April 1st
Diets DO NOT work! They actually cause weight gain.
Diets foster a lifestyle of deprivation and if we severely restrict our caloric intake and deny ourselves the pleasure of savoring foods we love, we build resentment and then turn to food to soothe our emotions. The intention is not to diet but to strive for balance.
April 2nd
Seeking instant gratification leads to overeating followed by punishing periods of deprivation – starving ourselves alternating with stuffing our bodies until we fall upon our beds at night like beached whales. The goal is to feel good about yourself as you learn to use your intuitive guidance system to set your own standards for your health and well-being.
April 3rd
Most people, mainly women, are confused and hold fast to the perfectionist self-expectations that have led them to fail again and again. We can strive for perfection but we will inevitably wind up feeling like failures if we hold perfection as a goal we “should” or “must” attain.
April 4th
You are perfect just as you are. You will not, however, ever be able to behave “perfectly” in every instance. No lifetime can ever conform to our image of unrealistic perfection. We must learn to accept this.
April 5th
There is no single answer. It is about more than simply calories in/calories out. Creating peace, balance and ideal weight requires that we address our entire being – our physical, emotional social and spiritual selves.
April 6th
Reality is we do know what to do. The answers lie deep within us, but the barrage of messages we receive confuses us and we end up eating for emotional reasons. We can find our own answers and empower ourselves to act in our own best interests.
April 7th
We must make ourselves number one on our list of people to care for. It only makes sense that we do so. The better we attend to ourselves, the better we feel. The more positive thoughts you have, the more positive you feel and the more positive experiences and feelings you will attract to yourself.
April 8th
If you are living your life in service of everyone else and neglecting yourself, you are telling yourself that you do not deserve to be treated as well as the others. You are telling yourself that you are not important and somewhere deep inside you know that you are!
April 9th
Being self-loving means attending to your own needs. Making yourself as important – not less or more important – but as important as everyone else. Give yourself the best of care. Treat yourself well and lavish yourself with attention.
April 10th
Being selfish does not feel good — being self-loving does. Feeling good is the most important thing for you to strive for. Recall that feeling good leads to more good feelings, more positive experiences and more energy. It is negative feelings and experiences that usually lead you into overeating behavior.
April 11th
Notice what you are feeling when your appetite is raging and pay close attention to the valuable communication your feelings are trying to deliver. Listen to these messages and you will begin to value your appetite as a true friend, instead of a foe. When you attend to your feelings you give yourself what you truly need (and it usually isn’t food) you will be in control. Your feelings will constantly and faithfully deliver messages from your internal guidance system about what choices are in your best interest in all aspects of your life. Learn to listen to them.
April 12th
To craft your ideal life, you must be clear about what your desires actually are and. It is a beautiful thing when you balance your need to attend to yourself with attending to others’ needs. It is when you allow others’ needs to crowd yours out of the picture that a problem results.
April 13th
Our persistent feelings make up our internal guidance system and as such are constantly providing the information we require to make the very best choices for ourselves in each moment. To take full advantage of these important messages, we must pay attention to what we are feeling and follow the instructions we are being given.
Following your intuition means learning to pay close attention to your feelings and heeding the important messages they are transmitting about the very best ways to take care of yourself.
April 14th
Finding happiness is your life’s purpose and your most important task. We are humans who spend much time doing and not much time being. Why not slow down, relax, and focus for a while on what you truly want? Why not do this several times a day? It will become a habit that will serve you well.
April 15th
It is vital that you learn to assert yourself and communicate what your wants and needs truly are. You deserve to ask for what you want and to express yourself. Your feelings are no more or less important than anyone else’s. Knowing how to speak up and to stand up for yourself will empower you, and you will not need food as medication.
April 16th
Movement through the stages of our lives inevitably stirs emotions deep within, whether we are conscious of them at the time or not. If you will move through your feelings instead of avoiding them, you will end up in a much more calm and peaceful place. You are then making decisions based on your true desires.
April 17th
It is vital that you do not let the opinions and feelings of others deter you from following your dreams. After all, this is your life and it is your responsibility to make of it what you want. Your thoughts about how to live your life have been shaped by outside forces. This has resulted in faulty thinking. You have been trying to find happiness by doing what others think you should do or to look like what others think you should look like. Stop it! Your happiness is only up to you!
April 18th
Being fixated on the past and being a perpetual victim will keep you in a state of anxiety and reactivity and you will continue to overeat for emotional reasons. Take action now to make the adjustments you must make to stand up for yourself and craft your life as richer and more rewarding.
April 19th
Your path requires you to greet the circumstances of each moment with awareness and to experience each and every feeling that passes through your body. For example, when you feel butterflies in your stomach, observe this sensation. That is only your anxiety. Underlying this is always a fear that you are not lovable. YOU ARE. You can trust this!
April 20th
Remember, you are never too old to try something new. You are never too old to have fun! Separate yourself from all the roles you play in life –parent, child, friend, partner, etc. — and spend time thinking of who YOU are. Is there something new you would like to try?
April 21st
Spend time contemplating what you love to do. You cannot create something new in your life if you don’t spend time thinking about what you want. Spend time discovering who you are. Only then can you move towards the life you truly want to have - filled with zest, joy, health and balance – free from compulsive overeating.
April 22nd
To heal from any compulsive behavior, to heal your body, you must attend to your spirit — to heal yourself with patience, compassion, and love. Many of us know this on a very deep and private level. Self-loving choices are spiritually enhancing and the more we make, the better we feel and the less compulsive, self-harming choices we will make.
April 23rd
When you make a less than self-loving choice, and you will because we all do at times, observe yourself. Without judging, just notice how you feel when you make this less than self-loving choice. It is not a mistake. There are no mistakes, only lessons. What can you learn from it? What might you do differently next time?
April 24th
When you make a self-loving choice you are likely to feel proud of yourself. You will have more physical energy, feel more lovable, and more connected to yourself, to others, and the world in general. The more you stop and consider your alternatives and make your choices in the spirit of love the more you will notice that peace, lightness, and joy manifest in your life.
April 25th
When we give thought to something, we invite it into our life. So, could weight loss be really as simple as changing our thought patterns? Yes it can, and in fact weight loss is impossible without shifting our thoughts to a positive vibration whenever possible. If we persist in saying “I am fat” for example, the Universal Law of Attraction assures us that we will remain in a state of feeling and being fat. If instead we focus on the fabulous things about our bodies and we visualize ourselves as healthy and slender, we raise our vibrational energy and move steadily closer to that vision of ourselves.
April 26th
Having fun and enjoying ourselves leads to balance and radiant health. Life is about feeling joyful. If you feel good you know you are on the right path, a physically and emotionally healthy track. If you do not feel good then you are not choosing and doing what is best for you. You have strayed from your path. Guide yourself back.
April 27th
As you pay close attention to the messages you are receiving via your emotions, you become better equipped to give yourself precisely what you need at any time. The sugars and simple carbohydrates you are reaching for will only make you feel better momentarily. In a short while you are likely to feel fat, guilty, and ashamed and crave more treats which will only serve to continue the discouraging, frustrating cycle of feeling bad, eating more, feeling worse, eating more, gaining weight, feeling discouraged, eating more, etc. This cycle leads to increased anxiety, depression and usually weight gain.
April 28th
If you find yourself ruminating over some real or imagined situation in your life a couple of drops of White Chestnut can help you quiet your mind and stop those repetitive thoughts. If you suddenly feel sad and depressed and have no idea why, a couple of drops of the essence Mustard can lift your mood. These useful, effective drops are far better choices than seeking temporary relief in the bakery aisle at the market.
April 29th
There is a Bach blend known as Rescue Sleep. This helps quiet your mind so your body can get the proper rest so essential to your well-being. If you do not get sufficient, good-quality sleep your body will produce more of the hormones that increase appetite (ghrelen and cortisol) and fail to produce enough of the satiation hormone (leptin). So you will be hungrier and eat beyond your satiation point. This is a set up for binging behavior.
April 30th
There are a few tinctures that when combined have been found to be effective in helping emotional overeating problems. These are Chestnut Bud, Cherry Plum and Crabapple. These are contained in the Bach Flower Emotional Eating Support Kit and I highly recommend them! You will feel better about your body, be in control of your eating and you won’t be making the same mistakes over and over again.
This article has been posted courtesy of Dr. Denise Lamothe, founder of Emotional Overeating Awareness Month, noted author of Taming of the Chew and international professional speaker. Visit Dr. Lamothe at her website.
