Archive for the 'Binge eating' Category

Damage Control – Getting Back On Track After A Food Binge

Published on November 27, 2012 in Binge eating, Diet, fat loss and weight loss. 2 Comments

We’ve all experienced it at some point or another.  Whether we were out with friends, on holidays, had family visiting, at a special event, or just lounging
around the house – food cravings got the better of us.

A weekend binge can feel like the biggest set-back ever, but it doesn’t have to be – if you know how to apply some strategic ‘damage control.’

If you use some smart strategies to pick yourself up immediately afterwards you can regain focus and control over your diet and avoid excess fat spill-over.

Let’s go over some quick tips to implement the next time you find yourself in this situation.

Reframe Your Mind

Firstly, and very importantly, do not panic. It’s easy to get all wound up because you blew your diet and then turn that day long binge into a week-long binge or worse.

Remember, you can’t change the past. What you can change is the future, so let’s wipe the slate clean and move on—you have control from this point forward. There is nothing to be gained from
dwelling on what you can’t change and wasting emotional energy on guilty thoughts.

We all tend to over-think things and make them a lot more complicated than they really are. Keep it simple and realize that it’s all about choices – and it can easily be all onwards and upwards from
here.

If you can put this cheat behind you and refocus on moving forward, you can stay calm, collected, and composed. That is a big key to long term success.

Drink More Water

When you wake up the next morning after a binge, chances are you’ll be feeling two things: ravenous and bloated.

You’ll be bloated due to the excess carbohydrate consumption you likely took in, along with a high intake of sodium depending on what foods you indulged in.

And, due to the fluctuating level of blood glucose in your body, along with insulin, your hunger will feel likely feel out of control.

Start drinking water immediately upon waking to start to get your body back to a normal status. Not only will the water fill you up making it easier to avoid overeating in the coming hours, but
it will also help you combat the water retention and bloating as well.

Water is going to be especially important if alcohol was involved in this binge.

Reduce Carbs and Boost Your Protein

The next step to recovery is to significantly reducing your carbohydrate consumption while you increase your lean protein intake.

You need to avoid topping up your carbohydrate stores so they don’t continue to spill-over into your fat stores. The lean protein will help to rebalance your blood sugar and stop the cravings
and hunger. It will also speed up your metabolism and increase your rate of fat burn due to its thermic effect (the amount of calories needed just to digest the food).

Focus On Vegetables

Eat as many vegetables as you can. The fibre will help boost satiety and veggies provide very little calories to your intake.

Furthermore, they will flood your body with nutrients, helping you get back on track from a nutritional point of view.

The foods we tend to binge on are usually quite nutritionally devoid in nature, so this is important to consider.  Not only are you combating fat gain, you’re combating poor
nutritional intake.

Put the Extra Calories to Use

Finally, you should plan to get active.

With all the extra carbs and calories in your system now is the perfect time to perform a high intensity workout.  The intense nature will use up excess carbohydrates and glucose floating around your system, it will help to dramatically accelerate your metabolic rate (thus allowing you to burn off any excess calories consumed more easily), and it will put you back in a healthy
frame of mind.

Follow the above guidelines for a few days in a row until all the excess carbs are gone from your system. Then continue on in with your usual diet and training regime.

Food binges happen – it’s a part of life for most women. With this great damage control strategy in place though, a weekend binge doesn’t have to set you back for long (or at all).

 

8 Reasons Calorie Counting Will Make You Gain Weight

Published on July 3, 2012 in Articles, Binge eating, Diet, fat loss, food, Transformation and weight loss. 0 Comments

When you look at the numbers, calorie counting seems like it makes sense. You keep track of the amount of food you eat every day and worry about keeping the numbers low.

However, most of the time people who calorie-count to control their weight or to lose weight have more hurdles to overcome than they realize:

Hurdle #1: Calorie counting.

Calorie counting alone doesn’t take into account the types of foods you should be taking in or the timing of these nutrients. This is extremely important when it comes to changing the shape of your body.

You may be familiar with some popular diet programs that rely on just counting calories. Have you ever noticed the people who lose weight on these programs simply end up a smaller version of the shape they were in? They are not lean, toned, defined – they are simply a smaller version of their old self.

Hurdle #2: Types of calories.

The type of calories you ingest is vitally important. Eating junk food calories or calories high in sugar can make you tired, hungry and moody due to unstable blood sugar levels.

Therefore, you’ll be more inclined to overeat. Good nutritious foods such as lean proteins, some complex carbohydrates, fruit and good fats, and plenty of vegetables is what you should be focusing on. Choose unprocessed foods where possible – avoid boxes and packaged foods.

Hurdle #3: Calorie conservation.

If you are eating the same low calories day in day out, your body will become very efficient at conserving calories.

Your body reacts the same way it would if you were experiencing a real-life famine… your body reacts as if its very survival is in danger!

When your body’s metabolism slows you will then need to consume less and less calories just to maintain the same weight.

One thing that can help is incorporating a free or ‘cheat’ meal – the additional load in calories when strategically planned can actually work to your advantage.

Hurdle #4: Training.

Those who train regularly need enough calories to sustain those training sessions and to facilitate recovery. Many people simply try to keep calories as low as possible, usually with disastrous results.

Hurdle #5: Misleading food labels.

Lately, there’s been a lot of media coverage about how many foods are deliberately mislabeled. There are more calories in them than you think.

Why is this important?

If your calorie counting is even one or two hundred calories off because of misleading food labels then you’ll gradually gain pounds – not lose them!

Hurdle #6: Overestimating calorie burning.

Unless you’re accurately tracking how many calories you’re really burning, chances are you’re consuming at least as much, if not more, than you’re burning. The result is weight gain.

Hurdle #7: Sinful foods.

We easily forget to count foods that ultimately put us over our daily calorie limit. It’s tough to keep track of everything. Maybe a bite of a brownie here, a sip of a coke there and a lick of the peanut butter jar are all neglected to be recorded as calories, however, a bit of a sip and a lick all add up over the course of a day and these add up to pounds over time.

Hurdle #8: Personal guilt.

If we happen to go over our calorie limit that we set for ourselves, we end up feeling guilty and ashamed.

Often, this is enough for many people to start an all-out binge fest. After all, you may as well make the most of your mistake right?

This is a surefire way to start (or continue) yo-yo dieting which will ultimately damage your metabolism and make you fat and unhappy very quickly. Worse, yo-yo dieting will make it very difficult for you to maintain a healthy weight long term.

As you can see, the calorie counting approach to fat burning can be full of holes. It is vitally important to keep tabs on what you put in your body but by constantly counting calories you can actually end up hurting your results.

END ARTICLE

If you’d like a guaranteed method to lose fat and sculpt your body without the hassle of counting calories, stay tuned until next week…

I have a surprise for you

Sue

I’m feeling summer coming on

Published on September 13, 2009 in Binge eating. 3 Comments

Hi folks, how’s it all going?  Enjoying the warmer weather?  I am, even though it’s a bit windy and dusty here. 

We didn’t progress to the finals of the Business Awards unfortunately – apparently they felt my business wasn’t innovative enough, as the concept has been around for about 5 years.   That’s when I started (6 years ago actually) and was very innovative before every man, dog (and friend) started to copy everything I do!  Never mind, I got over it pretty quickly and moving on to continue pushing Ideal Bodies Online to new heights.

I’ve booked my next trip to the Gold Coast, unfortunately I will miss Kristin’s comp next weekend and the following one :(   But I know she’s going to be fabulous, we worked together very well on her comp prep and she has done a marvellous job.  So, the reason I’ll be up this time is for some one on one training with one of our Feedback Coaches, Sharna.  She will be learning the ‘art’ of program writing, IBO style :)   We are getting so busy we need extra hands in this department.  

We are also looking for another Feedback Coach too – if you fit the description and you are interested, let me know!  You need your cert 3 (minimum), preferably cert 4 as well, a lap top computer, a fast typing speed as well as being computer savvy, with excellent communication skills.  You need to be able to respond to emails over the period of Fridays to Monday, and preferably be able to check emails every day.  Now, the kicker probably is, that you need to have completed (or be in the process) of completing a program with Ideal Bodies Online.  I find this makes it much easier for us to teach, and the coach to learn and provide advice to clients.

I booked a week at Belle Maison in Broadbeach.  A bit of luxury never goes astray.  In fact it was the cheapest option anyway, there must be something going on that week I’m there.  I booked my flights on my FF points, I have a few racked up so may as well use them.  So, if there is anyone around the Brissie, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast area, I wouldn’t mind organising another little get together.  Let me know if you are interested.  Time frame is 6th to 13th October.

Just for something a bit different, I often receive emails from ladies who have issues with binge eating.  It’s all too common unfortunately, but here is a little advice.

Firstly, a great book I recommend is called “Overcoming Binge Eating” by Dr Christopher Fairburn.  

Something you need to be aware of is that it takes time, and you must not be so hard on yourself.  Enjoy the good feelings when you eat well and feel healthy and remember them.  I always think about how I will feel the next morning if I am tempted to binge.  Often that is enough to stop me as I don’t want to wake up with the feelings of guilt and shame that accompany that.    When you feel like bingeing it’s better to actually prepare yourself a meal/snack, even if it’s not the healthiest one, and sit down, savour every mouthful and actually enjoy it.  Finish it off with a big glass of water as your ‘full stop’ to that meal, and then continue on with your usual healthy meal plan.  The fact that you have allowed yourself something, and not gone on to a full blown binge is a HUGE step and one you will feel proud of and be keen to continue. 

One other really important thing is that you have a plan to follow as far as training and diet goes – when I say diet, I don’t mean a fad weight loss diet, I mean a plan that allows you to eat a proper amount of food to fuel your training, and one that you do not feel deprived on.  This in turn will level out your blood sugar so you are less inclined to binge eat, as well as increase your metabolism and allow you to burn fat at a rate that is achievable and sustainable. 

Ok, well I have a bit more work to do today, organising advertising contracts, adding some more FAQ’s to our site and we also have to do some grocery shopping as the folks are here for dinner tonight.

Have a lovely Sunday.