If you want to regulate your weight, then discovering the maximum pleasure out of food will help!

When we jam food down our throat, it’s difficult to really notice what the food tastes like.

Let’s take a “fer instance.”

What about a potato?

Potatoes get such a bad rap in so many dieting and weight loss programs.

But did you know that a potato actually has about 70 calories?

It’s not the potato — it’s all that other junk we put on it — usually some sort of fat — like butter or sour cream — that ramps up the calorie count.

Have you ever eaten a potato without anything on it?

Or tried it with different things on it.

What about … lemon juice?

If you eat a potato slowly, not just wolf it down, you will likely notice different flavors.

Potatoes are SWEET when you take the time to chew them.  This is because potatoes have a lot of starch in them.

What is starch?  Starch is actually a complex molecule that is made up of simple sugar molecules.  The enzymes in your saliva actually break down the starch into the component sugars.

As I mentioned in the previous post — an important strategy in losing weight is making friends.  Making friends with your body…and making friends with the food that you eat.

When you start to make friends with your body, using the water drinking exercise I mentioned in the last post — you can begin to have a richer experience and understanding how different foods affect you.

For instance — there are certain foods that energize me and make me feel good.  Not always, but often.  One of those foods is tunafish.  Another is sardines.

There are other foods that drag me down.  Even though I like chocolate, eating it seems to be a mixed blessing.  Sometimes it nearly puts me to sleep after eating it.

That’s something I take note of– because if I happen to be having a bit of insomnia, I know what I can use to help me sleep!

But being conscious of your body, being more aware of how you feel after eating certain foods, will help you to bring and keep your body in balance.

Each day pick at least one food to eat ultra-consciously.  Before eating it, take a good look at it.  What is its shape? Its color?  Is there something about its appearance that you’ve never noticed before?  Maybe an unusual color?

How does it smell?

And what does it feel like? If it’s a “hand food” — how does it feel in your hand.  If not, at least, how does it feel in your mouth?

And notice how the taste of the food changes from the time you take a first bite to what it tastes like after chewing it.  Nutritious foods tend to expand in flavor as you continue chewing.  Less nutritious foods tend to have less “staying power”.

Keep a diary of your food adventures.  It’s part of the discovery that happens as you move to make friends with your body and with food.

You might even find someone to join you — you may have different experiences — and you can share what you discover.

When you engage more fully in the total sensory experience that various foods have to offer you, they become more authentically pleasurable to you.

There’s a whole new world out there waiting for you — one you thought you knew.

(Here’s an interesting tip that I discovered one day.  Did you know that there are about the same number of calories in an avocado as there are in a chocolate bar?  At the time I discovered this, the price was about the same, as well.  So, if you happen to like avocados, you might try substituting them for chocolate bars!)

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But do we really?

Perhaps you are familiar with studies that show that many overweight people simply are unaware of how much they are eating.  That is, we eat unconsciously.

Now I don’t know about you, but being unconscious to someone or something that I love doesn’t really show a lot of love.  What do you think?

Yes, I’m saying that maybe the kind of love we overeaters show to food is a bit on the shallow side.

Most people eat too much to fulfill other “needs.”  Unconscious eating habits are not unlike smoking habits.  They satisfy a deep, but hidden, need.

It’s important, then, to uncover that hidden need.

Let’s take an example.

I was talking to my sister the other day who proclaimed how much she loves peanut M&Ms.  In fact, the way she described it, I’d almost call it an addiction.

So, if I were talking with her, I’d ask a few questions.

These questions are ones that you may also want to think about.

In fact, I would recommend using a journal.

And I’d recommend being very relaxed when answering these questions.  This will be when the best answers come to you.

First, what do you feel when you can’t have your peanut M&Ms?  Where do you feel it?  How often do you feel it?

Do you notice that the desire for peanut M&Ms come up at particular times?

The next process may seem a little strange…but bear with me.

With the peanut M&Ms near you — ask them… “What do you do for me?”

And notice whatever comes up – -it may be a picture, it may be words, it may be feelings.

Thank the peanuts…no, wait…

The peanuts are not really talking to you.  One part of you is talking with another part of you.  A here-to-fore hidden part of you is communicating with you.  And that hidden part — you want to thank for communicating with you. (Yes, I know this sounds weird.  But you know what?  Many, many people notice a sudden relaxation when they do it.  As if a long dispute has suddenly been resolved.  This is part of what “loving your body” is about.)

When you discover what this is, you can find other ways to get the same result — and a sense of balance and wholeness will come into play instead of the obsession over one food in particular.

This is a fairly abbreviated version of something I do with clients.  I’ve used it to help people stop smoking — the process is essentially the same.

In my next post, we’ll talk about becoming aware of the process of eating.

While waiting, you can do this simple exercise.  Take a glass of water and take a swallow of the water.  Be as conscious of the feeling of drinking and swallowing as you possibly can.  Feel the water as it goes down your throat, into your esophagus.  Can you feel it when it gets to your stomach?

Let me know what you find out!

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One of the title articles was about Bill Cosby’s secret weight loss method.  Well, at least that’s my recollection.

What was the secret?

Drink at least a glass of water about 30 minutes before you eat.

Note that that’s water — not tea, not coffee, not soft drinks.

let”s talk about this.

Water is generally good stuff for you (though you don’t want to consume it in excess.  ANYTHING in excess can be poisonous.   A woman in Sacramento, participating in a radio contest to win a Wii, drank so much water she died.  Water toxicity is real, and can screw up your body chemistry.)

So drinking water is good, though no one seems to know where the idea that you should drink 8 glasses of water came from.

As I got on the bus the other day with a can of Arizona Tea, the bus driver launched into a tirade about corn syrup.  He said that it can create diabetes, and it makes it so you are constantly hungry.

Hmmmm…

I’m not real keen on corn syrup — but this is what wikipedia says about corn syrup:  “Corn syrup is a syrup, made using cornstarch as a feedstock, and composed mainly of glucose.”

Glucose, my friends, is what they commonly use in IV fluids in the hospital.

What’s the point?  The point is, that I don’t think corn syrup is any more hazardous in terms of creating diabetes than consuming other forms of sugar.

(Note that some folks will go to Mexican specialty grocers — not even “specialty” — just grocers who serve the Mexican-American community — to buy sodas.  Why? Well, the use of corn syrup in soft drinks is an American phenomenon.  And you can pick up soft drinks bottled in Mexico that are not made with corn syrup, but rather with sugar.)

I used to consume a LOT of diet soda.  I don’t any more.  There are people who believe that the sugar-substitutes in diet soda actually cause you to be hungrier and eat more. (the same thing, incidentally, that the bus driver was claiming that corn syrup does.)

Did switching from drinking water to diet soda help me lose weight?  Actually, I think it may have been a factor.

What other kinds of fluids can you consume?

Well, coffee and tea are common “diet” beverages.  But be careful of those, as well.  Coffee and tea, as well as containing stimulants, also are deyhdrating; they are mild diuretics.  That is, they cause your body to excrete more water through your urine than you normally would.

Find any fluid, and you can find someone to complain about it.

What’s the answer?

Two things:

1. Know your body.  Notice how your body reacts to the things that you consume.  How do you feel after eating it?  Do you notice you have to pee more?  Do you notice that you seem to crave more sweets?  Do you feel hungrier sooner?

2. Balance.  Anything in excess can be not only unhealthy, but dangerous.  Even less-healthy beverages can be consumed if done in moderation.

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If you grew up during the 70s or earlier, you are probably familiar with the sad story of Karen Carpenter.  Karen and her brother Richard formed a popular singing duo with two hits (“We’ve Only Just Begun”) and (“Close To You”).  Now Karen suffered from a disease you’ve probably heard about: anorexia nervosa.

And she died from complications due to the disease.  It wasn’t just the last stint of dieting that put her over the edge.  It was the yo-yo dieting.

Our bodies are dynamic and they adjust and adapt to an amazing number of environments.  If we’re too hot, we sweat; if we’re too cold, we shiver.  Those are obvious outward manifestations of complex physiological processes.

For instance, when we become ill, we often run a fever.  This, too, is an important physiological process — run by the body in order to kill off invading germs.

Let’s talk about an important part of weight loss: how your body adapts to change.

Whenever your body goes “out of balance”, it does what’s necessary to get back into balance.  But what is balance?  It’s what your body is used to.

So let’s take an example.  Some people in colder climes can withstand cold better than people who live in warmer ones.  Is this genetic?

While there may be some genetic component to it, people who live in warmer climes who move to cooler climes can adapt.

Does it happen overnight?

No.

It takes time.

Let’s take another example.

Drinking.

It’s known that alcoholics can commonly drink enough alcohol at one sitting that would otherwise kill them.  How? Their body adapts.  Now some of those adaptations are not good ones for the life of the drinker.  But better than dying immediately, the body incurs damage so that it can live another day.

And it’s been known that some kings have ingested arsenic to make them less vulnerable to be killed from arsenic poisoning.

Karen Carpenter’s body did something similar.  In order to meet the body’s energy needs, it cannibalized protein from important parts of her body — like her heart.  The body can’t live without energy — so, her body made a less optimal choice — it “stole” energy from her heart muscle.

In an earlier article I mentioned that yo-yo dieting can actually be worse for you than just maintaining your weight.  This is one of the reasons why.  In yo-yo dieting, or in extreme dieting, your body makes choices to ensure your survival — but those choices can have long term detrimental consequences for you.

When your weight constantly changes, your body never gets a chance to fully adapt to any one state.  This causes physiological stress on your body.  Instead of spending energy repairing your body or fighting off infection, it’s spending energy adapting.

We’ll talk more about this in the next post…so stay tuned!

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They tell you how “fat” you are, what your health risks are, based upon your weight compared to your height.

Period.

(Well, okay, then they say it doesn’t apply in certain circumstances.)

This is called “Body Mass Index”.  Now, I should point out that they have also added another dimension  your measurements — in particular, your waist.

I’m sure you’ve seen them.  The little boxes where you put your weight and height in and it spits back a number.

This is GREAT example of how statistics are misused — not just in weight loss topics.

What’s important is this:  are YOU happy with your body?

Okay — maybe there are always improvements…but generally?

How do you feel?

Are you comfortable moving your body?

Okay…I know — lots of overweight people run from the thought of exercise.

However, there is joy in moving your body.  If you are unable to experience the joy of movement…something is missing.

Your body works best by being moved.

Let me explain.

One of the problems with fat is that it resticts your ability to move.  You simply are not as free to move about — it takes too much energy.

If you are facing a weight issue — think about it.  What would you enjoy doing in the way of movement, that you can’t do now?

Would it be hiking? Dancing? What?

One of the things I notieceably experienced when I got into the the 175 weight was –  liberty of movement.  Not only did I feel freer to move,, I also took more joy in movement.

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And it’s one that has plagued me most of my life. I’m still overweight — but that’s a lot better than where I was — not just obese — but “morbidly” obese.

Fortunately — I haven’t suffered from some of the problems that affect folks with weight problems — such as diabetes, syndrome X, knee & hip problems.

At 5’4″, I weighed in at over 240 pounds.  Not sure how much over.

Now I tip the scales at somewhere between 170-180 pounds.

There’s some good news and bad news about being overweight.

For instance, did you know that there are studies that show people who are overweight actually are less likely to die after a heart attack than their thinner counter-parts?

Or that weight is not nearly as important as being fit?

That’s right — if you have to choose between being fit & fat or being thin & unfit — choose the first.

It may also make you happy to know that there are cultures in which being overweight is considered to be a good thing.

So — what is this blog about?

It’s about finding your way out of prison.

Part of the prison, you might consider, is that made up of the excess weight you carry around.

But you also might realize that you are a prisoner of the weight-loss industry.

They are hammering us constantly with their methods and fads and the like — on how to lose weight or lose fat.

I’m not saying that all of these are bad — but, on the whole, it’s believed that you will be healthier by maintaining your weight –whatever that is — rather than yo-yoing.

In Other Words — dieting is bad for your health.

Quite possibly worse than simply being overweight. Obviously –there are constraints.

But one of the biggest issues in the weight loss industry is this:  most of them keep you at war with your body.

War is a bad thing.

And being at war with your body is a bad thing.

I chose a theme with the bird because birds and flight represent freedom.

And that’s what I wish for you:  freedom from the war you have with your body.

Coming to love your body.

And to declare freedom from the imprisonment of the weight loss industry.

We’ll talk soon … in the meantime — love your body.

Appreciate what an amazing piece of machinery it is, and how it makes it possible for you to enjoy life.

We’ll talk more about how making peace with your body will give you even more freedom.

‘Til then –

Love Your Body,

Anne

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