Video on the Meaning of Food

This is a video on the meaning of food according to the ancient Chinese 5,000 years ago; it testimony that ancient wisdom is often surprisingly timeless.

Shrink Yourself Review on Emotional Eating

When I went to the Shrink Yourself website for the first time, I could not believe that there is at last a professionally run program that focuses on emotional eating!  From my years of experience helping patients, I have found that emotional eating is often the Achilles Heel in most people’s attempts at weight management.  The psychology of weight management plays a big role between success and failure.   Naturally, I was very excited and decided to recommend Shrink Yourself to my patients as an adjunct to the work that I was doing in my dietetics practice.  This is why I have decided to write a Shrink Yourself Review.

Emotional Eating Habits are Unconscious

As you know, eating is something most of us do unconsciously.  That is why they are called habits.  Habits are actions we take as if on auto-pilot and repeat without question.  In this Shrink Yourself Review, I would like to highlight that according to Dr Goul, when we use food as an opiate to overcome distress or difficult emotions like loneliness, anger, sadness, anxiety or depression, we are by definition emotional eaters.  Emotional eating is the primary cause of weight gain in first world countries today.

Shrink Yourself and Letting go of Emotional Eating

If you have tried losing weight numerous times without success and are tired and disappointed with yourself, do not despair.  I highly recommend Shrink Yourself to help you get some insights on:

1. what triggers your emotional eating
2. how to identify your own emotional eating pattern
3. how to interrupt these patterns
4. how you can set up a personalised structure to overcome it

In this Shrink Yourself Review, I would like to emphasise that you are in the best position to create your own personalised structure to overcome emotional eating.  What works for Mary or Mark may not work for you.  Everyone is different.  No one knows your problems better than you because you live them every single day.

Shrink Yourself Review

If you are ready to begin your journey of transformation and make some simple but profound changes to your relationship with food, now is the moment to seek professional guidance to keep you steadfastly in the straight and narrow till you get to the other side.  Letting go of the strong call of food will not be easy but it will be well worth it.

Shrink Yourself Online Therapy

In the Shrink Yourself Program, you get to embark on such a journey with hundreds of other people with the same issues.  From time to time, you also get webinars on the nuts-and-bolts-training on how to manage your psychology in weight management and exchange your thoughts with others through accessible and affordable online therapy and support groups.  Of course, the down side of this sort of interactive therapeutic learning program is that it lacks the personal touch that comes with intensive one-on-one consults with a psychologist or psychiatrist. What surprises me though is that the outcomes achieved through traditional therapy and online programs have been demonstrated in studies to be comparable.

Start Healing with Shrink Yourself

There are many ways to overcome emotional eating.  Hypnotherapy, psychotherapy, seeing a dietitian and joining a self-help group are all valid tools to achieving mindful eating.  Shrink Yourself and Emotional Eating is one of those programs that has been demonstrated to be successful in helping people overcome emotional eating.
As they say, a journey of a thousand steps begins with the first step. May your take your first step to recovery through this Shrink Yourself Review.

Very Low Fat Diet is Inappropriate

The current nutritional paradigm for the prevention of heart disease often emphasise eating a low-fat diet.  Unfortunately new studies released recently show beyond any shadow of doubt that low fat diets are not the optimal dietary strategy for reducing heart disease.  In fact, the Mediterranean diet is quite promising for heart disease prevention.  Why?  Because this diet provides good quality dietary fats.

Good Dietary Fats Reduce Heart Disease Risk

According to Professor Jennie Brand Miller of Sydney University, the conventional low fat diets are inappropriate for reducing the risk of heart disease.  In fact, in 2009, Jakobsen et al. pooled the data from  11 observational studies involving 344, 696 subjects, over a 4-10 year follow up with 5249 cases of heart attack and they found that replacing saturated fat (from meat sources) with polyunsaturated fat (from plant sources like nuts and seeds) significantly reduced the risk of heart disease.  Here, we are talking about an amazing 26% reduction in heart disease risk which is very exciting!

Tables for Quality Dietary Fats

The tables below list the food items in order of decreasing density of each nutrient:

Specific Foods for Best Dietary Fats

As you can see from the table above, some of the most nutrient-dense plant sources of omega 6, omega 3 fatty acids and vitamin E, are found in walnuts, sunflower seeds and almonds!  Why not have a handful of them daily?  Just substitute saturated fats with nutrient-rich polyunsaturated dietary fats.

References

Commonwealth Department of Health and Aging (Aust), Ministry of Health (NZ) and National Health and Medical Research Council.  Nutrient Reference Values for Australia and New Zealand. 2006.

Shrapnel B, Baghurst K. Adequacy of essential fatty acid, vitamin D and vitamin E intake: implications for the ‘core’ and ‘extras’ food group concept of the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating. 2007; 64: 7885.

Shrapnel B.  The importance of nutrient density in implementing recommendations for fats.  Nutr Diet 2007; 64(Suppl.1): S40.

Jakobsen M U, Eilis J O, Heitmann B L, Pereira M A, Balter K B, Fraser G E, Goldbourt U, Hallmans G, Knekt P, Liu S, Pietinen P, Spiegelman D, Stevens J, Virtamo J, Willett W and Ascherio A.  Major Types of dietary fat and risk of coronary heart disease: a pooled analysis of 11 cohort studies.  American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2009, 89 (5)

Delbridge E A, Prendergast L A, Pritchard J E and Proiette J.  One –year weight maintenance after significant weight loss i healthy overweight and obese subjects: does diet composition matter?  The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2009; 90: no. 5: 1203 to 1214.

Common Drugs for Fast Weight Loss

Fast weight loss is the new and exciting buzzword in the current obesity crisis of epidemic proportion.  The amount of information out there on weight reduction has never been greater in all of human history.  On offer are tantalising solutions ranging from punishing diets to weight loss pills like Phentermine, Duromine, Xenical and Metermine. 

Some drugs are even outright dangerous like Reductil (tradename Sibutramine) which incidentally has been withdrawn from the market after the SCOUT (Sibutramine Cardiovascular Outcome Trial) data found that it was connected with 16% more major cardiovascular side effects than the control group.  This drug was used partly as an appetite suppressant by increasing post-meal satiety (feeling of fullness).  It was even thought to increase resting metabolic rate (the rate at which your body burns fuel) by altering noradrenalin and serotonin reuptake which incidentally regulate energy intake and output. Who could resist the seduction of a fast weight loss solution especially in times of poor self-esteem or desperation?

How Appetite Suppressant Drugs Work

Appetite suppressant drugs act on the hypothalamus and impact upon the responses of dopamine and noradrenaline on the nervous system. Regulating these neurotransmitters and hormones effectively reduce our desire to eat and thus lead to weight loss. Withdrawal from these drugs sometimes lead to rebound hunger and eating with a vengeance which defeats the purpose of taking the drugs in the first place. Although, I must admit I have seen many clients achieve outstanding weight loss with these drugs.

Other drugs like Xenical act by inhibiting fat absorption so that bowel control becomes very difficult if not out-right impossible. Regular use of these drugs lead to reduction of our body’s stores of fat soluble vitamins like vitamins A, D, E and K.

Bariatric Surgery and Lap-banding for Fast Weight Loss

How about putting yourself under the knife and cutting part of your stomach out or strangling your stomach to reduce the amount of food you can eat?  Many people testify to the awesome results they have achieved through sheer genius on the part of their surgeons with the scalpel but few whisper in your ear the nausea they experience, vomiting feats, inconveniences like inability to “skull water down like they used to”, difficulty eating salads/beef steaks, risk of bleeding / infection leading to life-threatening peritonitis and  most frightening of all the malnutrition they may experience. Saying “yes” to these procedures mean committing to life long vitamins and minerals supplementation to prevent malnutrition.

No doubt fast weight loss has its merits. Who amongst us does not need positive re-enforcement to repeat a desirable behaviour? In weight loss, there is nothing like some “kick-ass” results to motivate us. However, be warned they may come with a high price.

Portion Control for Weight Management

Sometimes, when it comes to losing weight, greater sophistication and higher price tags do mean better and more impressive weight loss results.  In fact nothing beats the common sense no frills “keep-it-simple-stupid” approach for managing ones weight.  This tool for achieving weight loss I am showing you is non-invasive, inexpensive, uncomplicated, has no side effects and actually works!

Eat What You Want & Experience Fast Weight Loss?

What if you could eat whatever you wanted in 3 square meals as long as they fitted into a container as shown in the picture?  What if this is all it takes to have a healthy well-balance meal and still lose weight?  How incredible is that? The Calorie Queens have designed these moulds to help you eat your foods in the right combination so that you not only have enough to eat, you also do not have to experience hunger pangs.  And best of all, you can still lose weight in a progressive and sustainable fashion.  Say good bye to chaotic eating and yo-yo dieting forevermore.

Weight loss has never been easier with these sensible portion-control moulds to guide you in filling up your plate at each main meal.  No more measuring your food with cups, no more counting calories, no more adding points and no more dangerous pills.  I recommend these portion control moulds for effective and fast weight loss.

Rest & Relaxation

Have you ever wondered how to look younger without surgery?  Why do some people look so young for their chronological age while others look much older?

Read on for some very quick and effective tips on how to look younger.

Looking Younger Without Surgery

Is it all in their genes? Or could they live, think and feel differently and therefore look different? Why do sages or gurus like Jay Krishnamuti look half their age while others fast track their way to their graves with chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia, cancer and finally early onset dementia?

Your Biological Age

Take a short lifestyle questionnaire and find out your biological age here:
The Heart Age Calculator

7 Steps to Look Younger Without Surgery

If you are not happy with your age and are committed to looking younger naturally, here are 7 health pillars to consider adding to your life to turn back the clock:

1. Ensure you have good quality sleep each night (what they say about beauty sleep is true)
2. Maintain a healthy weight to reduce your chances of developing insulin resistance and accompanying chronic diseases
3. Choose a healthy balanced diet each day – at least 3 serves of fruit and 5 serves of vegetables
4. Engage in a daily relaxation exercise like meditation or yoga – cultivate a quiet mind, learn to still the mind and empty it at will.
5. Maintain good oral health by flossing, brushing and rinsing, your oral health is a reflection of your overall health status.  It is not an over statement when they say that your mouth is a mirror of your body.
6. Exercise at the moderate to high intensity level for at least 30minutes each day; aim to do this everyday, if not at least 5 days a week.
7. Development mindfulness and create a new level awareness around working, eating, exercising, sleeping and playing – the balanced mind is nimble, relaxed and alert; such a mental state does not happen by accident.  It takes years of discipline to create such a state everyday.

Now that you know how to look younger without surgery, the only thing left on your path to rejuvenation is to take the first step!  As the old adage goes, “Beginning is half done.”  Once you get started, half the battle is won.  No doubt, the rest is simple but still not easy.  However, the results will be well worth it.  You know you have done well when others seek your advice on how to look younger without surgery.

Zen

“You cannot travel the path until you have become the path itself.” – A quote from Buddha. Until you forge your very own weight loss path, getting to your goal weight and maintaining it will always be a struggle. Is your own weight loss journey an unending torture? Is your goal weight ever elusive? If your answer is ‘yes’, this article is for you.

How You Do One Thing is How You Do Everything

According to Joanne Fedler, author of the book When Hungry Eat, how we do anything is how we do everything.

Let’s get back to basics and look at your diet, exercise and sleep. Are these 3 activities in your life out-of-control? If they are, your life is likely to be out-of-control. Do you see that the pattern in the realm of nutrition is likely to be reflected in all other areas of your life?

Restore Enjoyment in the Art of Eating

Imagine, powerfully taking responsibility for every morsel you put into our mouth and learning to mindfully enjoying the art of eating. Could restoring enjoyment in the art of eating perhaps transform your experience of life?

Your very own Weight Loss Journey

Carving your very own successful weight management journey is more than just having a breakthrough in the art of eating. This could have far-reaching positive effects in all other areas of your life. Come on this fascinating journey and reap the rewards you deserve. They say life is not a dress rehearsal so why not give it your best shot!

10 Guiding Principles for Eating Meditation

In the book When Hungry Eat, Joanne Fedler shares with us her guiding principles for weight loss. She emphasises that her success lies in having made those principles her own and they are as follow:
1. When Hungry Eat. Listen to your body and do not eat when you are not hungry. Your body is a lot more intelligence than you give it credit for. Listen to its cues.
2. Always ask. Start again, start again and start gain. This is a fundamental practice to master in meditation, always begin with a Beginner’s Mind as if you are doing an activity for the very first time.
3. Make healthy choices. There is no right or wrong. There are just consequences.
4. Thank the food. Everything we have is the result of sacrifices others have made or divine provision. Practice gratitude for everything.
5. There is always enough. You have everything you need within you.
6. Savour the taste. Be present to the experience of eating. Celebrate each mouthful.
7. Slow down. Relax and tune in to yourself and reconnect with yourself within.
8. Digest. Trust your body.
9. Flush and wash. Let go and surrender.  Release the past and usher in a new future.
10. Begin again. Recommit to your path over and over again.
These guiding principles have seen Joanne succeed in forging her very own weight management journey and emerge triumphant. Could eating meditation be your key to weight loss?  What are your guiding principles for weight management?

Apple Health Benefits

To answer this question, researchers from the Australian CSIRO have been reviewing the growing body of research that applies to health benefits of apples and the role they play in human health. In this post I summarise the key findings for you.

General Information

Nutritional Analysis

Apples are highly nutritious and a great source of fiber.
The peel of an apple has very high concentrations of anti-oxidants, with higher levels of antioxidant capacity generally found in darker, redder coloured apples. So do not peel your apples.

Another point of interest – According to principal component analysis, the lighter the colour of an apple’s flesh, the more nutritious it is.

Storage of Apples

Keep your apples in the fridge instead of the fruit bowl in order to retain their antioxidants and have them stay crisp for longer.

Specific Health Benefits of Apples

Heart Disease

There is ever increasing evidence of the role of fruits and vegetables (specifically including apples) on protecting you from cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attack and stroke.

Cholesterol

Apples have been shown to have a cholesterol lowering effect. In one study the researchers found that eating three apples resulted in the reduction of the cholesterol level of about 5-8%.
Incidentally, the consumption of apple juice showed no such effect. So skip the juice and get the real thing – you know, an apple a day…

Weight Loss

Consuming whole fruits has been shown to produce a more positive effect on satiety than the same energy from juice or puree.
In fact, a study found that the energy level from fruits, independent of the firbe amount may reduce energy consumption and body weight over time.
Research further suggests that the polyphenols found in apples may regulate the fat metabolism in healthy people with relatively high body mass index (BMI).

Type 2 Diabetes

A large study of nearly 38,000 women over nine years found that women who were consuming one apple a day had a 28% reduction in their risk of type 2 diabetes, compared to women who consumed no apples.
Apples also have a low GI (Glycaemic Index), in the range of 28-44, which may be a contributing factor to the prevention of diabetes.

Allergy

You guessed it – apples have been linked to reducing the incidence of atopic dermatitis. The health benefits of apples include that they may alleviate some of the symptoms of respiratory allergy such as sneezing.

Asthma

Your good apples have been reported to be associated with lower incidence of asthma and bronchial hyperactivity.
In fact, a related study found that pregnant women who consume apples (and fish) may provide their unborn babies protection against developing childhood asthma and allergic diseases.

Health Benefits of Apples for Cancer

While the evidence for the role of fruit and vegetables in generally reducing cancer risk is not as strong as it once appeared, this does not rule out the significant potential for specific fruits and vegetables.
Laboratory cell-based studies have shown that apple peel extract possesses strong anti-proliferative effects against cancer cells. So, make sure you do not peel your apples.

There is particularly strong evidence for the consumption of apples in preventing mouth, oesophagus, lung and stomach cancers.

So in conclusion, an apple a day will not just keep your doctor away, but also a multitude of specialists, surgeons, drug companies and intensive care units. Please do yourself a favour and consider having an apple today, and every day following – because the health benefits of apples are too great to ignore.

Insomnia is the most common of all sleep disorders. This is followed by obstructive sleep apnoea – a condition in which breathing stops for 30 to 120 seconds intermittently during the night impairing a person’s day time functioning.  The third most common sleep disorder is restless leg syndrome.

Overall, insomnia represents 8/10 sleep disorders managed in clinical settings. Untreated insomnia can lead to depression, stroke and even heart attack.

Medication as Sleep Remedies

The table below shows common sleep medications prescribed for treating insomnia (figures from the Australian Family Physician Vol 38, No.5, May 2009):

The above table shows that an alarming 95.2% of doctors treat insomnia with bensodiazapines. “Benzos” are addictive. We need higher and higher doses to get the same effect. Long term use can literally turn us into “drug addicts”.  “Benzos” withdrawal have been known to occur in individuals taking these drugs on a regular basis for as short a duration as 2 weeks!

Common bensodiazapines withdrawal symptoms are:

1. Insomnia (how very nice!)
2. Anxiety
3. Irritability
4. Restlessness
5. Agitation
6. Depression
7. Tremor
8. Dizziness
9. Headache

Managing addiction and withdrawal can be very difficult.  To avoid being caught in this vicious cycle, other methods of managing insomnia should be explored.

Natural Sleep Remedies

Following are the main remedies that I recommend to my clients.

• Learn to wind down with relaxation and meditation before bed time. Yoga can be very effective, meditation or relaxation hypnosis.
• Have a cup of Valerian tea/warm milk to soothe your nerves.
• Take 150mg of melatonin supplement. Melatonin is a substance naturally produced by our body to induce sleep. As we get older, we produce less and less of it. Therefore supplementation can be an effective sleep remedy. Best of all, it is natural and non-addictive.
• Try sleep hypnosis to train your body to relax and sleep when you go to bed. Below is the one that I recommend to my clients – many of them have reported success with this inexpensive hypnosis session. Best of all the company producing it offers a 90-day money back guarantee:
  

Also some general tips:

• Take the TV (and computer) out of the bedroom!
• Establish a routine of when to go to bed and when to get up and stick to it.
• Ensure the bedroom is as dark as possible – perhaps use some sleep/eye shades.

Finding What Works For You

As with all things concerning the human body, there usually is no one answer that works for everyone. However, you should be able to find a combination of these sleep remedies that works for you. I hope you will wake up each day feeling fully rested and refreshed.

 
 
 
Following is the Hypnosis product I talk about in the video. You know the battle for ideal weight is mostly played out in the mind, and it is about your overall health. Hence I recommend giving this avenue a good go. Click on the graphic below to check out the Perfect Health Hypnosis:

Taking Stock

As explained in the video, create a sheet of paper and put down notes on what you did (and thought) over two weekdays and one weekend day, in the following areas:

• Sleep – How many hours of actual sleep did you have?
• Hydration – How much liquid did you drink?
• Drinking – How much alcohol did you consume?
• Food – What foods did you consume and how much of it?
• Exercise – What kind and quantity of physical exercise did you get up to? Include things like “10 mins walk to train station”. This is not just gym.
• State of Mind – How did you feel? Happy, calm, relaxed, nervous or angry?
• Physical State – For example, tired, fresh, in pain, numb?
• Drugs – Substances like medication, cannabis, anti-depressants, sleep medication, tobacco?

The key is to take stock for just three typical days of your life. Be brutally honest. Only when you have completed the three days’ log do you start reviewing what you are actually doing. You will probably be surprised by what you see, and most likely there will be a few things that you can immediately improve on WITHOUT requiring a truckload of permanent willpower and/or self-denial.

Oh, and as I mention in the video – since you are about to lose weight – if you do want to destroy your log once you’ve viewed it, go ahead. Burn it, flush it down the toilet, whatever. Just don’t eat it. After all, we want to have good nutrition and eat less junk, right?

Did you find this useful? If you’d like to share your thoughts or even some findings from your own taking stock to achieve sustainable permanent weight loss, I’d love to hear from you. Simply leave me a comment below.