ARE YOU REALLY HUNGRY

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ARE YOU REALLY HUNGRY

When you diet you don't realize you  are doomed to failure because you attack your belly rather than your behavior. Most of us care about our bodies as much as our homes. Any quick fix in the weight loss scheme is doomed for failure-- and will actually make you fatter.

To get things done, you must  desire it, and persevere in your actions.  Successful weight loss demands that you cut your caloric intake, eat low-fat high-fiber meals, and exercise regularly.

 Why do you still go on eating  when you are stuffed? This often happens after a special meal on Thanksgiving, but is a daily event.  We eat without being hungry. We are constantly snacking, especially from 8:30 PM to bedtime.  Most of the desire for food seems to come from the mouth. In the evenings, most of America opens her pantry doors, stare into the refrigerators, and without success, look into the freezer.

You eat because you are bored, and keep looking  for snacks that are very salty and crunchy full of artificial flavors and colors, that will give your tongue and teeth something to play with.  You feel deprived and know you really deserve this snack. Yet you  never choose healthy foods at snack time.  While eating, you find all your negative feelings start disappearing.  You soon start feeling uncomfortable, but never really satisfied.  You see yourself to eating at the kitchen counter and right in front of an open refrigerator door.

 Your response to these emotions is not instinctive, but a learned behavior and therefore can be unlearned.  Most impulses come and go rapidly and evaporate.   Eating is a semi-conscious state and is not motivated by real hunger, but by habit and shallow negative feelings.

 By using a delaying tactic, run from the kitchen, do something for 10 minutes, and see if this hunger impulse  was truly sincere.  Then  renegotiate the entire eating matter. Shut the kitchen cabinets and refrigerator doors, put everything back in the refrigerator and quickly leave the kitchen. Start putting all these things all the snacks in one place and hide them somewhere in the kitchen where you will not accidentally find them. Make all the non-stack items in the refrigerator easily visible.

 It’s gotten late, you are tired, and your mind is become drug. You look for food to help you stay awake. Certainly something sweet will raise your blood sugar, and give you an energy boost for while.    You find yourself eating because the food is right there. Your mouth starts chewing anything  insight,  anything small enough to be devoured.

Ask yourself, why are you staying up so late in the first place? Do you really want to see the replay of the football games, watch an old movie, or Fox political news. Cutting out these late hours, will create a couple more hours of sleep where you will be refreshed in the morning and not have to confront food.

 Make a bargain with yourself find a magazine you have not read and take it to the bathroom or bedroom and read a juicy article. Find a new hobby and really get involved in it. Go outside and start walking for exercise.  Pick a certain time of day when you need them most, and schedules some kind of new activity during that time.

Strategies to win the battle

 To win the Battle of the Bulge, you must know your enemy.  Find a battleground where you eat.  You find yourself eating in front of the TV, in the kitchen standing, at the counter preparing dinner, perhaps in bed while reading,  or even  munching while driving,   You find yourself multitasking with food, using food as background music.

 Make dinner a ritual and make your meal organized. Only put on a table where you want to eat at that meal. But the rest in the refrigerator or freezer. If you really are still hungry, wait 10 minutes,  and get yourself some more food.. Your stomach is not a garbage can,  and how will that good food look on your belly and butt?

.Stop what you are doing and eat without doing anything else.  Start enjoying your food in the right way.  Eat your food from a plate or in a bowl, take it to your dining table, sit down and enjoy every mouthful.  Start paying attention to the food in front of you. Look at it, smell it, taste it, chew it, think about how it feels.

 Put some signs in the kitchen:

 Are you really hungry

 Take a 10 minute timeout.

  Wet your mouth and throat: drink two glasses of water. 

 No reading or TV here in the kitchen while eating

 Please eat only at the table.

 Where is your plate?

 Put all the rest of the food away please before you start eating.

 Think thin.  Lose some weight right now by leaving the kitchen.

 Use the garbage disposal.Throw some food away, and leave a dirty plate with some food on it.

  Wait a while  after you come home before you start eating.  Don’t eat so fast, give your appetite center a chance to signal you when you are full. Put all your focus on the meal, and avoid watching TV or reading while eating. How does the food look on your plate? Take a bite of some foods, put down your fork, Junior of food and real slow, and enjoy the flavor, the aroma and the texture of the food. Eating can be enjoyable so why hurry it up. Make love to the food on your plate by moving it around cutting it up, and tasting it before chewing.

Now get up and go for a well deserved walk.  It may be all you need to lose that belly,

Visit www.americanacupuncture.com for more tips on weight loss.

As a medical physician for over 51 years, I strive to give you the best medical information on controversial medical subjects, and help your read betwwen the lines. You must come to your own conclusions. I have no ties to any organization, pharmaceutical, or lobby group. As an practicing medical acupuncturist since 1982, I find western medicine and medical acupuncture are very complimentary. This results in astounding healing in pain management, addictions to cigarettes and food, and a host of other maladies. Visit drneedles is blogging" at the end of each blog for a complete alphabetical list of all my blogs Visit www.americanacupuncture.comfor more detailed information on mind, body, and spirit healing.