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.

Each Tuesday, we’ll select a blog of the week dealing with emotional eating help. Whether it’s a personal blog, a blog that is a great resource with tips on fighting emotional eating and overeating, or a blog from a professional journal, we’d love to hear any suggestions or nominations. Please send an email to blogoftheweek@emotionaleatinghelp.org if you’d like to nominate a blog of the week.

The winner of the first EmotionalEatingHelp.org blog of the week is a 2008 Best of Blogs winner, Escape from Obesity. The blog is also currently in the running for the people’s health blogger awards. The site is described as "A look into the secret life and inner thoughts of an obese mom." The blogger is chronicling her weight loss by month and in photos, give recipe suggestions and reviews, and provides in-depth stories of her struggles. It’s an excellent and frequently updated blog.

Adonis Corner, which bills itself as India’s Largest Online Men’s Magazine, has an article entitled How To Overcome Impulse Eating. From the post:

Men who tend to give in to impulse eating need to stop looking upon food as a way to cope with a bad day at work or because you couldn’t stick to their disciplined dieting regime. They need to learn how to eat less, eat sensibly and not look upon food as a friend.

and

As expert nutritionist, Jennifer Nelson and her colleague at the Mayo Clinic, USA, Katherine Zeratsky state, “get to the root of impulsive emotional eating” so you can beat the inclination to snack at odd times and spoil a healthy, balanced diet.
One way to combat impulse eating is to stay busy, exercise regularly and keep healthy, non-fatty and high (lean) protein snacks handy and dumping all your hidden stashes of junk food so there won’t be any temptations to your breaking a diet. Another way is to keep a check on food cravings by consuming health drinks like soymilk shakes or fresh fruit juices (non-sweetened) right after exercising or at times when you feel low.

The rest of the article can be read here.

The Mayo Clinic has an excellent post entitled “Weight-loss help: How to stop emotional eating: Find out how emotional eating can sabotage your weight-loss efforts and learn how you can regain control of your eating habits.” The post describes the problems associated with emotional overeating and offers several practical tips on how to stop emotional overeating such as:

• Learn to recognize true hunger. 
• Know your triggers.
• Look elsewhere for comfort.
• Don’t keep unhealthy foods around.
• Snack healthy.
• Eat a balanced diet.
• Exercise regularly and get adequate rest.

Inny, at I’m No Quitter, has a great blog chronicling “my weight loss struggles and accomplishments, my work towards having a healthier life and the occasional musings about life and it’s meanings.” Her post entitled “On carbs, serotonin and why we binge” is a great first person account of emotional eating and binging. From her post:

What got me interested in reading about depression and serotonin is the struggle I’ve had with my weight for as long as I can remember. I didn’t become overweight because I wasn’t eating healthy. Most of the time I was. Even now I have no problem limiting the food I eat, I love eating vegetables and cooking healthy recipes. What made me gain weight was that at least once every week I would have a huge craving for something sweet or starchy and the urge to overeat on those foods was so big that I gave in and consumed thousands of calories in the form of chocolate bars. Now that I have to lose weight I still deal with those cravings and it’s as hard as always to resist them.

When guilt settles in after binging, I blame myself, I blame lack of self control, I blame laziness in keeping a food diary, I blame my mom or roommate or friend who bought the chocolate in the first place. I try to battle with this in the way everyone else does. I keep a food diary, limit my daily food intake, try not keep any sweet or starchy food at home. What haven’t actually occurred to me is: How great will life be if I didn’t have food cravings in the first place. Or if I had them so rarely they were not a problem.

The rest of the post is available here.

1. CHOOSE THE HEALTHIEST FOODS YOU CAN FIND TO TRULY NOURISH YOUR BODY – You need protein, vegetables, complex carbohydrates (whole grains, veggies) and some healthy fat every single day. You will feel more balanced emotionally when you are caring for your physical needs.

2. DRINK LOTS OF PURE, NON CHLORINATED FILTERED WATER – Buy bottled water or filter your own. Becoming dehydrated affects all your body systems and your emotional self is happier the healthier you are!

3. MOVE YOUR BODY CHOOSE ACTIVITIES THAT YOU ENJOY – You don’t have to exercise for hours at a time. Do less and enjoy feeling yourself as you become stronger, more relaxed and more emotionally balanced.

4. EXPRESS YOUR FEELINGS – No one knows what’s going on inside of you if you don’t tell them. Holding your feelings in leads to emotional, spiritual and physical distress… and is likely to lead you to the cookie jar.

5. MAKE AS MANY SELF-LOVING CHOICES AS YOU CAN – Do this every day and in every area of your life! You will be happier and more content and less likely to develop those emotional food cravings.

6. GIVE YOURSELF QUIET TIME – We all need rest and peaceful time to check in with ourselves. Use deep breathing, meditation or some form of quiet introspection every day.

7. SPEND TIME IN NATURE – We are all a part of the world around us, not separate from it. Relax outdoors, feel the sun and the rain, the warm and the cool. Notice the stars and breathe.

8. NURTURE YOUR SPIRIT – Be creative, laugh, play, hug someone. Stop taking life so seriously. We are all still children – only in bigger bodies. Be child-like.

9. APPRECIATE YOURSELF – This is your job. Others are too busy to make your happiness and well being their mission. If you have expectations that others will meet your needs (and they might sometimes…) you will likely be disappointed more often than not.

10. ALWAYS REMEMBER THERE ARE NO MISTAKES ONLY LESSONS – and whatever you do, NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES BEAT YOURSELF UP. This will only make things worse. We are all perfect, yet it is not the human way to behave perfectly at all times. If you beat yourself up, you will feel BAD and sugars and simple carbohydrates will scream out for your attention.

Am I the only one amazed that it is holiday time once again? It seems that summer just wrapped up last month and we were welcoming the splendor of autumn. Now we are busily planning for Thanksgiving and other festive occasions that arrive soon after the turkey leftovers have been gobbled up. (I noticed that this week my local supermarket is featuring a display of snow shovels right inside the main entrance!)

Have you noticed that as each year passes time seems to accelerate and the seasons fly by more rapidly than ever before? Keeping up with the responsibilities of each season is stressful. Even the “fun” things – all the festivities, the decorating, getting together with friends and family can mean added stress. So, as always, I write to remind you to take the very best care of yourself possible this holiday season.

Because this time of year can be particularly stressful it is vital that we nurture our positive relationships and talk with loving family and friends whenever we can. Being able to vent our frustrations or share our triumphs with someone who cares about us helps us feel connected. Being overly busy may complicate this at times however, and we may feel lonely and isolated if we don’t maintain those important ties through the busiest times.

Identify people who can help you to thrive during the holiday season, or any time. Find people who will listen and not judge you or feed you advice that you definitely don’t want or need. Talk to a buddy – a human one, a pet, perhaps a Chewlett or a favorite stuffed animal. I find that when folks are stressed, lonely, tired, sad, etc. they are often tempted to race for a fix of sugars and carbohydrates to calm themselves down and take the edge off their feelings. Contact your buddy instead and talk about what’s eating you.

None of us are immune to the pressures of the holiday season. This time of year brings many opportunities and one of those opportunities is to over indulge. We may think we are only going to have one piece of mom’s apple pie or cheesecake but how many of us are content to stop there? For some of us that pie may open the floodgates of craving and many of us have spent holiday season after holiday season telling ourselves to have just one little treat and finding ourselves instead overeating through not only the holiday season but also well beyond the New Year. Our lives are demanding and to live each day to the fullest requires dedication and energy. If we overindulge instead of taking care of ourselves, we are likely to find even small tasks daunting. We can easily slip out of balance and we don’t feel well. Overdoing in any area of our lives leads to lethargy and we lose the sparkle, zest and vitality required to make each day vibrant and memorable.

I am frequently asked for tips on how to get through this time of year without the self-abuse of overindulging. Here are a couple of ideas to help you:

Besides chatting with your supports, reserve time each day just for yourself (Are you surprised to hear me say that?!!). Along with the hustle and bustle of holiday time come extra tasks that compete for your time and energy – decorating, baking, choosing, buying and wrapping presents, writing thoughtful cards to friends and loved ones, etc. See if you can delegate some of your responsibilities to others.

Pay special attention your body. Get plenty of rest and pure water. Make sure to include lots of protein, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates in your diet and move your body every day. Attending to these basic physical needs is sure to help you manage everything else.

You may find yourself rushing around taking care of everyone and everything but yourself. Find ways to create private, quiet, relaxing time for yourself. If you don’t, you are likely to become overtired, overwhelmed and consequently likely to over-feed yourself as a way to cope with holiday stress. Also, do your best to balance quiet time with times of fun, laughter and joy.

One tool that I have found remarkably helpful for my clients and that I recommend without reservation is using the Bach Flower Emotional Eating Support Kit. In addition to the strategies outlined above, using Bach Flower Essences can truly make all the difference in your being able to manage your emotions without overeating at this particularly stressful time of the year. The kit contains three specific remedies that target the core issues involved in emotional overeating: Cherry Plum helps you stay in control. Crab Apple helps you appreciate your body and Chestnut Bud helps you to learn from your mistakes so you don’t keep doing the same thing, expecting different results. These little drops help balance your emotional energy, are easy to take and for so many of us they truly are the missing link. Using them four times a day can help you stay on track this holiday season and feel great about yourself!

If you attend to your “whole” picture and learn to provide whatever is most nurturing for you in each moment, you are far more likely to take care of yourself in healthy ways all season long. When you truly attend to yourself, you are better equipped to attend to the needs of others as well. You are more relaxed, more balanced and more energetic. Holiday time can be more fun and less like an exhausting commercial marathon.

So please enjoy the spirit of this time of year. Do only what you truly want to do, try the Bach Flower Remedies and decline needless chores, chaos and calories. Make this the best holiday season ever by taking the very best care of yourself. Keep yourself number one. You’re worth it! I wish you and your loved ones many, many holiday blessings!

- Dr. Denise

Dr. Denise Lamothe, international emotional eating expert, professional speaker and the author of The Taming of the Chew: A Holistic Guide to Stopping Compulsive Eating is a clinical psychologist and Doctor of Holistic Health located in Exeter NH 603-778-4814, cell 603-493-6043

www.DeniseLamothe.com or Denise@DeniseLamothe.com

Emotional Overeating, in a general sense, occurs when people make food choices based on emotional reactions. Emotional eating happens when we use food as a solution to our feelings. Think of any emotional state, and you’ll soon be able to associate a food with it. You’re bored? Why not polish off the ice cream in the fridge? Stressed? Might as well have a few chips to take your mind off your problems. As soon as you give in to a food craving, it’s easy to take your mind off of the cause of your emotional state.

The problem with using food to manage mood is that it becomes a self-reinforcing habit. You eat because you feel bad about yourself, then feel bad about yourself because you overeat. 

To gain a better understanding of what emotional overeating is, and who emotional eaters are, we spoke with Dr. Denise Lamothe, clinical psychologist and doctor of holistic health. She is the founder of Emotional Overeating Awareness Month, author of the popular book, The Taming of the Chew (Penguin 2002) and an international professional speaker:

An emotional eater is (generally) someone who uses food as a way to cope with difficult feelings — sadness, anxiety, boredom, disappointment, etc.  She is likely to have rigid, self-perfectionistic expectations and a negative self-image.  Her self-esteem fluctuates but when she overeats, she feel badly about herself and her behavior and she is likely to punish herself and feel angry at herself often leading to depression.  After overeating and beating herself up she will usually feel helpless to change.  These painful feelings can easily lead her to overeat again in order to feel better.  She usually feels unable to control her eating once she gets started.  She may temporarily feel better by convincing herself that she will start taking care of herself next Monday, after she finishes a project, once she learns how to “fix” her relationship or something like that.  Her plan usually fails of course, leading to more discouragement, frustration and anger which then can lead her back to sugars and/or simple carbohydrates for relief — indeed a vicious cycle.  This is generally a pattern that she has repeated multiple times throughout her life and she may or may not be aware of it.   

This blog is dedicated to helping people overcome the perpetual cycle of emotional overeating.

Welcome to EmotionalEatingHelp.org, a site devoted to helping people understand, treat, and overcome emotional overeating. This blog will be a resource for people looking to find out more about emotional eating and will offer tips and news on:

• Techniques to avoid emotional overeating
• Interviews with experts
• Advice on how to overcome emotional overeating
• Healthy alternatives to bad food
• Coping with emotional overeating
• The psychology of overeating
• Products to help emotional overeaters
• Weight loss strategies
• Mental fitness information

This blog is sponsored by Bach Original Flower Remedies, makers of the Emotional Eating Support Kit. More information on Bach’s Emotional Eating Support products is available here.