A recent NIH-funded study tracked the eating patterns of 140 binge eaters (people who eat excessively and rapidly while feeling a loss of control, but don’t purge). Researchers found that those using mindfulness-based interventions reduced their bingeing from about four times to once per week. The mindfulness group also reported feeling more in co ntrol around food than study participants who received only support and education.  Read the full article in Prevention Magazine

 

In Alcoholics Anonymous participants recite a very powerful prayer called The Serenity Prayer. 

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

 

Members ask their higher power to help them change the things in their lives they can; to accept those things they cannot change and to have the wisdom to know the difference.  Many of us would like to change things in our lives that can be changed but we don’t think we can do it.  There are things in our lives that cannot be changed but still we keep beating our heads against the wall stubbornly trying to change those.  We do this to ourselves.  Why? 

 

Why are we so often discontent?  Why do we attempt to do the impossible and then beat ourselves up when we are unsuccessful?  Life really doesn’t need to be this hard.  Things get easier when we begin to pay attention to what we feel and really listen to the messages our feelings transmit.  We know if we feel good we are making the right choices.  If we feel bad, we have strayed from the path we want to be walking.

 

It requires courage to change things – to truly follow your own inner guidance.  You ruffle feathers and others may not approve of your actions.  It is really no one’s business but they may feel threatened when they see you becoming interested in your own life and pursuing your dreams.  It is vital that you do not let the opinions and feelings of others deter you from following these dreams.  After all, this is your life after all and it is your responsibility to make of it what you want.  In just the same way, others are responsible for their feelings and reactions even though they may try to convince you that you are making them feel a certain way.  Reality is you are not that powerful.

 

The other side of the coin is learning to accept that which you cannot change. 

Forgiveness is for you.  It is not for the other person.  It does not mean that wrongs done to you are OK.  They are not and you never need to accept that they were.  But letting go of what you cannot change (and you can never change the past) can free you to move freely along your path to joy and freedom.  If you are holding on to resentments, beating yourself up or setting yourself up to fail with perfectionist self-expectations, you are in the high danger zone for emotional eating.  So be kind to you and remember the serenity prayer.  It is powerful and valuable.  It can help you stay in control of your emotional eating.

 

Dr. Denise Lamothe is located in Exeter NH and can be reached at 603-778-4814 or 603-493-6043 www.DeniseLamothe.com or Denise@DeniseLamothe.com

 

This week’s blog of the week is Through Thick and Thin. The blog is a support community for "intuitive eaters". From the blog’s description:

Welcome to our support community of intuitive eaters. Follow us along our journey as we undertake a radically different approach to addressing our issues with food and body image. Will we prove once and for all that diets don’t work? Join us here as we write of our experience with intuitive eating and see for yourself.

In their most recent post, the idea of impulse eating is connected to emotional eating:

Many who come to intuitive eating are familiar with impulse. It is a feeling we have encountered numerous times in our eating experiences. Impulsive eating comes from a place of emotional, rather physiological need. Emotional eating is impulsive eating. In emotional eating, an individual experiences a particular feeling or mental state and it propels them into the action of eating. Within the definition of impulse resides the key to addressing our hasty nature. The key is found in the second meaning; ’sudden, involuntary inclination prompting to action’. The word ’sudden’ contains the seed of knowledge needed to address this impulsive drive.

 

Here are some tips from the article “Working Together to Nourish You, Mind, Body and Soul “ written by Dr. Mehmet Oz, also known as “America’s Doctor”.

1. Meditate by emptying your mind of what happened earlier today or what will happen tomorrow. We rarely worry about what is happening right now, so focus on being in the present as you relax your mind. A basic technique to achieve a quiet, meditative state is to count your breaths.

2. Although the perfume industry has done admirably well, smell is an underutilized tool for healing. Find scents, like lavender, that will relax you, or scents that energize, like grapefruit. Use aroma to optimize your performance.

3. Music is medicinal in many cultures. Find tunes that deeply impact you and use them to help focus your spirit.

4. Speaking of spirit, we owe it to ourselves to write a one-sentence game plan for what we hope to accomplish as we evolve as humans. Please make this specific so you can judge how well you focus on your personal mission statement.

 

Read the full article on the Discovery Health website.

This week’s blog of the week is called The Next Hundred Pounds. The blog is by opera singer Cindy Sadler, who calls herself “The Incredible Shrinking Opera Singer.” Her blog chronicles her journey to losing her first hundred pounds. Cindy and her blog have been covered twice in the New York Times (the newest article is here), and both pieces include video.

Her blog is excellent in both motivation and giving reviews of products and services related to weight loss. The blog has been around for over a year and contains more than 200 posts. So, check out The Next Hundred Pounds. It’s a great blog for anyone looking to make a positive lifestyle change.

Frequent contributor Dr. Denise Lamothe has just added a post on her Chew Tamer’s blog entitled “What will you invent today?” The blog post examines how imaginative we are as children, and how our expectations change as we grow older. At some point we move from being creative and curious to expecting to be entertained. At some point, we’re introduced to the concept of “boredom”.

In her article, Dr. Denise gives suggestions on how to avoid boredeom in order to refrain from the negative things we do when we’re bored.