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The Emotionally Focussed Diet
The easiest way to start working on having a new gluten free lifestyle is to start by increasing your protein consumption, and to start to follow a high protein diet. So after about a week or so, after withdrawing from eating gluten, then your physiological cravings for both gluten and carbohydrates will diminish. There are many gluten free, and carbohydrate substitutes and by including these substitute foods, they will satisfy both the need for fibre and the need to eat something sweet. These substitute foods are vegetables such as sweet potatoes, parsnips, carrots, and squash. These foods raise blood sugar levels slowly and as well contain vitamins and minerals, that provide a sensation of fulness. If you find that you have a need for additional fibre intake, there is a gluten free psyllium that you can add to drinks. Your increased protein intake will stabilize any type of mood dis-regulation. It is important to start to pay attention to differences that you are experiencing in your mood as well as differences that you may be experiencing in your body. It takes about three months for the intestinal inflammation that is associated with your gluten sensitivity to begin to heal. Changes in mood and reduction in body pain will be apparent almost right away! The goal of the elimination diet is to eliminate what is causing the inflammation in the body. At a certain point it is important to start to re-enter your gluten products as well as carbohydrates, back into the diet. This is called a harm reduction approach; reducing harm to your mood and body. But, just like an addiction to alcohol, some people do very well with harm reduction, being able to entertain moderate amounts of alcohol consumption, but for others they cannot manage even small amounts of alcohol and therefore it becomes about abstinence. As such, some people are able to handle small amounts of gluten as well as carbohydrates, and based upon the monitoring of your weight as well as your body and mood feelings/sensations you will be able to determine what that amount needs to be for you. The rules are; #1. Become a really good food label reader as well as a good carbohydrate Googler. #2. Alcohol Beer is made from grain and therefore should be avoided, although there are some low carb beers, that if necessary you can still consume.Once you have gone through the elimination process these beers can be reentered into the diet. Other alcohols such as liquor, vodka, rum, etc. are distilled, which removes the gluten. Dry white or red wine also contains no gluten and is low in carbohydrates. When consuming alcohol as well as gluten in food, for those that are sensitive to gluten there is a magnified reaction of inflammation. #3. Corn and oats There is a increasing prevalence of corn products in food production. Corn products are composed of corn starch and dextrose. There is a growing increase of allergic reactions to corn in the diet and that reaction is similar to that of gluten and carbohydrates, because corn is high in carbohydrates. Oats are contaminated with gluten as well, however you can obtain gluten free oats. So if you like your oatmeal, you can still continue to eat your oats. #4. Nightshade foods Nightshade foods are known to cause intestinal inflammation and also need to be apart of the elimination diet in order to be able to know if you are intolerant to nightshade sensitivity. These foods are known to cause symptoms such as; muscle pain, a feeling of tightness, arthritis, joint stiffness and pain, gallbladder problems, heart burn, gastro intestinal reflex. Nightshade foods include tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, peppers, chilies, cayenne, paprika, Goje berries, cherries, and goose berries. The elimination diet is based upon all of these different foods, which create inflammation.
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Switching Your Mind Set
We have a tendency to think that our personality, our intelligence, our abilities, and our personal characteristics are not only things we are born with, but things that will stay the same for life. In reality they are not fixed. The brain grows stronger with use, and when we learn something new or practice a skill, the cells that communicate with each other in the brain are used more and connect more often, which strengthens your brains ability. The things that you might have once found hard to do become easier and easier to do with practice and slowly grows into being able to take less effort to do. As soon as you start to set your mind to learning something new or practicing a skill, it means that you have literally changed how your brain works. When we have a fixed mind set we have convinced ourselves that we will never be able to change. The people that have fixed mind sets stick with what they know, while at the same time are trying to avoid challenges. People with a fixed mind set tend to give up quickly and easily, listening to their negative self-talk in order to maintain their fixed mind set. They avoid things that they find difficult and believe that they don't need to keep practicing their new skills. Those that have a growth mind set believe that they can learn, change, and develop new skills. These are the people who thrive on challenges and see mistakes as an opportunity to learn and improve, are more persistent and are better equipped to deal with set backs. These are the people that know that hard work and practice will help them reach their goals. Do you ever find yourself being in that fixed mindset? It is important to be able to change your fixed mindset into a growth mindset. It is important to think about this in regards to taking on your new lifestyle with the Keto diet. So the difference in thoughts goes like ‘I can’t do this.’ into ‘I like a challenge.’, ‘I give up.’ to ‘I will use these strategies.’, ‘I have failed.’ into ‘this mistake will help me to improve next time.’, ‘I will never be able to lose weight.’ to ‘I have to persevere.’ It is important to be able to stay in the present moment, to be aware of your feelings whether they are based in anxiety, worry, or fear etc. To be able to recognize that these feelings are your bodies alarm system and your alarm system is telling you that there is something really important that you need to pay attention to. These feelings come from your thoughts and these thoughts are about something that has not even happened yet, and the feelings are alerting you to look at your thoughts. The question then becomes, what is the problematic story of your future that your mind is creating? It is really your imagination that is firing into action, therefore, once you realize this you are bringing your awareness and consciousness into the present situation, which in turn creates a gap between you and what your imagination is doing. Once you realize this, you are now creating a space between your imagination to what is actually real. It is important to be able to take a few breaths to anchor yourself into your body and then to attune to the mindset that you actually want to have, a growth mindset. Secret Eaters
I was watching a British show today about people who have no idea why they are the weight that they are. Countless participants of the show claim that they should not be the weight that they are because they eat very little and exercise a lot. The show is equipped with not only cameras in every room in the participants household, but also had two private investigators who followed these people around to determine what they were actually eating. It was hilarious. I was shocked at how shocked these people were. They had to keep a food diary that they were obviously biased towards because at the beginning of the show the calories consumed were always lower than their daily recommended intake. At the end of the episode the show showed them what they actually ate. Te show showed them what they had actually eaten that week by spreading out on a table the food consumed and it is always the same; loads of carbs on carbs on carbs on carbs. Every. Single. Time. What really gets me is the reactions, “No! Oh no! I didn’t eat that!”….but….obviously you did. Why the questioning? This is why the Emotionally Focussed Eating Program is such a help on the journey to lose weight. Not only do you get to learn how to be accountable with yourself but you actually get to learn what is inside food and how it effects and affects you. The program deals with the nutritious side of the diet AND the emotional side. Some of the participants in the show ‘Secret Eater’ would get so upset about being shown their bad habits that they would walk out crying. I truly believe that they had this reaction not only because they honestly had no idea, but because they realized internally that their feeling of safety is being compromised. As a result they can no longer turn to food because they have seen what it has done to them. They look compulsive and (if I am being frank) piggish on the videos of them eating take-aways and chocolate bars, piling on the mash potatoes, noodles, gravy and God only knows what else. If you have been overweight for years changing your habits and losing weight is not only hard but TONS of people can’t do it because they don’t understand that they have to change their entire life to do it. In order to create change you have to change your conscious AND subconscious coping skills, you have to change your focus from constantly thinking about food to something else, you have to practice developing self-control, find a support system, go out and find things that aren’t related to this addiction of over-eating, which in and of itself is tough because if you start to pay attention, food is everywhere! Food is at meetings, work, before a get-together, after a get-together, during a get-together, partying, hanging out, watching a movie, food is always present. To get control of your addiction to food you must not only learn the effects of food, affects of food, what is in food, and how to pay attention to how much food you are eating, but you must also learn why you have started to direct yourself towards food in the first place and deal with it actively. This means going to therapy and the terms of the Brits, ‘get it sorted’ so you can kick the habit. Food Sensitivity
If every single persons system is very different, then this also means that each person digests different foods differently. What might be good for one person might cause distress and inflammation for another. This difference might be in the form of food sensitivity, food allergies, gluten sensitivity, or lactose intolerance. For example, celiac disease effects about 150 people, it is an autoimmune disease that manifests into severe digestive issues and frequently results in neurological symptoms as well. There is also something called non-celiac gluten sensitivity which is an immune response to gluten, which also leads to both digestive and neurological problems. The difference between the two is that gluten sensitivity does not manifest itself into the severe digestive distress symptoms that celiac does and so therefore, non-celiac gluten sensitivity may go unnoticed or on the other hand may be tolerable enough for the you to continue to eat gluten. Gluten is the protein found in certain grains such as wheat, barley, and rye. The word ‘gluten’ reflects the glueing together within the grain. Both gluten and casein contain proteins to which people may be either allergic or sensitive to, and therefor there has been significant clinical evidence that has established that both casein and gluten sensitivity are associated with resulting mood disorders such as; anxiety, depression, and even schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, OCD, autism, ADHD, as well as eating disorders. Casein is a protein found in dairy milk products and interestingly enough about fifty percent of people who are sensitive to gluten are also sensitive to casein. There are many tests that you can take in order to be able to see if you are sensitive to gluten or casein, however, the best test and easiest test to take is the rule-out method. My suggestion is to take a week and rule out these foods and therefor if you have these functional symptoms you will start to feel much better right away. This is called an elimination diet. My suggestion is to spend a week looking through your cupboards in order to see what products you have in your cupboards that you eat that contain gluten and/or casein. When you have identified those products, separate them out, and the start to find replacement products that you can use instead. These products are either going to be gluten free or to just eliminate all grains all together. In regards to casein replacement, to replace casein with non dairy almond milk or coconut milk. Gluten is found in many foods, not just bread products. You will me amazed as to how much wheat you are actually consuming, without even knowing it. Let me list a few for you, -Beer -Cuscus -Dry roasted nuts -Salad dressing -sauces -gravy -hotdogs -imitation sea food -malt vinegar -imitation bacon -soups -processed meats -Self basting poultry -coating mixes -Tortillas -Cereal -meatballs -marinades So for your elimination diet, set aside one good month in order to be able to experience the effects of eliminating those gluten containing foods. Then for the next month, after following the gluten elimination diet, follow the casein elimination diet, in order to determine your food/ mood digestive response. If you love using flour in baking or cooking, test out some other forms of it that do not contain gluten such as coconut flour, almond flour, or flaxseed. Blood Sugar and Functional Hypoglycemia
Hypoglycemia causes significant mood changes that can appear to be anxiety, irritability, ADHD, bipolar disorder, and as well affective dis-regulation. Chronic stress results in hypoglycemia, to which, the symptoms of hyperglycemia appear. Blood sugar levels are also related to your circadian rhythm, as well as your adrenal function. People who suffer with chronic stress often have hyperactive hyperglycaemia, which if unchecked can develop into type 2 diabetes. There is a new term that has been coined within the last ten years, which is ‘diabetes type 3’. Diabetes type 3 is a reflection of research that has shown that there is a new understanding, in which it has been determined that Altziemers disease is a type of diabetes of the brain. Diabetes type 3 shows us that what occurs in the body occurs in the brain, and as such it has been shown that it is associated with diets that are high in refined carbohydrates. Symptoms of hypoglycemia and blood sugar levels have a checklist of symptoms such as dizziness, feeling shaky, confusion, inability to focus, hunger, agitation, feeling the need to cry, headache, irritability, pounding heart or racing pulse, as well as feeling tired. Hypoglycaemia can result in mood changes as well as ill attention in both children and adults. There is a significant relationship between an unhealthy diet and poor mental health in children and adolescents. Hypoglycemia is most often apparent in cases of alcoholism, because alcohol is a different type of sugar, that when being consumed in high quantities can be linked to hypoglycemia. Hypoglycaemia is commonly seen in people with schizophrenia, also people who have drug and food addictions and people who suffer from obesity. Hypoglycemia refers to low blood glucose and low blood glucose is often associated with poor adrenal function, meaning that both are under stress and therefore vulnerable to react to hypoglycaemia. Those that do not eat a healthy diet and binge on carbohydrates have hypoglycaemia and they don't even know it. Many vegetarians are actually hypoglycaemic, especially if they do not consume enough protein to stabilizer their blood sugar. Children and adults who have severe mood swings and irritability experience significant improvement when their carbohydrate addiction is addressed. Those that suffer with hypoglycaemia are also suffering from a deficiency from essential fatty acids with symptoms that include dry skin and hair, and poor functioning of the pancreas, liver and gallbladder. People who fall asleep but wake in the wee hours of the morning at three or four AM and struggle to get back to sleep, may be experiencing nighttime hypoglycaemia. If you are the type of person that stops eating at a certain time at night in order to avoid nighttime eating might actually benefit from eating some protein and some carbohydrates just before going to bed, if this early morning wakefulness is a problem for you. Eating a snack will help prevent the liver from releasing too much glucose and allow you to get your much needed sleep. Chrono-nutritions
What is chrono-nutrtion? Chrono-nutrition refers to the dynamic relationship between the timing of when it is that you eat and your nutritional deficits. Based upon these two components, the sum total of which effect your circadian rhythm, and what is most important is that your circadian rhythm underlies your mental health. Chrono-nutrition is to do with your natural biological clock, think of your brain as having a clock which is linked to both day time and night time, both, rhythms of light and dark. These clocks all work together regulating your body clocks. There are many clocks in the body which regulate digestion, glucose, and hunger. Mood disorders occur when these clocks get out of sync. When your body clocks get out of rhythm, they dis-regulate the main body clock. Circadian rhythm significantly influences mood, eating disorders, and insomnia. The nutrients that you are eating, the medications that you are taking, as well as your exposure to light, all effect your sleep, weight cycle and mood. If you wake too early in the morning or you wake and have depression and/or anxiety, or you wake with exhaustion, or on the other hand you find yourself chronically sleeping in late, feeling wired at night, or find that you have to use medication in order to get to sleep, these are all signs of circadian rhythm disruption. Stress also alters your circadian rhythm, stress effects your cortisol level which in tern effects sleep, wakefulness, as well as fatigue. Excess cortisol in your system reduces your sleep quality and duration. Night shift workers are much more vulnerable to stress related illnesses including depression and anxiety, because your circadian rhythm is out of whack. Chronic fatigue syndrome is a complex condition characterized by fatigue that persists for more than six months in a profound manor. It is more common in women, and co-occurs with fibromyalgia, a history of viral infections, trauma and chronic stress as well as exposure to chemicals and environmental toxins. Signs of chromo-nutrition imbalance are that of insomnia, depression, low mood, premenstrual syndrome, bulimia, dementia, fibromyalgia, as well as bipolar disorder. Insomnia effects a high percentage of people. Insomnia is associated with major depression, anxiety disorder, as well as alcohol and drug abuse, and commonly occurs with bipolar disorder. Insomnia requires individualized treatment approaches. Your sleep wakefulness, meaning that your 24 hour circadian rhythm is controlled by your cortisol production. Hyper-arousal prevents sleep, and is often associated with high levels of evening cortisol. Transient insomnia lasts for less than a week, which can be caused by having an illness, changing in sleep environment, the timing of sleep, changes in hormones and stress. Acute insomnia is the inability to consistently stay asleep which includes difficulty falling asleep or having a restless sleep, and lasts for a period of less than a month. Chronic insomnia, on the other hand can be a primary disorder or it can be caused by a medical or psychiatric disorder and last longer than a month. Insomnia can lead to drug and alcohol use, and yet, on the other hand, drug and alcohol use can also increase the likelihood of insomnia. There are many things that effect your sleep, including chronic and acute pain, early childhood trauma, chronic stress, high levels of glucose and insulin resistance, diabetes, sleep apnea, poor diet, as well as caffein and energy drinks. All of these associations with insomnia increases a tendency for weight gain. Continuing with the idea of your metabolism and eating right for your genetic type, and weight management is to do with your ancestry and your geographic location and whether it is that you are more a carnivore, a mixed type, or a vegetarian. Another consideration is to do with your blood type. Now, I am going to make an assumption that there is a link between your genetic geographic location and your resulting blood type because of course blood type also has to do with genetics.
Type O is actually the most common blood type around the world. Type O is actually determined to be the original ancestral blood type. This is to do with our earliest human ancestors that were mostly reliant upon hunting for their food sources and gathering of nuts and berries. Type A was said to evolve when humans started to farm and therefore food was more consistent and vegetables started to enter into the equation. Type B is suggested to have arisen among the nomadic tribes of which there was a consumption of milk products. Apparently type B is the rarest of the blood types, only 16% of humanity has it. Type B is the highest in Central Asia and lowest among the indigenous peoples of the Americas and Australia. About 21% of all people have the A blood type. The highest frequencies of type A are found in small, unrelated populations, especially the Blackfoot Indians of Montana (30-35%), the Australian Aborigines (many groups are 40-53%), and the Lapps, or Saami people, of Northern Scandinavia (50-90%). The type A allele apparently was found to be absent among Central and South American Indians. Type O is vastly more frequent. About 63% of humans share it. Type O is particularly high in frequency among the indigenous populations of Central and South America, where it approaches 100%. It also is relatively high among Australian Aborigines and in Western Europe (especially in populations with Celtic ancestors). The lowest frequency of O is found in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where B in comparison is common. So the suggestion based upon eating right for your blood type is that if you have type O blood then you should consume mostly high protein foods, and if you have type A blood you should choose your fruits and vegetables, those with type B blood should choose a diverse diet. I watched an interesting documentary on vegan-ism called ‘Cowsperacy’. An experiment was done in China where they asked a huge population to turn completely vegan, apparently over the course of about ten years heart disease was all but annihilated in this population of people. My vegan friend was all up in arms about how everyone should turn vegan based on these studies, but the thing is, I’m not Chinese. My mother has type O blood and my father has type B blood, so the best diet for me is either mostly protein or a variety. There is no chance with my genetics that I would have type A blood which means that I would do poorly on an all plant based diet. Distribution of Blood Types https://www2.palomar.edu/anthro/vary/vary_3.htm Diet not working? Maybe it’s not your typehttps://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/diet-not-working-maybe-its-not-your-type-2017051211678 Zoning Out
Ever zoned out? Maybe stared at a candle for a while and realized you weren’t doing anything, not even thinking, just watching the flame flicker for several minutes? Ever sit up in bed at 6 in the morning, mind blank, feeling the sun slowly rise as your consciousness does? Believe it or not, you might be disassociating. Disassociating, is the act of sitting and not thinking, focussing on the feeling of removal, removing your body, and pushing out the thoughts that may intercept at any given moment so you can sit with yourself and ‘be’. I find when I need to disassociate the most is when I am at my most stressed and I realize that my body and mind does it for me when I am not paying attention. I think the most I have disassociated in my life is when I was in high school. I had piles of work that never seemed to get any smaller, I had a brother who always found a way to make me feel guilty about choosing to do my homework over watching anime with him, and my ever growing distrust of teachers as they always seemed to prove me right yet I was always at their mercy. I. Was. Stressed. However, I always caught myself drifting, zoning out, whenever I had a free moment. My mind would wonder into a space that was free of thoughts and worries and stress. I know what you are thinking, ‘stop making something so typical as a teenager zoning out into something difficult and removing as disassociating.’ Well, first of all, good for you for perceiving disassociating as difficult and meaningful because for me I looked down on it for the longest time. Secondly, I really honestly believe that people not only need to disassociate, but the mind and body I believe subconsciously when it needs to, will act on it, and make you zone out. I think that is how people stay sane, taking a moment in their busy lives, whether they mean to or not, and let their mind hide away if only for a moment where it cannot be disturbed; in the zone. Disassociating is a lot like meditating. Disassociating is a subconscious endeavour while meditating is a conscious endeavour. I try to make it a point to meditate everyday, or at least when I remember. I like to sit by myself and listen to the world around me, sometimes I even keep my eyes open if I’m in a beautiful place like sitting next to a body of water or a cluster of trees, and I will make it a point to allow myself a break from life, a vacation in my own mind if you will. For me, the best part about meditation is that it helps me to practice being with myself, it allows me to experience being okay with myself and helps me learn to shoo away any anxiety that might find its way into my mind. I think the biggest part about being successful with weight loss is being okay with how uncomfortable my body may feel in it’s journey. I have felt uncomfortable with hunger, body parts jiggling because the supportive fat is gone, not having people notice my accomplishments, having people notice my accomplishments, and just the whole damn thing of it. By learning to sit with myself and experience the uncomfortable or comfortable feelings within my body has hugely helped me with my journey as I have learned I can overcome my need to self comfort and disassociate. Meditation, however silly it may sound, has strengthened my mind, my willpower, and my determination. Everybody needs a break, even your mind, so give it a try.  Breaking the 200!!
Mastery Experience! Doing something that my brain, my heart, and my body will remember! My brain was saying "you are safe, you are safe, you are safe." My heart was saying "you are not safe, you art not safe, you are not safe!" My body was saying " the harness is slipping off of your butt! Your harness is slipping off of you butt! Your harness is slipping off of your butt!!" At a certain point when it was that I realized that everything is awesome, everything is cool when you are part of a team, everything is cool when you are living the dream! Then my head said, "you made it! You did it! I am pleased with myself, I can overcome, I can do new things, I can take on new challenges, I am a bad ass, and I look good doing it." My Heart said, "this feels good, it feels amazing, feels exhilarating, feels accomplished, I can do it I don not need to be afraid!" And my body said, "I feel lean! I can't stop looking at myself in the mirror! I look good! I can breath, I feel lighter." Bonus points, when I was being fitted in my suit the man said, "sorry, we are all out of mediums so you will have to take a large" LIKE HE THOUGHT I WAS A MEDIUM! If he proposed I would have married him right then and there. I look go huh huh huh huh huh, so good now huh huh huh huh nuh! What happens when you start to lose the weight?
There are some significant emotional, psychological, and social, things that happen when it is that you actually really do start to look different. Once you start to lose the weight, within yourself you will start to feel different. Fat does not happen to drop off from the outside in, it actually works the opposite way, from the inside out. This means that you will start to feel like your fat has no support, that it is actually really hanging off of you, it feels strange and weird, like it shouldn’t actually really be feeling that way. This feeling creates anxiety, the anxiety that there is something wrong and if you are not prepared for this anxiety then it actually triggers your need for self care, and to get back to how it is that you were feeling before; safe and secure. It is important to be able to work against that anxiety, to be able to know that the weight loss is a good thing, and that your internal structure of support has been eroded, therefore of course it is going to feel uncomfortable and that is a good thing. Next, is that people outside of yourself are going to take notice, but unfortunately people do not associate weight loss with health, they associate weight loss with illness. This creates two things to happen, one is that they want to to get back to the way in which you looked before so they start to purchase pizza’s and doughnuts in order to help you get back to how they see you. The second is that because they don’t know what to say, for fear that it might be illness, they have a tendency not to say anything. If you are in a competitive environment, meaning that you are competing with the people around you for power, prestige, position, etc., then these people will have a tendency not to notice your weight loss because they do not want to acknowledge your betterment. Those that are actually your friends will be interested on the other hand, and they will want to acknowledge the fact that you are actually looking good and they will say so. It is important to recognize the difference between the two, because if you are in a competitive environment and you are expecting praise and that praise does not come, then you might feel like all of your progress has been a waste of time, sending you into doing exactly what your competition wants you to do, which is to go back to the way in which you were before, making them feel good. It is good to know who your friends are and who your competitors are, and to know the difference between the two. Instead of relying upon others it is important to rely upon not only your goals, but how it is that you see yourself when you look in the mirror. You are way more attuned to your body weight than anybody else. You can see a five pound difference and when you are attuned to your body you can feel a five pound difference. People who are ‘looks based’ can see a five pound difference in others and those people will say so, but the majority of those outside of ourselves are not looks based and they will not be able to see your fifty pound weight loss never mind your five pound weight loss or weight gain. So it is really good not to rely upon others. You need to be able to rely upon and depend upon yourself to keep you on the straight and narrow. |
Emerald HillOn the quest to lose 50 pounds in a year. Can she do it? Only time will tell....with the help of this blog. Archives
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