Let's shake this weight off!

Continuing on with the struggles of weight loss, we are answering five questions to help you understand the challenges you face in attaining a healthy weight.

Last week we addressed the question of "Why?" This week we are discussing "When?"

So, when do you eat?

Are you eating 3 sensible meals a day, drinking lots of water and eating sensible snacks in between each meal?

Or do you skip breakfast, eat at your desk for lunch or skip that too and then eat a huge meal for dinner?

If you are the first person, great! If you are the latter, you are shocking and ultimately slowing down your metabolism. YES, that’s right! You NEED to eat throughout the day in order to keep your metabolism awake and working.

Drinking lots of water is also essential because your body often doesn’t know the difference between hunger and thirst. Therefore, if you feel you are hungry all the time, stop and think about how much water you’ve had to drink. You need at least 8 to 10 glasses of water per day, more if you are overweight. In fact, in order facilitate weight loss, every day you should consume between 0.5 and 0.64 ounces of water per pound of lean body weight (Lean Body Mass X 0.64 ounces = Optimal Intake in Ounces). A person that has 200 pounds of lean body mass should drink 128 ounces or 1 gallon of water. This equals eight 16 ounce glasses of water.

Having said that, most of us eat in response to environmental triggers instead of responding to true biological hunger. It’s something we are unintentionally taught early on in life; to eat everything on the plate instead of struggle with Mom or Dad, or to suffer through a plate of broccoli so we can have dessert. We learn to eat because food smells good or it's "lunch time" or because we are bored. As a result, we ignore our own body signals and eat whether we are truly hungry or not.

So do you know what your biological signals for hunger are?

Is it a mild stomach growling, an empty feeling inside, or something else?

Take some time to identify what your body's first signs of hunger are. Use the following hunger-rating chart to assess when you usually start eating and when you stop.

10- Thanksgiving stuffed

9 - so full it hurts

8 - feeling quite full

7 - starting to feel uncomfortable

6 - slightly ate too much

5 - just right, you feel comfortable

4 - first signs it’s time to eat

3 - strong signs that it's time to eat

2 - very hungry, cranky

1 - extremely hungry, dizzy and weak

If you start eating at level 5 or higher, you are eating for external reasons and not because you are biologically hungry. On the other hand, if you wait too long to eat and you start eating at level 1 or 2, you were overly hungry and most likely will end up overeating. Starting to eat at level 3 or 4 is perfect. At this level, your body is telling you that it's time for some nourishment but not to overeat.

If you stop at level 6 or above, you are overeating (when we eat because of external reasons, we tend to overeat). It's also important to remember that if you overeat even healthy foods, those extra calories will be converted to fat and stored in your body. You should aim to stop eating at level 5, when you are feeling perfectly comfortable. At this level, you have taken in the right amount of food to nourish your body, but not too much so that it will be stored as fat. Keep in mind that if you eat your meal too fast, the signals will not transmit to your brain that you feel comfortable until you no longer feel comfortable with the amount you’ve eaten.

Stay tuned to next week's blog when we address the answers to the question "What?"

I’d like to close with the following quote which I hope will inspire you to get to your healthy weight!:

"There comes a moment when you have to stop revving up the car and shove it into gear." David Mahoney Executive and Philanthropist

To your health,

Nadia

Your weight loss partner

1-877-405-4471

healthyweightdancingfeet@gmail.com

http://healthyweightdancingfeet.blogspot.com/

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Why can't I shake this weight off?

Welcome to my first blog. This has been a long time coming and I'm happy to put this together.

Healthy Weight Dancing Feet is all about health, nutrition, healthy weight and achieving optimum health and weight. We will offer you information, statistics, healthy recipes, and much more to help you attain optimum health.

Remember you are the creator of your own destiny and therefore if better health is truly what you desire, you WILL attain it.

The topic of my blog today is(are) the struggle(s) most of us face with health and a healthy weight, and how we can overcome these struggle(s).

Is the number one reason REALLY that you don’t have time to exercise? Let’s be honest with ourselves, this is usually just an excuse. If healthy weight is what we want we will schedule activity into our day and make it happen.

It does not need to be at a Gym in an organized manner. Make it work for you. Walk or bike to work if you are close enough. Power walk for 30 minutes during your lunch hour. Go out dancing once a week. Do something you enjoy and make it fit into your schedule.

The next five weeks we will be covering five questions you need to ask yourselves: Why, When, What, Where and How do you eat? Once you have an understanding of this you are well on your way to your goal healthy weight!

Firstly, why?
Do you eat because you are hungry?
Or because you are upset or stressed?

If you eat because you are hungry, great! If you are eating to deal with stressful situations, you are an emotional eater and you have other concerns that need to be addressed over and above a sensible diet and exercise.

The reasons for emotional eating can be deep rooted for some of us, ranging from something as serious as child abuse to using food as a coping mechanism for dealing with uncomfortable emotions. When we are stressed, depressed, angry or sometimes just bored, we use food to numb our senses and give comfort.

However, as is alcohol with alcoholics, the truth is this is a short-term solution which often intensifies the emotion. For example, your employer read your the riot act in front of your colleagues and you decide to eat an entire bag of chips to make you feel better and you do, temporarily. But once you realize what you’ve done, you now feel even more depressed and guilty about the calories you’ve consumed and ultimately the fat you are likely to gain.

The key to controlling emotional eating is to identify what it is you really need.
Ask yourself these questions:
What specific emotion am I experiencing?
Will food really help?
What do I really need?
What can I do differently at the moment?

The following strategies may also help increase your awareness of your emotional eating:
Allow yourself to feel the emotion instead of drowning it with food.
Journal your thoughts and feelings.
Ask for a hug, some quiet time, or a break.
Stop and take a few deep breaths (meditate)
Go out for a walk/exercise.
Wait a full minute before taking a bite of food.
Get up and walk into another room to distance yourself from the cause of your stress.

Some additional steps which may be taken to alter emotional eating patterns include:

1) Determine if emotional eating is truly an issue for you. Keep an emotion/thought journal to keep track of the day, time, and emotions that you are feeling and what you really need.
2) Positive self-talk is very powerful, even if you don’t initially believe the statements you are saying to yourself, eventually you will. "I am in control of my food intake, my emotions do not control my food intake."
3) Stay in touch with supportive friends and family and stay away from the nay sayers. Isolation and emotional eating go hand in hand. Food can easily become your best friend, your support, and your comfort so you need to nip that in the bud!
4) Stay active, even if you don't feel like it. Physical activity helps decrease feelings of anxiety, depression, and irritability. Believe it or not, exercise can replace food as your source of enjoyment, maybe not as you are doing it but once you are done, you will feel great!

If the causes of your emotional eating are not too deep rooted, these recommendations can often help. But for some counselling may be necessary. There are professionals who specialize in severe cases of emotional eating, and in such cases, I’d suggest such a professional be consulted.

Lastly I’d like to leave with with a quote:

"Those with goals tend to succeed because they are focused and know where they are going, while those without goals do not."

Ted Karam
Author, from his new book Jumping On Water: Awaken Your Joy - Empower Your Life