Part 2: Hard But Not Impossible

Thursday, May 5th, 2011

 If you’ve read Sane Eating – Part 1, and you agree it makes sense to try to eat sanely amidst the food craziness, you may wonder – “How in the world will I get there?….”

You wouldn’t be alone–it is indeed hard to reach and maintain a healthy weight without getting caught in the craziness.  Both biological and psychological factors can complicate things.  But “hard” doesn’t necessarily mean impossible.  Let’s look at some of the concerns that make you wonder if it’s possible.

You might believe, for example, that your genes will always get in your way.  Genes  certainly do contribute to how our bodies metabolize food.  They can influence how we get “hungry” and “full” signals.  They can even touch on how often and rapidly we like to move, and how good our food tastes to us. Genes always interact with the environment, though.  And we and our thoughts and behavior are part of “the environment”.  We do affect how genes end up expressing or not expressing themselves. (more…)

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