Archive for March 11th, 2010
Grocery shelves have more low fat, sugar free, low calorie foods than ever before and still the weight of Americans is on the rise. We spend over $50 billion on weight loss products every year. There isn’t that one magic pill to help ease our woes of weight loss. Researchers are now looking into the psychological environment that causes people to overeat. When we label certain foods as “good” or “bad” it has a self esteem impact on us.
For instance, let’s say fruits and vegetables are labeled a “good” food. If I have a salad for lunch, “I’m a good person because I had a salad.” However, if I have a Mickey D’s quarter pounder with cheese and fries, “I’m a bad person, because I had fast fried food.” By thinking in these terms, we have taken out the pleasure of eating. Some where along the line we have tied our self esteem into the types of food we eat.
How many times have we been told to clean our plates or thought, “It’s 12:00, I have to eat
lunch”? We’ve been conditioned by the external cues in our world. We have lost the intrinsic ability of eating when we are truly hungry and the ability to recognize when we’ve had enough to eat.
The new eating behavior requires us to get in tune with our bodies, by recognizing when we are actually hungry and concede that it’s ok to be hungry. By recognizing these issues we will have a healthier thought process about food. Knowing when we are hungry, recognize when we are full and eat the foods we want to eat puts us on the right track for healthy eating behaviors. With this knowledge, we have the freedom to choose all kinds of foods for all the right reasons. Will this result in weight loss? Probably, because we will learn more about our selves and the triggers that cause us to eat. Plus we will gain piece of mind.
Another big hurdle to over come to is to accept yourself as you are. Do not compare your self with others, and find your own strengths. Some where along our path we lost the concept of being healthy to looking good.