by OneMoreBite | Nov 25, 2003 | EFT Weight Loss
Loosen the Noose
I read a lot – including diet, fitness, exercise, and weight related books and 9 times out of 10 I find myself disagreeing with the author. So often I read about how I “should” do this, and will never be allowed to eat that again. “Who says,” is what I think to myself. I don’t like being told what to do, even when I’m the one doing the telling. I think it’s ridiculous to live with such a restrictive noose around your neck. That’s why the so called “diet failure rate” is so high. Who can live without a slip now and then?
A diet is how you choose to eat – it doesn’t have to mean a reduction plan. We all have a diet. The word has come to be associated with reducing, but you can ask a person of average weight, “What diet are you on,” and they’ll likely give you an answer; i.e., low-fat, balanced, healthy or some other title, and you’d still be left wondering what they eat. A more accurate question would be, “What do you eat?”
We all slip and slide through life – sometimes doing well, sometimes falling down. I want to suggest you loosen the noose. Think about it: If you plan to eat a healthy diet by adding more fresh foods and breaking the fast food habit, and then you stop at McDonald’s one day (despite the plan), what has occurred? You’ve eaten better six days out of seven. You’ve made a 86% improvement.
Consist Change Equals Weight Loss Results
Another way to look at it: If you’ve decided that from now on you’ll eat healthy just on Mondays – one little day of the week – you’ve still made a 14% improvement. Won’t that affect your weight? It certainly will. Any tiny improvement you make, if it is consistent, will result in a long-term change. It may take longer to see results if it’s only a one day a week change, but the beauty is you aren’t restricting yourself so severely that you could never live with it.
Restrictive diets that you eventually plan to quit are good only for weekend pool parties or photo shoots. What’s the point? Sure you can reduce pounds and inches, but they just come back. Experts agree that yo-yo dieting is the worst overall for your health – frankly, you’re better off carrying 20 extra pounds full-time than dropping them and gaining them over and over. Start today to find one thing in your regular habits that you can change, and when you slip, just get right back up. Pretend you planned it – works for me.
EFT Suggestions for Getting Past Diet Lapses
- “Even though I ate _____, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
- “Even though I couldn’t help it, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
- “Even though I didn’t want to eat, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
Give yourself credit for what you do right, and use EFT for weight loss whenever you find yourself berating yourself for some small lapse.
by OneMoreBite | Nov 24, 2003 | EFT Weight Loss
They’re starting early now – bringing out the holiday treats immediately after Halloween. Next thing you know they’ll leave the displays up all year-round. At least with all the colorful packaging staring at us now, weeks before Christmas, instead of the, “I gotta get some right now cause it won’t be here long” frame of mind. Now we can realize, “It’s not going anywhere. I can eat these foods any time I want.” They’re making all the goodies be not so special after all. That, for me, was part of the allure of the season – candies you don’t see the rest of the year, specially wrapped boxes and ribbons. Big deal. It’s just pretty paper, after all. The food’s the same.
Learn to Handle Seasonal Sugar Disorder
I went shopping yesterday for this Thursday’s Thanksgiving dinner, and realized, I didn’t want all those goodies in the house this soon. I don’t like to “wait,” so if I get cheese logs and goodies they’ll be beckoning me today, tonight, and all week until finally Thursday arrives and I can dive in. No, I know how I am – if I have it, I want it now. What generally happens, is I’ll start purchasing the goodies, and start chewing on one, here and there, until before you know it, I’ve got SSD, “Seasonal Sugar Disorder.”
So, how do I resolve this conflict? Obviously there are some things I’m going to have to purchase in advance. One thing that may seem silly but does work for me is simply out-of-sight out-of-mind. If I get something yummy and quickly put it in a drawer or cabinet, out of sight, then I forget about it. Sometimes I forget it so completely I don’t find it again until the next spring!
So, if you’re starting to bake cookies, freeze them. If you’re in charge of making candy or treats for Thanksgiving, package them up, wrap a nice bow, and put them in the closet. Keep your wits about you. Just because things look lovely, doesn’t mean we need to forget our resolve to eat when hungry, stop when satisfied. If you want a candy, have one, but eat it slowly and really taste it. See if you can tell the difference between cheap and expensive candy. Have a tasting party, if you want. Enjoy the treats. Make it special.
If holidays are a rough time, it could be the food, the allure, or it could be the memories of past holidays. Some people have family members they’d rather not visit, but here we are, it’s a holiday, so let’s all get together for some fun. Sure, great idea.
Here are some EFT ideas for Seasonal Sugar Disorder
“Even though I hate Thanksgiving, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
“Even though I want to eat it all right now, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
“Even though Uncle Ralph humiliated me last year, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
“Even though I don’t want to go to ___, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
“Even though my mother-in-law thinks I’m not good enough, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
There’s a whole line of work which gets into the reality of some of my suggested statements. In other words, how would I know what my mother-in-law thinks? I’m not concerned here with that – these statements are written as ideas, thoughts you might have. Don’t get hung-up if the statements aren’t right for you, just create statements in your own words.
Learn EFT for Weight Loss
Now is a great time to start the 8-Week Ending Emotional Eating Seminar or schedule a month of private sessions. Get past the holiday blues. Workshops are ongoing, so you can get started at any time.
You’ll get eight separate lesson plans, complete with all materials – send e-mail questions at any time during the entire workshop … For more details on what’s available or to get started: OneMoreBite’s Weight Loss Class
Go here for Instructions in EFT. I weave EFT and NLP throughout my work because they’ve worked for me in helping me lose 80 pounds and keep it off for over 17 years now (as of Nov 2003) and the techniques can work for you.
by OneMoreBite | Nov 22, 2003 | EFT Weight Loss
Big sandwich
Typical Weekly Diet Plan
- Sunday, Anything goes, because I’m starting a diet tomorrow
- Monday, Diet
- Tuesday, I think I can do this!
- Wednesday, It’s almost the weekend. This is easy …
- Thursday, Uh, okay, but just this once …
- Friday: Yah! It’s Friday. Let’s live a little
- Saturday: I’ve been so good all week
- Sunday: Blow-out! Eat everything, since Monday we start our diet
Is Sunday your “anything goes” day? Since so many people start diets on Monday’s, Sunday has come to be associated with cleaning the fridge. Eat it all, so there’s nothing left to tempt you come Monday. If you follow the BFL (Body for Life) program, it’s suggested to have one free day. A free day is similar to the Blowout Sunday day – eat whatever you want, as much as you want, with the idea being, you’ll get the desire out of your system.
Free Day Works for Some But Be Sure it Works for You
That’s a great theory, but won’t work if you’re highly sensitive to sugar for instance – by loading up on surgery treats on Sunday, you’ll create the hunger pangs for those same treats on Monday and Tuesday. By Wednesday when they are starting to abate, you’re already looking forward to having them again on the weekend – and the cycle never ends.
I’m all for having a treat, when you want one, but there’s no need to create a 24-hour window of opportunity for going crazy. Better to just go ahead and enjoy some cake at the birthday party, regardless of what day it is. If you ate well the rest of the day, you’re still okay.
If you eat well the majority of the time, you’ll be okay having a dessert, or a drink, or whatever, just don’t fall victim to the “cheat” mentality. You’re not cheating. This is not a test – it is your life. Calling it cheating is setting yourself up to think you are bad, and calling yourself bad or naughty, just gives more credence to the “I can’t do this, I’m not good enough” mentality.
Choose to Have More
You can do this – you can eat more slowly, enjoying it more. You can choose to have more vegetables (check their nutrients against their calories – very low calorie, very high nutrients), fruits (apples, grapes, bananas – have a couple of pieces every day). The fiber, and natural sugars are far better for you – trying to skip eating fruit because you believe it’s high in calories only sets you up to choose a candy bar later. Wouldn’t it have been better to have had that apple? Think about that next time you choose to skip a fruit snack.
Chewing Better than Drinking
If you like juice, dilute it with sparkling water and just give the slighest flavor essence to your drinks. Straight juice is yummy good but a lot of calories in a drink – better to eat the whole fruit – you get more bang for the buck.
You can choose to be a little less diligent on the weekends, or Sundays, but don’t give yourself license to “blow it” just because it’s a certain day of the week. Keep on the path, one day at a time, one bite at a time – remember One More Bite – would just one more bite be enough? Try it. I’m full, but there’s still some delicious food on my plate – I want it. What should I do? Have one more bite. Sit back. Listen to your body’s feedback. Is it your body wanting more, or just your mind? Your body should feel comfortable, safe, satisfied.
If You Can’t Seem to Stop Eating, Use EFT
“Even though I still want more food, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
“Even though I cannot leave any of this pie, I deeply and completely accept myself”
“Even though I think I’m going to explode if I have one more bite, I still want one more bite, but I deeply and completely accept myself anyway.”
Do enough rounds to bring down the feeling of wanting so badly. Using the “I’ll start my diet on Monday” routine over and over does nothing but add pounds. Start thinking in terms of each meal standing alone so even if you overeat, the next meal you get right back on track. It’s not all-or-nothing.
by OneMoreBite | Nov 21, 2003 | Beliefs
Eating out of Fear of Not Having Enough
Have you ever finished a huge meal, like Thanksgiving dinner, where you couldn’t eat another bite, when suddenly someone showed up carrying another dessert? Did you suddenly find just a bit of space to eat a little more? That’s eating out of fear; the fear of missing out on something yummy, or the fear of not being part of the group – and it has nothing to do with hunger.
Beliefs Can Shift in an Instant
This same thing can happen with any feeling – you may feel exhausted. You had a rough day at work, a traffic jam on the way home, a flat tire, and now you have a headache. You are bone tired and want to do nothing but sleep, when suddenly the phone rings. It’s a call saying, “You’ve just won a $1 million. Can you come right down?,” and you’re rushing out the door with your coat half fastened, you’re so excited you can hardly wait to get down there. Wait a minute, what happened to your headache? Probably it’s gone or just a faint memory. What happened to your exhaustion? It’s long gone too – replaced by a new surge of energy because your beliefs about this moment in time just changed. All belief shifts happen that quickly.
It only takes a tiny shift in your beliefs. Say this: I can learn to recognize when I’ve had enough. Now, ask yourself, do you believe it?
At first, you must make a bigger effort at change. You’ll start to move toward the kitchen, even when you’re still full from dinner because you’ve done it a thousand times before. This time, you’ll stop and remember, you aren’t doing that right now. Sit down, take five minutes to get control of your breathing, relax, do a session of EFT, “Even though I want more to eat, but I’m not hungry, I’m okay with myself.” “Even though I can’t break this overeating habit, I deeply and completely accept myself anyway.” “Even though I can’t feel satisfied unless I’m stuffed, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
Think about your belief in your ability to break this simple habit. If you’ve learned you must feel stuffed to be satisfied, then you’ll need to slowly break that pattern – first by simply stopping a little sooner. You may still have over eaten, but your level of stuffed can be qualified, and you know when you’ve had enough, too much, or way too much. You know, don’t you? Start by simply learning to leave one bite on your plate.
I know, that idea may seem radical, but it’s a great way to discover how you’ve eaten everything on your plate because it’s a habit to do so. Even if you only leave one pea, leave something on your plate. Secondly, just because there is more on the serving plate, don’t think you need to take more food. Wait a few minutes. Get in touch with your hunger levels.
I remember learning to recognize my hunger levels and the shock (and dismay) when I’d realize I’d had enough but half my food was still on my plate. I learned to ask for a doggy bag, take it home and eat in the next day. I learned to sometimes fix myself less food. I learned half a sandwich is sometimes enough. I learned a piece of fruit can satisfy my wildest hunger, for now, while I wait for dinner to cook. I learned, and so will you, when you just start to pay attention.
Small shifts in your beliefs about what you can accomplish may take a bit of time, but when you do make the shift it will be sudden and it will be permanent. Ask anyone who’s lost a lot of weight and kept it off, and they’ll tell you, “I don’t know, something just suddenly clicked,” and that’s what they’re talking about.
by OneMoreBite | Nov 18, 2003 | EFT Weight Loss
Most people start a new “plan” on a Monday. This is to give themselves the chance to get ready, as if they are starting a race. Think instead of starting a new eating plan as beginning a hike or climb – you are going to take one step. It can be today, it can be tomorrow, but it’s just one step.
Choose One Thing
That first step isn’t so difficult unless you’ve decided you are going to drastically change everything about yourself from now on. That kind of proclamation can be very difficult to carry out – and is why it can be so difficult to get started. Choose one habit you’d like to change, one food, one day of the week.
Are you sitting in the fence because the holidays are approaching? “I don’t want to be dieting at Thanksgiving.” I can’t diet now, I have cookies to bake.” Oh, the excuses. They run so fast this time of year, don’t they? Just chase them right out of the room – excuses are like our rears, we all have one, just some are bigger than others.
There’s no better time than right now to get started on the path to lifelong freedom from a weight problem. I enjoy the holidays, I love to bake, I eat all the goodies, and even if I gain a few pounds, it comes right off as soon as I get back to my usual routine. That’s the key: get back to your regular routine. Don’t let the overeating habit become the norm and your seasonal weight gain (or vacation weight gain) won’t be permanent.
The Thanksgiving Dinner that Changed my Life
If you’ve read my weight loss story, you’ve heard how I made a mind shift one year on Thanksgiving Day. I decided I was just going to eat until I was satisfied – not gorge, but eat all I wanted, eating slowly, enjoying every bite. The turkey wasn’t going to jump up and run away – I didn’t have to rush. I wanted to enjoy the meal and the company fully, instead of groaning in pain a half hour later. Have you ever been so full you thought you’d burst and just then you hear, “Who wants pie?” Well I sure do, but now, I haven’t stuffed myself silly first, so some pie feels just right, or I can wait a little while if necessary.
That one Thanksgiving dinner changed my life. I still remember how awe struck I was when I realized I felt wonderful, satisfied, full, and I’d eaten everything I wanted. I waited until I felt hungry again (hunger returns, yes it does), and then I ate again, and I’ve eaten tens of thousands of times since then including many more Thanksgiving dinners too.
The holidays are a great time of year – this year let’s enjoy them more fully.
EFT Suggestions for the Holidays
Holidays are also a time of year fraught with emotional ties. If family distresses you, start now to lessen the emotional intensity and you’ll breeze through the holidays this year.
“Even though I hate the holidays, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
“Even though my family makes me crazy, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
“Even though last year Aunt Edna said I looked fat and why didn’t I stop eating, I deeply and completely accept myself”
Don’t worry if you have tag-on thoughts while you are tapping. I often do. Things like, “Aunt Edna is a cow,” come to mind. Sometimes things you might think but would never say in polite company are quite appropriate while doing the tapping. These thoughts may make you smile, even laugh out loud, and that’s a good thing. It’s okay.
The main thing is keep your issue in mind while you tap (that’s why you keep repeating the reminder phrase). If the emotion is happening (even though its muted) while you are tapping, then you will release the intensity of the emotion and interrupt that well worn pathway. Don’t be afraid to bring up the issue you want to release. That’s how it works.
(These are general ideas – if you can plug in specific names, places, events, it works all the better.)
Now is the right time – start now and use EFT on your holiday issues. You might discover you enjoy the holidays more and don’t gain weight after all.
