Hot off the press from my dear colleague Tricia Greaves. I think the word diet should be deleted from our vocabulary; it’s not an empowering word. Sit back, relax & enjoy this article & the 10 tips that can keep you on track for a slim/trim body and remember diets don’t work.
The “Never Diet Again” Diet
If you’re like me, you’ve been on a jillion diets…that never worked! (After all, if any diet had worked, I wouldn’t have needed to go on yet another one!) It wasn’t a mystery what foods to eat and not eat, so that wasn’t the problem. With every new diet I’d be “good” for a while, but then that urge to break out and eat what I really wanted overwhelmed me and I’d gorge myself again. I didn’t even crave unhealthy foods…granola, Soy Delicious and Cliff bars satisfied my sweet tooth better than any Snickers bar! But the ensuing feelings of self-loathing and shame from not being able to control myself were unbearable. I had to find a better way.
Thankfully, that better way came in the form of receiving help for my emotional eating. So much of the time my food urges came from needing the crutch of excess food to get me through difficult times and feelings. After learning to identify and heal the uncomfortable feelings I always stuffed with food, and having my mentor, Roy Nelson, help me through that process, I was able to finally lose 50 lbs and become whole in mind, body and spirit.
You can begin your own journey of healing by developing a few self-care habits that will improve your relationship with food today.
Here are 10 Tips that will keep you from ever having to diet again:
- Don’t skip any meals (skipping meals is a sure-fire way to overeat)
- Plan your meals ahead of time (if you fail to plan, you plan to fail)
- Take time to prepare good, nutritious meals… (The Co-op has all the right ingredients!
- Don’t eat out of boxes and bags…put food on a plate, sit at the table and consciously enjoy your meals!
- When you exercise, do so with the idea of strengthening your body, not losing weight or making up for a binge
- Take 10-20 minutes to rest before preparing dinner…it could cut down your calorie intake by over 200 calories
- Keep a note pad handy and chronicle your feelings throughout the day
- Ask for help with overwhelming tasks…you don’t have to do everything by yourself
- Acknowledge emotionally trying times and seek the support you need
- Develop a daily meditation practice for mental, emotional, physical and spiritual balance (this is the best weight loss secret there is!)
Having lost 50 lbs. through identifying and addressing the underlying causes of her emotional eating, Tricia Greaves founded Heal Your Hunger (HealYourHunger.com). HYH offers help women overcome emotional eating, eating disorders and obesity.
Tricia is a certified coach and an internationally known speaker offering workshops, teleclasses and 7-day retreats (HYHRetreats.com) on the topic of emotional eating and healthy weight loss. She is also the contributing author of 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Health and the popular Thank God I book series in which she writes a chapter called, “Thank God I Was Fat.” Tricia has been featured on numerous TV and radio shows including KTLA, CBS-2, K-EARTH, The WAVE, KPFK, KRLA and WOR, and is launching her own Web TV show this spring.
