An Easy Stress Buster

I know most of the stress reducers that exist but this was a new one even  for me from Jason Garcia. And since we are getting to that time of year it might just do the trick when you are stuck in a stressful job situation. You simply hold a pencil between your teeth! Who would think?

Apparently a recent study at the University of California found most people have a set of “smile muscles” which, when activated, send signals to your brain that you are happy. In turn, your brain releases a chemical that registers happiness.

You don't even need to feel happy at the moment to create the internal response of happiness. Simply holding a pencil between your teeth can be enough to trick your brain into thinking you are happy and releasing the corresponding chemicals into your system.

My favorite easy stress buster is simple deep breathing but I’ll have to give this one a try. Any one else have anything that works as easy as these do?

"Some Me of Beauty"

The other day I blogged about how you might feel with success or failure regarding facing holiday temptations and some of your feelings around it. It reminded me of this poem by Carolyn Rogers. Men, this relates to you too even though it's aimed at women in particular.

Sometimes when we are overweight we only look at the the negative exterior and criticize all what we do not like, inside and out, which is hard on your self-esteem. But then as we are losing weight  we may start to really to see our outer beauty as well as what's inside  Don't ever ever forget you have that inner beauty each and every one of you, heavy or thin. Don't let your exterior make you forget what really matters inside of you. 

Some Me of Beauty

 A Poem by Carolyn Rodgers

I took a good long look at myself in a full length mirror
Sometimes it’s good to look in a full length mirror
And what I saw was not some soul sister poetess of the moment
But I saw just a woman
Just a woman feeling
Just a woman human
And what I felt was
What I felt was a spiritual revelation
And what I felt was a root revival of some love coming on
Coming on strong
And I knew then, looking in a full length mirror,
That many things were over
And some me of beauty was about to begin

Holiday Recovery

Well, readers how did you do over Thanksgiving? Are you proud of yourself for a job well done or beating yourself up?

For those of you who did well, fantastic! It takes a lot to be controlled with so much tasty food around. For those of you who were not as successful think of this quote by Thomas Edison: "I never failed once. My invention just happened to be a 2,000 step process." It took Edison that many times to invent the light bulb!

 I found this this wonderful inspiring article by Bill Larson. The crux of his thought is that "Failure is unavoidable and part of the process." He talks about weight loss and other stories of failure and success. He quoted Edison further, "Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out." Think about how we believe we won't have setbacks from time to time. It's just plain unrealistic that we won't have mistakes from time to time, especially at social events.

Larson goes on to say, "No matter what your goals in life, the highest peaks of success follow the lowest valleys of failures." Well put. So you won't always overcome every temptation but if you never give up you'll eventually succeed!

Kick Off Season for Holiday Eating

Happy Thanksgiving! What will your day bring? Below is a list of challenges you may have. Review them and here and now decide how you will deal with any one of them. (Don't forget to use Tuesday's hints.)

-Say “no thank you” to someone who offers me a specially prepared dish.

 -Allow myself to eat a favorite food in moderation.

 -To really enjoy myself whatever I am eating without feeling guilty.

 -Avoid feeling deprived

 -Effectively explain needs and wants to family and friends.

 -Effectively deal with the pressure to eat something I really don’t want.

 -Prepare a holiday meal.

 -Ask support from others

-Other?

So readers, what are your specific challenges and share your strategies!

Thanksgiving Holiday Alert

Thanksgiving alert! This is the traditional time for eating triathlons! Today I'll work on a few little hints you can start practicing now that only take a minute to do. Keep doing them through the months ahead to keep you focused on your weight loss goals, healthy eating or even just maintaining your weight when  food is constantly taunting you!

Look at yourself in the mirror every morning and give yourself a little positive pep talk. This can help you anytime of year because let's face it, there are always social occasions revolving around food anyway.

When you look in the mirror, honestly ask yourself, what is your priority at this time of year with the upcoming events? Do you want to enjoy some extra food and just maintain or do you want to continue to lose? Or how happy would you be gaining?

Just note you will be faced with a lot more temptations than usual and be realistic about what your goal will be. The important thing though is just to truly commit yourself to a real decision here. Maintain or gain? (Or lose?)

Lastly,  how will you feel if you over-do? How will it feel if you maintain? If you can just think about these few things it may be enough to keep you from overdoing any eating event! Think about the long term consequences of your actions.What is it that you really want?

Why Food May Be Addictive

I had been suspecting this for a long time now but the proof seems to be pointing more and more in this direction. According to INR (Institute for Natural Resources, Concord, CA) highly processed foods, especially fast foods, are the ones that are the most "addicting."

They are typically foods that provide the most seductive rewards. In other words they raise the dopamine and serotonin (pleasure seeking hormones) levels in the brain at the highest and fastest rates over other foods. Addictive foods would include refined sugar of any kind, processed carbs made from white flour, along with high amounts of salt, saturated fats and even caffeine, especially when combined together.

So think of the fast food industry in general and all the processed food where they are typically consumed as opposed to whole fresh foods.  And don't forget all the "coffee shakes" (full of sugar, fat and caffeine) popularized throughout our entire current environment. These foods are totally refined, potent in terms of their rewarding ingredient list mentioned above.(And they are cheap which heightens their allure.) This past seminar suggests that in animal studies, the way the ingredients are combined enhances their addictive force. In mice studies, the animals work harder for these types of foods even when not hungry!

So what's the take home message? Eat WHOLE foods as much as possible! It all goes back to the basics by eating real food and not relying on the fast food industry to entice us to the obesity epidemic trap.

Overcome Binge Eating

The other day I discussed the definition of binge eating according to DSM-IV Diagnostic Criteria. Staticics show  that 25% to 50% obese people binge.  According to the Institute for Natural Resources a continuing education program for health professionals suggested that people can  recover by utilizing two special tools:

1. Get professional help. They suggest specific counseling utilizing edreferral.com to find someone qualified.
2. Read and utilize the book : Overcoming Binge Eating by Christopher Fairburn. It is an older publication but there have been quite favorable results using it. It is a workbook so it does mean you will be exploring your feelings and emotions.

It was interesting to note too that the success rate using these two things together that the success rate was 63%. Pretty high odds considering most diets fail in the long haul by about 95%.