Last Well-Rounded, I shared the root cause of loneliness and overeating. Now, I’m sharing how to resolve the root cause of overeating and loneliness, which doesn’t involve willpower or traditional emotional eating tips like “call a friend when you feel lonely” or “feel your feelings.”
If you’re interested in going deeper in exploring how you can use emotions like loneliness as a catalyst for improving your nutrition and well-being instead of causing you to backslide, check out my free webinar series, a free, sneak preview of my WAIETN Live program, which begins August 13.
Weight Loss Rage. Chronic dieting is shown to be one root cause of weight gain and now researchers might have one more physiological clue as to why. They identified a protein, RAGE, that shuts down animals’ ability to burn fat in times of bodily stress. Bodily stress includes: starvation, injury, panic or ironically, overeating. Overeating signaled to our ancestors bodies that food was scarce, making gaining weight a survival mechanism. The modern version of these stressors, dieting, chronic inflammation, anxiety, and emotional eating/bingeing respectively, make the body feel unsafe (i.e. stressed) and unable to lose weight. Addressing the root causes of these stressor by identifying the right foods for your body to clear up signals of starvation and inflammation, anxiety, and addressing the root causes of overeating and anxiety that are unrelated to food are key to losing weight.
Nature that Nurtures. Maybe because it’s free, it’s only been recently that Western Medicine has found the Nature Cure. We have learned: nature can reduce circulating levels of the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol. It is also associated with lowered blood pressure, improved “affect” (or short-term emotional experience), blunted “perceived stress” after stressful life events, and lower short-term levels of anxiety and depression. We also appear to obsess less after we’ve spent time in nature. Want to get your prescription filled today? Try Forest Bathing, which is a “branded” name for walking in the woods. We’re not swimming or taking a bath or shower in the forest. In essence, we’re getting nature therapy. No referrals or copays are necessary!
Your Rebellion is Requested. Many of my clients are rebels at heart, but insecurities about their bodies and appearance prevent them from expressing and calling attention to their true selves. What they discover is their emotional rebellion or exile from “normal” (as defined by their family, church, work culture), is the path to feeling great in their bodies. As Toko-Pa Turner, an Insatiable guest explains, “In what has been banned from your life, you find a medicine to heal all that has been kept from our world. We must find the place within where things have been muted and give that a voice. Until those things are spoken, no truth can find its way forward.” Find out why the world needs your unbelonging, disagreements, and exclusion.
Chocolate and peanut butter are proof to me Belinda Carlisle was singing some truth about heaven being a place on earth. Check out this easy, 5 ingredient, gluten-free peanut butter and chocolate cookie from Clean and Delicious.
My changes? I use organic peanut butter (peanuts are grown with cotton, one of the most heavily sprayed crops) and use coconut sugar, maple syrup, or honey (i.e. whatever is in the house) instead of erythritol. Keto-friendly sweeteners like erythritol or stevia are great if your blood sugar is easily thrown off (I used stevia 15 years ago) but I’m not a huge fan of their taste. Now that my blood sugar is resilient, natural sweeteners don’t make me more hungry, I don’t enjoy the taste of those sweeteners. Here’s how to adjust any recipe when swapping in maple syrup or honey. And coconut sugar is a 1:1 swap for erythritol.
Stress and overwhelm have been normalized like anxiety and depression. I have found most people stress not because of what’s unfolding in their lives but because they feel out of control when life unfolds unexpectedly…and then turn to food, alcohol or social media.
On the latest Insatiable podcast episode, I get you clear on what is the root cause of your stress (including under-fulfillment from any life area). And how to use stress as “Optimal Conflict” to catalyze your nutrition and wellness goals (versus derail them).
How to Manage Stress to Uplevel your Nutrition Goals with Ali
Read the transcript
How do I stop feeling guilty for what I want to eat and do?
In August, we’ll be exploring the Accommodator pattern, which often shows up as us feeling guilty for what we want to eat and do in our lives.
When we don’t get clear and change this pattern in our life, we feel emotional deprived, which leads to eating because “we deserve it”. In tandem, weight loss builds in importance as we wait on our weight as the ticket to choosing exactly what we want. Learn how to leave food off the hook in August’s Mastermind and community discussions.
Be well,
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