Sharpen the Weight Loss Edge Once Again

It has been a while since I posted to this blog. My last post was about my eating experience during my husband's health crisis.  I was able to walk through that difficult time without the stress induced overeating that has been characteristic of my life.  I am so thankful that I was able to emerge from that challenging experience maintaining my conscious eating dietary style.

Since that time, however, I lost some of my edge.  I have not gained weight, but I haven't lost any either.  I've stalled out at a certain weight and been there for about three months. 

I've been thinking about why this may be and decided on one main reason.

Instead of 'eating only till I was full', I began putting on my plate the amount of food I thought I would need to eat.  Then I would continue to eat till it was gone, letting that be my signal for ending my meal rather than the 'full feeling' signal that has been my guide for several months.

I lost sight of the main reason for my success with losing weight thus far.  I took my eyes off the key requirement to conscious eating - paying attention to the full feeling that comes when I eat and letting that be my cue, my signal for ending my meal. 

So I have resolved once again to 'sharpen my edge', and get back into the weight loss battle. One snack, one meal, one day at a time.

No Stress Eating Here....Not This Time!

It has been a few weeks since I last posted.  All is still going well with me, but my husband has been through some difficult and somewhat scary medical situations.  He is fine now, well, almost fine. Soon he will be back up to speed and probably even better than before everything went awry.

A medical crisis for my husband meant a huge amount of stress for me.  When I began this style of eating (conscious eating; stopping when I get full), I wondered if I would be able to maintain it during times of crisis, because historically I have been a huge stress eater.  I would eat everything I could to deal with stress and emotion.  The buzz phrase right now is "eating my feelings". Yep. That would be me. So, how would I handle conscious eating when my stress hormones and emotions are through the roof?

Well, good news. I had no problems, well, almost no problems, eating consciously during this time.  I simply ate till I was full then stopped.  The difficult time came between meals, because I would want to nibble even though I wasn't hungry.  I remember one day when I went to the kitchen pantry, opened the door and stood there about to reach for 'nibbling' food.  I had to say to myself in a rather firm mental voice, "Get out of the kitchen. You are not hungry!"  Yep. And it worked. I left the kitchen and didn't return till it was time to prepare the next meal.

This is working for me. Every day. In every way.  I plan to continue.  Till next time, friends, Remember, if you are full, stop eating. Save the left overs for another meal, or throw them in the trash!

A Defining Moment

Wonderful family event. Wonderful family celebration.  Wonderful food. Wonderful times in life. However, these wonderful moments are major challenges for people who are emotional over eaters like me. There was stress and emotion involved with the preparation phase of this family event which also added to the mix of eating temptations.
I did not blow my new style of eating out of the water one time during this momentous occasion, but there were a few extra bites here and there that compromised my dieting standards somewhat. A few bites of cake and wonderful homemade Brazilian candy. Oh, it was delicious.
The good news is that I know I can keep my diet reasonably intact during good times, those special moments. As life goes back to normal after this, in many ways, defining occasion, I have more confidence in my ability to not completely lose control, to stay the course, and to keep on winning by losing.

The Weight Loss Continues

Life is a series of 'ups' and 'downs' with periods of 'evenness' in between.  That's just the way it is. Nothing we can do about it, and nothing we can do to change it.  Except for the problems that arise as consequences from poor decision making on our part, the only thing we have control over is the way we react to the 'ups' and 'downs'.  It is our reactions, our responses to these 'ups' and 'downs' that can, for some of us, influence our diets and eating patterns.

I am working on separating my desire to eat from my feelings.  There have been times when I find myself walking into the kitchen to get something to eat, knowing that I'm not hungry because it's only been and 'hour' since I had a meal.  That's not hunger, that's a response to feelings. Permanent weight loss will be impossible for me as long as I'm 'eating my feelings'.

Fortunately these last few weeks.....so far....every time I'm about to get something to eat, just because I'm 'feeling' it, I have stopped myself from indulging and turned around and walked out of the kitchen.

Therefore, the weight loss continues!!!!! Yea, me!!!!!

The Trill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat

Bet you thought this post was going to be about sports. Well, as a life long struggler with the challenge of being an emotional overeater, I have had thrills and felt agony often. In fact, almost every meal ends with one of those emotions. If I quit eating when I am full, then I have won and I experience the 'thrill of victory'. On the other hand, when I allow the food to control me, then I have lost the battle, and feel the 'agony of defeat'.

Fortunately, this last year has been one of more victories than defeats! Yes, my weight loss has been slow, but I decided that I am comparing myself with no one and I will win this race on my own terms and in my own way. Since using Paul McKenna's Golden Rules, it has been easier to stay on track and for that I am very grateful.

Stress and Over Eating

I have a friend who is one of those naturally thin people. She is in great shape and always looks wonderful. When she is under stress, eating is the last thing she wants to think about, much less do. When she is under pressure for some reason, her appetite leaves.

No so, for us who fight the downsizing war. We tend to want to eat whenever we feel stress. Our eating patterns may be very well controlled, but then something will happen and then we want to eat whatever we can find. Right?

This falls under the category of emotional eating and Paul McKenna's Techinques for conquering it is at the very least helpful and at the most a way of overcoming this critical eating urge.

Stress happens. Just as sure as the sun rises every morning, stress is going to happen. We must be prepared for it if we are going to be overcomers and victorious in our battles.

By the way, this week I wore a blouse that I had not worn in at least 5 years! The winning and losing continues!

"Overcome Emotional Eating" by Paul McKenna

Emotional eating is one of the major millstones around the necks of overweight people making it a major obstacle to attaining and maintaining a healthy weight. It is also a very difficult obstacle to overcome. Many of us have been able to do it for a period of time. We have been able to focus so intently on our goal of a downsized size, that our compulsion to emotionally overeat fades away---temporarily. That is until we reach our goal, or until something emotional happens to us, and we just lose all control, and once again we begin to eat everything in sight.
Paul McKenna's technique for overcoming this overeating 'curse' is, ok, I admit, rather strange. He teaches us to use a tapping technique to help us get past an 'emotional eating moment'. I encourage you to log on to his website: www.mckenna.com and click on the "Overcome Emotional Eating" video. After having learned the sequence, I have found that it does help me, and I will use it at least a couple of times a day.
The question is: are you ready to do something about your weight, even if the something you need to do is somewhat strange? I am. And it is working!

By the way, the losing and winning continues in my life. Yesterday evening, I put on a black skirt that is a size smaller!!! WoooooooHoooooo!

McKenna's Techniques

Yes, the rules are great, and they are critical to attaining and maintaining a healthy weight and lifestyle. However, those of us who have an 'over sized' size, need help with other issues related to our desire to eat and not stop until there is nothing left to eat. Right?!?!

Many of us are emotional eaters. We eat when we are happy, or sad, or mad, or anxious, or excited, or, well, you know. Sometimes we don't need and excuse to eat. We eat just because it is there and we walked by it, saw it and smelled it. In fact we seldom eat just because we are hungry because we never let ourselves feel that hungry feeling. We eat before we get hungry.

Sometimes we have certain things we crave. Chocolate, diet drinks, peanut butter, etc. We eat or drink those things just because we want to. We think we can't make it through a day without them. These are major contributers to our lack of control.

Another contributing factor to our difficulty in losing weight is that we sometimes have a slow metabolism. This means that our bodies are burning calories at a slow rate and the extra calories we eat are stored as fat in our bodies.

Many of us have self image and self esteem problems. We feel unworthy of being loved or experiencing love. We look in the mirror and hate what we see, but then tell ourselves that we deserve to look this way. Because we think of ourselves as being a person of no merit or having no worth, and that no one should love us even if we were thin, we eat more which makes us larger, once again confirming our unchanging self loathing. Yes. These are strong word. But some of us experience strong emotions when we think about ourselves.

Yes. Paul McKenna does address these issues in his programs and on his website. Tomorrow I will begin to discuss his techniques.

Paul McKenna, and His Interesting Weight Control Techniques

I watched Paul McKenna's show last night. In fact there were two episodes on and I watched them both. I also registered on his website and began reading through the material posted there.
I have found in his program, of which I have only studied a part, to be a combination of techniques I already knew, and some that were totally knew.
When I first heard of him, my fears were that he might be somewhat mystical and 'new age'. However, thus far I've found none of that in his program. For the most part he is teaching people how to reprogram their brains to make positive associations and negative associations.
He also strikes me as one of those people who are trying to tell people how to loose weight and have not one day in their life had a challenge with eating and weight. I would also bet money that he is hyperactive. He does have tremendous energy and enthusiasm.
In spite of these things, I have decided to 'give his program a go'. One step at a time.
He has Four Golden Rules listed on his website which should result in weight loss. There are additional techniques for stopping emotion eating, stopping cravings, increasing metabolism, and improving self esteem.
His website once again is: www.mckenna.com

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

One of the things that has helped me in my quest for a 'downsized' body, is a little technique I call, "Out of sight, out of mind". If I leave the peanut butter jar, or the bag of chips out on my kitchen counter, then begin to they 'call my name' over and over again every time I walk into my kitchen. Eventually I will decide to have just a handful of chips or a spoonful of peanut better. Then you know what happens. One handful or one spoonful becomes two or three or four. I will just keep eating until one of two things happens. Either they are all gone or I put them away.
If I keep them put in the cabinet with the door closed, then I can't see those foods, and I can't hear them calling me. I won't think about them or want them unless I open the door and see them.
Soooooo my suggestion is this, if there are foods that tempt you to overeat, put them away!!! Don't allow the sight of them to visually stimulate your desire for 'just a taste'. Especially if 'just a taste' can turn into a major over eating moment.

Three Overeating Triggers

I read this article yesterday and felt that it had some good information for us. However, sometimes these types of articles make me feel like (and I could be wrong in this case) they were written by a person who had training and education in nutrition and weight control, but has never been overweight a day in their life! These triggers are definitely true and the suggestions are constructive, but there is much much more that goes into making a person overweight, that I think suggestions like this are chipping away at an iceberg with a kitchen sized icepick.

Overeating Triggers

by Karen Asp

from the CNN website

Emotions can drive you to overeat. So, too, can other triggers. Learn how to spot them, and you'll learn how to beat them.

Dim lighting: The dimmer the lighting, the higher the likelihood of overindulgence, says a study from of California at Irvine. Why? "Brighter lighting forces you to be more aware of what you're eating," says Joe Kasof, Ph.D., lead study author. Beat it by: Sitting outdoors or near windows, using brighter bulbs in your lamps, adding lighting to eating areas, or moving to a brighter room.

Distractions: In another study, when women who normally watched what they ate listened to a taped detective story, they consumed more calories. Researchers suspect the story interfered with the women's focus on keeping calories in check. Beat it by: Clearing all distractions; let the enjoyment of the meal provide your focus.

Low energy: "When your energy's low, you may look for food to pick you up," says Robert E. Thayer, Ph.D., professor of psychology at California State University at Long Beach. Unfortunately, most people reach for calorie-laden treats instead of an apple or banana. Beat it by: Identifying your low-energy times of day and substituting other activities for eating. Take a 10-minute walk or a water-cooler chat break.

Tomorrow I will begin to list some of the things that have helped me. Perhaps you will have more suggestions to add to the list. Let's support each other with ideas that come those of us who have 'been there and done that'.