Diets don't work for most people. If you're a gal who's
been struggling with trying to watch your weight, you know
that it's very difficult to stick to a diet. By exposing
these myths, I'd like to help you to make the leap that
will move you beyond a life restricted by dieting so that
you can finally gain freedom from emotional eating.
Myth #1 - Eat three meals a day plus healthy snacks "Oh
boy, it's 12:00. We should be eating now." Have you been
eating by the clock? This is entirely too much emphasis on
food and eating. In order to truly become free of food's
psychological tug on you, it's important to tune back into
your body's feelings and sensations of hunger. Diets
encourage people to fear their hunger, and to avoid it at
all costs. The implied message in that is that you just
can't be trusted around food because you have a feast beast
lurking inside of you, just waiting to pounce and eat
everything in sight. That's a lot of hooey!
Your body has it's own clock and way of telling you when it
wants to eat. Through years of dieting, that sensitivity
has been dulled down and anesthetized. The good news is you
can learn how to tune into that awareness anytime despite
years of dieting.
Myth #2 - Eat a good breakfast - On a typical morning, you
have most likely been resting all night long, and during
that time, all your body processes have gone into sleep
mode, slowing down and going into a rest phase expending
very little energy. Unless you are a farm worker, like my
dear friend Sandy who owned a dairy farm in Albany, New
York and had to wake up at the crack of dawn to milk her
cows, you don't have to have a big hearty breakfast to fuel
up for the hard work ahead. It's up to you, but when you
actually have a choice, you may not want to eat a big
breakfast every day. Wouldn't it be nice to have a choice
again?
Myth #3 - Eat only lowfat or diet foods - For the most part
these foods are laboratory produced and contain large
amounts of additives and chemicals to make them taste good
so you'll end up eating more. Without even knowing it,
you've been practicing non fat gluttony.
In fact what has been happening is that you've been
conditioned to overeat these foods, thinking that they are
okay because they are less calories. The sad thing is that
this kind of thinking contributes to the kind of compulsive
eating behavior that may have contributed to your being
overweight but it's not too late to undo the damage. When
you begin to eat the real food that you crave as opposed to
the sugar or fat free substitute that you've come to know
so well, you will experience a new level of satisfaction in
your eating. Fat by its very nature satisfies the body
longer. It takes a longer time to metabolize and it stays
with you.
Myth #4 - Don't eat beyond a certain hour. Now honestly do
you really think that your body stops working and
processing food after let's say 6:00 in the evening? No
way. It's all according to your own personal schedule and
what you've eaten throughout the day. In other words, it's
all up to you and what you feel is appropriate. When I
began to stop dieting almost a year ago, when I would get
hungry at night, I would probably have chosen something
that would have seemed more forbidden, now it doesn't turn
me on the way that it used to. The allure is gone. My
tastes have changed without even trying.
Myth #5 - Avoid fattening foods. Those are the best foods
aren't they? They are the ones that you want the most. By
continually avoiding those foods you are denying and
depriving yourself. Noone likes to be told what they can
and can not do. If you believe that certain foods are off
limits, then you will want them more. You'll feel deprived
not having them and crave them like mad.
The ultimate decision is yours. To diet or not to diet.
Consider this. By filling your pantries and stocking your
cabinets and refrigerators with real food, you are sending
your brain a message that you are not depriving yourself
any longer. You are telling your body that the drought is
over and it can begin to relax and before you know it,
you'll look at those foods with new eyes. This non diet
approach along with learning how to cope with your emotions
besides eating is the secret to losing weight without
dieting.
----------------------------------------------------
Andrea Amador, CEC, M.NLP is President of The Juicy Woman.
She is devoted to empowering women to love themselves more,
yummy up their lives and lose weight without dieting. Join
her free Yahoo group:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/thejuicywoman/
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