TEN WAYS TO ENJOY FOOD MORE AND LOSE WEIGHT
Here are ten ways to enjoy food more and, yes, still lose weight in the process. These tips do not require massive lifestyle changes. You don’t have to go on brown rice diets or, for that matter, any diets. We don’t like dieting. What we do like is making our lives easier, and delighting our taste buds. Enjoy.
Our bodies are our gardens…our wills are gardeners.
–William Shakespeare.
1) Eat a light breakfast. For years we’ve been hearing how breakfast kick-starts the metabolic system early in the morning, and all of that. Well, science is once more proving itself wrong. Experience, and now, scientific evidence, clearly shows that eating a light breakfast, without carbs, will start your day in a way that will not have you craving carbs later. Half a grapefruit or a slice of melon will do wonders to keep you going till lunchtime.
2) The brain takes 20 minutes to receive the message that you are full—regardless of how much you’ve eaten in that time. So an ideal strategy for weight control (lose the word diet from your vocabulary, it’s, ahem, loaded, with negative implications) is to begin with water-rich food, such as melon. By the time you move on to the main meal, you’re already starting to feel full. And that’s a good thing.
3. Eat….more….slowly. For a foodie this makes perfect sense. The idea is that you can take your time to truly enjoy what you are eating. The faster you eat the less you taste your food; eating more slowly leads to a much more pleasurable experience—oh, you’ll be full with less in your stomach! So roll that strawberry around in your mouth, from the front to the back, and from side to side. Engage all of your taste buds in truly enjoying each and ever bite of your food.
4) You don’t have to react to hunger! That’s right; you can simply notice it, just NOTICE it without shoving food in your mouth…..and the craving—if that’s what it is—will dissipate within one minute (actually, 20 seconds, but you might not believe that).
5) Vanilla Crave Control—Research presented to the 13th International Congress of Dietetics in Scotland suggests that the mere smell of Vanilla can suppress food cravings. Use a small vial of Vanilla food flavoring.
6) When we become stressed our bodies release hormones that slow down the metabolism. This has the effect of creating extra body fat to be stored. What’s the answer? Work on reducing stress with exercise, meditation, a hobby, sex, laughter…
7) Drink plenty of water before you get hungry and it’s not a scheduled mealtime. The general rule is: 2 glasses an hour before lunch, 1 glass mid-afternoon, 1 glass before dinner and 1 glass an hour after dinner (that’s when the munchies typically start creeping into your brain, isn’t it?)
8) Put in 15 minutes of either brisk walking or exercise. Buy a Pedometer to monitor your daily activity. Just by increasing the amount of activity you do to 8000 to 10000 steps per day will significantly reduce your levels of body fat.
9) If you are overweight and still struggling with food, there are good reasons to see a hypnotist. If there are emotional blockages to you releasing weight, 2 to 5 sessions can release those blocks without years of therapy or perpetual Weight Watchers meetings.
A) Once you identify the part of you that doesn’t want to lose weight, you can get on the same page as the part of you that does. This takes away the struggle–we don’t like struggle–and weight release is no longer be an ‘issue’. (Take away the phrase ‘weight loss’. The word loss implies that it’s something we want to get back…and believe me, you don’t want to get that weight back!)
B) Your hypnotist can teach you self hypnosis. This way you’ll be able to access your subconscious mind to exercise, to create an attitude of abundance; to use the power of your mind to heal from illness on a cellular level, and for many, many other uses.
10) Acupuncture. You will feel immeasurably better, your cravings will continue to diminish, your body will become more discerning about what you wish to eat. You will look better as well.
Call me for a 15 minute consultation at 212-777-7191.
Cheers–Daniel at Blue Phoenix Wellness.