|
Posted on 12/11/2011 @ 5:16 PM
The onslaught has begun... I'm not talking about the holiday shopping frenzy, the incessant Christmas music (Winter Wonderland is particularly annoying here in Phoenix), or even the delicious food everywhere (for that I'm grateful). I'm talking about the onslaught of "How to Prevent Holiday Weight Gain" stories. Perhaps you recognize their formula: Cheery opening + Fear mongering + Clever strategies = "Newsworthy" story to attract fearful/hopeful eyeballs I’ve already seen, read, and been interviewed for dozens of these stories this year. An online search for "prevent holiday weight gain" turned up 50 million entries. If you read one article every minute, it would take you 96 years to read them all - except that the number of articles would continue to explode while you were reading them! These stories pop up on a rotating basis: New Year's, Super Bowl Parties, Getting Ready for Swim Suit Season, etc., and most follow a similar formula. These stories must sell because they are often the teasers for the news (is this really NEWs?) and displayed prominently on the cover of magazines, ironically next to "Simple Sinfully Sumptuous Sugar Cookies." The stories go something like this (I couldn't resist reading between the lines): How to Prevent the Dreaded Holiday 7 It’s that time of year—holiday parties, family dinners, and fudge in the break room. (Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!) The average American gains seven pounds during the holidays. (When you see this stop reading; repeating this unsubstantiated statistic is a sure marker of lazy journalism. Check out my blog for a post about the truth! http://www.eatwhatyoulovelovewhatyoueat.com/ ) To get a jump start on your New Year’s Resolutions (Never fear! There will be another article using the same formula on January 1st for all those who didn’t follow this holiday advice), follow these five simple rules (Did you ever notice that we often use odd numbers? Clever, isn't it?): 1. Eat before you go to a party so you won’t be tempted by all the goodies. (Really??? Do you also recommend maxing out your credit cards before you go Christmas shopping?)
2. Wear tight clothing to the party to prevent yourself from overeating. (Feeling uncomfortable and self-conscious is a small price to pay to prevent yourself from enjoying your favorite food.) 3. Drink seltzer water with a squeeze of lime in place of eggnog with rum. (I don’t know many people who love eggnog, but for those who do, this is like recommending crunching on carrots when you love potato chips.) 4. Hold a glass and a plate so it’s impossible to eat. (You’ll look ridiculous trying to nibble off a rolling meatball or sneaking slurps from the side of your cheesecake.) 5. Schedule a session with your personal trainer the next morning to burn off any extra calories that slipped by your radar. (The punishment must fit the crime.)
If It Doesn't Work, Stop Doing It
That kind of advice leads to conflicted, calorie-focused party goers. While I confess that I've used similar titles myself in the past, like 15 Tips for Holiday Eating Without Weight Gain (http://amihungry.com/pdf/consumed-newsletter-vol-i-issue-8.pdf), I follow a different formula: Loving food more, not less = Balanced eating year round So let’s rewrite the story using this formula: How to Enjoy Holiday Food More and Eat Less It’s that time of year—holiday parties, family dinners, and fudge in the break room. There are so many opportunities to enjoy the foods you love, how will you decide when, what, and how much to eat? Here are five strategies to try while there are plenty of opportunities to experiment: 1. Trust your body wisdom. Tune into your signals of hunger and satiety to guide your eating before, during, and after the party. Being either famished or already full when you arrive sets you up for being uncomfortably full when you leave.
2. Treat yourself to pleasures besides food. Choose clothing that is beautiful, flattering, and comfortable so you feel and project your best.
3. Eat (and drink) what you really love. And skip anything that isn’t fabulous! The first few bites are for flavor, the rest are for fuel. (After the first few delicious bites, the flavor begins to fade anyway so you're just eating a memory.)
4. Love what you eat. Sensuously savor one small bite at a time, appreciating the appearance, aromas, flavors, and textures of your favorite foods as you eat them.
5. Practice extreme self-care. Choose activities that are the most meaningful to you, stay active and schedule down-time to relax and enjoy the holidays! (For one of my favorite articles on this topic, check out our new blog, www.DiabetesandMindfulEating.com) And last but not least, stop reading those tired old articles and invest your time and energy in really celebrating the season, food and all! Eat Mindfully, Live Vibrantly!
Michelle May, M.D. P.S. For a monthly article like this, please subscribe to our Am I Hungry? E-News: http://amihungry.com/enews.shtml P.S.S. Looking for great tools to teach you how to love food more, not less? Visit our online catalog: http://amihungry.com/book.shtml
Posted on 11/22/2011 @ 10:41 AM
What if there was one simple act that could cultivate more happiness, peace, success, health, and love in your life? There is! Cicero said, "Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others." The gratitude holiday, Thanksgiving, stems from the tradition of holding harvest festivals to give thanks for the bounty and celebrate all the hard work with the community. While the vast majority of us are not involved in the harvest anymore, we cultivate gratitude when we love what we eat.
Food: The Great Connector While we may be far removed from the origins of our meal, food connects us in ways that we probably take for granted. While a national holiday dedicated to thankfulness is wonderful, how would our lives change if we took a few moments to express gratitude every time we ate? The ability to experience gratitude starts with your awareness. Imagine throwing a pebble into a pond and watching the ripples spread outward, first noticing your immediate experience then expanding in ever widening circles. Food connects you to … … your five senses: sight, smell, touch, tastes, and hearing and your ability to fully experience the appearance, aromas, textures, flavors, and even the sounds as you eat. … your body through physical acts like cutting with a knife, lifting your fork, opening your mouth, chewing, swallowing, then trusting your body to digest your food and absorb its nutrients without any conscious involvement on your part. … your body wisdom, including your sensations of hunger, satiety, thirst, and fatigue. … your mind through your awareness of your thoughts, memories, opinions, comparisons, and choices. … your feelings ranging from anticipation, pleasure, and enjoyment, to disappointment, regret, or even fear. … your past through your cultural traditions, favorite foods from places you’ve lived and visited, and cherished (or forgotten) memories of the thousands of meals before. … your future through the immediate consequences of your choices and the long term effects on your health. … other people through conversation and the shared experience of eating together. … those who contributed their time, energy, and talent to get the food from farm to table: people who planted, tended, harvested, produced, packaged, transported, and sold your food and people who selected, purchased, prepared, and served your food. … local and world economies through the sale and purchase of raw ingredients, packaging materials, manufacturing equipment, transportation, food service, and even marketing. Think about it…the money you spend to put food on your plate puts food on the plates of families everywhere. … nature through the soil, sun, water, air, and weather. These natural elements were transformed into the bite of food in your mouth and will soon be transformed into the energy you'll use to contribute to the world in whatever way you choose. How's that for a ripple effect! Table Talk Whether dining by yourself or striking up a conversation with your dining companions, these questions are like a pebble in a pond. What physical sensations, thoughts, and feelings am I aware of while eating? What memories do I have about this particular holiday, meal, food, recipe, or table? Where did this food come from and how did it get here? What else am I grateful for? Let Thanksgiving be the beginning; build the simple yet powerful act of gratitude into every meal you eat. Eat Mindfully, Live Vibrantly!
Michelle May, M.D. P.S. Visit us on www.AmIHungry.com for more articles, great resources, and to take the Eating Cycle Assessment.
Posted on 10/01/2011 @ 1:46 PM
Bias. Stereotyping. Prejudice. Discrimination. Bullying. These ugly words describe a serious problem spotlighted by Weight Stigma Awareness Week. Our culture is entrenched in the belief that fat is bad, people with fat are bad, people who exceed a BMI of 25 are unhealthy, and that only a narrow range of body sizes are beautiful. Billions of dollars are spent trying to attain the cultural ideal, but the more we diet, the further we move from it. Hello? Anybody home? Whether subtle or blatant, weight stigma is broadcast into our living rooms and shows up in our classrooms, break rooms, and exam rooms. For many of us, weight stigma hits even closer to home: right between our ears! By internalizing this cultural bias, we condemn ourselves to living within its limitations. We allow the bully to move into our brains. MAKING THE INVISIBLE, VISIBLE If you know anything about me, you know that I am on this journey too, and that is why I am passionate about making the invisible, visible. You can only change what you are aware of. With eating, I help people see how their deeply embedded beliefs, thoughts, and feelings are keeping them stuck in old patterns that will never change as long as they keep playing their old tapes. Am I Hungry? Mindful Eating Workshop teach you a revolutionary new way to think, feel, and act, resulting in a life-altering transformation. (Learn more: http://amihungry.com/) Over the last twelve years I’ve learned that some people are so blinded by their invisible beliefs that they cannot allow themselves to see that there is another way. “Eat what I love? Love what I eat? That’s not possible!” They are trapped in a belief they can't change because they don't recognize the root causes—and most of the people around them are trapped too. They repeat old, even painful, patterns simply because they are familiar. They create their own reality. What does that have to do with weight stigma? Everything. WHAT IS THE REALITY THAT YOU ARE CREATING? I'm not letting the bullies off the hook, but if you believe them, you become them. For example, you may have old tapes that sound something like this: I’m too embarrassed to be seen exercising.
I can’t go to the gym until I’ve lost some weight.
I’m trying to eat healthy but I’m not losing weight—it doesn’t matter what I eat.
I’ll get diabetes because I can’t lose weight, so why change the way I eat?
I can’t eat what I love in public, so I'll binge later in private.
I’ll never look like I did in high school, so why bother with healthy eating and exercise?
I don’t deserve someone who loves me because I’m too fat.
I don’t feel sexy because of my weight.
I don’t see how my partner can think I’m sexy so I thwart his/her attempts.
I don’t believe my husband when he tells me I’m beautiful.
I don’t want to go to the doctor because I regained the weight I lost.
I don’t take my blood pressure medicine because I know I should lose weight instead.
I won’t buy new clothes until I reach my goal weight.
If I was thinner, I would ask for that promotion.
I’d love to travel but I want to lose weight first.
I love going to the beach but I hate putting on a bathing suit.
(Add your own here.) MAKING THE IMPOSSIBLE, POSSIBLE What if? What if, instead of waiting on the world to change, you booted the bully from your brain? Ask yourself, "How could my life be different if I didn't buy into those limitations?" I’m exercising.
I go to the gym.
I’m trying to eat healthy.
I’m at risk for diabetes so I’m changing the way I eat.
I’ll never look like I did in high school. I’m eating healthier and exercising.
I eat what I love.
I deserve someone who loves me.
I feel sexy.
My partner thinks I’m sexy.
My husband tells me I’m beautiful.
I go to the doctor.
I take my blood pressure medicine.
I buy new clothes.
I’m going to ask for that promotion.
I love to travel.
I’m going to the beach.
(Add your own here.) BOOT THE BULLY FROM THE BLOCK Take your power back. Boot the bully from your brain - then join us in booting the bully from the block! Eat Mindfully, Live Vibrantly!
Michelle May, M.D. P.S. You can only change what you are aware of. Any curiosity, discomfort, or outrage this article triggered was intentional. If you felt it, please learn more about weight stigma: http://www.bedaonline.com/2011WSAW/index.html
| 
