The Secret Meaning Of Compulsive Eating Behaviors
|
Food is not simply fuel to keep you going. Nor is it the enemy, out to turn your body into an ugly fat mass or clog up your arteries. So many expert sources dispense food "rules" to live by: Eat four of this every day, eat three of these everyday. Avoid these certain foods at all costs. Eat this food in moderation. The evening news bombards us with food dangers. Diets provide even more wacky "rules." No wonder food is such a messy subject. It's turned into an intellectual battle of good versus evil.
I say enough of this determining what we 'should' eat by listening to other people's criteria. Wouldn't you agree that somewhere within yourself and your own body lies the source of knowing what you want to eat and how much to eat? It might just be time to reclaim your authority of your life and your body by trusting yourself as the ultimate authority of eating?
Let's go back to basics. As human beings we are alive in a physical body. This is your body. It is your individual guidance system that tells you when you are feeling good and when you are not feeling good. This body is a multi-sensory body that contains everything you need to know when you are being true to yourself, what feels good to you, and what tastes good to you.
Individually, we have purpose for being here on earth. We are meant to bring joy to earth through our physical bodies and the expression of ourselves. We eat by taking something from outside of ourselves into our mouth. Through chewing, we release the life from the food itself. Through the miracle of digestion, the life force that was within the food becomes a part of our physical body. The remainder is released as waste product and renews the earth. Through this process, we are the cycle of life.
Somewhere in the process of growing up, we made many decisions about ourselves on this earth. We decided how alive we could be, how authentic, how open and real. We decided whether we have the right have to our own needs - and have those needs met. Whatever decisions we made are reflected in our bodies and in our food patterns.
For any person struggling with resolving a food issue, the realization eventually awakens that the food issue was about something much deeper. The food is a language of sorts, speaking of our own decisions to be alive, awakened, authentic . . . or not.
YOUR FOOD PATTERNS / YOUR ALIVENESS
For a moment, take a look at your own food patterns. How does your style of eating relate to your own aliveness, right to self-express, be passionate, be real, and your inter-relatedness to the greater whole? Does your eating style create physical discomfort? Does it involve self-denial and self-sacrifice? Does you eating style keep you wrapped up in attempting to resolve your weight (perpetual dieting) rather than standing up and claiming your right to have what you want? Maybe you can begin to identify your own pattern from one of the suggestions below?
1. Perhaps you have decided that you must be a pleasure-denier? Eating without sitting down. Eating unconsciously. Eating with guilt. Gulping down food in a hurry and always eating on the run. There's no time in this world for your needs and you do not rank as a priority in your life. Your life and your needs do not exist or are not as valuable as someone else's. To be self-centered is viewed as being selfish.
2. Do you binge in private? Not allowing anyone to see you having pleasurable foods? Having to sneak your pleasure in the dark? In a trance-like state, eating foods you don't want anyone to know you eat . . . in volumes you don't want anyone to know you want. You eat quickly, not wanting to get caught. The irony is that you're not really enjoying the food, you're not really hungry. It's usually a time we can be alone, with all your wants and desires. It is a time we don't have to pretend to be capable, competent, pleasant, likeable, strong, and without needs. It is a time to be entirely self-centered, where you don't have to take care of the needs of anyone else and can focus completely on yourself.
3. Do you deny yourself energy / food (forgetting to eat breakfast and lunch) throughout the day then attempt to provide yourself with as much pleasure as you can quickly get in the evening? Choosing to feel guilty afterward, once again denying yourself the pleasure of having what you want? Compulsive overeating is characterized by uncontrollable eating and consequent weight gain. Compulsive overeaters use food as a way to cope with stress, emotional conflicts and daily problems. The food can block out feelings and emotions. Does your eating style numb out your inner voice, your inner truth, your right to accept pleasure?
4. Do you restrict food entirely - denying yourself the energy needed for life? Perhaps leaning more towards anorexia. Never allowing yourself to be hungry. Hunger, your human need, stands for every need you have in life. Meaning, you have no needs. You are above being human. While underneath feeling you have no worthiness as a person. By denying your needs you deny your worthiness as a person. An attempt to be void, be empty. To say, "I deserve nothing." While at the same time playing a game of superiority saying, "I don't need anything." Hunger, and having needs, is part of being alive.
5. Do you hoard energy - holding onto as much energy (food and fat) as you can, not feeling safe without it? Keeping weight on your body as a way not to be too powerful, too sexually attractive, too alive, too authentic and real? Not trusting your self if you were thin. In this eating style, the subconscious fears becoming thin. Whether the fears are of starvation, sexuality, a new job situation, dating and relationships, career choices, family issues or just life itself, the weight may be serving the purpose of insulating you from those fears, from feeling, and thus avoiding personal growth and change.
6. Are you bulimic - somehow sensing it is your birth right to be powerful and have what you want, but also in conflict about your needs? Indulging in huge amounts of energy (food) but then raging and throwing up what you aren't allowed to have? Bulimics are usually people that do not feel secure about their own self worth. They usually strive for the approval of others. They tend to do whatever they can to please others, while hiding their own feelings. Food becomes their only source of comfort - but even that is not allowed.
7. Unconscious eater - Have you ever been nibbling on something for some time before you realize that you are actually eating? Have you had someone ask you, "Hey what are you eating or what did you have for dinner", and you couldn't tell them? Do you find yourself nibbling on food constantly while you are working, driving, talking on the phone, or watching TV without even thinking about what you are eating. Do you heap mounds of food on your plate? Do you put another bite into your mouth before finishing the last one? What are your fears? Are you allowed to have what you want? Can you fill up with enough? Can you sit down and accept all of what you need and deserve on one plate?
We deserve all of the good things life has to offer, without having to perform for any of them. We don't earn worthiness, we decide we are already worthy and therefore accept more joy and abundance and love into us. We are deserving individuals by our very existence. I challenge you to take a look at your eating style. Look with non-judgement and without fear. Look without attempting to solve or get rid of the problem. Instead, be curious. What does your style of eating say about your right to be alive on earth, your right to have your needs met, your right to self-expression, your right to be powerful and empowered? What would your eating look like if you were filled up with your own life, passion, and joy, love, feeling good and having what you want?
Dr. Annette Colby, RD
Nutrition Therapist & Master Energy Healer
For free inspirational newsletter, articles & info visit: http://www.LovingMiracles.com
972.985.8750
"Opening Creative Portals to Success"
|
|
|
The Myth Of Spot Reducing
There is no such thing as spot reducing. Any fat you lose comes off in the same proportion it's stored in your body.For example, if you carry most of your fat weight in your hips and thighs (like most women), then the fat inhabiting those area will be the last to go. If you carry your fat weight around your waist as "love handles" (like most men), then your significant other will most likely have something to hang on to right up until the very end of the reduction process.You can target train your abs with sit ups and crunches 'til the cows come home and you can get rock hard abs, but until you lose the layer of subcutaneous fat covering them they won't be visible.That's why strength training is so essential.Yes, you can lose weight throug...(related: Weight Loss)
Green Tea And Weight Loss
There's recently been a LOT in the weight loss news concerning green tea.Green tea's weight loss effects have been causing more and more people to start sipping the ancient Japanese brew.But just how does green tea help you lose weight? And does it really work or is it all just hype? This article gives you the real facts about drinking green tea to lose weight.Advantages of Drinking Green Tea for Weight Loss:1) Green tea revs up your metabolismA study reported on in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that green tea extract resulted in a significant increase in energy expenditure (a metabolism 'boost').The researchers also concluded that that over a 24-hour period, green tea extract increases the meta...(related: Weight Loss)
Revolutionary, Safe, And Clinically Proven Natural Weight Loss
America is in a health care crisis. More than 60 percent of US adults are overweight and 25% are considered obese. One in four children are overweight and are headed for a lifetime of chronic illness. These numbers have nearly doubled in the last twenty years.Excess body weight has been linked to many common conditions affecting Americans. These include: heart disease, high blood pressure, back pain, certain cancers, hormonal imbalances, fatigue, stroke, high cholesterol, diabetes, gall bladder disorders, sleep apnea, Syndrome X (insulin resistance), and others. Health care costs directly related to obesity are second only to smoking and are increasing at an alarming rate.Consistent weight loss can be accomplished by understanding and implementi...(related: Weight Loss)
Serious Dieting Tips, Humorous Explanations
A few months ago, I set out to lose 22.6 pounds, then to put back on at least half of it.Huh? Anybody who's ever found herself stuck on a yo-yo diet is probably thinking that I am either crazy or planning way too hard for the inevitable yo-yo heartaches. However, my plan is more sneaky than that.First, I want to lose this rubber tire I've been carrying around my waist. Have you ever gotten stuck inside a rubber tire? It's not a pretty site.Then, I want to put back some of that weight in the form of muscle. It's my grand master plan to change my shape from looking like a silly pear to looking like an upside down silly pear.Will it work?I think I have the "silly" part figured out. And so far, I have lost14.6 pounds, but I think I really lost a few more, because I have b...(related: Weight Loss)
Obesity - How It Affects Your Health
1. Carrying around excess body fat will decrease your energy level. Having just 10 lbs. of excess body fat is like carrying around a 10-lb. bag of lard.2. Your heart has to work overtime to support the extra weight. Obesity has a harmful effect on your entire cardiovascular system. Your cardiovascular system includes your heart, your lungs, and all of your arteries and veins.3. You may develop breathing problems. For example, sleep apnea is a breathing problem that causes you to stop breathing for short instances during sleep. Sleep apnea can also cause snoring.4. Extra weight will take a toll on your joints. Obesity has also been linked to gout, which is when uric acid that cannot be excreted collects in the joints of the toes.5. Obesity can cause infertility.<...(related: Weight Loss)
Mysteries Of Syndrome X Revealed
"I've put on 40 pounds in one year!" "It doesn't matter how muchI workout, I can't lose weight." "My doctor must think I'meating pizzas in the closet."With nearly 4 million Americans weighing in at over 300 pounds,is it any wonder the above cries are heard each and every day bycountless frustrated people who can't lose weight? One suchcause for...(related: Weight Loss)
Ephedra - Is It Safe And Effective?
Burn fat while you sleep! Eat whatever you want and still lose weight! Don't suffer through hours of grueling exercise to burn fat!You've probably heard all these phrases before but are the fat burners containing ephedra that these claims are attached to really that effective and are they safe?The primary ingredient in fat burners is the herb ephedra, also known as ma huang, or it's manufactured version ephedrine. It has been used in Chinese herbal medicine quite safely and effectively for thousands of years. It is often combined with synthetic or herbal versions of caffeine (e.g. guarana, yerba mate or kola nut) and aspirin (e.g. white willow bark).But does it burn fat?The answer to that question i...(related: Weight Loss)
Gastric Bypass Surgery - Just The Facts
Gastric Bypass surgery is becoming increasingly more popular for the morbid obese. In order to qualify for the surgery, you must have a body mass index of more than 40, which usually translates to being 100 or more pounds overweight.Gastric Bypass surgery is a procedure in which the surgeon will create a pouch out of your stomach, divide the stomach and then connect the pouch directly to the intestine, basically "bypassing" the lower stomach. The whole idea is to limit the amount food that the patient ca...(related: Weight Loss)
Weight Loss For Good ? If Only You Had Known?
Whether coming from a close friend, the nightly news or from a letter in the mail, it's hard to face the truth at times. Hear-ing it can really cut to the core of our be-ings.Today, fitness books are mostly filled with advertisements, pill pushers and un-real...(related: Weight Loss)
The Milk Diet -- Is It Your Solution For Losing Weight?
For sometime now, you've been hearing about the Milk Diet and it's benefit in helping you lose weight. I recently searched on Google for the Milk Diet and could only find vague references to milk as a supplement to help you lose weight.To date, there is no actual Milk Diet. Instead, supporters of milk as a supplement to losing weight suggest adding milk to any diet. They claim the amount of weight loss will increase simply by adding more whole milk to your diet.So, does milk help to increase the amount of weight loss? If so, how does it ...(related: Weight Loss)
Warning: Dramatically Improve Your Health In Just 27 Days!!!
You don't realize it, but in the next few minutes you're going to learn how to drastically sculpt...(related: Weight Loss)
Gastric Bypass Surgery ? A Mortality Rate To Be Scared Of?
Success stories on the gastric bypass are everywhere, but how about the fatalities from the procedure? Barely mentioned in the magazines and newspapers, there is a serious risk carried by the gastric bypass and that risk is a 1 in 50 chance of you dieing within 1 month of the surgery ? that certainly puts the frights up me. The study by Washington University is shocking to say the least. The figure is apparently four times as many fatalities when patients are in the hands of inexperienced surgeons.As the money the private surgeries make on the procedure is rising ? over 150,000 gastric bypasses we're performed in 2004, the claims for compensation from distraught family members rise too. Is gastric bypass surgery worth the risk?My personal opinion is that if you're morbidly obese and your health is in imm...(related: Weight Loss)
Lose Weight And Exercise Now ? Or Face The Music Later!
My responsibility as a high profile fitness expert lies not in if you like me, or even if you buy my e books. My responsibility lies in giving you straight talk with no sugar coating it. Some of you will not like what I have to say, even though it is the truth. And that may be where the problem of American's health problems lies. No one wants to give you the truth.You want quick fixes to your health problem that has taken years to develop. You get it by purchasing gimmicks that promise you fast results. You fall for it, and at the end of the day you are m...(related: Weight Loss)
site-map - Copyright © 2007 | Contact Webmaster - shukra1111 [AT] yahoo.com | All Rights Reserved | Weight Loss