Nirvana Diet

A Diet For the Mind

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The psychology of weight loss

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There is a psychology to weight loss, eating and food. It’s called your weight/health story. If you have an emotional relationship with food and eating you need to change your story.

Take the Emotional Eating Assessment to find out more.

Research shows the first step you need to successfully change, lose weight AND keep it off, is to identify and change your (weight) story. Stories are how patterns and behaviors are wired into the brain.

We all know how to lose weight, go on a diet… simple eat less and exercise more. The problem is, as soon as the diet is over, we go back to our old ways because the diet is viewed as a short term fix and does not deal with the underlying cause of the problem (changing the self-image and the programmed behaviors).
In order to lose weight successfully you must re-program and install new habits that you begin to prefer that then become your new default way of eating. To do that you must change your story this includes the limiting beliefs that hold the story together and keep you stuck.
The problem is the decision to change is a conscious one, but unless you create coherence and alignment between the conscious goal to change (lose weight) and the unconscious stories, the old story wins out all the time.
Using guided meditation and  hypnosis you can program the new identity (you thinner, fitter and happier) and manage the emotions when the brain realizes the discomfort (cognitive dissonance) of the change. If you don’t know what guided meditation is download and check out Letting Go one of the many you will be using.
New research in neuroscience is showing how using guided visualization and meditation we can create new neural networks, strengthen the part of the brain most involved in making changes, increase positive emotions and reduce stress. All of this is critical to your success.

Richard Davidson PhD using functional MRI (fMRI) technology identified that the left side of the frontal lobe – known as the left prefrontal cortex – is more active when people feel happy and the right prefrontal cortex is more active when people feel sad.

This research shows how learning how to meditate stimulates the left prefrontal cortex and helps to train people to be more focused, experience more positive emotions and makes the actions to change come easier. Check out Buddha’s brain and neuroplasticity.

In order to really create this alignment between the conscious and unconscious mind, you must do the preparation work that will begin to change your weight story. This is done with personalized sessions with me along with the guided meditations that will set you up for success… coherence between what you want and what you do. Skipping this step can make the difference between succeeding or not.

Getting control of your weight and health is the most important thing you can do… it is the foundation for everything.
To find out if The Diet for the Mind, the foundation for lasting weight loss I have created is right for you, schedule a free consultation.

Doing this foundational work can make the difference in finally losing weight successfully.

Best food to eat for weight loss

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The best food to eat for weight loss is really simple… just eat real food

 

Why eating real food is so important:
The goal is to eat food as close to its most natural state as possible. Food that is processed including fast or packaged  food has conditioned our taste buds and brain to seek overly salty sweet foods that result in having more food thoughts and more hunger.

 

Eating real food is naturally appetite suppressing. The downside to eating real food is that it involves planning: shopping for the food, cooking and finding interesting ways to prepare the food so that it is tasty and not overly time consuming. It can also be more expensive.

 

The problem with not eating real food is that it can lead to a food addiction and of course to health and weight problems. Foods containing sugar including aspartame  and flour can be as powerful as any addictive drug or substance.  An addiction is different than a “bad habit” because it includes uncontrollable cravings that come from a change in the brain chemistry that affect the powerful pleasure reward circuitry of the brain. This can produce a chemical imbalance and create a viscous cycle for which the only way out is to practice abstinence which gives the brain a chance to heal.

 

Using the Nirvana mind training techniques can help to develop a negative association with your trigger foods. If you fall into this category there is a special eating plan found in the of the Nirvana eBook I created that is designed to neutralize cravings, and abstinence/binge behavioral cycles. The goal is to automate the act of eating, allowing the mind/body to establish a routine of consistency so the addiction can be managed. Addictions are chronic conditions that are fundamentally diseases of the brain.

 

The ability to return to eating these foods in moderation afterwards is individualized. Some people many be able to allow themselves one evening a week to moderately enjoy some foods you consider to be worth it without it being a trigger while some may have to practice complete abstinence.. The goal is to isolate the trigger foods and develop a negative association with them much like a non-smoking does with an ex-smoking habit.
What is real food?
Food that is real does not come from a factory, a box or a package, but comes from the ground or is found in nature. Real foods have a built in mechanism that allows you to reign in your food intake naturally. Protein and unsaturated fat that comes from oil, avocado, nuts stimulate natural appetite suppressing hormones. Fruits and vegetables provide a tremendous amount of fiber and volume of food per calorie that makes you feel full. Real foods naturally have a glycemic index that balances insulin levels. Real foods do not create eating disorders, addictions, obesity and are the best preventive medicine to ward off 21st century diseases. The food pyramid and the messages on packaged foods are misleading, and confusing.

 

No one is binging on carrots. It is fake foods, genetically modified food, sugar, starch, salted food, and processed grains that are killing us. So what’s the best diet for weight loss, it’s eating real food. The diet then becomes your preferred way of eating… that is you just enjoy and prefer to eat this way. From that place you will lose weight and keep it off. I think you and your health ares worth it. In fact, one of the best ways to heal a food issue is what I call culinary therapy. Want some ideas check out my daughter Hunter’s blog.

Hypnosis for Emotional Eating

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Why you should try hypnosis for emotional eating
Many people have told me they eat in response to their emotions or are what is called “emotional eaters.” Research has shown that people who are less positive are more likely to engage in unhealthy activities that include over eating or eating foods that we know are not good for our health.

 

People who are naturally positive exercise more, sleep better and are less likely to be overweight. This is where hypnosis can help overcome emotional eating by strengthening your will power to make a change when you may not be feeling positively. So if emotions and a positive outlook are keys to making healthier choices it seems that working with these issues is critical if you want to have long term success with your weight and your health.

 

Oftentimes when I work with people who struggle with their weight they tell me they eat for comfort or seek out or crave comfort foods. The word craving is an interesting word. It means a powerful desire for something. Notice the vagueness… something. Perhaps it is something missing in life that is causing the craving that is misidentified with a food. The goal is to figure out what your feelings are trying to tell you… what you really want or need that is not being filled.

 

 
When you think about it, this association with food and feelings or dis-ease roots back to when we were babies. When a baby cries often the first thing that is done is to give the baby a bottle… food … or something that is associated with an oral fix. The problem is it may not be food the baby wants, but crying is the only way it can get your attention. It could be that the baby is tired or has a wet diaper and is uncomfortable. The mother or caregiver has to figure out what the baby is trying to communicate. It’s the same thing with seeking comfort in food or feeding craving. It could be your body or your emotions are trying to get your attention. Your job is to try to understand what the feeling is trying to tell you or what you really need.

 

 
A powerful way to do begin to end emotional eating is to first keep a record of whenever you eat if it is associated with an emotional trigger. Secondly when that happens you must try to ask yourself what the feeling is trying to tell you and what you might really need. Your feelings are your guidance system and it is your job to pay attention to and try to understand what they are trying to tell or communicate to you.

 
I have created powerful guided hypnosis visualizations that is packed with powerful suggestions to help people to understand and change emotional eating. I would encourage you to download  End Emotional Eating and remember that when hypnosis works because it helps you to access a state where you are willing to absorb the ideas that are being presented or suggested to you.

 

In a relaxed state that is induced by hypnosis, there is a degree of focused attention and lack of distraction that makes it easier for you to absorb and retain what is being suggested to you. So while I can suggest to you in this post that you pay attention to your feelings, it may be something you want to try but you forget or lack the ‘will’ power to do it differently. The guided hypnosis visualizations area meant to strengthen your will power so the changes you want to make can come more easily to you.
Once you try the hypnosis for emotional eating download, please let me know what you experienced.

How lose weight: what and when to eat.

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woman with huge healthy sandwichAccording to the latest research, how to lose weight successfully is a function of what you eat and when you eat it.

 

So while the weight loss formula that I recommend is very simple, to eat real food, you might also want to consider the nutrient content of what you eat in terms of the time of day you eat it according to research done by Dr. Panda.

 

It is also  important to understand that not all calories are created equal and this has an impact on when you eat certain foods. Successful weight loss does not boil down to just a calories in calories out approach. How to lose weight successfully is very much more a function of what type of calorie it is, in particular how many carbohydrates it contains.

 

If you are planning to eat a meal that has carbohydrates you might want to eat that type of meal earlier in the day. In fact I would say, to make dinner the least carb laden meal that would include eating only eat vegetables and protein and a healthy fat such as olive oil or avocado.

 

This advice flies in the face of a commonly held rule of how to lose weight that a calorie is a calorie, no matter what time of day you consume it. Weight loss does not boil down to a simple weight loss mathematical equation of consuming fewer calories than you expend.

 

In fact, there is now emerging evidence that people who consume the exact same diets in terms of calories and macronutrients – carbs, protein and fat – may see very different results on the scale and in terms of blood sugar control, triglycerides and even cholesterol levels, depending on how they distribute their food intake throughout the day. It seems to be metabolically favorable to consume most of our calories and carbs in the early part of the day, compared to consuming the majority of them in the evening. This makes sense because it aligns with how we expend our energy.

 

The reason for this has to do with a part of our brain called the hypothalamus, which houses a cluster of nerves that govern a “master biological clock,” also known as circadian rhythms. In response to different cues, most notably light and dark, the master clock up-regulates or down-regulates genes that produce the hormones, enzymes and cell receptors responsible for metabolizing and storing carbohydrates and fat.

 

In the morning, people seem most sensitive to the effects of insulin, requiring less of this hormone in order to clear our blood of the sugar produced from a higher carb meal. At night, we are less sensitive to insulin, resulting in higher blood sugar levels, higher levels of insulin secreted and increased amounts of fat storage in response to higher carbohydrate meals. In other words, the carbs do not get used but stored as fat.

 

Clearly, this does not bode well for those of us used to large pasta and rice-based dinners and grazing well into the evening! This research is still emerging, but it does not change the overall rule that of how to lose weight successfully, you should eat when you are hungry, eat the right food, (real food) and stop eating when you are full.

 

Avoid Holiday Weight Gain

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Avoid Holiday Weight Gain and Still Be Merry

Tis the season for overeating… are you ready to gain some weight?

Here we go, the holiday dinners, office parties and celebrations with family are coming!!

All that holiday cheer and good will piled high in the form of mashed potatoes, gingerbread cookies and your favorite sugary, fattening foods is about the get under way. But how do you avoid holiday weight gain.

 

How are you going to enjoy the holidays without losing your commitment to living a healthier life?

Oh you tell yourself….“Just one little bite,” you tell yourself, as you reach for another one of your favorite Christmas treats.

 

But you know… it never stops at just one.

Research shows the average person gains between seven and ten pounds between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Ouch… Before you know it, your pants feel a little tighter, your belly sits heavy and the “spirit” of the season settles in around your mid-line.

So you decide you’ll make some hard and strict New Year’s resolutions in a few weeks and lose the extra weight then, so no point holding yourself back now!

 

I say if you don’t change the way you think and act… you get the same results. *So don’t it!*

Don’t buy into a bunch of clichés about “everything in moderation” and letting yourself appreciate the “good things” and “live a little.”

You’ll live a lot more and a lot longer and a lot better if you put in some healthy lifestyle habits RIGHT NOW–before the holidays hit in full force!

 

There are so many better things than overeating and packing on extra weight over the holidays!

 

With some of the healthy recipes developed by my daughter Hunter at her Healthy Kitchen, some self-encouragement and support you can make this your healthiest and happiest holiday season ever!