Health, Body Image and Fitness

How healthy you are has a lot to do with what you eat and how much you exercise. How you feel about your body has a lot to do with those things, too. EFT can help you overcome the three main blocks to weight loss and loving your body: emotional eating, food addiction, and inability to enjoy movement and exercise.

Emotional Eating

Most of us know perfectly well which foods are good for us…and which aren’t. The problem is that many of those not-so-good-for-us foods make us feel better when we’re stressed. We’ve all heard of comfort food, right?

Here’s how comfort food works its magic.

The foods we find most comforting tend to be sugary or starchy. Foods that contain lots of sugar and/or starch (sweets, pasta, mashed potatoes, bread, pretzels and chips) are digested very quickly. The body converts them almost immediately to a form of sugar known as glucose, which is released into our blood stream. When it reaches the brain, it causes levels of soothing, feel-good chemicals, such as serotonin and dopamine, to rise. Suddenly, we feel calmer. Stress drains away. A feeing of well-being tucks itself around us like a soft comforter.

Sound familiar?

Food Addiction

Addict? ME?

Yep. You!

Sugar/starch addiction is very common, particularly among women. 

Consider this: when rats that have been deliberately addicted to cocaine are given a choice between a dose of the drug and a drink of sugar-laced water, most will choose the sugar water.

True.

Since that study, other researchers have confirmed that sugar surpasses hard drugs in its ability to make rodents feel good. See for yourself at <https://ow.ly/BC2Oh>

Not every food addict is a slave to sugar itself. Many are hooked on starchy foods the body metabolizes rapidly into glucose. Starchy foods elevate mood just as sugary foods do.

But is our inability to give up the foods we’ve come to rely on really addiction?

Readers who are medically sophisticated may question my using the word addiction to describe the hold sugar/starch has over so many of us. That word is usually reserved for dependance on hard drugs like heroin, or alcohol. 

Nonetheless, for a substantial number of people, sugar/starch is just as addicting as drugs/alcohol. The withdraw symptoms may be less dramatic, but they are very real. My dependance on cake, cookies and pie kept me overweight for most of my adult life. I tried to give sweet foods up many times, but failed, because life without them was just too painful. Happily, I discovered EFT and it helped me defeat cravings and decrease my overall level of stress.

Like alcoholics, sugar/starch addicts find it extremely difficult to moderate their intake. One cookie, or slice of cake, or piece of candy is likely to lead to another, and another. One or two chips are never enough.

You may be thinking, most people eat sugary/starchy food, and many are not addicted. They can take it or leave it alone. That is true. Integrative physician Dr. Roberta Foss-Morgan has an explanation for why many people can eat sweets, pasta, etc., and drink alcohol, without getting addicted.

Dr. Foss-Morgan believes people who simply cannot stay away from sugar or starch or alcohol have a disordered neuroendocrine system that causes them to experience unusually intense pleasure when they consume high-glycemic foods or alcohol. You can read more of what Foss-Morgan has to say here:   <https://ow.ly/BEczQ>

Ready to break your food addiction chains? Get in touch.

Embracing Physical Activity

I just love my lighter, more agile body. But, I know in order to remain slim and healthy, I must be physically active. Happily, I found partner dancing, which I love – it’s exercise cleverly disguised as fun! But, at my age, dancing alone is not enough to keep me where I want to be. Thanks to EFT, I’m now able to enjoy other fitness activities as well. I’ve tapped my way to walking, yoga and weight-training.

What activity would YOU like to love?

Get in touch.