There is psychology in losing weight

In our last article (5 Spring Tips to Help With Losing the Winter Weight) we discussed some healthy lifestyle changes to help with losing weight. This month we want to focus on the psychology of losing weight, how your emotions and mind can affect your body image and your potential success. We all want to know how to lose weight and keep it off, rather than yo-yoing on some of the fad diets (yes, we’ve all tried them) that don’t provide the ability to maintain long-term.

Well, one of the missing ingredients is your psychology, your emotions. Have you ever felt guilt over eating a scoop of ice cream, but instead of stopping with one scoop, you ate the whole tub? The shame of eating one doughnut turned into eating five? Have you ever not left the house, or skipped your walk because you felt low? These are all emotions interfering with you losing weight.

As most of us know, a significant percentage of adults in the United States are overweight. Many healthcare professionals and doctors encourage us to slim down or risk becoming exposed to a host of ailments, including heart problems, high blood pressure and diabetes. Weight loss is becoming a national issue that needs to be discussed.

What Prevents so Many from Being Healthy and Losing Weight?

Could it be lack of time to prepare meals that are wholesome? Not enough willpower to stick to your healthy eating and exercise routine? Not understanding the best way to shed weight? The extreme influence of ads encouraging one to eat foods that are unhealthy?

A recent survey of psychologists indicates that as it pertains to weight loss, dieting and weight gain, emotions may function as a major barrier to weight reduction.

Are You Actually Hungry, or are You Eating Because You are Sad / Anxious?

Our mind affects our body

If we were non-emotional beings, we could approach losing weight in a scientific manner. We would eat specific foods, analyze the results and make adjustments to our diets accordingly. However, we are emotional beings. Understanding our emotions and their impact on our health is an important aspect of weight loss. Emotions can interfere with making healthful food choices and keeping a regular workout routine.

Emotional Binge Eating or Compulsive Overeating

Many of us describe ourselves as “emotional eaters” or as unable to control types and amounts of foods we consume. We use the term “binge eating” or “compulsive overeating” when describing this behavior. It is important to understand what it means to suffer from binge eating disorder, often referred to as compulsive overeating, as it is considered a clinical disorder that warrants treatment. According to the National Institute of Health, Binge Eating Disorder is the most common eating disorder and affects 3 percent of adults in the United States. The following symptoms are associated with binge eating disorder:

• Eating more quickly than usual during binge episodes
• Eating until you are uncomfortably full
• Eating large amounts of food even when you do not feel hungry
• Eating alone because you are embarrassed about the amount of food you are eating
• Feeling disgusted, depressed, or guilty after overeating

Solving the puzzle of weight loss psychology

Binge eating disorder has also been associated with difficulty in handling emotions. Individuals who engage in binge eating state this compulsive behavior is often triggered by feeling sad, angry, bored, anxious, or overwhelmed. As author Geneen Roth describes in her book, When Food Is Love, compulsion is despair on an emotional level. The substances, people or activities that we are compulsive about are those that we believe capable of taking away our despair. Thus, binge eating or compulsive overeating is a symptom of something deeper. Food becomes a way to soothe our pain. One of the steps for treating binge eating is to replace that behavior with a healthy activity that will soothe our pain, stress, anger, loneliness, sadness, or other uncomfortable emotion.

Although it is important to understand the source of your emotions, it is more important to change the behavior used in coping with the emotion. Uncomfortable emotions will most certainly be a part of our lives and we cannot always change the circumstances or issues that trigger them. Consequently, it is more beneficial to develop coping skills rather than trying to prevent or avoid emotional pain. One set of coping skills that have been utilized in managing emotions and replacing unhealthy behaviors is Distress Tolerance Skills. Developed by Marsha Linehan, these skills were originally developed to help individuals who engaged in self-harm behaviors such as cutting, overdosing on non-lethal doses of medication, head banging, and other destructive behavior. In the past several years, other clinicians found these skills helpful in treating behaviors associated with addiction, anxiety, depression, and other mental health disorders. Most often, the unhealthy behaviors used to cope with emotions cause an individual to feel worse and can also have a negative impact on the people around them.

Hi Protein/Low Carb Cottage Cheese Pancakes
These pancakes don’t taste at all like cottage cheese, and are very yummy.

Low carb cottage cheese pancakes

• 1 c. low-fat cottage cheese
• 2 T. vegetable oil
• 6 Eggs
• ½ c. almond flour
• tsp. salt
• tsp. vanilla

Heat pan to hot. Put all ingredients in blender and mix until smooth. Using a small amount of oil in pan, cook until bubbles start forming. Turn, cook very briefly, and remove from pan. Serves 4. Serve w/ a little homemade fruit sauce (recipe below), pure maple syrup or low-carb yogurt and fruit.

Low Carb Fruit Sauce

• 2 c. frozen UNSWEETENED fruit (ie., boysenberries, black berries, peaches)
• 1 c. water
• 1 T. cornstarch
• 4 T. Agave syrup
• Pinch of salt

Put frozen fruit in pan. Mix all other ingredients together and pour over fruit. Bring to boil, stirring occasionally. Enjoy!

We hope you have enjoyed this edition of The Skinny, weight loss newsletter. At Go Figure, we want you to succeed in maintaining your health, losing weight and keeping it off. We think of our people not just as clients, but as friends whose lives we can improve by helping them get more health and happiness out of life.

What you may not know is that restarting the program is even easier than before with our restart discount. If it has been less than six months since your last appointment with us, you may restart the program for only $50. If it has been over six months, your restart fee is $129 (includes TWO WEEKS on the program and your EKG), plus $68 for labs. This is a savings of $201!

If you are starting the program for the first time, the startup fee is $398, which includes labs and the first two weeks of the program. After that, it only costs $50 per week for our medical weight loss program.