You may have caught Geneen Roth recently on Oprah, talking about her new book "Women Food and God - An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything.  Oprah felt like she found another "Ah-ha moment".

If you didn't see the show, you may be a bit mislead by the title.  Here is my take on her book:

If you were looking for a religious solution to end emotional eating, you will not find it here. If you are looking for a spiritual connection to eating disorders, you will find some of that here.

Geneen Roth believes that the way we feel about ourselves translates into the relationships we create to food, money and just about anything else in our lives. The basic question is, "What feeling are you trying to give yourself with food?" What is missing in your life that you are trying to fill with this obsessive behavior?

Geneen has a great way of expressing her feelings and connecting to her readers. She takes us on her journey and really shares her own struggles with emotional eating. As you are reading you feel comfort in knowing that you are not alone. I have read her other books and I am a fan of hers.

Having said that, this book really feels like a continuation of her other books, or at least a reinforcement of them. I think that is why it felt a little incomplete to me.

The connection to food and feelings really hits home for most people. Where I felt it was lacking is in the solutions to overcome these challenges. She offers some good suggestions such as

*Eat when you are hungry

*Eat sitting down in a calm environment

*Eat without distractions

While these are great suggestions, they are easier said than done. I would suggest combining this book with her book "Breaking Free From Emotional Eating" for a more complete plan for creating changes in the way you feel about food.

Lincoln University in Pennsylvania is doing their best to help their students graduate healthy, and not everyone is happy about it. 

Because of the rising obesity, which is especially prevalent within the Black community, the faculty and staff at the Historically Black College in Philadelphia have instituted a program on campus that forces overweight students to shed poundage at the risk of not being able to graduate when the time comes to do so.

"We know we're in the midst of an obesity epidemic," explained chairman of Lincoln's department of health, physical education and recreation, James L. DeBoy. "We have an obligation to address this head on, knowing full well there's going to be some fallout."

Some people argue that the program singles out bigger students instead of trying increase the health awareness of all students on campus by promoting physical fitness and a healthy lifestyle all students would be involved, not just the ones that appear to be fat or in need of a “change.”

According to clinical standards, anyone with a body mass index of 25 or greater is considered medically obese. This program is a wake-up call for many of clinically obese students at the campus, of which many are in the midst of their senior year. 

Obesity is considered to be one of the major expenses in health care today, contributing to countless diseases.  Education and behavior changes can be the key to success in business and personal life.  For more information on the cost of obesity, go to http://www.communicate4success.com/health.html.

The key to feeling great and having more energy is to boost the levels of your “happy hormone” – serotonin. It’s a brain chemical that’s triggered by your body and what you feed it. Here are several ways to trigger it:

 

• Eat popcorn. The complex carbs in popcorn can boost serotonin production and the aroma can boost your mood. Complex carbs increase your feelings of well-being without a blood-sugar crash that is associated with high-sugar foods. Other foods that  boost serotonin production are nuts (especially walnuts and almonds), turkey, eggs, fish  and beans.

 

• Take your vitamins. Studies taking a multi-vitamin that includes folic acid, B vitamins, selenium and vitamin D combined with 20 minutes per day of walking can boost the moods of mildly depressed people by 50 percent. Of course, the added bonus is a reduction in weight, which will also make you feel good.

 

• Drink your milk. A study in the Netherlands found that the “whey” in milk boosts serotonin production.

 

• Eat chocolate. This seems like a dream come true. Studies show that dark chocolate has antioxiants which promote health and it also contains those ingredients which increase serotonin in your brain. Avoid the milk chocolate, which is also high in sugar.

High protein/low-carb diets are one fad diet that doesn’t go away. It is true that low-carb diets can produce a rapid initial weight loss, but many are high in saturated fat and low in fiber, which can increase cholesterol levels and increase the risk of heart disease and stroke. Since your brain runs on carbohydrate, high protein diets reduce brain functions. Now a recent study suggests that a high protein/low-carb diet may actually cause brain shrinkage and an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

The discovery was found while studying the effects of different diets on mice that were bred to develop Alzheimer’s disease. The mice were fed various diets including a regular diet, high fat/low carb diet, high protein/low carb version or a high carb/low fat diet. Researchers discovered that the brains of the mice fed a high protein/low carb diet were 5 percent lighter than all the others and the hippocampus regions were less developed.  

Low-carb diets are used for weight control, and those diets sometimes combine high fat and high protein, which may be doubly damaging.  It is possible that the high fat increases the accumulation of plaques and the high protein sensitizes nerve cells to the poison released by plaques.  Previous research has shown a Mediterranean-style low-calorie, low-fat diet rich in vegetables, fruits, and fish might delay the onset or slow the progression of Alzheimer’s.

Alzheimer’s Disease is the most common type of dementia, affecting as many as 5.3 million Americans. Brain lesions, called amyloid plaques and tangles, accumulate, destroying brain cells, causing memory loss and problems with thinking and behavior severe enough to affect work, social life and even the ability to cope with everyday life. Over time, Alzheimer’s gets worse and is fatal. Currently, there is no cure for Alzheimer’s, but researchers around the world continue to search for better ways to treat the disease, delay its onset, or prevent it from developing.

 

Compulsive overeating is often caused by an emotional connection to an emotional event.  When ever I work with someone for weight issues, I always ask if there was a time when they gained weight suddenly.  If they say yes, there is a good chance that there was an emotional event that is unresolved and is causing the compulsive overeating.

I was demonstrating Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) at a seminar this week with people who had a strong desire for chocolate.  Normally, they will lose their desire for the chocolate after a few of rounds of EFT.  One person still had a fairly strong desire for the chocolate after using EFT, although she did notice that her appetite for food in general had disappeared. 

I asked if there was a time when she had gained weight suddenly, and she told us about her recovery from cancer.  After the treatment, her appetite came back and food tasted better than ever, especially chocolate.  She was thrilled to eat the sugary foods that she had not been able to have during her treatment, and that is when her weight gain started.

I suggested that she had created an emotional connection to these types of foods because her subconscious mind had connected these foods to the feeling of being free of cancer.  It was not the desire for chocolate as much as the feeling of being well that created her compulsive overeating.

Once you find the underlying driver of this emotional desire, you can release the need for overeating.  If you suffer from compulsive overeating, think back to when it started and ask yourself what emotional events were happening in your life.  You will probably find the clues that will lead you to your answer and you can release the emotions of the event and be free from overeating.

Rush Limbaugh has lost 90 pounds in 5 months by following a diet from the Quick Weight Loss Center based in Florida.  This program combines a low calorie diet, office visits, protein boosters, carb blockers and appetite suppressants.

So, what is special about this diet?  Actually, it is much like any other quick weight loss diet.  Many people have lost weight quickly following the Quick Weight Loss Center plan, as have many on Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, NutriSystem and other similar plans.  By combining several diet tools together, this program can achieve fast results.  Perhaps, too fast.  Limbaugh has reported losing as much as a pound per day on this program.

Losing weight that fast may be good for the ego, but it is hard on your body.  When your body can not get enough available calories from your glucose, it will go to your fat reserves (that’s good) and your lean muscle mass (that’s bad), Because this program does not include exercise, your body will literally “eat” your muscles for calories  Your metabolism will then slow down as your body goes into starvation mode. That means that when you gooff this diet, you will gain weight on fewer calories.

The good part of this program is the office visits for monitoring and support.  This also includes vitamins and supplements, which help you stay healthy. Of course, this adds to the total cost, so don’t expect this program to be cheap. 

There is a very limited structure of foods that you can eat and some foods cannot be combined.  This will make this diet difficult for many people to stay on for very long.  Like many programs, this is meant to keep you as a paying customer for as long as possible.

The bottom line: The Quick Weight Loss Center diet does work, as will most programs if you can stick to them.  It is not a good long term solution. The program does have a maintenance program, but it may be difficult for most people to stay on for long term.  When you go off the program, your weight will come right back.  The key for long term success is to change your behavior and your association to food.  This program does not give you that help.

This week, Good Morning America aired a segment that compared overeaters to addicts, following a man they referred to as a “recovering addict”.  So, why does food have such power over some people that they seem to lose control?

For most of people, when they see a tempting snack like a potato chip, an area of the brain will trigger feelings of desire in a part of the brain called the amygdale. Once they start eating it shuts off. But for an overeater the amygdala remains stimulated even while eating, continuing to feed that feeling of desire.  That is why many people who have weight loss surgery will gain back some or even all of the weight. One such person Good Morning America, "I just keep telling myself I should know better. I should be stronger, just as a person [says], 'You are intelligent, you shouldn't be doing this. This is not grown up behavior. This is child behavior."

According to former FDA commissioner Dr. David Kessler, this behavior is fairly common among adults, affecting an estimated 70 million Americans. Kessler has also struggled with his own food compulsion.

So, what is the cause of this behavior, and what can we do about it? Much of the desire is based on past memories and past experiences.  Dr. Kessler suggests retraining your brain to see food as just fuel for your body.

That may be easier said than done for most people. The missing key to success in this story is the emotional connection. Logically, all we have to do is eat healthy food in smaller amounts. Why is this so hard for 20 percent of Americans? Because we are not driven by logic, we are driven by emotion. The key is to change your emotional connections to food and your weight.

Most people go on a diet to change their weight, but struggle when they go back to their old behavior. Your current weight is a result of your current behavior. Unfortunately, most diets are aimed at changing the result. That makes dieting a short-term goal.  When you reach your goal weight, you can’t wait to go out and eat all of those foods you have been craving. Before long, your weight is creeping up so…back on the diet.

Since your current weight is a result of your current behavior, all you have to do is change your behavior and your weight will automatically change. And this way it will become a permanent change so that you never have to diet again.

Here are 3 ways to start changing your behavior:

(1) Focus On What You Want. When people go on a diet, they think about food. This creates a stronger desire for what you are trying to avoid. Instead, think about how good you would look and feel at your perfect size. Feel positive emotions about being trim and healthy and you will create a stronger desire for that than for food.

(2) Forget about "losing weight". You mind does not respond well to a negative goal. Your subconscious mind sees losing as a negative goal and will fight against you. Instead, tell yourself that you want to "become trim and healthy".

(3) Make your happiness unconditional. Most people say, "I will be happy when I lose 20 lbs. Your subconscious mind hears, "I will have to be unhappy until I lose 20 lbs". Most overeating is for one reason - to feel better.

To view the Good Morning America report go to:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/story?id=8185137&page=1

Is it possible to help get rid of small wrinkles and fine lines in your face by changing your diet?  According to Dr. Nicholas Perricone, author of The Perricone Prescription, many of the foods we eat are inflaming our skin.  This same inflammation can damages arteries and lead to Parkinson’s Disease.   Anything that causes a rapid rise in blood sugar causes this inflammation.   

 The faster a food breaks down into bloods sugar, the worse it isfor your skin.  Basically, this would mean processed foods thatare low in fiber and low in fat.  Foods like cookies, crackers,white bread, rice cakes and highly processed cereal should gooff your shopping list immediately.

 Dr. Perricone has a 3-day diet designed to help your skin recover quickly.  Use the same menu every day for 3 days.  He suggests high quality protein for every meal to rebuild cell damage.  For breakfast, choose a one-yoke omelet.  Lunch and dinner both call for Salmon, which is high in omega-3 fats. 

At every meals, include cantaloupe and blueberries.  Breakfast Should Include steel-cut oats or oatmeal.  Lunch and dinner should include leafy green vegetables like Romaine lettuce or asparagus.   Add some yogurt to your blueberries for desert.

Here is another diet tip to help your skin:  Eat your tomatoes.   They contain an anti-oxidant called lycopene, which also has the ability to block UV light. Lycopene has SPF of about 3, which is insufficient to protect from direct sun or any other harsh UV exposure. However, it is enough to reduce the effects of indirect sunlight or the sunlight that has passed throughwindow glass. 

 

In case you missed it, Kirstie Alley appeared on the Oprah Winfrey program last week to report that she, like Oprah, had "fallen off the wagon".  She admits that she is an emotional eater.  I've said many times before that emotional eating is the number one cause of weight gain.  It's not always because of stress or some negativee emotion.  The truth is, any time you are eating more than you need, you are no longer feedign yoru body - you are feeding your emotions.

It must be difficult for Kirstie, after being the spokes person for Jenny Craig and being in the public eye for almost a year as everyone watched every pound.  Why, after losing 75 pounds, did she gain it all back again so easily?  The answer is very simple, as Kirstie explained herself.  When she hit her goal of reaching the weight she wanted, she put all of her exercise equipment in the garage and started eating her favorite foods again. 

The problem with diets (at least one problem) is that the focus in on the result.  In my seminars, I ask people this question: "What if I could wave a magic wand and you would be the perfect size and weight you want to be?"  Everyone gets excited just thinking about it.  Thaen I ask the follow-up question: "If you keep the same behavior you have now, where will you be in 6 months?"  Everyone says the same thing, "Right back where I am now".

The first problem is that people see the gao as reaching a certain size or weight.  When thay reach that goal, they feel good and go our to celebrate by eating.  There is never a goal of maintaining a certain.  That actually doesn't make a very good goal.  To our subconscious mind, there is no achievement in staying the same way you are.  We are conditioned to reach new heights and be more than we are.

The bigger problem is this.  When you go on a diet, you are trying to change the result.  That is always a temporary goal because your current weight is a result of your current behavior.  If you change the result without changing the behavior, you will always go back to your old result.  

 The key is to forget about the result and focus on changing your behavior.  Since your current weight is a result of your current behavior, all you have to do is change your behavior and you weight will change by itself.  Once you change your behavior, you never have to diet again.  That is the key to lasting success.

Oprah herself is a victim of her own language.  What ever we say will become images and feelings in our minds.  When Oprah talks about her weight, she also talks about "falling off the wagon".  Thsi sends a message to your subconscious mind that you have failedin some way and the only way to success is to "stay on the wagon".  She also uses words that guarantee it will be hard.  She says that she is always "fighting" with her weight and that it is a "constant battle".  She ended her show by talking about "continuing the fight".

How do you feel about having to fight a battle for the rest of your life?  It's not very appealing, is it?  The way to end the battle is to change your associations to food and your emotions.  Once you do that, you are in complete control.  It starts with changing your words.

 

What if I told you that you could start dropping pounds without dieting, without exercising and without depriving yourself?  Would that get you excited? 

I know, you've tried every diet trick that you can think of, so this sounds too good to be true.  Well, it's not too good to be true.  It is really that easy.

So, what is this magic secret of weight loss that will help even emotional eaters and weight loss junkies?  The answer is..........fiber.  That's right, fiber.

If you increase the amount of fiber you eat, you will lose weight without even trying.  Here is how it works:

When you eat more fiber, it gathers up some of the fat and keeps your body from absorbing it.  It also causes the digested food to pass more quickly through your system, which causes less calories to be absorbed by your body.  And, there are other reasons as well.

You know that signal that arrives about 20 minutes after you've eaten too much?.  High-fiber foods generally take more time to chew, which allows your body time to let you know that it is full.  Also, a high-fiber diet tends to fill you up more and take longer to digest, so you stay full for a greater amount of time. Most high-fiber diets also tend to be less "energy dense," so they generally have fewer calories per serving.
 
So, how much can that mean on the scale?  By eating 35 grams of fiber per day, you can eliminate about 250 calories that you body would normally absorb.  That means you can lose a pound every other week without any other changes.

Go slow with changes like this in your diet. Adding too much fiber too quickly can cause intestinal gas, abdominal bloating and cramping. Increase your fiber intake gradually over two or three weeks.  Make sure you drink plenty of water as well.  The fiber will absorbs the water, helping absorb waste and making your stool soft. Without the added water, you could become a bit constipated and feel bloated.

So what foods are your best choices?  Start with more whole foods.  Make sure to keep the skin on fruits and vegetables. Many breads, cereals and pasta are being made with whole grain and more fiber. Check the label to see how much fiber they have.  Here is a list from the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, which shows the amount of dietary fiber in several types of foods.

You're feeling good about yourself and your life.  You are having a great day, feeling trim and healthy.  You feel so strong that nothing could make you eat any food that is not healthy.

Suddenly, out of nowhere comes this overwhelming urge to eat.  You promised yourself that you wouldn't let this happen.  So, where did it come from?  You might even be asking yourself, "What is wrong with me?  Why can't I control myself".

Rule number one is to let go of any blame.  It is not a sign of weakness on your part.  Rule number two (as you well know if you've read The Emotional Diet), start asking better questions.  These kind of questions will only keep you in that self-perpetuating loop of false belief that you can't change.  Rule number three is to notice what is triggering that feeling of desire.

Visual cues can be very strong.  The sight of a food commercial or a magazine ad can trigger this feeling.  Remember, the whole point of advertising is to get you to buy their food.  Other triggers can be conversations.  Discussing foods or recipes can make you think about food.  Watching cooking programs or segments on television can also trigger the desire to eat.  As you remember from The Emotional Diet, you are drawn toward what ever you focus on.

The first step to freedom from emotional eating is to notice the triggers that create these feelings.  Once you do that, you can realize where this is coming from and deal with it at a rational level.  Also, once you see where these emotional eating triggers are showing up, try to avoid them as much as possible.  The old saying, "Out of sight, out of mind" is also true for emotional eating.  

Try to consciously notice the food triggers and expose them for what they are.  When you do, you will see that they are everywhere.  Really notice the ones that effect you and the feelings thay create.  When you start to notice them at a conscious level, they will stop sneaking into your subconscious mind and you will start to take control.

Dr. Dean Ornish has spent the past 30 years studying the effect exercise, a low-fat diet and stress reduction can have on health. Ornish was the first to show that these lifestyle changes could actually reverse severe heart disease without drugs or surgery.

Now Dr. Ornish has studied the effects of these same techniques on cancer patients with impressive results.   Ornish's latest book, "The Spectrum," offers advice on how to personalize a health plan to fit your goals and preferences — without diets, deprivation or guilt.In this book he explains how changing the way we eat and live can actually change our bodies at a cellular level.  In case studies, this has been shown to stop the spread of cancer.  

To read the first chapter of this new book CLICK HERE.

 

Intuitive Eating is not sexy. It doesn’t help you lose weight overnight and with few exceptions, it isn’t something celebrities are publicly endorsing. Yet, for those who have adopted the mindset of eating what they want, without the guilt and potentially hazardous outcomes associated with many diets and emotional eating, Intuitive Eating is viewed as a miracle.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, between 2 to 5 percent of Americans experience binge-eating disorder during any six-month period. Women, however, are more likely than men to develop eating disorders as studies show only 5 to 15 percent of those with anorexia or bulimia are men, and only 35 percent of those with binge-eating disorder are men. For most women, emotional eating is psychologically based and those with it often times feel too shameful to disclose their affliction. While emotional eating cannot be cured with a gym membership or a slick, marketed diet program, it can be overcome through Intuitive Eating.

The concept behind Intuitive Eating is simple. Allow yourself to eat and enjoy the foods you want, since it has been proven that denying yourself "bad" foods leads to unhealthy cravings for them. As simple as it may sound, for those suffering through emotional eating, getting to the point of admitting a problem is extremely difficult. Adding to the problem is that Intuitive Eating rarely makes it to the headlines, where many who suffer from eating disorders will see them and be positively influenced. For example, it took years for American Idol star, Katherine McPhee, to come to grips with emotional eating. Admitting her problem turned out to be even tougher than going through the Intuitive Eating method that she publicly credited with losing 30 pounds and overcoming bulimia.

According to renowned dietician and co-author of the book, Un-Dieting, Diana Lipson-Burge, “80 percent of the dieting information out there is inaccurate. It’s no wonder diets not only don’t work, but studies prove that dieting can even cause obesity. Intuitive Eating releases one from shame and rebellion to a new found freedom to not only listen but to love your body and start nurturing it instead of depriving and abusing it to do un-natural eating."

For a long time, many people (me included) have believed that one reason for weight gain is a build up of toxins, which will also affect your immune system.

Dr. Eric Berg discovers the link between foods, hormones and weight loss. Weight gain is a symptom of ill health, not the cause of it.

Alexandria, VA  May 20, 2008 -- "People are literally killing themselves trying to lose weight," claims Dr. Eric Berg, of Alexandria VA. A chiropractor by education and nutritional researcher throughout his career, says that by eating certain foods that support fat burning hormones, weight loss will naturally occur.

If the body is starved of calories and good fats, or filled with artificial foods, and stressed through excessive exercise, the body will not become healthy and lose weight, or at least experience lasting weight loss, and can actually result in a decline in health.

"In fact," says Dr. Berg, "most of the people who "In fact," says Dr. Berg, "most of the people who come see me are sicker and heavier than they were when they started dieting. They can't sleep, feel tired all the time, retain fluid, have poor hair and skin, digestion troubles and push themselves to exercise into a condition of overstress. One of my clients told me she literally lifted 3 million pounds last year while working out -- and didn't lose a single pound."

It is food that influences hormones, and hormones that dictate your bodily functions. If you are eating foods that break down the hormonal functions of the body, illness and weight gain are the natural result. Conversely, eating foods that support the hormonal system, restores health and allows weight loss.

Dr. Berg's book, The 7 Principles of Fat Burning, states that a person's body shape clearly reveals their hormonal problem and subsequent diet solution which addresses the restoration of health, as the priority. He states that before some of his clients lose any weight, they are reporting increased energy, better sleep, clearer skin, and so on.

"You have to be healthy in order to lose weight," says Dr. Berg. He explains that excess weight is a symptom of ill health and that a body that is stressed, week and malnourished will not drop weight and improve function, especially while under intense physical workouts.

Dr. Berg says, "The majority of my clients are women. They have been told they are overweight because they are lazy. But let me tell you, most of these women are extremely dedicated and put a tremendous amount of time and effort into losing weight. They've been given a bum wrap. They've been told they can have chocolate cake every day and lose weight. These women are hopeful, but they're not stupid. They lose some weight, then stop the program, gain it back and then some, and now additional fatigue and just one more failure."

Dr. Berg has come up with many non-conventional ways of assisting his clients in their battle of the bulge. Although some critics say he is the one who has it backwards with his claims that you need to get healthy in order to lose weight, Dr. Berg holds firm to his theory. He reports having assisted thousands of people all over the country through his The 7 Principles of Fat Burning concepts, restoring fitness and health by educating people on the facts about food and the body. And educates the public at free weekly seminars in Alexandria, VA. He also trains doctors all over the country to do the same and has trained hundreds to date.

A lot of people will say that emotional eating is stress eating.  When we feel like we can't handle our emotions, we turn to food.  That is certainly one definition of emotional eating, but I think there is much more than that.

Almost everything we do in life is really to meet one need.....we want to feel better.  You may not agree with that at first glance, so please think about it for a minute.  Why do you want more money, a better job, to be in love, to seek happiness....these are all things that make you feel better.  In the case of money, you really don't need more pieces of paper with numbers and pictures on hem.  You want what you believe money will buy you.  So, why do you want that?  Because it will make you "feel" happy or secure or some other feeling.  Feelings are just another name for emotions.  We always want to feel better.

It is my belief that anyone who is overweight and does not have a problem with their metabolism is an emotional eater.  I mentioned this to one of my friends and she said, "I don't eat because I'm stressed or emotionally upset, I eat because I love this food".  So, what does that mean to "love food"? 

Isn't love an emotion?  Sure it is.  If you love food, it is really because you have created an association to that food.  Think of desserts.  They always come at the end of the meal as sort of a reward for finishing you meal.  Don't you remember that as a child?  You parents would say, "Finish your vegetables and you can have
 dessert".  In your mind, you associated dessert as a form of reward for your accomplishment.  When you think of desserts now, you think of the feelings that are associated to those wonderful childhood memories. 

So many of these associations were created when we were children and we store them in our subconscious minds.  You may not know consciously why is it so hard to resist these foods that are tempting you.  That is because you are trying to use the logical part of your mind, and the emotion will almost always be stronger.

Emotional eating is much more that a response to stress or stress eating.  It is a product of years of conditioning in a society that is focused on food for pleasure instead of nourishment.  The key to emotional eating is to change the associations to food, especially the ones you eat to excess.