Mindless Munching: Weight-loss’ Mortal Enemy

Why are you overweight? Why can’t you lose weight? It comes down to two things: eating too much and eating the wrong food-and most likely eating too much of the wrong food. So, why do we eat too much, and why do we eat the wrong food, when we know with absolute certainty this will lead to ill health and disease?

Ideally, you only eat when the body tells you you’re hungry. If we did only this, we’d be the perfect weight, and we wouldn’t be worried about weight-loss at all. However, frustration, sadness, irritation, boredom, anxiety, anger and insecurity are all additionalif somewhat hiddenspurs to snacking. Normally we are completely unaware of these hidden feelings, and just head for the fridge. ‘Mindful eating’ can really help us to lose weight. Mindful eating is the practice of paying attention to your urges, feelings and thoughts, and to the food’s appearance and taste, from moment to moment, can help foster an awareness of when and why these emotions arise, thereby sapping them of their power to control our lives according to Jan Chozen Bays, MD, in the book ‘Mindful Eating’.

And these eating patterns are deeply engrained in us-they are completely automated habits, and are as natural to us as the way we walk or stand. We’re quite comfortable with them, thank you very much, as we’ve lived with them our whole lives. So think about how difficult it is to go lose weight-that is, to try and replace a lifetime of eating habits-bad ones, but happy, comfortable habits nonetheless-with a whole new set of healthy eating habits. Changing these habits is probably one of the steepest challenges we could face, as neither the mind nor the body really wants to change from all that it has ever really known. That’s why it’s so difficult, and so stress-inducing. Ever notice how you feel when you start a diet? Grumpy, right? Just like the cigarette smoker trying to quit. Our habits are really not much different than a wild horse. We have to break these habits and tame our horse, just like a cowboy. And just like the horse, our habitual patterns of body and mind will try and resist. This is the approach we must take.

Try this simple mindful eating exercise to get your weight-loss kick-started: take a raisin, or a cherry, or some small bite-sized piece of fruit. Look at it. Just look at it. Notice its color, its texture. You might even mentally say to yourself, ‘Brown’ or ‘Red’ or ‘crinkly’, etc. You can use this mental noting for every step. Notice what you’re thinking. (You may well be thinking this is dumb, but that’s ok! Just note to yourself, ‘Thinking it’s dumb’) Notice what you’re feeling and especially try and notice any urges you might have, whatever that might be, whether it’s to give up, to rush the food into your mouth, etc.

Lift the food up to your mouth. Be aware of your hand moving. Notice the food entering your mouth. Don’t chew yet! See how the food feels on your lips and tongue. Do you taste it yet, even though you haven’t chewed? Notice that. Notice if you’re in a hurry. Be aware of any saliva building up in your mouth.

Now begin to chew. Notice how you chew. Do you favor one side? Keep noticing. It is especially critical to keep paying attention here. Notice the urge to swallow. Do you feel like you ‘have’ to swallow at a certain point in time, or after a certain number of chews? Try and chew the food until it is completely disintegrated, until it’s just a watery mush. Notice your thoughts, your feelings. How do you feel? Does it taste good? Are you aware that it tastes good? Did the feeling of it tasting good continue throughout, or did it stop at some point? Do you feel satisfied? Do you want more? There are no right or wrong answers. And it’s ok, and expected, that you’ll lose your attention and forget. Just come back to the awareness. This is the basis for the entire process and can be done for the whole meal, with whatever you are eating.

This is just one part of mindful eating, the very first step towards permanent weight-loss. I urge you to give it a try, as it can be the basis for a profound change in eating habits. Once you start to become aware of these eating patterns, then you can start to let go of them and replace them with new, healthier patterns. Even just doing this exercise once a day, at one meal, for five minutes, often results in a little bit of weight-loss-because people tend to feel satisfied before eating too much. Give it a try, and feel free to ask me any questions about the next stage, which starts to involve noticing more of they whys when it comes to eating.

God bless!

Vince

Secret to Burning Fat Fast Naturally with Yoga Weight Loss Poses

So you want to know the secret to losing weight naturally fast and the tricks on how to achieve yourcalorie goals? The truth is that you CAN and MUST lose weight safely and naturally fast, by first setting calorie goals together with these great yoga weight loss poses! I’m really excited about this post, because I’m going to give you my naturally fast and safe fat-burning secrets, so you can meet and beat those calorie goals-and it’s all done with some simple, easy to learn yoga weight loss poses.

I focus on teaching people how to lose weight in a naturally fast way by first setting calorie goals, and showing them how to meet those calorie goals through a combination of healthy, natural eating and yoga weight loss poses, which not only helps the body, but also calms the mind. Honestly, to me this is the only way to go not only is it fast, it’s cheap, and you don’t miss out on anything. No crazy fad diets, no surgeries, and no insane cost at all. As a matter of fact you might actually save money, save time, and save yourself the headaches of trying to lose weight any other way.

The first step is understanding how weight loss happens. When you eat you take in what we call calories. Calories are basically energy. So when you eat you take in energy. Your body, like your car, uses its energy to perform activities, like moving around, exercising and breathing.

If your body takes in more energy than it uses, it stores that energy as fat. Thus, the idea of establishing calorie goals for naturally fast weight loss means calculating your bodies energy needs and ensuring that you consume less. The bigger the difference between the two numbers, the easier naturally fast weigth loss occurs.

Roughly speaking, the average woman needs about 2,000 calories a day, while the average man about 2,500. Naturally fast weight loss requires, therefore, daily calorie goals of less than 2000 for women, and less than 2500 for men. The bigger the difference between the two figures, the faster you’ll lose weight. However, if you take in more calories than this, you’ll gain weight weight.

You also must increase the amount of calories the body requires on a daily basis/ This is the flip side of reduced caloric intake, and is best achieved by increasing activity levels via a daily exercise program such as that found in the yoga weight loss poses. It is therefore essential to set a daily calorie goal that focus on both reducing intake and increasing usage. This means both increasing exercise and eating less. In effect, you have two calorie goals. And by setting, I mean mentally establishing a goal, a resolution, to stay with those calorie goals EVERY DAY. Mindset is critical, and so is watching these calorie goals, day by day by day.

The best way to meet your calorie goal as it relates to intake is with a pre-defined weight loss plan in which you actually purchase your food. This takes the guess-work out of it and ensures that the portion sizes are correct, to make sure that you do not exceed your daily calorie goals. It also imposes discipline. See other areas of my website for more information on weight loss plans.

For meeting your calorie goals as they relate to burning more calories, I highly recommend combining the weight loss plan with yoga weight loss poses. Yoga weight loss poses increase the metabolic rate naturally, which is important in naturally fast weight loss. An increased metabolism increases the amount of calories you burn. Another effect of yoga weight loss poses is reduced stress-which helps lower stress-related food binging. The yoga weight loss poses also limber you up and burn calories themselves, thus helping you meet your calorie goals from the other side-by increasing your bodies daily caloric requirements. The reality is the yoga weight loss poses help you to lose weight fast naturally because they help you meet your calorie goals from both sides of the calorie goal equation-increasing burn and decreasing intake.

For the specific yoga weight loss poses, click here: Yoga Weight Loss Poses.

Well these are my tips to help you lose weight naturally, fast. Hope that you enjoyed this how to lose weight fast naturally blog post.

New Psych DSM Manual Shows Shrinks are the Real Crazies

Toddler tantrums…binge eating…mild anxiety depression… psychosis risk syndrome… and temper dysregulation disorder… The so-called ‘experts’ of the mind (I’m trying hard not to choke) are working on their latest Bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), and they’re pretty much making every known eccentricity or behavior that’s not in the minority into some form of mental disease. The foregoing are all proposed new additions.

Frankly, the way shrinks decide if something is a disorder reminds me of how they decided if you were a witch during the dark ages. Only in the dark ages they were more logical.

Hallelujah! FDA Panel Rejects New Diet Pill Due to Safety Issues

Finally it appears that the FDA is doing its job and protecting people rather than enabling the prescription drug pushers to make enormous profits off our health.

An FDA advisory panel voted Thursday to recommend the rejection of Qnexa, a new diet drug that is a combination of two older medications. The vote was 10-6, with members apparently most concerned about the rate of cognitive and psychiatric side effects.

Naturally Fast Weight Loss Secrets: Calorie Goals and Yoga Weight Loss Poses

So you want to know the secret to losing weight naturally fast and the tricks on how to achieve your calorie goals? The truth is that you CAN and MUST lose weight safely and naturally fast, by first setting calorie goals together with these great yoga weight loss poses! I’m really excited about this post, because I’m going to give you my naturally fast and safe fat-burning secrets, so you can meet and beat those calorie goals-and it’s all done with some simple, easy to learn yoga weight loss poses.