Does Eating Stress You Out?

Does Eating Stress You Out?

Are you a stressed out eater? What kind of eater are you: Fast, medium, slow? I used to be a fast eater – I didn’t know how to eat slow. I lost touch with when I felt hungry and never seemed to stop when I was full. Are you aware when you’re hungry? Do you register when you’re full? Eating is a necessity to sustain energy balance and fuel. But it’s definitely a requirement that is viewed as a chore when we’re busy and too tired or rushed to nourish ourselves. A familiar scenario I often hear from new clients

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Do You Love or Hate Your Body?

Do You Love or Hate Your Body?

Summer Body-Love/Hate It’s certainly been warming up in the great south east. Makes me think about humid days, cool dresses and wearing a bathing suit in public… Does that thought fill your head with dread? As a child I loved summer. The adolescent me however, was struck with fear about what it represented. If you wanted to swim in the local pool or frolic on the beach, it meant baring your body beautiful and being on display – something I was definitely not comfortable with back then. It was enough to make me stop eating or take up marathon running!

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Are your Cravings really an Addiction?

Are your Cravings really an Addiction?

The Brain and Addiction Following on from last Blog article about Cravings, you now hopefully have a better understanding of the difference between “body hunger versus mind hunger”. In short, one is genuine and the other is playing tricks on us. Let’s look a little deeper into understanding the parts of the brain that are activated when we crave specific foods. In 2004, participants in a study were asked to think about a favourite food. The participants’ resulting fMRI images displayed three primary areas in the brain that lit up: the hippocampus, insula and caudate. [Source: Monell] The hippocampus, located in

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Are Your Cravings Real?

Are Your Cravings Real?

Mind or Body Cravings? In previous blog posts I’ve explained how when we restrict and deny nourishment to our body (dieting), we often wrestle with cravings (also tiredness and mood swings) until the brain overrides our willpower and has us reaching for a quick fix of fat, sugar and salt. Hunger and cravings are two different sensations. The body regulates our hunger, while the mind wields greater power over food cravings. Hunger serves a more functional purpose, signalling our brains that it’s time to eat and replenish the energy and information we’re running low on. To recap previous articles about the

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Is Stress Causing Your Weight Gain?

Is Stress Causing Your Weight Gain?

Stress and Weight Wars A 2011/12 Queensland Health report revealed an average 57.3% of adults who are overweight or obese. On average, only 56.6% of adults reported getting sufficient physical activity, whilst 15.6% of adults reportedly drink alcohol every week. Eight in ten people with weight problems also suffer from chronic stress and some form of mental health issue. Why? Because our bodies react to stress and emotional trauma by packing on the pounds to protect us. When we experience stress of any kind – real or imagined – our thoughts contribute to the intensity of emotions we feel. If

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The Slow Down Diet / FREE Eating Psychology Online Conference

The Slow Down Diet / FREE Eating Psychology Online Conference

2nd Annual Eating Psychology Online Conference It’s a sad fact that every single one of us has something negative to say about our bodies at one time or another. For many people, especially women, it’s an everyday never-ending torrent of disgust, shame and hatred. Another huge challenge is food and eating – what to eat, when, how much….. so many negative and worrying thoughts about our bodies, food and eating. I know all too well what this destructive relationship can do after spending over 15 years battling an eating disorder. It’s dark, painful and lonely. I don’t want that for anyone

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Eat Food. Mostly Plants. Not Too Much.

Eat Food. Mostly Plants. Not Too Much.

Eat (Real) Food I love to tell people about food designers, because most people haven’t even heard of the term, let along know it’s actually a job title. Food designers are a food manufacturer’s secret weapon. Their job description is to create the perfect ratio of fat, sugar and salt in a food product that will create opiates in the brain to have you craving more! Big fast-food companies rely on these food designers to create great wealth in their business at an even greater cost to public health. People restricting themselves on one diet or another especially find these

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Eating Psychology Conference 2014

Eating Psychology Conference 2014

FREE Eating Psychology Online Conference Obesity, overeating, body image concerns, emotional challenges with food, and diet-related health issues have permeated our society, culture and mindsets. We’ve become the most unhealthy and unhappy we’ve ever been! Throughout my own recovery a huge A-ha! moment was realising that even though I was trying my hardest to watch what I ate and eat “healthy” food, my constant dogmatic, rigid and restrictive thinking was placing so much stress and imbalance within my body that it was impossible for me to find a healthy balance and weight. My digestive fire was just a glimmer of

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Let go of Anger and Find Inner Peace

Let go of Anger and Find Inner Peace

Let go of Anger, Find Inner Peace When I was a teenager – angry, in denial, resentful and heavy hearted – my reality was believing I was the victim of mistreatment and neglect. I had no sense of personal responsibility, control or conviction. I simply modelled the coping skills of those who raised me. I learnt how to get angry, yell, scream, blame, over-react, sulk, lash out and quickly ignore matters that were too emotional to feel. After each blow up, things would go back to normal – quickly forgotten, as if they never happened. This frustrated me so much when I was left

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Trust Your Inner Wisdom (and break free from Dieting)

Trust Your Inner Wisdom (and break free from Dieting)

The Wisdom of Dieting Who’s been on a diet before – lost weight, regained weight and done the whole thing over again? The word ‘diet’ has evolved over many years of experimentation. It used to summarise your daily assortment of nutrients or food intake, but over the years ‘diet and dieting’ have become more about restriction, starvation and deprivation. When we don’t like our reflection, especially those thighs and that stomach, we tend to blame our body and put it on a diet. When we have no energy and feel bad about ourselves, we often think we’re not trying hard

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Do You Feel Safe in Your Body?

Do You Feel Safe in Your Body?

That weighty feeling Who’s been on a “diet” before – lost weight, regained weight and done the whole thing over again? I’ve tried numerous diets over the years and a few methods I made up myself. But nothing ever truly worked until I learned to listen to my thoughts and understand what my beliefs and fears were saying to me unconsciously, continuing to trigger my fat storing hormones. What’s the difference between losing weight and regaining, and losing weight and staying there? It’s our emotional, mental and spiritual experience of whether we feel “safe” at a lower weight and comfortable

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FREE ONLINE SCREENING “Lose the Stress, Lose the Weight”

FREE ONLINE SCREENING "Lose the Stress, Lose the Weight"

Lose the Stress, Loss the Weight It’s here! The online world premiere of Jon Gabriel’s newest documentary film, so I wanted to be sure you didn’t miss out: Watch Now! World Premiere of Tapping for Weight Loss (online for 10 days!)* “Lose the Stress, Lose the Weight,” is a powerful film created by Carol Look, Jon Gabriel and 12 remarkable (and brave) volunteers who are struggling with stress-related weight gain. In my professional and personal experience, stress is the #1 issue we all need to work on to achieve weight loss and well-being long term, so I can’t think of a more effective approach than learning stress management tools you can do at home (alongside

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How to Stress Less & Love Yourself More

How to Stress Less & Love Yourself More

Stress & Release We are such creatures of taking everything personally and feeling the weight of hurt and pain, rejection or worth. I love Anthony Hopkins philosophy that it’s none of my business what other’s think of me. The problem is I didn’t know that as a teenager and took EVERYTHING personally. Until a few years ago, well into my thirties, my mind and body was filled with the anguish of thinking I wasn’t good enough, pretty enough, and especially not thin enough… I ended up spending the majority of my life creating my own internal stress and contributing to my

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Lose the Stress and Lose the Weight

Lose the Stress and Lose the Weight

Mind-Body Weight Loss If you’re stressed out, worried, fearful or lonely, the impact on your health is immediate and the hormonal imbalances created are the same imbalances that cause food cravings, which also lead to weight gain. This stress, tension and fear might be a demanding job, a hectic family life, an abusive spouse or any of the millions of emotional challenges we all face in life—but the biochemical result is the same. Your hormones become imbalanced, your food cravings increase, and you’ll very likely gain weight. As time goes on, your cortisol levels rise, your blood sugar sky-rockets, your

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How Mind-Body Stress is Causing Your Weight Gain

How Mind-Body Stress is Causing Your Weight Gain

Stress and YOUR Belly Many of you know how passionately I feel about educating everyone on STRESS – understanding what it is, your personal stress triggers, how your body responds to YOUR stress, and ways to induce the relaxation response regularly in COUNTERACTING your stress response. Stress affects our whole body – functions and hormones – especially our weight. And weight is something that we all have issues with at some stage in our lives. Cortisol, also known as THE stress hormone and the FAT storing hormone, is a major contributor to our excess belly fat when we’re chronically excreting stress hormones that

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