Weight Loss? 2 Skills You Need
If you have been dieting, there is a good chance you have lost weight. Unfortunately, large numbers of successful dieters quickly regain the poundage. If you wish to maintain the weight you have lost without developing substitute excesses such as overspending, overworking, excessive drinking or smoking, you must satisfy the emotional hunger that causes people to overeat. To do this you need to master two basic skills – self-nurturing and setting effective limits. Self-nurturing is the ability to check our feelings and needs throughout the day in order to know and honor ourselves and better meet our needs. Setting effective limits is the skill of having reasonable expectations and following through with them. That enables us to take action and have more power and greater safety in our lives.
People who have mastered these two skills are far more likely to be healthy and happy. Learning them is not a quick fix and takes time. But, from the first moment you use them, you will begin to feel better and more satisfied. After these skills are used over and over again, they become integrated into our brains, and the changes are developmental, that is, we begin to feel as if we have a new life.
These are not new concepts. In fact, the essential elements of self-nurturing and setting limits have been part of the scientific literature since at least 1940. The problem is that the current methods used to help people lose weight, don’t involve these skills. So, people lose weight then regain it and begin to believe that they cannot solve their weight problems. They feel powerless and discouraged. All that is unnecessary.
Our patterns for self-nurturing and limits skills were implanted early in life in the feeling brain. The various healing methods for feeling better and turning off the drive to overeat, which are based on insight, knowledge, or analysis, are processed by the thinking brain. Unfortunately, they target the wrong part of our brain. So, we know what we should eat, but we can’t do it. The drives to overeat are too strong.
The Solution Method enables you to reach your feeling brain and retrain it will the skills of nurturing and limits. It’s just like learning to type. The more you practice it, the sooner the skills become automatic. When they do, your inner life naturally favors a life in which the whole range of excesses (not just overeating, but overspending, overworking, drinking too much and smoking) fades. What follows is nothing less than a personal transformation. But, it requires time – usually 18 months to master the basic skills. Group meetings, such as the support provided by the Buddy system, are key.
Until recently, most people were unaware of this method. That proved to be a blessing. It enabled us to study it in relative obscurity. We have been able to train thousands of people in this method.
While using The Solution, you will become aware that there are two worlds: the world above the line and the world below the line. With training, you pump your self-nurturing and limits skills so that you spend more of your day above the line or in a state in which you are emotionally balanced, spiritually connected and intimate with others. Moreover, the annoying drives that cause your excesses – what we call "external solutions" – fade. Life without the self-nurturing and limit setting skills forces you to spend too much time below the line. Life below the line keeps you out of balance. Your excesses flourish, and your life has few rewards.
There are a few explanations for why you lack these skills to nurture yourself and set limits. Modern life requires more skills. Earlier generations were faced with far fewer choices and a less changing society. Indeed, communities were more nurturing. Further, your parents may not have had the ability to teach you these skills. Because these skills are transmitted early in life and are harder to learn later in life, the legacy of imbalance is often perpetuated from one generation to another.
Self-nurturing and limits skills consist of clusters of questions that we ask ourselves over and over – until they become automatic.
The following are the questions for the nurturing skills:
* How do I feel?
* What do I need?
* Do I need support?
The following are the questions for the limits skills:
* Are my expectations reasonable?
* Is my thinking positive and powerful?
* What is the essential pain? What is the earned reward?The questions posed by the nurturing cycle enable us to access our deepestfeelings. The limits cycle contains our feelings and helps them mature. The goal of the method is the interweaving of the skills. Initially, you use the skills intentionally. That moves us from an imbalanced state to one that is balanced.
It’s extraordinarily powerful to be at the grocery store, stuck in traffic or home alone with the refrigerator packed with food and know that all you have to do is reach for these skills, and, in a matter of moments, you can move yourself above the line. Your drive to overeat will fade. You’ll stop wanting the food. You’ll still enjoy it. But, food becomes just food, not a fix.
What’s more, the groups are fun. We use a buddy system and a warm and wonderful Internet community for support. (For more information, visit www.thepathway.org or contact The Institute for Health Solutions at 415-457-3331.)
Copyright ? 2005, Weight Loss Buddy Press
We at WeightLossBuddy.com/lm are committed to helping you find a 24/7 buddy who will not only help you lose weight but who also will get you to change to a healthy lifestyle. You choose your own diet and your own exercise regime, and we find you a buddy who literally will stick with you through thick and thin. Signing up for a buddy is free. Simply go to WeightLossBuddy.com/lm
or call 1-877-BUDDY-UP.
By: admin
About the Author:
The Diet Demons
As the dieting phenomenon grows, with a new “diet guru” announcing “THE SOLUTION” almost weekly, so do the waste lines of America expand. Obesity is now a strong and gaining second to cigarettes as a preventable cause of death or disease. The term diet seems to have taken on a whole new meaning, moving from panacea, and becoming more and more a pariah.
What I’m going to do is reiterate some nutritional basics to try to demystify, some of the confusion out there.
There are two approaches to weight management. The first is the “magic theory” which is very enticing because it requires absolutely no responsibility. You simply follow the system and the system tells you what to do. There’s no thinking involved (you just put up with it). If you’re not successful, it’s your fault because you’re not a good “dieter?” This magic
Theory incorporates such tricks as restricted calories, diets, elimination of food groups, pills, hypnosis, prepackaged meals, creams and even massage. This magic theory has left millions in despair and hopelessness in their never ending quest to be thin.
The second approach is the Fitness Approach.
There is a quiet methodical fitness industry educating millions (without all the advertising dollars) to achieve long term lifestyle changes and achieving weight management for life. Long-term weight management must include productive exercise, proper nutrition and positive motivation. From a basic physiologic standpoint I will explain the interrelationship and delicate balance between food and exercise.
First we need to understand body composition (the % of body fat vs. lean mass) in relation to your body weight. Here are some general guidelines and ranges for body fat. For women, the range up to age 30 is 14 to 21%, from 30 to 50 it is 15 to 23% and from 50 up it is 16 to 25%. Again, it is desirable to be below the upper limit, and a woman near the lower limit would be lean. For men up to about age 30, 9 to 15 % is a good range. From age 30 to 50, 11 to 17% is a good range and from age 50 and up, 12 to 19%. A person should try to stay below the upper limits given and a person at the lower limit would be described as lean.
Extra fat in the abdomen is linked to high blood pressure, diabetes, early heart disease, and certain types of cancer. Smoking and too much alcohol increase abdominal fat and the risk for diseases related to obesity. That is why I prioritize the abdominal measurement. (Ask me anytime, I have my fat calipers at hand at all times.)
The healthiest and most effective way to decrease body fat is through a slight negative energy balance where caloric expenditure slightly exceeds caloric intake. In order to determine what your caloric intake should be we need to find what your Basal Metabolic Rate is. BMR is the minimum amount of calories required for vital body functions during relaxed, reclined and waking states. There are a few different calculations for this (complicated and long winded) or you can go to my web sites nutrition page vitalsignsfitness.com/nutrition.html
where the calculations will be done for you.. After you determine your BMR, you must factor in your activity level. Basically you burn 100 -300 calories for every hour of exercise (depending on intesity).
The more lean muscle tissue you have the higher your BMR, which could be up to a 15% faster. Restrictive, low calorie dieting can cause your BMR to drop by as much as 20%. People living in tropical or very cold environments generally have BMR’s 5-20% higher than those living in more temperate climates. Athletes have higher BMRs than most.
When caloric intake goes below BMR, as in commercial weight loss programs, the body will 1) Store even more body fat to fend of the perceived threat of starvation. 2) Slow down metabolism to reduce energy requirements. 3) Burn muscle to reduce energy requirements. 4) Perceive starvation and create a slower survival metabolism.
The Nutritional Insight calculator at vitalsignsfitness.com/nutrition.html will calculate for you, what your BMR caloric needs are then also add on your activities so you know exactly what your caloric needs for each day are. Plus if you want to make any changes in your body composition it will tell you exactly how many calories to eat and give you a break down of a balanced diet including optimal daily intake of protein, fats, and carbohydrate.
As a daily resource you can go to www.fitday.com (when you log in with basic information they never bother you with emails.) From there you can enter the foods you eat and with each food you enter the site will give you a break down of carbs, fats, and proteins plus nutrients and caloric count. It will also give you a more detailed break down of your activities. The more you use this site the better you will understand food how it breaks down and how it supplies your daily required nutrients.
Nutritional insight will help you balance protein, fats, and carbohydrates for each meal based on your current body weight, exercise habits, and desired body weight goals. Realistically we’re all just trying to stay trim and healthy which means a balanced diet, small meals, not letting yourself get too hungry or too full. The more we learn and understand about the interrelationship between food, exercise the more empowered and capable of rational decision making we will be for our permanently successful health and fitness lifestyle and ongoing weight management.
This article is part 1 of an ongoing educational series on your fitness lifestyle plan. Deborah Caruana www.vitalsignsfitness.com or email [email protected] with questions.
Deborah Caruana RN, AAHRFP, NASM, ACE.www.vitalsignsfitness.comemail [email protected] 212-677-3185Get Free Fitness Tips, Strategies and Secrets from a recognized expert at my web site: www.Vitalsignsfitness.com
DEBORAH is a highly respected authority in personal training for overall health and fitness, with more than 22 years of experience and success. Her credentials include…
Currently licensed Registered Nurse specializing in Rehabilitative Nursing Medical Exercise Therapist: certified by AAHFRP, an internationally recognized physical rehabilitation certification Maternity Specialist Pre & Post Natal certified by Maternal Fitness Personal Fitness Specialist: certified by NASM, an internationally recognized certification Yoga Teacher Professional Health Member, National Organization of Fitness Instructors (IDEA), a leading membership organization of health and fitness professionals Deborah Caruana RN, AAHRFP, NASM, ACE.vitalsignsfitness.comemail [email protected]call 212-677-3185Get Free Fitness Tips, Strategies and Secrets from a recognized expert at my web site: Vitalsignsfitness.com
By: admin
About the Author: