More on that loss of willpower

Willpower is managed in the pre-frontal cortex part of your brain. This is the bit that deals with planning, proper social behaviour and other elements of "executive function".

Baba Shiv Professor at Stanford University, shows that it is pretty fragile in his research demonstrating why and how willpower is so feeble. Like Baumeister, his research shows that even small actions can deplete willpower.

But willpower can be developed. If you practice doing things that are a bit uncomfortable or a bit unpleasant, then you will strengthen your willpower. Shiv suggests that the prefrontal cortex can be compared to a bicep muscle. Exercise it and it will develop and strengthen.

This could be consciously improving your posture. Or regularly tidying up after yourself, or doing the filing regularly, or phoning your mother, or writing that letter. Avoiding procrastination generally. So if you face up to and do moderately unpleasant things, you will find that your willpower will increase. And you will be able to accomplish the goals that you desire.


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Working mothers in trouble again

New research shows that children of working mothers lead unhealthier lifestyles than where the mother does not work. Most women work nowadays, so the report refers to the majority of us.

What are the things that constitute an unhealthy lifestyle, according to this report. Well, it is the things that I bang on about, which are bad for all of us, and which are marketed actively at adults and children alike - sugary drinks, crisps, snacks. None of us need them, even though they are nice (they are designed by experts to be nice!) I don't know what the non-working mum is doing, but maybe she is cooking more, rather than relying on processed packaged foods. Cooking at home and eating together at a table are things I support.

Sweets too are a problem. Cardiff University research shows that eating sweets everyday in childhood is linked to adult aggression. They haven't identified why. But we already know that certain foods cause hyperactivity in our children. We are lucky in this generation to have generally more cash, and we give treats to our children every day - making them routine rather than treats. Perhaps our grannies who kept the biscuit tin and the sweetie jar hidden till Sunday were doing the right thing by us after all.

The other thing was that children of working mothers are less active. Women lead busy lives. Perhaps we ought to all get a bit more active and spend less time in front of the telly. There was no mention of the role of the dad in this research. What was he doing?

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How to manage cravings

Cravings seem to arise out of the blue and we are overcome with the need to eat the craved item, often sweet things for women. Well, the key thing to know is that like a screaming child, if you ignore them, they eventually stop, and if you keep ignoring them, they will stop for ever altogether.

So how to ignore cravings.

Well, one way is to identify what is triggering them. It is not hunger. It could be your routine. For example, if you have always had a snack at 3.00pm your cravings will arrive on the dot. If you always eat in the car on the way home, they will be there too. If you walk past a sweet shop and always buy chocolate or crisps with your paper, you will repeat the actions on and on. So these are environmental and habit-based triggers for cravings. Change your route, have no food in the car, stop snacking at 3.00pm. And if the trigger is boredom, develop a portable hobby so that you can distract yourself. And if I might bang on about this again, if you always munch away at chocs and crisps in front of the telly, just turning the telly on turns your belly on.

Changing behaviour in these relatively small ways is quite easy. You don't have to deal with everything all at once. One or two a week is quite enough. Then what?

When cravings come, ignore them. Distract yourself. This could be by going for a walk, phoning a friend, washing the car. Just tapping your finger onto your hand for a few minutes is also quite distracting.

Cravings disappear in only a few minutes. You can handle that!


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The diet industry is growing fatter and fatter

The diet industry is vast - about $70billion a year. Huge food companies, like Kraft, have diet product businesses - fattening us up on the one hand and then selling us stuff when we want to lose weight. And the reason Big Business are in the diet industry, is because we keep failing at maintaining our diets. We put the weight back on again and again. Pretty much everyone does. None of us can keep up a lifestyle of diet, deny and deprive for long.

I bang on about changing behaviour and habits rather than going on diets. Diets are fine in the short term, if you want to go on the beach in the summer, then a crash diet will help.

I think Julia Roberts was speaking the truth in Notting Hill when she said she had been hungry for 10 years. And in an interview with Jenny Murray on Radio 4, Joan Collins said that it was her job to keep looking good, so she spent up to 8 hours a day primping, preening and exercising, before she went out to face her public. What are they telling us here? Well, it is that they have made a lifestyle choice. They have habits that help them to achieve the goals they have set for themselves (pretty tough goals, but the rewards of obviously huge for them!)

So let me bang on again. If you feel you are heavier than you want to be, look at your lifestyle. What habits do you have that encourage weight gain?

Most of us do not get fat by eating 3 meals a day. Research has shown that the calorie content of our 3 meals has been flatlining. It is the hidden 4th meal that puts on the pounds. Getting out of established habits is not easy, but you will have done it lots of times. When you change job, you change habits. When you get a new partner, you change your habits too.

Think about these new habits, making one or two changes each week. Don't do it all at once.

1. No more fizzy drinks. Even diet ones. You are training your taste buds to want sweet stuff. And they don't refresh thirst. Train yourself to drink water when you are thirsty.
2. Cut down the takeaways. You really don't know what they contain. Just look at the orange fat floating on the surface.
3. Don't watch the telly when you eat (you don't notice your food and you eat much more). Eat at a table whenever you can.

Start to notice what you are eating between meals. Just being aware will help you avoid snacks.


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Disturbed body image affects men too

Most research on body image relates to women. But a nice piece in the American Journal of Psychiatry shows that men are trying to achieve bodies that women don't actually want of them.

They worked with men from 3 different countries (culture is a very important driver in body image) and found that the men wanted about 12 pounds more muscle, which they thought was attractive to women. However, the women wanted normal looking men. The researchers suggest that maybe this mismatch is one of the reasons why men are increasingly using steroids.

Striving after unachievable goals just makes you unhappy.

What makes you happy? Here is a really good list from the Centre for Confidence and Wellbeing in Glasgow, drawing on sources such as Assen Alladin - a great cognitive behavioural hypnotherapist - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who shows us the huge benefit we get from doing difficult work, and Diener and Seligman at the University of Illinois, who found that happy people developed and maintained their kinships and friendships. If you are finding you are not as happy as before, then meet up with a hypnotherapist and start work on getting happy.

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Men can't think straight when they see pretty women!

An article in the Daily Telegraph got me thinking. The researchers at Radboud University in The Netherlands said 'We conclude men's cognitive functioning may temporarily decline after an interaction with an attractive woman.'

The same part of the brain, the pre-frontal cortex, is involved here as with willpower. Just a little bit of decision making reduces our capacity for self-control. So we can't rely on our willpower to help us control our eating any more than men seem able to think after seeing a pretty woman. Making constant demands on our willpower just makes it weaker.

So if we are wanting to lose weight, what can we do?

Making a few small changes in our daily behaviour every week, allows them to become automatic, so that we don't need to use our willpower or think about controlling our desires. For example, if you find that you eat when you are bored, then think of something that might resolve the boredom to replace the eating.

What about origami? This has the additional benefit of being a bit of a party piece as well as being very portable. Or what about knitting? Or reading a book, or learning a language? What interesting thing could you be doing that stops you from picking at food when you are bored?

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How much are you are eating - really?

When you ask someone what they ate over the last 2 days, they will tell you what they had for each of the 3 formal meals.

They will not mention the automatic eating or mindless munching that takes place outwith a formal meal. But this is the stuff that piles on the weight for most of us.

We only have a limited amount of willpower. Use it to limit your access to the foods eaten outside of mealtimes. This trend to constant munching is pretty new. I remember a sweet advertised many moons ago as one "you can eat between meals without spoiling your appetite". Now we are encouraged to eat as a displacement activity, when there is nothing else to do. In the past we might have had hobbies, or spent time with our friends going to the pictures or for a walk. Now we go and eat. What are your outside of mealtimes eating habits?

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Self-defeating eating

Sometimes, we completely lose control of our eating, causing anxiety, distress and depression. Worse, anxiety, distress and depression cause us to lose control of our eating. What can we do?

Anxiety is normal, everybody gets anxious from time to time. Sometimes, though, it is impossible to shift it, and we feel hopeless and helpless. A bit of help comes in handy at times like this. Take comfort from knowing that you have overcome your anxiety in the past, so you can certainly do it again.

When we get in the way of our own best intentions, hypnotherapy can help. It is fast, safe and effective. For compulsive overeating, binge eating, or just knowingly eating food you don't want and don't enjoy, start by learning to understand yourself, respect yourself and goodness - even love yourself too. The bad eating behaviour will just disappear. Cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy is the best treatment for all forms of anxiety.

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How to lose weight

Well, this advert from the Olden Days suggested eating tapeworms. We don't recommend this!

But (on the basis of a few small changes every week) here are some things to consider.

Cut out fizzy drinks. One can a day could result in 15lbs weight gain a year.

Reduce the number of takeaways. You have no idea of how much fat they contain - though you can see the yellow or orange oil floating on the surface.

Stop buying food in sacks or buckets. Buy small quantities so you don't feel the need to eat just to create space in the cupboard.

Use smaller plates.
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Where has my willpower gone?

We tend to believe that a failure of willpower - when we are trying to give up overeating, or smoking, or doing an unappealing task like cleaning someone else's car - is a failure of character. It is not.

Willpower (also called self-control and referred to in academic texts as ego) is always in very short supply. Even making a small decision or making a small effort depletes it. (Known as ego depletion.) Roy Baumeister and colleagues identified that willpower relies on a supply of glucose to the brain. That is one of the reasons you shouldn't go food shopping when you are hungry - you will just load the trolley with all those things you are trying to avoid!

It also means that when you are trying to do things where willpower or self-control are needed, such as trying to change your eating behaviour, you need to be sure you are not also doing something else which takes your energy. So don't try to lose weight at Christmas, because you will be faced with so many opportunities to eat and drink that your self-control gets depleted. And if you have a big task to achieve, that will use up your supply of willpower.

So, if you wish to focus on changing your eating behaviour, then make small changes - little and often. That way you limit the choices you have to make and your willpower will not be overwhelmed.


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Rules of thumb for estimating portions

We all use rules of thumb for estimating the right amount to eat.

For example, most of us pour out half a bowl of cereal. No matter how big the bowl is.

We pour out a half glass of orange juice or wine. Use taller thinner glasses. You will enjoy the drink just as much, and your waistline will be happier.

My hero Brian Wansink offers this rule of thumb for checking packaged food.

If the calories are a smaller number than the grams, the food has low energy density. This would be a great choice.
If the calories are equal to, or twice as much, as the grams, eat moderately and watch your portion size.
If the calories are more than twice the grams, limit your portions.

He has teamed up with other foodie colleagues to create a new website full of useful information.
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The urge to gorge

Here we are in the Christmas season. Even before Christianity came to Europe, there were pagan winter feastings. In those days, food was hard to come by, and winter was a time of hunger, so a special festival like this was a major treat.

Nowadays, food is plentiful, accessible and relatively cheap. For the vast majority of us, food shortage is just not an issue. But getting fat is something that concerns an increasing number of us.

Somehow at Christmas, we permit ourselves to gorge hugely, stuffing ourselves before, during and after a meal, with calorie-stuffed fun food. So what to do?

I was in the supermarket the other day with a friend who has a problem with alcohol. He wanted to buy a bottle of each kind of spirit - vodka, whisky, gin, brandy - for the friends who would be dropping by. He did this last year, and personally consumed all the bottles by New Years Day.

So here is the tip. Don't kid yourself that all these boxes of chocolates, tins of biscuits, sacks of crisps, bags of nuts, cakes etc etc etc are for your friends and visitors. Letting rip like this will only make you feel miserable, after you have eaten the evidence.

Enjoy lots of wonderful meals with your family. Have a happy Christmas. But when you are in the supermarket, make a Christmas wish to avoid all the fun food. It will be no fun at all in the New Year, when you struggle to lose the 3 pounds that you are at risk of putting on, and keeping on.

And when I say you, of course I mean Us!

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It's the environment making us fat

There is a new term, which came along in the 1990s. It's the obsogenic environment, which means that our whole environment is geared up to getting us overweight. Just knowing this can help us manage our weight better.

It is hardly surprising that we get fat. We have been designing our environments to expend as little energy as possible. All the shops are gathered together by the car park, so we don't walk to the shops. We don't even get up to turn the channels over on the telly.

And we are given food messages all the time. The TV channels are stuffed with them, not just adverts, but whole programmes. Magazines, even slimming magazines, are stuffed with food messages. And the presentation of food in the shops, as well as the kind of food they sell, gets us thinking about eating.

There are more subtle environmental cues. Food packages have got larger and suggest that larger portions are fine - we didn't ask for it. But we have got used to it. When we go out, it is more often to a restaurant or bar than to play bowls, dance or do a communal activity.

One way to control your eating is to control your own environment. We tend to want to eat when we see food. Research by Brian Wansink has shown that if food is in opaque packets we eat less than if it is in clear packets. And if we have to make an effort to get at the food (even a walk of just a few yards) we eat less. So, here are some good tips to modify your own environment:

• Watch less telly - get another pleasurable activity into your daily routine
• Avoid magazines with loads of food ads
• Shop with a list and get out quick
• Don't buy and store in the house foods that you know you can't resist
• Keep biscuits and other stuff in tins or opaque boxes

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Why am I eating?

Part of what I am trying to encourage is to eat mindfully, being fully aware whenever you are eating and enjoying it. .When you become very aware of what you are eating, you get a clearer idea of why you might be putting on weight.

My approach encourages you first of all to work on giving up the food that you are eating for no particular reason. Simplify your life by just taking note of the eating you do between meals. This eating is the easiest to give up. You don't have to do it all at once. Take it week by week or month by month. Don't be too hard on yourself. Make these changes for the long-term and do it bit by bit.

So first of all, leaving aside your regular meals, what are you eating and when? Make a note of it, maybe put it on a post-it note on the fridge. Becoming aware of these unnecessary eating behaviours helps you stop them. And hypnotherapy can help you too.

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Why should I exercise?

Exercise makes you feel better. For some, thrashing away at a gym for 2 hours is just the ticket. For others, gardening or walking to the shops suits, and others still enjoy dancing. Whatever you choose, it should be something that you enjoy doing and can fit it into your day without a great struggle. The natural response of your body to exercise is a desire to eat, so it is good to do it before a regular meal.

As I mentioned in my blog of.29 November 2009 exercise won't make you thin, unless you are really going at it, like an Olympic athlete. However, it will protect your health. Start with a bit of exercise, and then see if you can do more. Don't set yourself such high targets that you give up early.

Here are a list of benefits!

• Lovely supple joints for your old age
• Less stress
• Less risk of dementia in your old age
• A smaller waistline and thus less risk of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease (Coronary heart disease mortality is higher in Scotland than in the rest of the UK. The premature death rate for men living in Scotland is 50% higher than in the South West of England, and around 90% higher for women.)
• Less risk of insulin resistance and overproduction, which lead to diabetes or obesity with high cholesterol and heart disease)
• Less osteoporosis - weight bearing exercise such as running, dancing, skipping, rather than swimming
  

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Do I have to exercise?

Well, to be honest, only reducing your calories will reduce your weight. I was going to say, only reducing the amount you eat - but that is not so. You can eat lots of water-rich food and lose weight. It is the calorie-dense food that we all need to avoid, even though it tastes lovely.

What exercise does is reduce the amount of abdominal fat. This fat is packed into the abdominal cavity and in between the internal organs. It is also called organ fat or visceral fat. This is the fat that you are losing when you find your waist is getting smaller. Abdominal fat is linked to cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome. This is the natural place for fat deposits in men, whereas for women it is the buttocks, hips and thighs. However, after the menopause, fat moves to the organs.

So, rather than keep miserably eying the scales, measure your waist. When you reduce your waist measurement, you are losing fat and are back on the healthy slopes. And a hypnotherapist will help you keep to your goals.

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Why are the French so slim?

French people are really keen on food (so am I!) and they spend 135 minutes a day eating. In Britain, its about 85 minutes, and in the USA about 75 minutes. This is from an OECD report. And yet the French are generally of healthy proportions. What is going on here?

Well, the French still eat at the table, and they concentrate on their food while they are eating. They talk about it with their dinner companions. They eat in a slow and calm way, taking their time. As a result, they are aware of when they are feeling full. It takes about 20 minutes for your brain to register that your stomach is happy with its meal. Then they stop eating, and continue with the conversation.

The British and Americans are spending less time eating, but managing to munch many more calories in this shorter time. Britain and the USA are in the top 3 overweight nations. Americans eat in front of the telly, and the trigger to stop eating is when the show is over.

To help you manage your own eating, work out what it is that triggers you to stop eating.

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Don't drink your calories

The excellent Dr Sharma of the University of Alberta has pointed to research from Purdue University which shows that calories taken in a drink do not register with our brains as a meal. We feel just as hungry as if we had taken no calories at all. Some of these drinks can be as much as 200 calories - 10% of our daily allowance.

For calories to register, they need to be in solid food.

If you are wanting to lose weight, the easiest thing to give up is calorie filled drinks, such as fizzy drinks, and it could help you lose one pound a week.

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