Are you food savvy?

This is an interesting and fun quiz on healthy eating!! Some of the answers are surprising. And there are other quizzes to take too.

We are all bombarded with food information every day, and it is had to sort out the valuable food messages from all this confusion.

When we are trying to control our weight, we are automatically routed to think about dieting. But most people who go on diets end up putting weight on. Why is this. The cycle of Diet Deprive and Deny makes us even more interested in food. We get food-obsessed. And we start believing silly things. One of my clients the other day recounted this overheard conversation:

Mmm, this chocolate bar contains 150 calories....
Well, try the Weight Watchers one, it is only 113.

Changing your way of eating so that you maintain a good weight and good health is not about just saving a few calories here and there. Hypnotherapy will help you identify your problem habits, work out a way to overcome them and then support your motivation, so that you automatically make positive choices. Much easier.


www.carolinebrowntherapy.com

The pressure to be thin

Twenty years ago, the average model weighed 8 per cent less than the average woman—but today’s models weigh 23 per cent less. And her image is airbrushed and photoshopped to make her look even more unreal. Don't forget what the photographer Rankin (who did the Dove adverts) says about fashion photography "It is an art form and should not be taken seriously". See my blog of 4 August 2009.

The Canadian Media Awareness Network has some interesting things to say about the pressure to be thin - mostly the pressure on women to be thin. They note the high value of the diet industry - £60 billion - depends on us feeling bad about our bodies so that we go to their classes, buy their food. Did you know that Weight Watchers food products are sold to us by Kraft?

This ideal of women's beauty is a Western ideal, but it is now spreading internationally. Television, showing lots of Western films and shows, is affecting women everywhere. Look at this research article in the Royal College of Psychiatrists journal on the effect of television on teenage girls in Fiji. It shows that disordered eating - fasting, anorexia, bulimia - is one of the effects of prolonged television viewing.

I will bang on about women's magazines later. Hypnotherapy helps you get a clearer idea of what is normal, what you can achieve, and how to be happy with how you are. Make changes where change is possible and necessary, and learn to accept the rest, and be happy.

www.carolinebrowntherapy.com