by OneMoreBite | Feb 11, 2004 | EFT Weight Loss
If you’ve struggled repeatedly, yet continue to fail in your efforts, what’s going wrong? Was it the way you tried to stop, quit, or cut down, was too restrictive? Did you say, “I’ll never eat ice cream again,” or “From now on I’m not eating that.” When you set such absolute restrictions on yourself and then the cravings and urges keep hitting you, washing over you like waves on the shore, relentlessly, repeatedly, it’s not unlikely that eventually you’ll relent. “I can’t do it. I don’t have the will power. I’ll never lose this weight.” The waves won’t stop coming unless you learn to ride them.
Learn to Ride the Waves
Get out your boogie board, and you’ll be glad for those waves. Think differently about the situation. So you’re riding a wave of desire – ah, there’s the crest, now you’re free falling down the other side – most likely you’ve forgotten about the wave entirely by now. Next thing you know, here comes another wave. What do you do? You ride it. Just ride it, and you’ll go over another and another. Habits hit hard, but each successive wave is a little less intense, a little shorter. By riding the waves you’ll find you can learn to surf them, then even enjoy them as they lose their power over you.
Sit on your hands if you have to, but ride the craving out. It won’t last. The toughest times are those first few days because that’s when your desire to continue old habits is highest and your will to ride out the craving is at its lowest. Even though your desire to change may be very high, the will to withstand those waves is low simply because your “usual” pattern of behavior is to dive right in.
Stay out of the Water
Post a “No Swimming” sign for the next wave. You can go swimming anytime but not this wave. Just this one wave. One minute at a time. If you have a habit of overeating, no matter what time of day, realize it’s just a habit. No different than a habit of biting your nails, twirling your hair, or picking lint off your sweater. Habits are acquired, repetitive tasks. They usually help us feel better simply because their repetitive nature is soothing. Habits can be broken if you are willing to ride the waves. If you’ve tried the “I’ll never eat …” again approach and it didn’t work, try the one-day at a time or one-minute at a time approach.
When the urge strikes, decide right then to ride this one out. Tell yourself, “I’m riding this wave,” and then as Nike says, Just Do It. That means you decide in advance that you will wait, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, or 5 minutes; whatever time works for you. Decide how many minutes you will wait before you’ll go ahead and do whatever you are wanting to do. A few minutes gives you a chance for the wave to crest and you’ll be amazed how often it does.
Every single time you ride that wave and get to the other side it gets easier and easier. Now, for you, it could be that it takes a thousand waves before it gets easier but I can guarantee it will. The day will come when you’ll realize you used to have a problem with this food or that, or you used to eat an entire bag of chips every night, but you no longer do. Now if you want a cookie, you eat a cookie but that crazy desire to eat them all has gone. The tide has turned.
Try the W.H.A.C.K approach. Read Changing Beliefs, Your First Step to Permanent Weight Loss. Free Ebook.
by OneMoreBite | Feb 10, 2004 | Habits
I spoke to myself that way when the urge came on strong, and believe me it did. Time after time. The urge to follow-through with old habits is strong. It’s the same with eating less or eating differently. The urge to get the bag of chips is strong, and you won’t be able to resist if you think in terms of “never eating chips again.” It’s too large – chunk it down to a manageable size. Just today.
Today I Choose …
“Today I choose to eat a healthy diet. Today I will forgo my usual 6-pack of beer and drink only pure water. Today. It’s only for today. One day at a time. If I want to eat chips I’ll have them tomorrow.” Then, tomorrow, you decide again, for that day only.
Some days you’ll decide not to eat a healthy diet. Big deal. It’s okay. If you have a day where you’d like to skip it for that day, fine. Go ahead. The next day you decide again. Then the more often you decide to eat well, exercise, have fun, do things you enjoy, find other activities besides eating, then the weight will melt away, and you’ll develop healthier habits at the same time. Doing it in this manner allows your old urges to slowly melt away until the intense desire to go get that bag of chips when you sit down to watch TV simply disappears. You no longer think about them. The habit is gone.
You won’t have to do this every day for the rest of your life. Just long enough to break some old habits. Generally speaking I’ve heard it said that 21 days is what it takes to break a habit. I’d give it 30 days straight of deciding each and every day what you want for that day. Get a calendar and write it down, every day you make a choice, first thing in the morning. Choose to eat well or not, but make yourself aware that it is a choice and you’ll feel less like you are not in control and as you progress, you’ll be slowly getting back into those favorite pants you so long ago put away.
What have you tried?
by OneMoreBite | Feb 9, 2004 | Diet Plans
Isn’t it curious how we place the blame for things like clothes that won’t fit on someone or something else? It’s never our fault. Not that our body has expanded. Oh, no. That couldn’t be. The denial regarding our own habits is astonishing.
The Clean Clothes Diet
Slowly, without thinking about it, I melted off those extra pounds and inches, and now the pants fit again. Wonder of wonders, isn’t the magic of laundry fantastic? I call it the clean clothes diet. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Now that we’re into February those excuses blaming holiday eating are done. If you gained a little weight (or failed to lose any) over the holidays, get over it. It’s done. Today is a new day. Don’t waste one moment thinking about why or what you should have done – the “blame game” gets you nowhere fast.
Instead, use what you’ve learned (that is, what didn’t work) to go forward with your new plan and find what does work. Plan to start today, and work on today only. It’s great to have long-term goals but they are always accomplished by taking little pieces and working on them one at a time. By creating a strategic plan, and working it, step-by-step things get done. That’s how the U.S. built the Mars Rover. We reached the stars by taking it one day at a time, and that’s how you’ll reach your weight loss goals.
One Day at a Time: One Bite at a Time
I wore those green jeans yesterday and they still fit so I wasn’t dreaming. (This isn’t Mr. Green Jean’s jeans, but plain old green jeans). It’s the magic of healthier habits. Some years I don’t gain weight during the holidays and others I do. You are not like the Mars Rover being guided through life with someone else at the controls. You are holding the controller. It’s your choice what you eat every day.
by OneMoreBite | Feb 9, 2004 | Weight Loss News
In the time honored tradition of CNN’s reporting news that isn’t news, tonight I saw a report on the “promising” protein leptin being used to develop a new diet drug. As Dave Barry likes to say, I’m not making this up. The report said, “Unger says his group has “a lot of ideas” about how to make leptin do its job in overweight people and “we are working on them now.” He says he can’t give further details until the work is ready for publication. Well duh!
A lot of ideas … hum, that sounds like, they don’t know Jack! A lot of ideas my eye. They are sitting around cooking up these ideas then calling the media who come running.
Yes, we all wish there were a magic pill we could take so we could eat nothing but bonbons all day and stay svelte as a (fill in the blank with your favorite body type here). That day is not coming any time soon, and when it does, I’d still be wary. Most likely they’ll find out a few years later that the drug causes all your hair to fall out and you develop awful body odor or something – irreversible too no doubt. There is no free lunch will win out, mark my words.
Meanwhile, try eating for appetite control. It works marvelously well. Especially if you eat food with nutritional value! That’s a magic diet pill if you ask me.
by OneMoreBite | Feb 6, 2004 | Dumb Things
by OneMoreBite | Feb 5, 2004 | EFT Weight Loss
If this morning has been pure crap, then it’s going to be better from now on, and what if it isn’t? What if it keeps getting worse? When you finally leave work exhausted, your tire is flat, you don’t have a spare, when you finally get on the road there’s a huge traffic jam, you notice you’re almost out of gas, and you suddenly realize you need a bathroom? What then? Isn’t that a crap day? Can I now tell myself, this day is horrible? No, sorry.
Instead, wonder aloud, what good is going to come of this? What is going to happen, that wouldn’t have happened otherwise, had it not been for these delays? Will you meet a good Samaritan at the service station who will gift you with a new car because he just won $20 million in the lottery? You never know. Maybe you’ll glance into that puddle to find a floating lottery ticket that turns out to be a $1000 winner. You never know where you’ll find your good fortune, so keep your eyes and ears open for opportunities. Dwelling on the negative only gives you more negative. Dwell on the potential. Expect to receive good things and good things will start to come your way. It’s true. Try it for a week, and let me know if I’m wrong.
I’ve lived my life expecting good things and if nothing else it’s kept me a happier person. I’m no saint. I just don’t envision that everyone is out to annoy me. Most people are focused on their own happiness, you just got in their way. There are only a few folks who really enjoy tormenting others (Simon on American Idol comes to mind). The rest of us just do it by accident. 😉
EFT Ideas For When Things Just Aren’t Going So Great
“Even though I hate this day, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
Reminder: “Hate today”
“Even though nothing is going right today, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
Reminder: “Nothing going right”
Why does EFT help? It reduces the stress and anxiety associated with the energy flow of negativity that sets up when a series of bad events (or sometimes even a single event) happen. It helps. Once the anxiety is reduced, you can take a deep breath and see more clearly to find your good fortune. After the stress dissipates you won’t feel so much like stuffing yourself to get away from this uneasy feeling. You won’t need to anymore because the feeling will already be gone.
Get free EFT instructions: How to use EFT for Weight Loss. EFT is used for weight loss by tackling the emotional issues that cause you to overeat for instance. There are so many different reasons why we do as we do. EFT helps you achieve the results you want without years of expensive psychotherapy to “figure it all out.” With EFT you don’t have to know why, you just know it works.
by OneMoreBite | Feb 2, 2004 | Holidays
Not a Fan but I get in on the Eating
I’ll admit, I’m not a sports fan — don’t throw things — it’s just that I’ve got too many other things going on and don’t have time for watching games. I know, it’s un-American, in fact the political police may just pay me a call now that I’ve admitted I don’t watch the Super Bowl. If I hear everyone cheering I might peek in for a minute or two though, I’m not stupid.
Doesn’t mean I don’t think about having a Super Bowl party though. My husband joked he’d have a big bowl of rice and invite everyone over (he eats primarily a Macrobiotic diet). I bought an enormous sandwich that I don’t know who will eat. I’ll have some but frankly, this thing is huge, and the bread? It’s about 6 inches thick. I’ll have to use a knife and fork. But it’s Super Bowl Sunday and ever I am in the party mood.
Speaking of a knife and fork, did you know you can drive a teenager insane by eating pizza with utensils? It’s true, try it.
The eating today is “party eating” to the extreme. Finger foods, greasy, dippy stuff. Fun food. On my “Calendar of Excuses” this is a red-letter day. I’ll bet the Sweet Potato Queens go all out today.
How you handle a food fest says a lot about your potential to kick your weight issues out of your life forever. Go ahead and eat, enjoy, and do not for one tiny second feel guilty or mad at yourself. A party day is for enjoying yourself. Don’t gorge – that’s not necessary. There’s always the next meal. This won’t be your last chance to eat chicken wings, even if you’ve resolved to start a diet tomorrow.
What’s the difference between stuffing yourself and gorging? To me gorging means stuffing it in as fast as you can because you’re afraid there won’t be enough. Gorging is out-of-control, frantic wanting and no matter what, it’s never enough.
Stuffing on the other hand simply means you’re full, and you’re still reaching for more. Stuffing is a choice, gorging feels as if you’re choice has been taken away.
Today, while you’re eating, or tomorrow if you’re reading this after the Super Bowl of Eating, just know you’re okay even if you’re overeating. Some occasions call for it, some days you just feel like it. It’s okay. You’re okay.
Feeling okay with your choices goes a long way toward getting you past the sticking points – sometimes can even lead to a decision to make better choices. It’s what you do the majority of the time that matters, not the occasional overindulgence.
I gained weight over the holidays because I ate chocolate much more often, and I ate desserts more often, and I over ate much more often, so naturally, I gained some weight. Now it’s a month later, and nothing changed except I went back to my usual eating habits and now that weight is gone. Easy and painless.
BTW, I still have a few chocolates left over, my favorite Joseph Schmidt truffles. Why haven’t I eaten them? I ate so many over December and the first week of January that I grew satisfied. I know they’re there, and I think about having one occasionally but I’m usually already full or don’t feel any hunger, and I’d rather wait for hunger. Then what happens when I do get hungry, I think of real food, not chocolate, so there they sit. That can happen to you too when you start to listen to what you’re body wants and stop being afraid to eat an apple or an orange. Fruit is good, fresh is good, clean food is good. Try eating for appetite control. It works, and you just might like it
by OneMoreBite | Feb 1, 2004 | Diet Plans
Does it make sense to eat low carb cakes, puddings, pies, crackers? Low carb cookies, breads, everything high carb suddenly turned low carb by the magic of chemistry and funny math?
If you want to succeed on the Atkins Diet or the South Beach Diet for that matter steer clear of these modified food products. They won’t help you lose the desire to eat cookies, cakes and pies, but rather will keep you in the habit of eating them. Break that habit now and use EFT to lose the cravings for carbs.
Steer clear of low carb versions and if you want a piece of bread, eat good quality whole grain bread. A real piece of bread will satisfy your cravings. Just like with the low fat versions, you’ll be more likely to overeat the modified foods than if you just ate the regular version. Plus, it’s ridiculously expensive!
If you’re dying for a piece of fruit, for God’s sake, eat a piece of fruit. It’s idiotic to think an apple or an orange is fattening. I eat two or three pieces of fruit nearly every day, and I still get teenagers ogling me until I turn around and they recoil in horror since I’m nearly 50-years old! Now that’s funny, and I love it, so eat real food and you’ll be better off.
Experts have blamed the “low fat” diet for the current rates of obesity but that’s not true. It was the “low fat” version of high fat foods, low fat cookies, cakes and donuts, that hurt. People bought these and thought, “Hey, it’s low fat, I can eat a whole package!” without paying any attention to the overall calories, and the same thing is happening with the low carb products. “Hey, it’s low carb, I can eat the whole thing!” Don’t fool yourself, and don’t waste your money.
Something has gone horribly wrong when people will eat deep fried pig’s skin (pork rinds) but shun a fresh, crisp juicy apple.
by OneMoreBite | Jan 29, 2004 | Hunger
Sometimes when I wake this hungry, it’s as if nothing I eat will satisfy me. I’ll have my usual cereal (I nearly always have cereal and milk for breakfast), then I’ll start eating fruit, then I’ll have more fruit or a yogurt with Grapenuts, then maybe soup, then a bagel perhaps? Then …
I eat like this sometimes all morning, and usually by early afternoon I find I’m okay – I lived through another huge appetite morning. When you feel like you’re starving, even though you know you are not, eat real food. Fresh, wholesome food, not fake fat, not denatured crap, but fresh food. Fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans? Anyone eating beans? I love beans, soups, stews. This time of year a hearty soup with a big piece of heavy (I mean heavy in your hand) whole grain bread is so satisfying.
I don’t mean to make you hungry – I apologize. I tend to get carried away talking about food, I do love it so.
Learning Hunger Is A Signal From Your Body To Eat
Hunger Is Not A Disease
If you don’t know how to use EFT, which I refer to often, then get yourself some materials and learn it. It’s easy, and effective. Start at the beginning to learn, download the free materials at OneMoreBite for using EFT for weight loss and get started today.
by OneMoreBite | Jan 27, 2004 | Diet Plans
The Atkins grocery is also a pet peeve. How is it helpful to provide tons of “low carb” cookies, cakes, pies, breads, cereals? It’s helpful to the Atkins Corporation’s bottom line but not your bottom. Those products are not a whole lot different than the real thing except they’re expensive.
Choose Good Carbs
If you are convinced you need more protein and less carbs, that is fine, but choose good carbs and avoid the heavily processed foods and you’ll be ahead of the game. Go through your cupboards today and see how many boxes you have of foods that started out wholesome but are now … dead. Check your grocery receipts next time you shop and see how many whole foods you buy compared to how many processed? Your grocery costs will drop substantially when you buy more produce, less boxed, pre-made foods.
How to Calculate Net Carbs
Today’s Advice: Eat More Fruit
Choose fresh fruit over juice, and real juice over soda pop. Avoid artificial sweeteners – eat a piece of fruit if you want a sweet. Drink more water. Wean yourself off sugary drinks. Even artificially sweetened drinks still cause you to crave sweets – get off them. If you drink four diet drinks a day, switch to three and one tall glass of water. Add a squeeze of lime if you absolutely must have flavor, but remember, if you lived in the forest, with no stores nearby, and you had a fresh stream of clear running water, it would be enormously pleasurable to take a nice, cold drink from that stream. We are meant to have pure water, and fresh food – let’s get back to basics.
Use EFT to get past the sticking points, especially if you have trouble with the idea of eating more fresh foods and less processed.
“Even though I hate drinking water, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
“Even though I can’t stand drinks that aren’t sweet, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
Think about what you eat that is artificial and what you eat that is real.
