The term “emotional eating” is as broad as the spectrum of emotions that bring on a binge in some people. Food can become a comfort to the depressed, a friend to the lonely, or a means of celebration. Emotional eating is said to be the cause of approximately 75% of overeating and/or binging. Emotional eating is not only an area of concern because of the weight implications, but also because of the psychological issues being suppressed by the intake of food.

The first step, as it is in any other psychological battle, is to identify the underlying emotion that prompts the binge. By keeping a journal of what you eat and why, it will become easier to identify which of the following eating triggers best applies to you:

•    Anger (on a regular, or chronic, basis)
•    Anxiety
•    Boredom
•    Depression
•    Frustration
•    Loneliness
•    Stress
•    Low self-esteem
•    Lack of interpersonal skills

Emotional eating may also be caused by habits. Picking up a pie and Coke en-route to the office becomes far preferable to making a salad for lunch before you leave home in the mornings. Often, circumstantial, or habitual, eating goes completely unnoticed by the eater. If it is your habit to have rusks or biscuits with your sweet coffee before you go to bed, you are unlikely even to consider the impact that such snacking has on your weight because that no longer counts as a meal in your mind. Habits like dipping your hand into the sweet jar or nibbling on salty snacks while watching television are fatal mistakes for fat-busters. You may also find that you eat when you are around friends because you usually meet at a coffee shop or because they are all eating.

Of course, once you have identified which of these triggers a ‘need to feed’ in you, the next step is to manage this craving. Distraction is the most common method of avoiding a response to the urge to binge. Taking a walk around the block, phoning family or friends, having a long bath, reading a magazine, doing a crossword, and so on, are all effective means of distracting yourself until the urge to eat unnecessarily passes.

If distraction does not work for you, you may find it necessary to explore more intensive means of easing the emotion that is causing you to eat. Yoga, meditation, deep breathing exercises and even hypnosis or therapy may all be viable alternatives for you to try. These techniques are designed to explore the reason for your eating and to resolve the issues surrounding these reasons.

Because health and fitness needs to be a lifestyle, rather than a fad, it needs to be ingrained into your mind and life as a solid habit. Habits are formed by repetition, and made easier by gaining something positive out of it. Therefore, reward yourself at certain milestones by taking a holiday, getting a facial, or splurging on that bikini you finally fit into.

Speaking nutritionally, a diet is simply “the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism.”

No pain stated or implied.

Every organism alive is on a DIET…has been since it’s life began…and will be till it’s life ends.

A human infant thrives on a diet of milk alone–natural or “formulated”. Soon enough that diet expands to include strained thises and thats; and before long the transition to solid food. Somehow these youngsters know when they have had enough and they turn instantly to some other diversion.

Never bored, and living in a relatively stress free world, they simply eat to live rather than “living to eat”.

Living to eat comes later, and is a learned rather than instinctual response to hunger.

Exposure to the all pervasive world of advertising comes along at just about the same time as the transition to solid food. Now instead of being satisfied by the healthful and nutritious offerings from a loving parent, they are tempted and re-tempted by a constant barrage of sugary delights.

Prove it to yourself. Watch an hour or so of what is currently being offered as and see for yourself. A few dozen empty calorie messages later, you will probably find yourself very “hungry”; and it will be a totally misguided hunger that has nothing to do with “eating to live”.

And thus begins the “eating in response to” experience. Some of us eat “in response” to boredom; for many it is stress; for some it comes with frustration. For a lot of us it is simply a response to suggestion–TV, and radio, magazine ads, billboard blasts,–you name it. It often seems that the world is conspiring to cause overeating.

Just how effective that “conspiracy” can be is borne out by the fact that over half of the world’s population is overweight. Over HALF–and increasing (poor pun intended) every year. And that’s in the face of natural selection–nature’s way of “thinning the herd”. We who are overweight tend to die sooner–the ultimate “double whammy”. We pay a dear price for these extra kilograms; and our kids are practically assured of the same fate.

Since you’ve read this far, it’s safe to assume that you’ve already been around the “dieter’s world/hell” long enough to be familiar with the buzz words: NEW MIRACLE DIET, LOSE WEIGHT FAST, THE LAST DIET YOU WILL EVER NEED, GREEN/BLACK/WHITE TEA DIET, etc.

Just when you think you’ve seen and heard it all, put things in a new perspective. Google returned 29,500,000 results for the word “diets”. That’s TWENTY NINE AND A HALF MILLION.

Can they all be effective? Sure. Because the bottom line for all of them…at least the legal ones…is simple: EAT LESS…EXERCISE MORE. Twenty nine and a half million pages condensed into four words. And you thought this was gonna be tough?

Sure, lots of those millions of pages suggest that you: EAT LESS…EXERCISE MORE and “drink this magic tea” or “eat this magic supplement” or “drink gallons of cabbage soup” or some such.

The question that so many of us fail to ask is: “What happens if I just EAT LESS…EXERCISE MORE and also save a gazillion dollars by not buying any of your magic pills, potions and soup recipes?”

We all know the answer; yet we continue searching for the quick and easy diet, routine, and/or supplement.

At the risk of short circuiting over twenty-nine million other suggestions, it’s time to accept the fact that the only “magic” is in us–programmed there since birth. We simply need to get back in touch.

For the continued purposes of this blog and accompanying web site, we’re going to expand the theme a bit:

EAT…MORE OR LESS AND EXERCISE…MORE OR LESS.

I have embarked on a realistic and achievable goal.

For some answers to where? when? how? Here is my “magic pill” I found: Lose Weight Guaranteed and Lose Weight Diet Plan

PS Don’t let the pictures frighten you…..

At first reading, Strip That Fat seemed like a pretty silly name. Now, two months into the program we realize that it is totally appropriate for a process that does exactly what it says.

Working together, and we can’t recommend the “buddy system” highly enough, my friend and I have rid ourselves of nearly 8 kgs of problem fat.

My friend started out merely overweight. I, on the other hand, fit into the “morbidly obese” category. Between the two of us we had, at the beginning, a total of 125 kgs to “strip”.

We knew from our past attempts(many, many, experiences) that we never lasted long enough on any of the highly restrictive (low carb, no carb, low fat, no fat, cabbage soup only, etc) diets to achieve any significant or lasting results.

Determined to someday achieve our rather ambitious weight goals, we kept looking and looking for the “magic diet plan”.

We tried the teas, the pills, the Atkins, the South, North, East and West-sides, even the colon assaulting powders–all to no avail. If you can imagine a 230 kg  yo-yo…that’s been us for years. Somehow we always missed, or chose to ignore, the fine print on the sales page of every new diet plan. You know what we’re talking about: the line that reads “These teas, pills, and/or potions are effective when used with a program of eating less and exercising more.”

Regardless of any carb, fat, fruit, or cabbage soup intake, EATING LESS…AND EXERCISING MORE will have a desired effect on a weight problem. Of course, we knew that; and so do you.

So why keep searching for the quick fix? In our case at least, it was a combination of laziness, impatience and frustration. You can fill in your own motivations; but the bottom line is that after all those unsuccessful attempts, each January first when we vowed to make this our year to achieve a healthy weight, we found that we were heavier than the previous January… when we had made the exact same vow. Sound familiar?

So, we’re excited. For the first time in years, our January resolution (yep, same one) will be starting at a much IMPROVED level. And we are getting there by EATING MORE (often) and EXERCISING (within our comfort level). We are two months “in” instead of the usual “two weeks and out”. And the results are beginning to show.

Just try explaining to an ultra thin teen-ager that you’re not “on a diet”–just a simple and pleasant “lifestyle change”; that we’re not “working” as much as “learning”; and that we haven’t “lost” a thing. Bottom line is that we have “gained” so very much.

Click the following links for a couple of “resources” that helped us to get inspired:

Strip That Fat and Smart Diet

Would you like to be a fitness woman? Or are you a fitness woman but would like to be effective? Here are 7 great tips on how to become an effective fitness woman:

1. Get a program that will best suit you. Every fitness woman is different. You may have surgical history where a program may not be suited for you. Always consult a qualified trainer to make sure that the fitness program will not hurt you. If the fitness program is not for you, it will only be a cause of frustration and injuries.
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