Stress is such a tough opponent and it gets tougher as we get older, especially for those of us who already have a problem with food addiction or emotional eating in general.
Stress can not only make us eat uncontrollably. It can change our metabolism in such a way that it’s even harder to lose the weight.
Here is a video I found on YouTube that has some great information about metabolism and stress. I hope you enjoy it.
This is just a quick comment to say once again that walking works. This isn’t about food addiction, but it is about being overweight and losing weight.
I had lunch with a friend of mine the other day. We taught in the same classroom a few years ago and we still meet for lunch from time to time, less often than we did when we taught in the same school.
Debby is retiring from teaching this year, along with her husband who is also a teacher. After more than thirty years in the school system, they will be moving into their retirement home in North Carolina is just a few months.
I was thrilled to see her, as usual. She looked fabulous. As we looked at pictures of their new home in progress, she told me she had lost more than forty pounds.
She said that she and her husband walk together every day and that he had lost over thirty pounds himself . Obviously, the walking is working. I envied her having a constant walking buddy.
I see retirees out walking all the time. I used to think about how they have all the time in the world to walk, but it’s really about making the commitment and sticking to it.
Even though the semi-retired and working folks have other things to do, getting out there and moving is very important. The discipline of taking thirty or forty-five minutes out of your busy day to go for a walk will be greatly rewarded.
As we age, we gain weight. Our bodies shift and respond differently to our lifestyles. We have to be more diligent in the way we take care of ourselves.
Things get harder to do when we get older. Walking is something most everyone can do, but you have to make time for it.
Regular people–short and tall, thin and thick, old and young–benefit from daily walks. The sooner you start, the stronger you will be when age tries to slow you down.
Add walking to your to-do list every day, and start working on your own success story.
Why is it so hard for women to lose weight, and so easy to gain “emotional weight”? Well, it has a lot to do with hormones. And sleep.
If you don’t get enough sleep, you will have a problem with two very important hormores: Leptin and Ghrelin.
Leptin makes you feel satisfied. It’s the shutoff valve that tells your brain you’re not hungry anymore. Ghrelin, on the other hand, stimulates hunger.
Our physical bodies live on energy. When the body is hungry, it needs food. Food gives energy. When the body is tired, it needs sleep. Sleep gives energy, too.
Sleep allows the body to recuperate from the stress of the day. When you go for days without sufficient sleep, hormones become imbalanced and brain signals get mixed up.
The body needs energy, plain and simple. Sleep deprivation, the prolonged absence of deep healing sleep, puts an incredible amount of strain on the body.
Energy is in motion all the time, inflow and outflow. If the body can’t get the energy it needs from one source, it will get it from another.
When you have too much Ghrelin in your system due to a consistent lack of sleep, you will feel real hunger and crave food, while not being able to satisfy your appetite, no matter how much you eat.
That’s because the body doesn’t want food. It wants sleep.
There are hormones in your body you probably have never heard of. When our hormones are all in balance, there are no blood sugar problems, no hunger, no stress, no food addictions, and no destructive emotions.
Nothing takes the place of sleep. No anxiety drug will do the trick, and it doesn’t matter if “it’s not your fault”. It’s not anybody’s fault, It’s just how things work.
You need the energy you get from sleep, and lowering your Ghrelin levels will help you lose fat and maintain a healthier lifestyle.
Recently, I have begun to stop evaluating my day at night. Instead, I evaluate it the following morning when I am much clearer and more prepared to take action, rather than allowing the process to disturb my sleep.
I practice recognizing when I am tired. As bedtime nears, the moment I feel tired, I close up whatever I am doing, run a hot bath and prepare for bed.
This small ritual has allowed me to sleep for five and sometimes even six uninterrupted hours on some nights–not every night, but more often than before.
My health is improving and the fat is gradually disappearing. It kind of gives the phrase, “sleeping it off” a whole new meaning.
Are you ready to pucker up and kiss some of that emotional overeating, food addiction fat good-bye? Well, these two foods will definitely help you in that department. And they’re good for you, but you probably don’t want to hear that.
Food addicts and over-eaters of all kinds often don’t care if a food is good for you or not–at least not in the addiction state. We just eat whatever is there, as long as it’s very salty or very sweet or very something to match the intense emotions we feel when we eat helplessly.
But hey, we have our sane moments when our emotions are okay. It is in those moments that we have the opportunity to do things that support our body’s needs. It’s a chance you don’t want to pass up.
Lemons and vinegar are two really effective fat-burners and here’s why. They help you get your body out of its acid state into alkalinity. That’s when healing takes place. You can’t heal anything in an acid state. When you’re dealing with too many plumped up fat cells, your body is under duress, and it needs to heal.
I have two lemon trees in my back yard. This year, I’m really making the most of them. Lemons are great. I use half a fresh lemon in a glass of iced tea a few times a day. I drink a lot of iced tea. And I use the pink stuff. I confess.
You can squeeze one or two lemons over chicken or fish before you put it in the oven or on the grill. You can also just use a slice of lemon in water if you’re not nuts about the blank flavor of water. It does make a difference in the taste. And your body will thank you for it.
Another great food is vinegar. My favorite is balsamic vinegar. I put it on fish when I bake it and use it in stews and baked beans, as well. Vinegar also takes the acid out of things.
If you use balsamic vinegar on meat and fish when you’re baking it, or even in a pot roast or chili, you will find that you won’t have gas or get heartburn.
There’s no need to stuff yourself with good food. It defeats the purpose of eating angry panic foods to stuff down your feelings like we do when we are stressed and uncomfortable.
Good food is a treat. And while you may add one of these two liquids for damage control, you’ll love what it does for your food and your body.
If you like baked fish, like New England Scrod or Alaskan Salmon as I do, squeeze a generous amount of fresh lemon juice and balsamic vinegar over your fish before you put it in to bake. You will be amazed at the incredible sauce the combination makes. Of course, it makes any fish taste fabulous.
The combination also works well on sweet red and orange peppers. Bake the pepper strips until they look like they’ve been fried.
No fat and so delicious, you can eat them as a snack if you bake them long enough. Pay attention to the aroma so you’ll know when to take them out. Imagine eating something that tastes as good as potato chips and doesn’t give you heartburn or gas.
I hope you’ll give it a try. Sometimes little changes in our daily meals can make all the difference in the world.