A Weigh Out

How do I learn not to be afraid of certain foods?

Jennie Wade, MS, MEd, RD, LD — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 01:53:48 +0000

We get hit with so many messages about “good” food and “bad” food, it can be difficult to keep things in perspective, and perspective is our best ally.

The human body is extremely capable of sorting what we eat, utilizing what it needs and discarding what it doesn’t. It’s important to examine our beliefs about what tends to be labeled “bad”,

For example, high fat foods tend to be labeled in this way, but let’s look at the evidence.

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I’ve never been a fan of mimes

Ellen Shuman, Emotional Eating Coach; A Weigh Out — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 16:20:07 +0000

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Ellen Shuman is a Life Coach who specializes in emotional and binge eating issues. She is the founder of A Weigh Out & Acoria Eating Disorder Treatment, Vice President of the Binge Eating Disorder Association (BEDA), and Co-Chair of the Academy for Eating Disorders Special Interest Group on “Health at Every Size”, ellen@aweighout.com

What are the biggest barriers to people giving up diets?

The Diet Survivor Sisters — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 14:51:31 +0000

We’ve been thinking a lot lately about why it is so hard for people to let go of diets, even when they understand intellectually that diets don’t work, and they won’t work. When The Diet Survivor’s Handbook first came out, we did an interview on the topic of diet addiction, and we thought we’d share some of these ideas with you. Depending on where you are in your journey to kick the diet habit, these musings may help you understand the challenges you face. Or, if you’ve already quit dieting, you might want to think about why others in your life hang on to dieting, even when their experience – and the research – confirms that about 98% of diets fail in the long-run.

In the most general sense, an addiction exists when there is an

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A Weigh Out’s Core Beliefs about Emotional Eating

Ellen Shuman, Emotional Eating Coach; A Weigh Out — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:57:11 +0000

We believe healthy people come in all shapes and sizes.
Diets don’t work for Emotional Eaters. Diets only address the symptom, the weight…not the underlying problem, emotional eating or the use of food to manage mood, to stuff down feelings.
People use ”food thoughts”, food, and/or dieting behaviors to take care of emotional needs. When you fill your head with a food (or diet) thought, you temporarily push all other thoughts or feelings from your present consciousness. When we’re bored, stressed, angry or lonely, even when some of us get excited…to avoid the intensity of feeling, we obsess about food instead. Emotional overeating happens on a continuum. At the far end of that continuum, this can become a person’s primary coping strategy…a person’s only way to self-comfort and regulate their moods.
We recognize and respect the power of food when it is used as a coping strategy. It works…for a little while…then we feel like our best friend has betrayed us.
We respect the resilience of people who have come to use food to take care of their emotional needs. They have likely made it through some pretty difficult emotional times, by having food at their side.
We understand that emotional eating impacts a person’s ability to live their life to the fullest and to achieve desired physical and emotional health.
We honor the pain that results when this coping strategy seemingly takes on a life of its own…and robs a person of theirs.
We believe change occurs when the problem is approached with new insight in these arenas…emotional, physical, nutritional, and spiritual health.
We know, from experience, that working through the feelings that drive a person to eat can be a painful process…but, that process is nowhere near as painful as staying stuck in the problem.
We trust that with support and new understanding a person can come to view change as a relief…and as an attainable choice. We know it takes courage to ask for help!

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Stop Exercising, Start Moving with Pleasure

Robin Okun, LMSW — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 06:25:04 +0000

I smile when I remember my last exercise class about 5 years ago. I was not having a good time. I was not experiencing pleasure. I was bored. The bass of the music was blasting. When I glanced around the room I noticed the lack of joy on the faces of my peers. I was among a group of women fighting with their bodies in an effort to change them, shrink them, and I think, at times abuse them.

As I was noticing my feelings and reactions the teacher yelled out loudly with a plastic smile on her face, “the more you smile the more calories you burn.” She had no idea how to guide us toward pleasure in exercise or in our bodies. It seemed she had no clue how to connect to her own joy in her body.

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Never Again!

Ellen Shuman, Emotional Eating Coach; A Weigh Out — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 15:52:38 +0000

Last week I wrote a post about one of my coaching client’s challenges with travel and emotional eating. In that post she spoke of a friend who is still a yo-yo dieter. We’ll call her friend Jill.

Jill has dieted and lost and gained over a 100 pounds several times. Following one of those 100 pound losses, she had surgery to remove and tighten her skin and then regained all of the weight and then some. I’ve heard this painful story many times from emotional, compulsive, and binge eaters.

Next week Jill is going on a trip with a group of women friends who are also chronic dieters. Several of these women are currently on a very restrictive well known fad diet. Jill told my client she may try to follow that same diet while she’s away.

But just in case, she’s planning to take two sets of travel clothes. The first includes her more fashionable clothes, more fitted with coordinated belts, etc. The second wardrobe consists of black leggings and her black big shirts for dress-up nights, sweat pants and other black stretchy pants for everyday wear. Which clothes she ends up wearing will depend on whether she sticks to the strict diet plan…or careens out-of-control with food. It doesn’t sound like she allows for any other possibility in between restrictive dieting and being out-of-control.

My heart aches for Jill and everyone else who is constantly, obsessively, exhaustingly either on a diet…or feeling and eating out-of-control. I have so been there, done that! And I choose NEVER to be that miserable, again! I don’t believe that’s the way life has to be, even for people who struggle with emotional, compulsive, or binge eating!

What do you think? We hope you’ll share your thoughts and feelings with us in the Comments Section below…

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I cannot hate myself for my choices & huge benefit from jeans that fit!

Ellen Shuman, Emotional Eating Coach; A Weigh Out — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 22:02:28 +0000

This post was written by Rachel; An A Weigh Out Circle Member…

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Recently, I’ve been noticing many magazine articles on the effects of getting healthy. People often write of their successes, or going down a size, their first 5k, or how they’ve learned to eat more veggies than before. Don’t get me wrong, not every article is about success but we often feel the urge to toot our horns for our healthful success. All of these succeses are fabulous! I am here to give big hugs and kisses and pats on the back to all of those people and their success stories!

However I live in another reality. In my reality, every day is not a healthy “success”. There are days where exercise plans are not met. Commitments to eat ‘only when hungry’ fall down the drain when the stress of a pending deadline, or a fight with my son, or a concern for my ailing mother send me to a chocolate trance-like state. After that experience I am fighting to remind myself I love myself, give myself a hug no matter what the choice is I made. I cannot HATE myself for my choices. I

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Techniques to Stop a Binge Before it Starts

Amy Pershing, LMSW, ACSW — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 20:00:34 +0000

When the “train is gearing up”, here are some techniques to stop a binge before it starts…

At any point you’re feeling the desire to eat compulsively, try the following steps. The sooner you can try these steps, the better:

I. As soon as you notice the urge to binge (it might be recurrent thoughts about a certain food, planning time alone to eat, or thinking about a trip to the store for food), stop whatever you’re doing. It is important to focus your full attention on the craving. Without that focus, the craving has much more power to build.

II. Get someplace where you can have privacy to process this feeling as soon as you can.

III. Say out loud to yourself

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Nutrition and Immunity

Jennie Wade, MS, MEd, RD, LD — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:09:26 +0000

Although we are all susceptible to the occasional cold or flu, there are some ways to ensure that your immune system is functioning at its best.

First, enrich your diet with antioxidants. These are vitamins and minerals found in foods or supplements that help to remove harmful oxidants from the body. Oxidants are toxic byproducts of cigarette smoke, pollution, sunlight exposure, and the conversion of food to energy.

Antioxidants include Vitamin C, E, and beta carotene.

Here’s a list of foods rich in those antioxidants:

Vitamin C: tomatoes, spinach, broccoli, strawberries (also high, prunes, grapes, artichoke, berries)

Vitamin E: astaxanthin (salmon), wheat germ, nuts and seeds,vegetable oil, fish oil

Beta Carotene: carrots, winter squash, broccoli, sweet potatoes, cantaloupe, peaches, apricots

Second, include a wide variety of foods to ensure that you are getting adequate nutrients. Include health fat sources such as omega-3 fatty acids found in fish, nuts, seeds, and flax. Choose lean sources of protein such as chicken, lean beef, turkey, and beans (black, pinto, white). Complex carbohydrates such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables, provide more fiber, phytochemicals, and micronutrients than processed carbohydrates, so choose complex more often.

In addition, moderate regular exercise can also protect and enhance the immune response. Twenty to thirty minutes of brisk walking, 4 to 5 times a week can help maintain a healthy immune system.

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Jennie Wade, MA, MEd, RD, LD, Body Truth Center for Wellness, LLC 9403 Kenwood Road Suite A120, Cincinnati, OH 45242 www.bodytruthcenter.com

How do I learn to trust myself?

The Diet Survivor Sisters — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 20:01:05 +0000

We love this question because it goes to the heart of the difference between a diet versus a non-diet approach. Keep in mind that the core of every diet or food plan you’ve followed in the past is that you cannot be trusted to know when, what or how much to eat. Therefore, you were told what time of day to eat, what type of food to eat, and the portion sizes to consume. All of these rules and regulations reinforced the notion that you – and your hunger – are not to be trusted. After years of these messages, it makes sense that it will take some time to relearn to trust yourself.

When we work with women who are learning to become attuned/intuitive eaters,

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