This recipe is inspired by Dr. Lisle's preference for carrot cake. But this oatmeal is way healthier than a regular carrot cake. It's one of the best breakfasts in terms of satiety and weight loss. I created the carrot cake oatmeal especially for the InstantPot, but you can also cook it in a regular pot. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Give it a try!

Ingredients for 1 portion:

 

Instructions:

  1. Peel the carrots and shred them
  2. Cut the banana into small chunks
  3. Put everything in the InstantPot and turn it on high pressure for 7 minutes
  4. When it's done, let the steam natural release
  5. Stir everything well and serve it with a finely chopped apple or a fruit of your choice

 

If you need help with weight loss, binge eating, or healthy eating in general, feel free to schedule a consultation with me.

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You can see how I prepare this oatmeal in this video:

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Breaking Free of the Dietar... by TrueNorth Health Center

It becomes emotional. I know not only how THAT feels, but also what you can do to get rid of it.

 

What is binge eating?

Binge eating is characterized by periodic stuffing oneself with large amounts of food, usually calorie-dense foods. Anyone who suspects that they suffer from binge eating will certainly have taken a kind of "test", true to the motto, if you can affirm at least three of the following symptoms, then you probably suffer from a binge eating disorder. The symptoms include eating hastily ("gorging"), eating until you feel very full, eating large amounts of food in a very short time, etc.

 

What are cravings and how is it different from binge eating?

Cravings are a classic conditioning according to Pavlov. I advise you to read the article "Best foods that help against cravings" so that you understand how cravings arise in you and how you can get rid of them.

Binge eating, on the other hand, is only partially conditioned and much more likely to be triggered by dieting, starvation, eating only at certain times, etc. In other words, eating is periodically limited. One of the biggest problems here is that those affected try to be "good" and disciplined after a binge, thinking that they can compensate for the binge with less food. The problem is that this triggers the binge even more.

Binge eating and cravings feel the same. So if you eat enough, but it still ends in a binge, it's not binge eating, it's just cravings that you've trained yourself to have. Our nervous system is programmed to ask for the most calorie-dense food. This is an instinct, but it can be resisted with the right knowledge. Further, this conditioning can fade.

This is often confused. Everyone has or has had cravings at some point in their lives. The problem is that for some it doesn't lead to obesity and for others it does. This, in turn, is due to genetic reasons. This is where it helps to understand what role your genetics play. You can do this by reading the article "What genes reveal about your weight - The solution to weight loss".

 

Why you don't need therapy if you think you have binge eating - The real reason for binge eating

Therapists and clinics have well intentions for the patient but are currently still on the wrong track.

In medicine, it takes decades for new findings to become established. On the one hand, this is due to the highly bureaucratized system and the even more serious reason: the loss of status.

Physicians, therapists, and psychologists have created concepts on certain topics, literature, seminars, and many other methods. If from one day to the next the cause is found which is contrary to the current methods, one's career would be built on a lie, so to speak. This is accompanied by a great loss of status and, on the other hand, one is often inclined to swim in the "confirmation bias" (the tendency to select, determine and interpret information in such a way that it fulfills/confirms one's own expectations).

However, the problem in relation to binge eating and psychology/medicine is a bit more complex. Psychologists and medical professionals are in the pleasure trap themselves, i.e., they eat addictive foods on a daily basis, cannot get away from them, and are unaware of this dilemma.

Therapists, psychologists, and medical professionals try to change you or your attitude instead of the food that is on your plate. We try to moderate "normal" food, meaning food from industrialized countries. Because of genetic differences, some have a healthy body weight as a result, and others who have a different genetic predisposition reach obesity despite trying to moderate addictive foods. And because that's not enough, on top of that they are labeled as having a "mental disorder."

 

Steps to get rid of binge eating and cravings

1. The food must be right (most important point of all)

You can comply with all the points, if you do not comply with this point, then the rest is of no use.

Humans evolve on eating a diet that was based on whole natural unprocessed foods. With the introduction of the refining, the food became more calorie-dense. This means that people eat significantly more calories for the same level of satiety. This, in turn, often leads to obesity. Then one decides to make a diet. This goes well for a while, then comes the big hunger. You can no longer hold yourself back and shovel everything you can find into yourself. Really everything? So I don't know anyone who binge eats with broccoli or onions. Isn't it interesting that it's always very calorie-dense food? Chocolate, pasta, bread, etc.

Show me one person who can't keep themselves down because they have cravings for vegetables and eat kilos of them and are now overweight as a result.

 

2. Only healthy foods in the house

Make sure not to have junk food or other rich food in the house. By none, I mean none. Not even for guests or for other reasons.

3. Stop dieting

Stop limiting food during the day, portioning it because you were "bad" yesterday and binged. Remember, binge eating is a vicious cycle, because every day you try to compensate for the excess by dieting or starving yourself, the new binge is on its way. Break this circle for good!

 

"There is no right amount to eat. There is only the right food to eat." Dr. Doug Lisle

 

4. Stop eating at certain times

Don't force yourself into a corset. If you're hungry at 8 am, eat at 8 am. Just because Harry does Intermittent Fasting and it works for him, it doesn't have to for you. It's not what times we eat, it's what we eat. With the right foods, you'll automatically lose weight and be binge eating safe. Isn't that terrific?

 

Stress Eaters and Binge Eating

The reason you reach for unhealthy foods in emotional moments or stressful situations is not that you had a difficult childhood or you want to compensate for something or wanting to fill a "void." The reason is that in emotional or stressful moments your mind does a cost-benefit analysis.

A healthy diet requires planning, organization, and preparation. When a new job comes up or other stressful life events, priorities shift. This happens subconsciously, of course, and so it is obvious to blame this on the stress itself.

Further, in stressful moments we look for more dopamine. The more calorie-dense a food, the more dopamine is released. Every food releases dopamine, but in different amounts. In particular, highly processed foods enriched with sugar, fat, and salt release the most dopamine. These include flour products, sweets, cheese, etc. Beware: even healthy foods, such as whole-grain bread, nut butter, and dried fruit are very calorie-dense. The only way not to eat these things is not to have them in the house first. This way is so obvious but is almost never considered. A former alcoholic also doesn't have alcohol in the house and portions it out. It is exactly the same with these foods. True to the motto, "What's in your house is in your mouth" - Chief AJ. It's not a question of if you're going to eat these foods, but when. And when you have a stressful moment, you will eat them. You should be familiar with that. When our ancestors had a stressful moment, they may ate more fruits and vegetables. But that doesn't lead to obesity and other health problems. In short, your primal brain calculates what is the best move in your limited lifetime to ensure your survival. Especially in stressful moments, time and energy are limited and it is obvious to reach for the most calorie-dense food because it provides the highest dopamine output in a very short time. Fill your house only with healthy foods. The worst thing that happens is that you stuff yourself with healthy foods. Believe me, this is very hard and hardly ends in extra kilos.

Eating disorders like binge eating have only emerged in our modern environment. A woman wants to be slim, but can't manage it with a conventional diet. She starts to limit the modern addictive foods, the hunger builds up, this ends in uncontrolled bingeing and the game starts all over again.

Bottom line: you're bingeing because what you're eating is wrong or too little. Binge eating has nothing to do with your childhood, stress, or other factors.

 

My personal experience with binge eating

For years I wondered what was wrong with me. What is it about binge eating, do I not have the discipline to moderate myself? I sought help from classical medicine. Their approach: it's because of your childhood. On the one hand, this sounded very relieving at first, on the other hand, it didn't bring me any solution and I felt even more terrible, because, in reverse, it was then up to me, wasn't it?

The first binge went off after months of dieting. After that, they were part of me because I was on a permanent diet for over 13 years. I didn't know it at the time though. I thought the amount I was eating was normal. Today I know that I was permanently eating below my basic caloric needs and that's what caused binges.

This subject is fraught with so much embarrassment and shame. It's obvious, no one wants to show others when they keep stuffing in unsustainably. One day I was so hungry - I was doing Weight Watchers at the time - that I ate dried up rolls out of the trash can that was thankfully still wrapped in the bag. But I certainly would have fished them out of there without the bag for sure. That's how hungry I was. It's clear, my body wants to survive. How can that be related to childhood or stress? And when the body is extremely hungry, it makes more sense for it to eat the most calorie-dense food that is around (in this case the bun) instead of a cucumber.

I attended pointless therapy sessions hoping to get help there. However, most therapists and doctors have virtually no knowledge on the subject of nutrition.

The wrong foods are the only reason for binge eating

The solutions were primitive and I also found it highly unnecessary to bring up things from childhood. These are Freudian approaches that are so outdated. "What are you trying to compensate for?" What did your parents miss to give you?" While these sentences were switching through the room, my stomach was growling. I was getting advice like eat a little bit of everything. Yes, but how, when I always wanted more of that little bit and subsequently gained weight. The majority of doctors still do not understand the principle of the pleasure trap.

It gets emotional when you gain weight from binge eating and from stuffing yourself with unhealthy foods. Binge eating itself triggers emotional problems and not the other way around.

I tortured myself with it for over 13 years. It only stopped after 13 years when I came across a certain approach. Namely, the approach of Dr.Doug Lisle.

From one day to the next, I was satisfied and even lost weight. I thought I could only be done by dieting and starving myself. I was so grateful and at the same time and annoyed why medicine doesn't know about it or ignores it.

I don't know a single person who didn't have childhood problems or any stress. That's Life! I'm not saying I'm not sorry for the bad things that may have happened to you, but these things have nothing to do with emotional eating.

Even if you've eliminated a stressor now, another one will come. You will again have little strength to eat healthy at this time. You can't prevent every stress and fate or change your personality. But what you can change is your environment. You can change what you have in your refrigerator. You can change what you eat.

Sounds hard? Yes, it is hard when 99% of your environment is eating things they shouldn't be eating while you try to do an outstanding job on your health journey. And because they can't get off it themselves, and in some cases don't have the knowledge that you have now, they don't want you to get off it either. But you have a choice to stay stuck in the binge eating cycle.

From experience, I can tell you that the hardest part of changing your diet is not the food itself, on the contrary, but the environment around you. You eat more filling foods than you ever have before, and at the same time, you encounter a lot of resistance from the outside.

During this time of change, people have turned away from me or not understood why I eat the way I do. But you can still tell people why you're doing it and if they don't respect that, then the question is whether you want to be with that person anyway. I also didn't know then what I know now, which is that people are afraid to lose their status if you eat healthy yourself. I made a lot of mistakes in communicating about this. You can find out how to handle social situations around food in the article "Why is eating healthy so difficult and what can you do about it" and in the following video:

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I know this is quite a lot of information at once if the topic is new to you. It may have also raised a lot of new questions. Read through my articles and many questions are sure to be answered.

Since 2014 on a whole foods plant-based diet, I can say it is one of the best experiences I have ever had. Both mentally and physically. I wish the same for you.

Feel free to contact me if you need help with this.

Schedule Appointment

 

Helpful literature:

 

Helpful Videos:

 

You have stuffed yourself and feel ashamed? Then you've come to the right place and things will change for you forever. I promise! But I tell you in advance, it will be EXTREMELY difficult and many will not want to take this step. Anyone who has struggled with this nagging issue knows all too well how bad it feels. This perceived loss of control and feeling of powerlessness. if you stick to the following recommendations, you will get rid of "emotional" eating once and for all. To do that, it's first important to understand why "emotional" eating doesn't exist and what it really is.

 

What "emotional" eating is not

Stress, loneliness, trauma, a difficult childhood, job loss, and all other negative life experiences are not triggers for "emotional" eating. As tragic as these situations may be. "Emotional" eating is also not a venue for emotional struggles or conflict. Nor is it pain that one is trying to mask or compensate for. You don't want to hide anything with the weight you've gained, either. Rather, you are hiding because you no longer find yourself attractive in your own body. Our emotions are signaling devices that show possibilities (happiness) or threats (unhappiness). What they do not do is animate us to eat. That is psychologically and physiologically impossible.

 

Since when the term "emotional" eating exists?

The term "emotional" eating is a construct of our modern world and not a phenomenon of our ancestors. For this reason, it is useful to explore when exactly "emotional" eating found a place in our history. "Emotional" eating began precisely when humans began to modify food, refining it and making it richer. Rich food mainly includes foods that are rich in salt, sugar, and oil. Furthermore, also flour products. This makes the food tastier and triggers even more feelings of happiness in us. However, the human nervous system was never designed to consume the majority of the foods we currently consume. To understand what is behind "emotional" eating, it is first helpful to understand what motivates people.

 

Food and the motivation triad

The following three characteristics motivate people:

  1. The pursuit of pleasure (sex and food)
  2. Avoiding pain: unpleasant feelings of hunger (physical pain) or being ashamed because of our "otherness" (psychological pain)
  3. Saving energy (e.g. eating fast food instead of cooking by ourselves)

Pleasure-gain and pain-avoidance traps put great obstacles in our way in the pursuit of health. However, the third component, the pursuit of energy conservation, is the most difficult of all to avoid the pleasure trap. Humans by nature tend to take the path of least resistance. Our technical development is also based on the principle of energy conservation. Man today, in terms of acquiring goods and services, is 12 times more efficient than he was just a few generations ago. A good example of energy conservation is the story of McDonald's. It was the first fast-food restaurant, which, according to Henry Ford, discovered the assembly line. By the end of the 20th century, an average person could drive to a fast-food restaurant and get an extremely high-fat, high-calorie meal in a very short time without leaving their car. The meal cost only a few dollars, which was only a fraction of the hourly wage of an average worker. There has never been anything like it in the history of mankind. It is a maximization of motivation triad par excellence. These innovations have brought many benefits to our lives, but unfortunately, they have also brought a dilemma to our health and "emotional" eating. We find ourselves in a dietary pleasure trap. Never in history has our food been as delicious as it is today. Unhealthy foods have become the norm. If you refuse to do so, conflicts with colleagues, families, and friends are inevitable. If you choose to eat healthy, you run the risk of being seen as anti-social. It's hard to counter all the culinary temptations. Our energy-saving mechanisms are still deeply rooted in us today and influence many of our everyday decisions. For our nervous system, it makes sense to always eat rich food. It ALWAYS feels good to eat this, regardless of whether we feel happy or unhappy. Above all, unhealthy/rich food - rich in salt, sugar, and oil - is very easily accessible and healthy food is not -> energy conservation! For our ancestors, the path of least resistance was the best that ensured their survival. But for us today this is no longer true, as the world for which the path of least resistance was intended no longer exists. If you are interested in your health and a good life, you often have to go against your own instincts. This is not an easy task, but with a little preparation, the chances of preserving one's physical and psychological integrity increase.

 

What is really behind "emotional" eating

Find out what "emotional" eating really is in the next 7 points:

 1. The Pleasure Trap

The food we eat is too rich and as already explained in the motivation triad, we are trapped and very few people know this. "Emotional" eating is effectively a cover for the pleasure trap. Thin people who tell you you have an emotional problem, which is why you overeat on rich stuff, have genetically fine-tuned satiety mechanisms. The only reason why they don't gain weight and you do. You can find a detailed explanation in the article "What genes reveal about your weight - The solution to weight loss". In fact, it is a much more satisfying explanation to say that someone "broke" us in childhood than to say that what we eat is too rich. This is a defense of one's status that takes place subconsciously. For a more detailed explanation of the pleasure trap, read the article "The Pleasure Trap – Everything in moderation. The myth of moderation".

 2. We are caught in the ego trap

This trap prevents you, among other things, from not reaching for the rich foods. What exactly is behind it in detail, you will learn in the article "The Ego Trap – Why you lack motivation in weight loss".

 3. The human nervous system is an energy conservation machine

I have already explained this concept in more detail in the Motivational Triad section.

 4. Social pressure

Did you know that your peers don't like it when you eat healthy? This is a more complex reason and that's why I recommend you to read the article "Why is eating healthy so difficult and what can you do about it".

 5. Classical conditioning - "emotional" eating is also partly conditioned

You can condition your nervous system to reach towards unhealthy foods in certain situations. For some, it's eating another bar of chocolate in front of the TV in the evening, even though you're full and satiated. There are no emotional reasons for this. At school, you've probably heard about Pavlov's reflex. In one of Pavlov's laboratory experiments, he rang a bell every time he handed food to the dogs. After some time, the bell sound alone was enough to make the dogs salivate. Classic conditioning took place here. The same thing happens to your nervous system when it regularly gets the certain "extras" after food as a "reward." It even goes so far that your nervous system activates the digestion in anticipation of it and gets ready to push another load of sweets afterward. The solution: deconditioning! How exactly does this work? There's no charming way. The way looks like this, by not giving in to those cravings. As with smokers, cravings increase in the first few days, peak at some point, and then decrease after a few weeks. In the first months and weeks, cravings will announce themselves spontaneously. Again, be steadfast.

 6. Every person has instincts that make them crave rich food out of nowhere every now and then

This phenomenon is called "The Cram Circuit". Our ancestors hunted a wild animal about every three weeks, which was richer than everything else they ate. The wild animal could not be stored and had to be consumed immediately. Especially because you also didn't know when the next one was caught. In the video "The Cram Circuit - the story of binge eating and overeating" you will find more details about this. These cravings are only temporary and will pass if you don't indulge in them. This point has similarities with 5 and has the same solution approach: deconditioning!

 7. Environment - It is normal to eat unhealthy foods and have them in the house

Rich food is practically part of good manners. If you don't eat it, you are often excluded from social interactions. This in turn sabotages your own plans to eat healthy.  You can read more about this in the article "Why is eating healthy so difficult and what you can do about it".

 

What makes you think that "emotional" eating is due to stress, trauma, etc.?

Stress is nothing more than time pressure. A new job, trying to exercise more, having a baby, volunteering, etc. all take more time, and often we load ourselves up with more than we can handle to please someone we don't like. This all creates time pressure and under time pressure it leads people to take shortcuts (see motivation triad) and one of them is unhealthy eating. Under stress, people often cut out the important things, like healthy eating. In those moments, reaching for the highest calorie-dense food makes the most sense for your survival instincts. It's easily accessible and inexpensive. Preparing a vegetable dish and boiling potatoes takes more effort. In stressful situations, you end up taking the path of least resistance when you reach for unhealthy stuff. Taking care of a healthy diet is at the bottom of the priority list. Remember, when our ancestors were stressed, they didn't have the option of reaching for the chocolate bar. Stressful situations take you out of your daily routine of making good decisions because your brain is wired for survival at that moment. Stressors are turbulence that disrupts our daily routine. For this reason, your environment is the most important component when it comes to not stuffing unhealthy things into yourself unnecessarily. Stress is part of life, so it is wise to control what stress you can keep away and what you ALWAYS have control over is what you have at home to eat.

The soul screams Snickers - food for the soul

Surely you know the term soul food. What is meant here by soul food is simply the pure dopamine kick. A kick for your nervous system, which is connected to your brain, but your soul has nothing to do with it. Emotionally you feel bad after eating a bunch of unhealthy foods. "People aren't overweight because they have emotional problems. They have emotional problems because they're overweight." - Dr. Doug Lisle. People who think they eat emotionally have a great loss of self-worth. Today's psychology sells the concept of "emotional" eating because it is a boost for the suffering patient. For the moment, it feels good to be told that you eat the way you do for emotional reasons. But that doesn't solve the root cause. The root cause is that our food is way too rich! If one reduces the caloric density of the food, the weight problems solve themselves. When the therapist signals to the patient that his eating behavior is emotionally based, these are status signals, meaning esteem signals, and an excuse for eating rich food. The problem is that the majority of therapists and psychologists are not aware of the effect of the pleasure trap. This is underestimated with devastating consequences. Some people also use "emotional" eating as an excuse for unhealthy eating.

The solution for "emotional" eating

The only way to get out of this situation is to have NOTHING in the house that is unhealthy. By nothing, I mean nothing and nothing for the guests, partner, or anyone else in the household. If family members eat those certain foods, then have them lock them away or don't eat them for your sake. It's a win-win situation for everyone. As you can see, I didn't promise too much when I meant that it is EXTREMELY hard to get out of this pleasure trap. And in parallel, you also get rid of your conditioning when you no longer have rich foods in the house. Internalize that your nervous system is designed to reach to eat the most calorie-dense food. You can be as disciplined as you want, it won't work in the long run. Not a single person reaches for a box of vegetables during stressful moments. No one stuffs themselves with pounds of broccoli after an emotionally unpleasant moment. It's always unhealthy foods. If they're not within reach, you can't stuff yourself with them either. Do yourself a favor the next time you feel like stuffing yourself, reach for veggies, and try eating a pack of carrots or whatever veggies you can get in. Tell me how it was. If you think about it, how insane it actually is to try to treat something based on what's in the refrigerator. Our house would rather need therapy.

What we call "emotional" food is not an emotional problem, but a mathematical one. In other words, the food we eat is too calorie-dense. In this situation, you need the courage to stand firm despite resistance from fellow people who don't want you to eat healthy. If you want to know how to lovingly signal to those around you that you're not eating these things anymore, I recommend reading the article "Why is eating healthy so difficult and what you can do about it".

Whew, that was a lot of information, right? I don't want you to feel bad or to minimize your trauma. I am heartily sorry for what happened to you in childhood or otherwise. However, this is not the reason for your eating problem. Rather, it will help you if you now know the real reason for it. I have been successfully out of the pleasure trap since 2014. I know all the tips and tricks for this and learned them from Dr. McDougall, a physician, and Dr. Doug Lisle, a psychologist, among others. I wish there was a more charming solution, but this is the only true and long-term one. In my free guide, you'll learn about all the foods you can eat and even lose weight. You will receive it after signing up for the newsletter. To end it in the words of Dr. Lisle, "You need to work harder on your environment than you do on yourself!" Behind every dark cloud, there is light in sight.

I look forward to helping you turn your life, completely around to a healthy one. I am sure that you will feel better emotionally and get more strength in difficult moments.

Feel free to contact me if you need help with this.

Schedule Appointment

 

Sources and recommended books:

 

The Ego Trap is a concept by Dr. Doug Lisle and is a partner in crime by the pleasure trap and usually goes hand in hand with it. Understanding the dynamics behind it will help you to fix not only the food issues in terms of healthy eating and weight loss but also the psychological dynamics behind it.

When we are up to something challenging in life, our ego gets in the way. Any version of the ego trap is a situation where the expectations others have towards us are higher than you actually have for yourself. A classic example of this is when you communicate to your environment that you are making a dietary change to lose weight.
Now everyone expects that you can do it, because hey, it can't be that hard to lose weight, right? But unfortunately, the majority of people don't know, no matter how slim they are, that we are all in the pleasure trap. The modern food we eat is too calorie-dense for us and impossible to moderate. Even if the majority thinks to do so. A lot of people - naturally slim - are so not because they are disciplined, but because they have the genetics and are equipped with a much more sensitive satiety mechanism, which signals them earlier to be satisfied after eaten a certain amount of food. And yet, they too cannot resist the majority of western food.

Satiety is a very natural mechanism, if you try to control it, it is like trying to portion breathing. But achieving natural satiety only works if we eat what is right for us. Most of our modern food is not. But very few people know that, and that's why we're all in the pleasure trap. Now that those around you know about your new venture, you stand in an arena where everyone is watching you and all of your slip-ups.
These people either have a high opinion of you and/or think it can be done easily after all, but your expectations are more realistic and below that. Since humans have lived in small groups (20-200 people) for millions of years, it is extremely important to them what their environment thinks of them and/or what appreciation signals they receive from them.

If you don't make it, you feel very bad because it comes with a loss of status. If you don't do your best, you can't be criticized. Therefore, it makes sense for your nervous system to not try to maintain the persisting status. That's why many don't lose weight or try to eat healthy. They set the goal too high. This is a classic example of the ego trap. Projects in life are doomed to fail if we set the goal too high, such as: "I'll never eat junk food again."

 

How does motivation works in weight loss?

It works through a cost-benefit analysis in our minds. This is designed by nature not to try something challenging first. Because if you don't try something, you have nothing to lose. By the way, the ego trap does not only apply to losing weight but in all areas of life.

Many parents with good intentions are unconsciously catapulting their children into an ego trap, for example when they shower their offspring with compliments about how great they are and how they will become the next Beethoven or the next Einstein. And to top it off, the parents tell everyone they know how smart their offspring is. This is a classic case of the ego trap. The expectations placed on the child are unrealistically high, and the child knows it. He knows very well that he is not the next Mozart and that his own ability is well below that.

The result: the child learns the musical instrument only half-heartedly or for an upcoming exam, etc., because it feels it cannot meet the expectations.

Parents and friends mean well when they praise you highly, but unfortunately, it is often the wrong tactic to motivate us to start something challenging or difficult. The result: you start several times, only to quit again because you never live up to the expectations.

This is a classic case for procrastination. Someone - dead or alive - gave us the signal to get XY done, but we only got 80% of it done because 80% is the limit of our personal abilities. Your intuition tells you that you can only get it done under the expectation of others. This puts us in a motivation trap. Because your possibility is below the expectation. You lose status because of that and it hurts!

 

Status and esteem - another word for ego

"That was good for my ego" or "that was not good for my ego." Ego is the word we use when we receive appreciation or status feedback from others. Ego is just another word for it. For this reason, our instinct signals us not to start a certain goal when to bar is set too high.

Examples when we use the word ego but status/esteem is meant: You applied for five jobs and only got rejections. You tell your friends and say, "That really hurt my ego." The school crush, all the girls are into him, flirts with Susi and she tells her friends, "Ladies, that was good for my ego."

The conventional and common recommendations are unrealistic when it comes to losing weight. There is something else important to consider here. Alcohol, cigarettes, and our modern food are so stimulating that it is very difficult to get rid of them. You are not only in the ego trap but also in the pleasure trap. Losing weight in itself is already a difficult undertaking and with the additional pleasure trap even more. When we aspire for something higher, it is because we want status signals from others. This is a subconscious process that you are not aware of when you want to lose weight, for example.

 

A helpful strategy for your weight loss motivation

Instead of aiming for 100%, it is more helpful to aim for 80%. Create daily micro-goals. The "Starch Targets" by Dr. Doug Lisle are a useful tool for this. You try to check off 80% of these small goals every day.

Example:

Daily Targets Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Starch breakfast
Starch lunch
Starch dinner
Fruit
Salad
Exercise

 

Set the bar somewhere between low and too high

When we think we can gain more status or esteem from others by trying to start something, and even if we don't succeed, we feel we don't lose much in the process. This is a perfect situation where we get very excited about the prospect. The best approach in this situation is not to tell your environment that you want to lose weight. If they ask you because, for example, they notice your new diet, say that you are trying something new and see how it goes.
This way, you don't set the bar high, and those around you don't have any expectations of you, because you're signaling from the start that you might not make it. But it's a boost for your motivation, because what do you have to lose?

 

The internal audience, a driver for motivation when losing weight

Each of us has a kind of internal audience. You know the inner voice, for example, when you have to study for an exam and instead of studying for four hours you only studied for two, this inner voice turns on and you know exactly that you did a lousy performance. Or that great feeling when you accomplished your morning workout routine and the inner voice tells you, "Well done!". That inner voice is a fair mechanism. It reflects exactly what you're doing. If you did a great job at whatever, you get positive feedback from your internal audience, and if you did a bad job, you get bad feedback. These trophies from your internal audience don't come for free. Say, as it is often made believe in many motivational coachings and seminars à la Tonny Robbins. You can't trick your internal audience. This mechanism is dynamic and not considered in most of today's psychology.

 

Other examples of the internal audience

Do you know this feeling, for example, when you are doing something, singing, or doing something good for others, and you imagine how you get positive feedback from very specific people for that?
You catch yourself doing it and sometimes even feel embarrassed that you have such motives, but that's exactly what your inner voice is. It craves appreciation ;-).

Whether it's real or not, your inner voice doesn't care. Because we are social creatures, we desire positive feedback from those around us. That's what makes us happy. Another example is the feeling when your apartment is messy and you feel great about it when you've tidied up, even though you're not expecting guests the next few days? This is the inner voice sending you positive feedback regarding your tidying up. It imagined what it would be like if others saw your mess and motivated you to clean up.

Of course, this all happens subconsciously. Even if you haven't lost 10 pounds after a week, but you've accomplished 80% of your goals, your internal audience will signal positive feedback. That feels great and that's the key to what motivates you to keep going. So instead of relying on feedback from others to motivate you, be more sensitive to feedback from your internal audience.
Shift your focus from how much appreciation you get from the outside regarding your goal to how much appreciation you get from your internal audience.

Side note: Few people know that you can only lose around 50 grams of fat per day. Everything else is just water or stool. Losing weight is a marathon, not a sprint! Do you know what can actually be helpful in terms of healthy eating? You plan for failure. This will be different for everyone because everyone has a different starting point.

However, it's also important not to set your goal too low or you won't achieve your maximum success. Relapse is part of the recovery is a famous quote by Alcoholics Anonymous and according to Dr. Jen Howk also applicable in terms of healthy eating.

As once said by the famous basketball coach John Wooden, "Focus on the process and not the outcome. We don't care about winning, because success comes from knowing you did the best you could." Or as Daniel Coyle says, "If you want to learn new things, you have to love making mistakes."

 

Feel free to contact me if you need help with this.

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Sources:

Dr. Doug Lisle on the Ego Trap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCVGtK85WBw

Beat Your Genes Podcast – Episode 161: Explaining the Ego Trap 1 of 2

  Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Have you ever wondered why women care so much about their body weight? I bet you have a very specific number in mind when it comes to your comfort weight. "Health at Every Size" and many other movements in this direction are wonderful but don't quite correspond to the truth. These movements have a very good intention but do not change the fact that for women, their body weight is an important indicator of personal wellness. I even know women who weigh themselves daily. The psychologist Dr. Lisle calls them the Weigh-Monkeys. Why is that?

A woman's body weight is an important indicator of her mate value. It sounds harsh, it is, but it is not my concept, it is the concept of nature that has evolved over many millions of years. The whole spectacle takes place subconsciously, of course. Men also pay attention to their weight, but on average much less, because it does not have the same importance for women. Beauty is strongly defined by body weight and body shape. This is universally the case in the world. Our ancestors thought a heavier woman meant she was pregnant. A pregnant woman was no longer available to the mating market. Men looked out for slim women because that signaled singlehood to them.

 

Waist to Hip Ration – an indicator of attractiveness and health

According to Buss (2019, pp. 139-141), healthy reproductive women have a WHR (waist-to-hip ratio) between 0.67 and 0.80. In men, the fat distribution is slightly different, ranging from 0.85 to 0.95 for healthy men. Women with a higher WHR have more difficulties becoming pregnant, and those who do become pregnant become pregnant later than women with a low WHR.

The WHR is also an indicator of long-term health. Diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, heart attack, stroke, and gallbladder dysfunction are related to body fat distribution, not total body fat per se. Regardless of body fat, men find women with a lower WHR most attractive.

Women with a WHR of 0.70 are considered more attractive than women with a WHR of 0.80, who in turn are considered more attractive than women with a WHR of 0.90. Thus, a lower WHR signals health and attractiveness. Although models and beauty queens have become somewhat slimmer over the decades, their WHR has remained about the same at 0.70.

Example:

With a waist size of 75 cm and a hip size of 95 cm, that makes 0.79. So you are still in the healthy range. The well-known 90-60-90 has a WHR of 0.67. So you can see that there is still a lot of room for 0.80. Nobody needs this ratio to be healthy and to be considered attractive, although a low value is considered particularly attractive.

Fat distribution is also genetically determined, but with a healthy diet, a ratio of a WHR up to 0.80 is possible.

 

Genetic differences in body weight

According to Plomin (2019, pos. 1947-1948), three genotypes influence body weight. AA, AT, and TT are what they named. Adults with the AT genotype weigh three pounds more on average than TT genotypes, and people with the AA genotype weigh six pounds more on average than TT genotypes.

genotype weight difference compared to TT percentage of people
AA 6 pounds 15
AT 3 pounds 50
TT - 35

Under the same conditions, these three people weigh differently. The AA genotype has a particularly hard time losing weight because it stores fat very easily. According to Plomin (2019, pos. 2001), the A allele (allele: a functional form of a gene) used to be needed to store fat reserves for bad days - of which there were many.

The A allele reduces the extent to which we feel full and satiated after eating. The problem today, however, is that we live with a stone-age body in a modern world where there is plenty of highly processed food on every corner.

Thus, if you eat the classic diet, like most of those around you, the average weight can't just be 6 pounds more, but 60 pounds more for the AA genotype than the TT genotype. This is because our food has become more calorie-dense than humans ate over millions of years. This includes all processed foods, such as oil, sugar, and flour products.

For your understanding, no one is genetically destined to be overweight. The problem is the caloric density of what we eat. Thus, it depends on what we eat and not how much. But not everyone achieves a model weight with a healthy diet. However, one manages to reach a weight that is within the healthy BMI.

It's a shame when people with lean genetics point the finger at overweight people. It's like discriminating against someone smaller than average. But if some are overweight and no one is destined to be, why are they? As mentioned before, it's because of what we eat. Our food has never been as rich and unhealthy as it is today. If everyone ate what our ancestors ate, the problem would not exist.

 

Unrealistic goals in terms of body weight

Many women set their weight loss goal or the desired body weight unrealistically high. This demotivates and therefore everything is thrown overboard again. The reason for this is the ego trap. I’ll explain this concept in detail in the article “The Ego Trap – Why you lack motivation in weight loss".

That all sounds hard, doesn't it? I think so too, but it's not my opinion of it. I wish it were different. My opinion on this is to shift the perspective a bit. No one needs to have model measurements of 90-60-90. Medical professionals recommend keeping the WHR below 0.80 to minimize the risk of the above diseases. This should be the main motivator for you. If you weigh yourself daily, then move it to once a month for three days in a row and take the average from that. For one thing, this is much more meaningful than weighing yourself daily, furthermore, it can demotivate you to weigh yourself daily. Nobody loses weight overnight. It is a slow process.

An alternative approach

"Healthy at Every Size" is a good approach in that our human value should not be determined by a number or our appearance. But this approach forgets the health risk and human nature. A movement will not stop this process that has evolved over millions of years.

I would rather call it "Worth at Every Size." Of course, even a very slim person can get sick, but this is about diseases that are promoted by excess fat. The other extreme is body shaming, which is a shame. Rather, awareness should be raised that even being slightly overweight increases the likelihood of various diseases. I've been thinking about writing something on this topic for a while because it's very sensitive. It is associated with a lot of shame among those affected.

I would like to take that away because being overweight has nothing to do with intelligence or discipline. I know firsthand what it's like when all the "skinny" people around you have never dieted, but position their opinion onto you without having the slightest clue.

We used to compete with the village princess or the local hero, now we compete with thousands of village princesses on social media every day. We feel inferior as a result and lose sight of ourselves and, above all, what our ideal biological weight is. Even if the desire to be slim is deeply rooted in us to be more attractive for the partner market, with this knowledge we can direct our focus more on health.

Today, thanks to the latest research, we know that genetics is a major factor in our weight, which can only be corrected with the right diet and not with willpower or discipline. With a whole food plant-based diet suitable for the individual, without counting calories, but eating as much as you want, you can make it to a healthy weight.

 

If you need help with weight loss, binge eating, or healthy eating in general, feel free to schedule a consultation with me.

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Sources:

 

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It sounds primitive, but our deepest instinct is to look for food and sex all day long. This happens subconsciously, of course, and is not an addiction. We have the desire to survive (food) and to reproduce (sex). In our ancestor's environment, without much interference, this worked well. It only becomes an addiction when disruptive factors enter the playing field.

The new disruptors: media, unhealthy food, and alcohol

Our ancestors were not exposed to supernormal stimuli such as processed food, alcohol, and permissive media. They got their feelings of happiness (including dopamine and endorphin) from natural foods and ordinary sex. The disruptive factors release abnormally high levels of happiness, which can quickly lead to addiction. The problem with this, however, is that there is a tolerance threshold. Unhealthy food, alcohol, and a perceived overabundance of attractive people have become normal. It is socially acceptable.

 

Sex on every corner

A male ancestor was exposed to a dozen attractive women at most. Today, within one click, one is exposed to thousands of attractive people, especially women. This gives us the feeling of having a lot of choices. In a study conducted, men were shown pictures of very attractive women. They were then asked to rate the attractiveness of their wives. They were perceived and rated as less attractive after they were shown the pictures than before the pictures. It's much the same with most of our food and alcohol these days.

Unhealthy food on every corner

It is a difficult endeavor these days to eat healthy in a society where drinking alcohol and celebrating joy with unhealthy food is considered good manners. Those who choose a healthy way of life will face a lot of headwinds. Especially from loving people. Why this is so, you will learn in the article "Why is eating healthy so difficult and what can you do about it?".

 

What are addictive foods?

Anything that is highly processed and refined. This includes all flour products, sugar, oil, and alcohol. Whole food plant-based food like vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds and best for humans. These were the main food sources of our ancestors, with a small amount of lean meat.

 

What your personality has to do with a healthy life path

According to the Big Five personality model, if you don't have a strong conscientiousness (describes the degree of self-control, accuracy, and purpose), it's very hard to follow a healthy diet, not drink alcohol, and not fall into the Tinder pie in our modern environment. We are different and that is fine. However, one with a different personality finds it very difficult to eat healthy in our environment. Our personality is genetically determined and this determines how we react towards external stimuli (food, sex, and alcohol). It is not our environment that shapes our character. Also, the nervous system of some people, genetically determined, is much more sensitive to addictive foods.

 

You have to work harder on the environment than on yourself

Contrary to the current zeitgeist, in the case of unhealthy food, it means working harder on your environment than on yourself. Our brain is constantly doing a cost-benefit analysis. If you live across the street from a liquor store and are susceptible to alcohol, don't try to consume alcohol in moderation, move! If you want to eat healthy or lose weight, then NONE of the processed foods should be in the house. After all, the question is not whether you eat the things you have in the house, but when. No discipline in this world will stop you. We try to moderate a problem (alcohol and junk food) or even get therapy for it, for something our primal brain was never designed for. Do you know anyone who locks themselves in their home for days on end and stuffs kilos of vegetables down their throat? It's always processed food. Why have something at home that triggers you? You're just making it harder on yourself than it already is. We are trying to heal something that is not "broken" or sick.

 

People suffer in vain. They think there is something wrong with them because they can't resist unhealthy food or alcohol. It is a dilemma.

Keep the moderation

You can moderate in many areas of life, but you cannot moderate demonstrably addictive stimulants. No living thing in the world can do that, even animals can't, and pets are the only overweight animals because of it. We are the only species that invented addictive foods and therefore the only one that can remove them from our immediate environment. This is the only sustainable and permanent solution if you are addicted to alcohol and want to eat healthy. No one is immune to it. Even if you are slim and drink alcohol only once in a while. Because if you were, you wouldn't need the stuff only once in a while. So there is nothing wrong with you and the majority of us will always have a problem with alcohol and unhealthy food. But only as long as you don't free your environment from it. You should readjust your "what-is-normal-parameter" for yourself. Your fellow men will not do it. Quite the opposite. Look around you. The supermarket is 90% filled with unhealthy stuff. It is normal to eat unhealthy and drink alcohol. It's natural to normalize something because we've gotten used to it. We legitimize a latent addiction. This is not a personal accusation, because the majority of people are in this pleasure trap without knowing it. Because we are social creatures, the opinions of others are very important to us. It feels uncomfortable to be ridiculed or even ostracized when you choose a healthy way, without alcohol and processed foods. However, there are loving ways you can deal with those around you in this case. The bottom line on addiction: correct your environment, not yourself. This you can control, but not who you are, meaning your DNA.

 

If you need help with weight loss, binge eating, or healthy eating in general, feel free to schedule a consultation with me.

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Recommended literature:

The Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Hidden Force That Undermines Health & Happiness

 

Photo by Miguel Andrade on Unsplash

 

Weight loss is the main goal of the Western population. In a study conducted in the U.S., if given the choice between getting their child through high school or personally losing weight, the majority chose weight loss. That's how urgent the desire is to lose weight is.

The desire to lose weight is so great because weight because it interferes with other areas of our life. It's a highly sensitive topic and I don't want to hurt anyone with it. I just want to explain how obesity happens and what you can do about it.

Being overweight has nothing to do with intelligence, lack of discipline, or willpower, as it's often still assumed. It runs through all social classes because everyone has the same nervous system and everyone is in the pleasure trap.

Money, money, money

The weight-loss market is a billion-dollar business and there are hardly any other topics on which more books have been written. And yet no one seems to have found the solution.

The majority of weight loss programs are not interested in telling you the truth. That's why there are programs like Weight Watchers, Paleo Diet, etc.

Only two to five percent of people who lose weight can keep it off permanently. The question is not whether we lose weight, which can also be done with a chocolate diet, but whether it is possible to keep the weight permanently off. There is a solution to keep it off permanently, but it is quite unattractive. Very few people are willing to go down this path.

The only solution to keep the weight off

The solution is to eat whole unprocessed foods with a low-calorie density. This includes vegetables, fruits, grains, and legumes. Virtually everything that Mother Nature provides. This corresponds to the calorie density that our ancestors ate. This allows us to reach a naturally healthy weight that we can maintain without worrying (we're not talking about unrealistic body ideals inspired by social media, though).

 

Doctors’ advice

People prefer to hear good news about their bad habits. When cigarettes were still in vogue, doctors even advised their patients to smoke. Cigarettes were supposed to refresh the lungs and be healthy for the gums. Needless to say, this message was received with enthusiasm. Keep in mind, this wasn't that long ago. Doctors don't learn anything in medical school about a healthy diet and what effects it has on our health. We find ourselves in an information overload of recommendations on this subject.

Ärztefehler

Image source: JS Design

What did our ancestors eat?

They ate mainly plants and every few weeks hunted meat, which was only roundabout 3-15% fat. The meat today has a fat content of around 30-40% on average. The question of weight problems did not arise with our ancestors, because the food they ate automatically provided a natural weight.

Furthermore, until not so long ago, the main problem of mankind was starvation. Humans spent a large part of their time just on the procurement of food. Nowadays, in industrialized society, it's the other way around.

Did you know that far more people die from a food surplus than from a food shortage?

 

Our taste buds - The treasure detectors

Think of your taste buds as a treasure detector. The richer the treasure (food), the more your taste buds like it. But not all that glitters is gold. Because in the case of this treasure, it makes us sick and overweight in the long run.

 

Our nervous system was created to seek the most calorie-dense, rich food because that's what helped us to survive for millions of years. Hunger was their daily companion. It was thus much more efficient for the body to demand the most calorically dense food when food was scarce to create a calorie reserve.

 

Man has not changed, but his environment has. The modern world has created modern food. Rich food is available on every corner, at every celebration, three times a day in the majority of households. Just because there's rich food 24/7 available doesn't mean your nervous system is suddenly reversed. We're kind of walking around with a Stone Age brain in a modern environment.

 

Your nervous system must fight

If you want to eat healthy in an environment with a surplus of rich food, it's a lot of work for your Stone Age nervous system to withstand. Your instincts will tell you it's not the right way strategically, even if your mind tells you otherwise.

 

Your energy conservation instinct will tell you not to take the healthy way, but rather the easiest way. That would be, for example, driving through the drive-through instead of cooking yourself, chewing as little as possible, reaching for sweets instead of fruit. Anything that is somehow easier and faster to consume is beneficial to survival.

 

Human motivation always follows three principles: 1. seeking for pleasure; 2. avoiding pain (getting rid of the unpleasant feeling of hunger); 3. saving energy (e.g. fast food). When food no longer corresponds to its origin, this is a permanent stimulus overload of the nerves. This cannot be trained either.

 

Unhealthy food is available on EVERY corner, for little money, in a short time and as much of it as you want. Our ancestors were never exposed to such a situation, quite the opposite. Getting enough food was the main survival problem of mankind.

 

Sugar, salt, and oil

Our reward system is created to activate only the sweet, salt or fat receptors. Our conventional diet activates all three of these mechanisms simultaneously. This is a supernormal stimulus to our nervous system.

 

You are effectively trying to fight your number one survival instinct when you tell it not to eat the bread (salt) with butter (fat) and jam (sugar).

 

In nature, no food contains all three at the same time. You can be the most conscientious and disciplined person on the planet, your nervous system is immediately activated when it smells the toast aromas as you walk by the pizzeria.

 

Gorging on vegetables

Obesity is found in all social classes because everyone has the same nervous system and everyone is in the pleasure trap.

This problem, to which we are exposed every day, is not natural. The problem of making food tastier and tastier has not existed for so long in the history of mankind.

We reward with our western diet, drugs, alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine our pleasure centers, which are actually for survival or reproduction.

Unfortunately, overweight people are often portrayed as undisciplined and self-indulgent. But that is not the problem. Nor is it a difficult childhood, emotional problems, or anything like that. The problem is our unnatural diet. This is a dilemma. You try to change the person and their nervous system (neither of which works) instead of the food itself, what's on the plate.

No one reaches for a bag of carrots in a crisis or when they are stressed. It's always high calorie-dense food. I'd like to meet the person who stuffs themselves with broccoli, kale, and carrots while crying in bed in these situations. If that were the case, we would look like carrots ourselves after every crisis.

Why some people are slim with the conventional, western diet, you will find out in the article "What genes reveal about your weight – The solution to weight loss."

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Every living being carries this nervous system within itself. Even animals become overweight and sick if they are exposed to supernormal nutrition, such as treats. Also, their nervous system is not able to keep moderation. There is no gazelle in nature that considers whether to consume one or two blades of grass. If it were faced with deep-fried blades of grass, it would be exposed to a problem that did not exist until now.

 

A magic pill - The solution to the problem

I wish there was a magic pill or a more charming solution. My work colleague at the time and I dreamed about how you could eat everything by each having 8 pounds of food per day. Everything would have the same amount of calories and you would only gain weight if you eat beyond that.

In fact, with whole unprocessed foods from nature, you can eat several pounds without gaining weight. No portion control is necessary. The feeling of hunger and satiety works without interference. It's like peeing. Everyone has a satiety mechanism, but it only works optimally with food designed for people.

No positive self-affirmations, meditation, looking in the mirror and saying, "I can do this!"; in other words, no new age pop-psychology will help you achieve a healthy weight. It takes work and not everyone is born with naturally slim genes.

 

You cant do it

If you are alarmed, motivated, and smart enough, and fortunately have heard about this encouraging message and know which direction you want to go, then you are on the right path.

But why does this path - doing the right thing - feel so hard? When you do the wrong thing, it feels good, and when you do the right thing, it feels wrong. Because with healthy eating, your instinct does a 180-degree turn. Don't think that it has anything to do with your willpower or that anything else is wrong with you or something is "broken" in your psychology. The reason why a diet of natural origin (i.e. whole, unprocessed foods) is difficult to implement is that it requires us to go directly against instinct. It's sort of like learning to drive the car backward. Can you do it? Yes. But driving backward up a hill is a nightmare! Choosing not to eat the modern Western diet, in this case, is driving backward up a hill for your nervous system.

In one experiment, rats were given junk food. After a few weeks, they were given their natural food again. How did the rats respond? They didn't touch it for two weeks, drank only water, and gave the feeding hand a withering look.

 

Progression of happiness from highly calorically dense food to whole foods

The Pleasure Trap Graph

In relation to our modern-day processed diet, neuroadaptation (which describes the activity of our nerves as well as an adaptation performance) runs largely just like drug addiction. Tolerance occurs. The difference with drugs is that they irreversibly destroy the regulatory circuit of our pleasure production. Food cannot do that. However, to re-sensitize to whole natural food requires 30-90 days of abstinence from processed foods. This requires more self-discipline than most are willing to muster. However, most are also unaware that this only takes a few weeks/months.

People oftentimes assume that food is as addictive as alcohol or drugs. In reality, it’s not.

Alcohol can take a year or more to get stable, and other drugs often longer. The lure of processed foods is not in that league. It’s much more like getting away from coffee. It usually takes several weeks of determination, but in a month or two most people are in pretty good shape.

 

The most effective approaches to taste addiction

 

1) Knowledge

The knowledge that the taste buds adapt to whole natural foods within a few weeks is the most important point. To maintaining health, one must accept only a minimal period of taste loss.

2) Starvation for a short period of time

We are used to eating before we feel hungry. If natural foods don't appeal to you, then wait until you feel hungry. Our ancestors were used to being hungry regularly. That little bit of hunger does not harm but ensures that even the last carrot in the corner becomes more attractive. Because, as we all know, if you're hungry, everything tastes good.

3) Mono diet

Drink a mix of vegetable and fruit juice, e.g. carrot and apple, for two or three days. An alternative is to eat only one food, such as watermelon, for two to three days. This removes the salt and fat and activates only the sugar receptors. This helps the taste buds perceive natural food as tasty again.

This ladies and gentlemen is the only solution to weight management and healthy eating. Very few are willing to go down this path.

If you are, feel free to contact me.

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Note: Parts of the text are a summary of a lecture by Dr. Lisle and the chapter "Magic Food" from his book "The Pleasure Trap".

 

Sources:

Someday I'll pickle my shoes in vinegar. For now, I'll stick with pickled onions. Do you love pickled stuff as much as I do? The more vinegary the flavor, the better. An easy way to give your dish that extra spice is to serve it with pickled onions. They go well with all kinds of dishes, just try them out!

Pickled things not only taste good, but they are also easy and quick to make.

Ingredients for pickled onions:

 

Preparation:

  1. Chop the onions into small pieces or cut them into thin strips
  2. Bring all ingredients, except for the onions, to a boil
  3. Once water is boiling, add onions and remove the pot from the hot stovetop. The onions do not need to be cooked
  4. Put the onions, including the liquid, in a preserving jar and let them steep for at least 15 minutes before eating them

 

If you need help with weight loss, binge eating, or healthy eating in general, feel free to schedule a consultation with me.

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Maybe you often hear that cravings indicate a deficiency. That's pretty far out the window, and I'll explain why.

Most of our foods today, are so highly processed that our nervous system gets greater pleasure satisfaction from them than nature intended. What happens in the brain when we eat bread, chocolate, and similar foods? More dopamine is released. Especially more than with unprocessed foods such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes. As a result, unprocessed foods no longer taste as good to us, and that's why we eat less of them.

 

Reasons for cravings

The reason you have cravings for pizza or chocolate is quite simple. The nervous system demands foods that provide the quickest pleasure satisfaction, as well as those with the highest calorie density. Until recently, mankind's main problem was getting enough food. Hunger was the order of the day. Thus, it made sense for our ancestors to crave the most calorie-dense foods because they didn't know how long it would take to find the next food source. One ate in stock, so to speak.

Over millions of years, our bodies have adapted to their environmental condition, in this case, food scarcity. Today, the opposite is true. We have an abundance of food. Not only that, the food we consume is too calorie-dense for us.

Because we eat so much processed food, the foods originally intended for us no longer taste as good. Vegetables get spiked with oil to get them down. You probably know this when you eat candy and then a piece of fruit. The fruit doesn't taste as sweet as it should.

Do you get cravings for vegetables on a regular basis? Probably not. Surely more likely to crave unhealthy things, right? The more you consume these processed foods, the more you crave them. The same pleasure centers are triggered in the brain as with drugs, cigarettes, and other stimulants. Although not in the same strength, strong enough to have an impact on your nervous system in the form of cravings.

 

Classical conditioning

Your nervous system is conditioned to it when you regularly eat the certain extras. If you reduce or completely eliminate processed foods, the cravings will go away. However, it can happen from time to time that it flares up. This is called spontaneous recovery. Your nervous system never forgets the taste explosion of high-calorie food.

However, cravings will occur less and less often the longer you don't eat processed foods. Why is that? You've probably heard of the Pavlovian reflex, which describes classical conditioning. You can find the exact explanation in this article: The most common mistakes in weight loss under point 6) Indulging in cravings.

 

Vegetables that help with cravings

To prevent cravings, there is one food group that does it best. Green vegetables! Especially:

The greener, the better in the fight against cravings. Green vegetables contain a substance called thylakoid, which turns off the hunger switch and helps fight cravings for unhealthy foods. A pound of vegetables that have no starch has fewer calories than a tablespoon of olive oil.

 

Vegetable Challenge

Eat at least 1–2 pounds of vegetables every day and see what happens. It doesn't have to be just green vegetables by any means. Fill half your plate with starches (potatoes, brown rice, legumes, etc.) and the other with vegetables. This will make a huge difference in your craving levels and on the scale if you have weight to lose.

For example, you could have a big salad with rice for lunch and vegetable soup with potatoes in the evening.

 

Your perspective on cravings

A pound of vegetables sounds like more than it is. That's because vegetables contain a lot of water. When my husband and I were RVing for several months, we had to empty our camping toilet three times as often as anyone else for that reason. It was so heavy that sometimes I was afraid my husband would fall into the abyss along with the poo. 10 pounds just has to go into the abyss 😉

Don't let the crowd scare you off. It's helpful to change your mindset when it comes to cravings. Put the right perspective on this situation. You are eliminating the unhealthy foods from your life on one hand, which feels more like a loss at first - however, you are now eating more fruits and vegetables. So it is easier to try to eat more fruits and vegetables every day because you will automatically eat less unhealthy things.

 

It is not how much we eat, but what we eat that counts

Our ancestors ate a diet with a caloric density of about 500 calories per pound. In total, they ate about 4–5 pounds per day, which equates to about 2000–2500 calories at a caloric density of 500 kcal/pound. The average person today eats between 3–5 pounds of food, according to Barbara Rolls. The big difference, however, is in what is eaten. Food today averages 720–820 calories/pound. The result: obesity, constipation, disease, etc. For optimal health and weight management, your daily caloric intake should be under 600 calories per pound.

It is important to fill up on vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes every day. Definitely don't limit them. What you cut back on these foods will show up as cravings after a few weeks at the latest, and you'll end up with exactly what you didn't want to eat in the first place. If you keep this up, then cravings will be reduced to a minimum.

 

Chewing is good

It's unusual to eat a lot of vegetables in the beginning because raw vegetables in particular require a high level of your chewing ability.

Our jaws are designed to chew a lot. Did you know that one of the main reasons we have cavities is because our food has become too soft? Smoothies, buns, cakes, pasta, and the like are all soft foods. We love soft things because humans conserve energy when they chew less. And we humans are masters at saving energy.

If we wanted to have a more pronounced chewing bar à la Brad Pitt, we should have nibbled more carrots ;-).

 

Pimp up my Veggies

Especially in the beginning, when you're not used to eating a lot of vegetables yet, you can prepare them in a versatile way to make them taste better. If you bake the vegetables in the oven, it intensifies the flavor. A salad is catapulted in taste to another level by a good (oil-free!) dressing, e.g. Caesar dressing.

What's your favorite green vegetable or which one should become your favorite in the future?

Don't forget: eat your greens!

 

If you need help with weight loss, binge eating, or healthy eating in general, feel free to schedule a consultation with me.

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Sources

Asp, Karen (2019), Losing Weight on a Plant-Based, Vegan Diet: Tips for Success viewed on 01/21/2019 from https://www.forksoverknives.com/vegan-plant-based-diet-weight-loss-diet-tips/#gs.t3bxw2

Wikipedia, Volumetrics Diät, viewd on 01/21/2019 from https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volumetrics-Di%C3%A4t