I think that the knitting thing might just take off! On 9 September 2009 another website reported some research into knitting. The report suggests that i t is difficult to worry about food and do a visual spatial task at the same time. Things like computer games would fall into that category. I think knitting or sewing is a great way to not nibble whilst watching the telly, which is one of the most used opportunities for mindless munching.
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
Sunday 27 September 2009
Saturday 26 September 2009
Miss Big Booty on Diet Blog is worried about her all-or-nothing approach to dieting. She eats well, makes a mistake, then blows the whole thing, and binges on what she knows is all the bad foods.
She is eating in a very restrained manner on the good days, with almost fat free dinners, steamed vegetables etc. This kind of abnormal food and restrained eating requires a high degree of motivation and self-control. Most of us would prefer to eat a more varied diet and in the long-term that is essential. I can't imagine life without spaghetti bolognese, roast chicken or puddings. Dieting doesn't work. But being a bit more vigilant about what you eat does.
If you go on a diet, with a tight regime of foods regarded as bad and foods regarded as good, then you are setting yourself up for a guilt trip. When you break one of the diet rules, you feel bad, worthless, miserable etc etc and say to yourself "I'm a failure. I can't do this" etc etc. Why not get off your case and be a bit nicer to yourself, following some simple, sustainable guidelines.
Eating food is one of the pleasures of life. Enjoy it. If you are restricting yourself to salads and lean meat when that is not enjoyable for you, you just won't last the course. Instead, enjoy your 3 meals a day. Each normal meal is probably 600 calories. Maybe a bit more. That is equivalent to 2 chockie bars. Giving up the chockie bars is easier than giving up a meal. The meal will fill you up and satisfy you. The chockie bar wants you to eat his friend too.
She is eating in a very restrained manner on the good days, with almost fat free dinners, steamed vegetables etc. This kind of abnormal food and restrained eating requires a high degree of motivation and self-control. Most of us would prefer to eat a more varied diet and in the long-term that is essential. I can't imagine life without spaghetti bolognese, roast chicken or puddings. Dieting doesn't work. But being a bit more vigilant about what you eat does.
If you go on a diet, with a tight regime of foods regarded as bad and foods regarded as good, then you are setting yourself up for a guilt trip. When you break one of the diet rules, you feel bad, worthless, miserable etc etc and say to yourself "I'm a failure. I can't do this" etc etc. Why not get off your case and be a bit nicer to yourself, following some simple, sustainable guidelines.
Eating food is one of the pleasures of life. Enjoy it. If you are restricting yourself to salads and lean meat when that is not enjoyable for you, you just won't last the course. Instead, enjoy your 3 meals a day. Each normal meal is probably 600 calories. Maybe a bit more. That is equivalent to 2 chockie bars. Giving up the chockie bars is easier than giving up a meal. The meal will fill you up and satisfy you. The chockie bar wants you to eat his friend too.
Friday 25 September 2009
Portion control - confused?
What is a portion? Well, portions have certainly got bigger over the last decade or so. A Beefeater restaurant steak plate from the 1960s (seen in an antiques shop recently) looked really small to me. We have got used to eating off really huge plates. We eat out much more than a generation ago, and we load our plates at the buffet to get our money's worth. All this makes it harder for us to assess a portion.
And when we buy a pre-pack meal from the supermarket, what looks like a meal for one, on close reading of the package, is a meal for two. On the plate it looks like a portion for one, (or maybe 1 and a tiny visitor). I am starting to think that it is calories for two but quantity for one. Look at an interesting portion control discussion here.
The King Size 84g Mars Bar was phased out following a House of Commons report, which showed that a Snickers bar had more calories than a full steak meal. It was replaced by the Mars Duo - two bars now at 91g (about 400 calories - equivalent to a plate of chicken, potatoes and veg). Research shows that once a pack is opened we eat it, so the unintended consequence of the House of Commons report is that we eat even more! For those with a sweet tooth and a desire to lose weight, buy fun packs. One little bar is a portion.
If you hold onto the idea that one formal meal is round about 500 calories, then when you read the calorie content of a sweetie bar or other snack, you can get an idea of the relative benefit of eating it. I was once given a delicious slice of chocolate cake - and was horrified to see that it contained 1,500 calories. A belt buster to be sure!
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
And when we buy a pre-pack meal from the supermarket, what looks like a meal for one, on close reading of the package, is a meal for two. On the plate it looks like a portion for one, (or maybe 1 and a tiny visitor). I am starting to think that it is calories for two but quantity for one. Look at an interesting portion control discussion here.
The King Size 84g Mars Bar was phased out following a House of Commons report, which showed that a Snickers bar had more calories than a full steak meal. It was replaced by the Mars Duo - two bars now at 91g (about 400 calories - equivalent to a plate of chicken, potatoes and veg). Research shows that once a pack is opened we eat it, so the unintended consequence of the House of Commons report is that we eat even more! For those with a sweet tooth and a desire to lose weight, buy fun packs. One little bar is a portion.
If you hold onto the idea that one formal meal is round about 500 calories, then when you read the calorie content of a sweetie bar or other snack, you can get an idea of the relative benefit of eating it. I was once given a delicious slice of chocolate cake - and was horrified to see that it contained 1,500 calories. A belt buster to be sure!
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
Wednesday 23 September 2009
What is triggering our eating?
Well, not hunger for the most part. There are lots of cues to encourage us to eat. Brian Wansink of Cornell University has done loads of research on these environmental cues and we can all learn from his work. For example, if sweets are on your desk, you will eat more than if you have to get up and walk 10 yards for them. Obvious? Then put tempting foods out of sight. Tempting food in transparent containers (ice cream for example) is eaten faster than if it is in an opaque box.
Have a listen here to his interview on CBS News about what triggers eating.
Here are a couple of his tips for when you are eating out. Sit next to the person who starts last. Don't sit next to the Speed Eater.
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
Have a listen here to his interview on CBS News about what triggers eating.
Here are a couple of his tips for when you are eating out. Sit next to the person who starts last. Don't sit next to the Speed Eater.
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
Tuesday 22 September 2009
Eat slowly and lose weight
The European Food Information Council has a great website, crammed with interesting information, of great use to people wishing to adopt a healthier eating pattern. Click here to take a test to check how your vital statistics are affecting your health.
One piece of research they mention relates to eating slowly. The research showed that people who eat slowly tend to eat fewer calories, drink more water with their meal, get more pleasure from eating and feel more satisfied afterwards. It takes stretch receptors in the stomach about 20 minutes to work out that the stomach is full. So eating slowly means that you are more aware of these internal sensations.
On the other hand, a different study shows that eating fast correlates with insulin resistance and thus to some increased risk of diabetes.
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
One piece of research they mention relates to eating slowly. The research showed that people who eat slowly tend to eat fewer calories, drink more water with their meal, get more pleasure from eating and feel more satisfied afterwards. It takes stretch receptors in the stomach about 20 minutes to work out that the stomach is full. So eating slowly means that you are more aware of these internal sensations.
On the other hand, a different study shows that eating fast correlates with insulin resistance and thus to some increased risk of diabetes.
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
A healthy weight improves your general health
The Scotsman report today that maintaining a healthy weight will reduce the risk of breast cancer.
"Researchers have recently estimated that around 40% of all breast cancer cases could be prevented if women maintained a healthy weight, limited their alcohol intake and increased their level of physical activity."
Over the last 20 years or so, we have started to use food as fun. Something to do when we are with our friends. So we have a girls' night in, and we bring along the marshmallows, cakes and chocolate. The total calorie value of these fun foods has added the equivalent of "an extra meal" to our daily food intake.
What else could we do for fun, that doesn't involve eating this "extra meal"? Giving up this fun food is much easier than trying to limit what you eat at each formal meal.
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
"Researchers have recently estimated that around 40% of all breast cancer cases could be prevented if women maintained a healthy weight, limited their alcohol intake and increased their level of physical activity."
Over the last 20 years or so, we have started to use food as fun. Something to do when we are with our friends. So we have a girls' night in, and we bring along the marshmallows, cakes and chocolate. The total calorie value of these fun foods has added the equivalent of "an extra meal" to our daily food intake.
What else could we do for fun, that doesn't involve eating this "extra meal"? Giving up this fun food is much easier than trying to limit what you eat at each formal meal.
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
Saturday 19 September 2009
That conspiracy of fat and sugar, and salt too
We are hard-wired to want to eat fat (it was in short supply and is a store of energy for those hard times), sugar (the only source was honey - dangerous - and fruit - seasonal) and salt, which keeps you from dehydrating - where would you find salt if there weren't any shops?
So it is not surprising that salty, fatty, or sugary, fatty foods hit the spot. Nor is it surprising that the food industry knows this and beguiles us with just this sort of food, with the added bonus of flavour enhancers to get the juices going. And it does prove quite addictive. You may remember seeing Super Size Me? "The film documents this lifestyle's drastic effects on Spurlock's physical and psychological well-being, and explores the fast food industry's corporate influence, including how it encourages poor nutrition for its own profit."
Well, Dr Kessler, who used to head up the US Food and Drugs Administration, has found that fat, salt and sugar cause a dopamine rush, similar to other addictive products. "The food industry has been able to figure out the bliss point, the optimal combinations of fat and salt, fat and sugar, fat, sugar and salt that you think tastes good, but when you look at the science, we now know that those ingredients stimulate, they activate the brain's circuitry". So the food industry is deliberately targeting those addictive centres in our brains, when they design and advertise their processed foods.
And the food industry is also active in the diet foods industry. They have it both ways.
If you are overweight, you are dealing with some powerful opposition. Understanding it and supporting yourself with hypnotherapy, will get you back in control.
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
So it is not surprising that salty, fatty, or sugary, fatty foods hit the spot. Nor is it surprising that the food industry knows this and beguiles us with just this sort of food, with the added bonus of flavour enhancers to get the juices going. And it does prove quite addictive. You may remember seeing Super Size Me? "The film documents this lifestyle's drastic effects on Spurlock's physical and psychological well-being, and explores the fast food industry's corporate influence, including how it encourages poor nutrition for its own profit."
Well, Dr Kessler, who used to head up the US Food and Drugs Administration, has found that fat, salt and sugar cause a dopamine rush, similar to other addictive products. "The food industry has been able to figure out the bliss point, the optimal combinations of fat and salt, fat and sugar, fat, sugar and salt that you think tastes good, but when you look at the science, we now know that those ingredients stimulate, they activate the brain's circuitry". So the food industry is deliberately targeting those addictive centres in our brains, when they design and advertise their processed foods.
And the food industry is also active in the diet foods industry. They have it both ways.
If you are overweight, you are dealing with some powerful opposition. Understanding it and supporting yourself with hypnotherapy, will get you back in control.
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
Friday 18 September 2009
Unhappy children become overweight adults
A long-term study published last week has shown that children who have emotional problems and poor self-perceptions are overweight when they are adult.
Feeling good about yourself is important for adults too. This is an area where hypnotherapy has been shown to work. Before you consider hypnotherapy, Melanie Fennell has written a great self help book. You can get it from here.
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
Feeling good about yourself is important for adults too. This is an area where hypnotherapy has been shown to work. Before you consider hypnotherapy, Melanie Fennell has written a great self help book. You can get it from here.
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
Wednesday 16 September 2009
A meal deal in Scotland is different from a meal deal in London. Why?
I was in London last week, and bought a meal deal at a major supermarket.
Now, I have been looked at meal deals before, but this one was different, and I am interested to know why, and I wonder too if I could buy it up here in Scotland. The meal deals I have seen in Glasgow normally consist of a sandwich, a bottle of water or a fizzy drink, and a bag of crisps.
The one in London was a sandwich, a pack of fresh fruit (pineapple) and a bottle of real orange juice. Giving me 2 of my 5-a-days and many fewer calories. Now, is this because Down South they have got the health message?
So I had a look round the aisles in another big supermarket, and I was surprised at the contrast with Scotland. Down South they don't have even half the space allocated to fizzy drinks, biscuits and sweets.
It seems to me that our local supermarkets are pandering to our traditionally bad eating behaviours, rather than helping us to change and improve our health. When I am working with clients to lose weight, one of the key things we work on is what to buy in the supermarket. If you have it in the house, you will eat it.
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
Now, I have been looked at meal deals before, but this one was different, and I am interested to know why, and I wonder too if I could buy it up here in Scotland. The meal deals I have seen in Glasgow normally consist of a sandwich, a bottle of water or a fizzy drink, and a bag of crisps.
The one in London was a sandwich, a pack of fresh fruit (pineapple) and a bottle of real orange juice. Giving me 2 of my 5-a-days and many fewer calories. Now, is this because Down South they have got the health message?
So I had a look round the aisles in another big supermarket, and I was surprised at the contrast with Scotland. Down South they don't have even half the space allocated to fizzy drinks, biscuits and sweets.
It seems to me that our local supermarkets are pandering to our traditionally bad eating behaviours, rather than helping us to change and improve our health. When I am working with clients to lose weight, one of the key things we work on is what to buy in the supermarket. If you have it in the house, you will eat it.
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
Tuesday 15 September 2009
Compulsive overeating
Compulsive eating (uncontrolled overeating that is not related to hunger) was investigated in 279 college women with the use of a self-report questionnaire. Results indicated a relationship between unpleasant emotional states (boredom, depression, anxiety, loneliness, anger),compulsive eating and the calming effect of eating.
If you tend to feel unhappy, then you might find yourself eating as a form of self-medication to make yourself feel better. What else might you do to lighten your mood. Phone a friend maybe, go out for a walk, go and see a film or take up knitting.
Hypnotherapy helps you to deal with your emotions, so if this is the cause of your overeating, why not deal with the cause, using hypnotherapy?
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
If you tend to feel unhappy, then you might find yourself eating as a form of self-medication to make yourself feel better. What else might you do to lighten your mood. Phone a friend maybe, go out for a walk, go and see a film or take up knitting.
Hypnotherapy helps you to deal with your emotions, so if this is the cause of your overeating, why not deal with the cause, using hypnotherapy?
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
Thursday 3 September 2009
Are you pouring on the pounds?
A New York campaign has just been launched to limit consumption of fizzy drinks.
Read it.... Scotland is second only to the US in obesity rates.
Clearly it is not just me banging on about fizzy drinks. Fundamentally I suppose I feel that pop is for children, who need the sugar while they are growing rapidly. And we adults just don't need these sugar-filled drinks - and they really are sugar-filled. You wouldn't put 10 teaspoons of sugar in your tea, would you? Would you? Check the next can of pop that you buy. Most are around 150-200 calories. A teaspoon of sugar is 16 calories. Find out more here!
Most of Americans increase in weight over the last 30 years comes from adding these sugary drinks to their diet. Since making a change to other drinks is relatively easy, here is a way to reduce your weight with very little effort indeed. Give it a try!
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
Read it.... Scotland is second only to the US in obesity rates.
Clearly it is not just me banging on about fizzy drinks. Fundamentally I suppose I feel that pop is for children, who need the sugar while they are growing rapidly. And we adults just don't need these sugar-filled drinks - and they really are sugar-filled. You wouldn't put 10 teaspoons of sugar in your tea, would you? Would you? Check the next can of pop that you buy. Most are around 150-200 calories. A teaspoon of sugar is 16 calories. Find out more here!
Most of Americans increase in weight over the last 30 years comes from adding these sugary drinks to their diet. Since making a change to other drinks is relatively easy, here is a way to reduce your weight with very little effort indeed. Give it a try!
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
Take up knitting!
I often suggest to my clients that they might take up knitting! I heard on the radio recently that the majority of people watch tv for more than 3 hours a day. This is an obesity risk, since we often feel the need to do something while watching telly, and this frequently takes the form of eating. Eating and knitting are incompatible, so it is a way to stop you nibbling.
And today on the radio, it seems that NHS Highland staff are taking up knitting to relieve stress. Why not give it a try! Look here.
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
And today on the radio, it seems that NHS Highland staff are taking up knitting to relieve stress. Why not give it a try! Look here.
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
Wednesday 2 September 2009
Help with getting some exercise
Exercise is important for general health, reducing the risk of osteoporosis, and keeping your joints supple.
It is not necessary to do masses unless you like it, but fitting a bit more exercise into your daily routine will make a difference to your weight. On this blog, I am trying to encourage you to make a few small changes every week, so that over the long term, you will find that your weight has settled down to a healthy, easy to maintain level.
Changing from a sedentary to a moderately active lifestyle or from moderate to highly active helps you burn calories faster. Have a look at this website to give you an idea of how this change affects your weight.
Walk jog run helps you plan a walking route, measures it out for you and tells you whether you are slow or fast! Not only that, but you can see the routes that other people have taken, so you can explore Glasgow a bit wider.
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
It is not necessary to do masses unless you like it, but fitting a bit more exercise into your daily routine will make a difference to your weight. On this blog, I am trying to encourage you to make a few small changes every week, so that over the long term, you will find that your weight has settled down to a healthy, easy to maintain level.
Changing from a sedentary to a moderately active lifestyle or from moderate to highly active helps you burn calories faster. Have a look at this website to give you an idea of how this change affects your weight.
Walk jog run helps you plan a walking route, measures it out for you and tells you whether you are slow or fast! Not only that, but you can see the routes that other people have taken, so you can explore Glasgow a bit wider.
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
Yoga can help you lose weight
One of my clients told me she found yoga helpful. As a result, I have been keeping an eye out for research into yoga and weight loss.
A study funded by the United States National Cancer Institute shows that regular yoga practice can help control middle-age spread, maintaining the weight of normal-weight middle-aged people, and possibly contributing to weight loss among the overweight middle-aged. They published a follow-up in August 2009.
“In our earlier study, we found that middle-age people who practice yoga gained less weight over a 10-year period than those who did not. This was independent of physical activity and dietary patterns. We hypothesised that mindfulness — a skill learned either directly or indirectly through yoga — could affect eating behaviour,”
This supports a great deal of the research which you will find on my blog. Eating in front of the telly, in the car, or any time when you are really doing something else, means you eat more. This sort of eating stops your digestive system from telling the brain that you have had enough to eat. Stretch receptors take about 20 minutes to notice that we are full, and if we miss the signals, we will overeat. His research shows the Mindfulness that comes from practising yoga keeps you in control when faced with delicious food when you are not hungry.
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
A study funded by the United States National Cancer Institute shows that regular yoga practice can help control middle-age spread, maintaining the weight of normal-weight middle-aged people, and possibly contributing to weight loss among the overweight middle-aged. They published a follow-up in August 2009.
“In our earlier study, we found that middle-age people who practice yoga gained less weight over a 10-year period than those who did not. This was independent of physical activity and dietary patterns. We hypothesised that mindfulness — a skill learned either directly or indirectly through yoga — could affect eating behaviour,”
This supports a great deal of the research which you will find on my blog. Eating in front of the telly, in the car, or any time when you are really doing something else, means you eat more. This sort of eating stops your digestive system from telling the brain that you have had enough to eat. Stretch receptors take about 20 minutes to notice that we are full, and if we miss the signals, we will overeat. His research shows the Mindfulness that comes from practising yoga keeps you in control when faced with delicious food when you are not hungry.
www.carolinebrowntherapy.com
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