Emotional eating – what that really means.

How we feel affects our appetites – for some more than others.

One of the ways people say that they can tell if there in love is that they go off their food.

For other people, being in a relationship (hopefully a happy one) will make them eat more.

An experiment was done recently where a group of people were sent on a mock driving test. No matter how good a driver you are, being tested is never nice and the tester in this case was trying to make them feel anxious. They were asked to do difficult manoeuvres and notes were taken without any comments. When they came back they were introduced to another group who had had a relaxing couple of hours. They had been chatting and listening to music – in general, they were just calm. They were then invited to an all you can eat buffet. When the amount eaten by each group was analysed it was found that the ‘stressed’ group ate many more calories than the ‘relaxed group’ – over 30% more. Although both groups had access to the same foods and had eaten the same thing earlier in the day, their experiences made them eat differently.

On the other hand some people lose a lot of weight, because their appetite dries up if they are stressed or upset. A phenomenon known as the ‘break up diet’ or ‘divorce diet’ is well documented. When we go through the trauma of a break up it can upset us so much that we go into a kind of grieving process and stop eating. This isn’t a deliberate act, the person concerned just has no hunger and food tastes unpleasant if they try to eat.

So all this can seem contradictory – when we are in love we can lose our appetite or eat more – the same goes for when we are stressed.

The truth seems to be much more about how we feel about ourselves during these processes and about how we want to feel. Food is often used to change the way we feel, but if we feel like we need to be in that emotional state, we tend to eat less.

The truth about all emotional eating is that when we eat we tend to go for comfort foods – foods that are high in fat/sugar/salt or all three. This is because these tend to set off the reward centres in our brains that make us feel better.

If you are trying to lose weight and think you are an emotional eater – before you eat something ask yourself – am I hungry. If the answer is yes, then ask yourself, am I hungry enough to eat an apple? If the answer to that is no, then your not actually hungry at all! Try doing something else to get your pleasure centres working – go for a walk, have a bath or play a game. When you’re hungry enough to eat something good for you, then eat that and be proud of yourself!

If you struggle with this or any other bad eating habit it may be worth seeking some help from a Hypnotherapist – they can help you to change your eating habit easily and permanently.

Everyone said

Here’s my weekly poem – I hope you enjoy it

It Couldn’t Be Done

BY EDGAR ALBERT GUEST

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done

      But he with a chuckle replied

That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one

      Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.

So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin

      On his face. If he worried he hid it.

He started to sing as he tackled the thing

      That couldn’t be done, and he did it!

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;

      At least no one ever has done it;”

But he took off his coat and he took off his hat

      And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.

With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,

      Without any doubting or quiddit,

He started to sing as he tackled the thing

      That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,

      There are thousands to prophesy failure,

There are thousands to point out to you one by one,

      The dangers that wait to assail you.

But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,

      Just take off your coat and go to it;

Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing

      That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.

Give it up for Lent

We are now in Lent – the period that one is supposed to give up something we enjoy for 40 days and nights – until Easter.

It kicked off yesterday with Pancake day or Shrove Tuesday where it is traditional to eat pancakes as this was seen as the final feast before the fasting of Lent.

Today it is very rare to fast for 40 days and nights, whatever your religion or faith system is based on, but is there any benefit to this ancient practice.

Proponents of the 5-2 diet where you eat drastically reduced calories (500-600) for 2 days a week will tell you that fasting is very good for your body. It reduces the chances of strokes, heart attacks and diabetes but I don’t think any of them would advocate a prolonged fast which would be much more likely to have a negative effect.

So how about giving up other stuff? Well if the thing you are giving up is intrinsically bad for you, such as smoking or self harming in some way, then that would be a good thing to do – and to keep up way past Easter.

What if the thing you are giving up isn’t exactly good for you, but isn’t necessarily bad either, like chocolate or the odd glass of wine. Well, again there appears to be a benefit. Showing a level of self denial or will power helps us to achieve the things we want in life. Psychologists believe that in some ways will power is like a muscle – you have to use it regularly to keep it strong.

How about giving up something you don’t like – for instance worrying or getting upset by things. Giving those up for a while could leave you feeling brilliant!

If you haven’t already given something up for Lent – why not set yourself a little challenge and see how you do?

You could even get people to sponsor you and raise a little money for charity.

Go on – Give it up!

Make it happen

It’s all about balance

Christmas is not known as a season of balance. It tends to be about excess, decadence and over indulgence.

Personally I think that’s OK.

Being balanced all the time can get a bit bland – and maybe a bit of unbalance is sometimes required in a balanced life in order to balance things even more….

But here’s the thing about excess – you have to stop it before it starts to become normal.

I hope you’ve eaten, drunk and been Merry, but it’s time to thinks about redressing the balance.

I have a few friends who are going to be dryathletes in January – They’ve taken the pledge to steer clear of alcohol for a month. This is a great way of supporting your body and mind returning to a more healthy routine. Whether you have a problem with it or not, alcohol is a poison. You really do yourself a favour by keeping clear of it.

I don’t drink much as it is so going dry for January is fairly non eventful for me. I’m going to try to redress the balance of eating too much meat and sugar over Christmas. January is going to be about fruits and vegetables. Soups, stews and salads for me! I have to say I’m rather looking forward to it.

Have a think about what you may have been overindulging in and what you can do in January to help find your balance.

Show ’em you love ’em

If there is someone you love, tell them.

If there is someone you miss, call them.

If there is something you want to do, do it.

If there is something you need, go and get it.

If there is something you want people to understand, explain it.

If there is someone you want to meet up with, invite them.

If there is something you don’t get, ask.

No drama, no fuss.

K.I.S.S.

(Keep It Simple Stupid)

The world’s biggest Coffee Morning

Today is Macmillan’s Coffee morning.

The event started in 1990, when a local fundraising committee decided to hold a coffee morning where people came along to meet and mingle – as they might ordinarily do – but donate the cost of their coffee to Macmillan in the process.

The World’s Biggest Coffee Morning is Macmillan Cancer Support’s biggest charity fundraising event. They ask people across the UK – and sometimes further afield – to hold a coffee morning, where donations on the day are made to Macmillan. In 2013 154,000 people signed up to coffee morning, raising a record £20 million for charity.

There are currently 2 million people living with cancer in the UK. By 2030 there will be 4 million. Macmillan wants to make sure they’re there for all of them.

One in three of us will get cancer and  for most it will be the toughest thing we ever face. When you’re facing the toughest fight of your life, you need a team of inspiring people in your corner with you.

That’s who Macmillan are. They provide medical, emotional, practical and financial support and push for a better cancer care system. They’re the team that gives you the strength and energy to face the fight and get through it.

If you want to donate to Macmillan follow this link to their official site, or just search Macmillan.

Have a great weekend

🙂

My Happy Jar

This is the latest post about my Happy Jar.

It’s a way to look back on things and remember all the little things that make us happy.

The idea came from a nice story I once heard about a woman who had a jar. Every time she thought of something that made her happy, she would jot it down on a piece of paper and put it in the jar. Whenever she felt down, or fed up, she would go to her jar and find all the things that made her happy. Some things were big things, events that happened that she could look back on and smile, but most were little things that she could cherish and maybe even recreate to make her feel better.

So here are a few things from my Happy Jar this month

Making Tea in a Teapot with loose leaf tea

An unexpectedly warm morning in Autumn

The fragrance of a new candle

Reconnecting with an old friend

A cuddle when you’re feeling sad

Having a post reblogged

Chocolate cake (warmed up with a little bit of ice cream)

The smell of a book

The sound of silence

Helping out a neighbour

I know none of these things are amazing, there is nothing earth shattering about them, but all of them have made me smile and brought a least a little joy to my soul.

What will you put in your happy jar this month?

Delightful Dates

  Dates are Great….the fruit that is…not the going out with another person sort of date. I mean I’m sure that can be great too, but that’s not what this blog’s about.

The Date is the fruit of the date palm, thought to originate in Iraq, but now grown all over the world, from Australia to Spain, from China to America. Not surprising that it has spread so far when you know that it has been cultivated for at least 8000 years and even appears in fossil records from 50 Million years ago!

Dates provide a wide range of essential nutrients, and are a very good source of potassium. The sugar content of ripe dates is about 80% so it is pretty high on the Glycemic Index (between 30 and 50 depending on the type of date). That doesn’t make them particularly healthy, but it does make them a great ingredient in cakes where they can be used as a substitute for refined sugars. Banana and Date loaf is a classic ‘healthy’ cake and is ideal for using up browning bananas.The rest of the date consists of protein, fibre, and trace elements including boron, cobalt, copper, fluorine, magnesium, manganese, selenium, and zinc.

Having enough fibre in your diet can help to maintain a healthy gut. It is believed that one of the causes of colon cancer is that food has too slow a transit time in the gut leaving the the colon to interact with carcinogens for a longer period. Low levels of dietary fibre also lead to constipation and bloating as well as making it uncomfortable to go to the toilet. During times of life when constipation is more likely e.g. during pregnancy, it may be a good idea to increase your fibre intake, and adding dates to your diet is an easy way to do this.

There has also been a study which suggested that eating dates in the final four weeks of pregnancy has positive effects regarding labour. Women who had six dates daily were compared to women who did not eat dates. The date-consuming group had greater mean cervical dilation, higher proportion of intact membranes, higher proportion of spontaneous labour and shorter latent phase of labour.

Dates have even been suggested as a healthy and delicious way to reduce the levels of LDL cholesterol in the body, which is a major contributing factor heart attacks, heart disease, and stroke. Therefore, when taken twice a week, dates can seriously improve the overall health of the heart.

I hope you enjoy your dates this week – fruity or otherwise 🙂

Random Acts of Kindness Friday

It’s Friday- time to spread some Joy people!

This week has had some sad days. As a world we lost 2 amazing people, Robin Williams and Lauren Becall.  We watched in horror as people were persecuted and killed for religious beliefs and territory. We saw death tolls rise in Gaza, Israel, Syria, Iraq and Ukraine as well as in our own countries and neighbourhoods. Some of us will have suffered personal tragedies.

This can’t be all that colours our week, or it would be grey and sad indeed.

We live in a multifaceted world. In can bring Horror and it can bring Joy. In a week with so much to be sad about, what can we do?

We find some joy, and if we can’t find any – we create some.

Here’s one of my favourite good news stories of the week

Three Girls Recreate Viral Photo After Each One Beats Cancer

Friday is also Random Act of Kindness Day, so I’m off to the shops. There’s a homeless guy who hangs out on a street not far from where I’m going – I think he might like some cake 🙂

Please feel free to share Random Acts of Kindness or any good news stories you know of this week, personal or that you’ve heard about, as we all need a bit of colour in a grey world.