I wrote before that the biggest obstacle of losing weight is fearing restrictions and limitation and the feeling of hunger. Hunger triggers their primitive fears of survival.
When we gain weight, the same functions work. We eat too much and or more of the things that are not healthy for us, because we are in survival mode.
Food is a very basic need. We are born to consider food as essential to our survival and it is true when we are babies but not that applicable when we are adults. By the time you realize that you have 5, 10 or 25 kg extra on you, your brain is already wired to think that when you are hungry, something horrible will happen to you if you won’t… eat and eat NOW.
In many diets, there is a discussion about emotional eating. It is when we eat to satisfy a feeling and not to satisfy the body. If you are fat, it means your body has too much and he stored it for emergency. Then why do we feel we are missing something?
It is because we are missing something, but it is not in a form of food.
Success or failure of every diet determined by the emotional stability of the dieter. I hear people say this diet or that diet failed where in fact, the person failed, not the diet itself. Since the reason we eat and crave sugar is to satisfy an emotional need, any diet that requires the person to be restricted and triggers hunger puts more pressure on the person, so the weight piles up even more. Diets that are restrictive require more energy and we can’t sustain them for a long time. ( for some, even two to three days of it is unbearable).
When people feel hungry, they feel failures and must comfort themselves with… more carbs and sugars.
When feeling restricted, our need for control is lost and we will do anything to gain it back, even if it means it cost us our health.
What if I told you that you can lose weight and not be hungry?
What if I told you that you can work on your emotional eating habits only after you stop being angry?
I have asked people that questions many times and all of them thought I was delusional… until they tried it!
The ketogenic diet, which was invented 100 years ago by a doctor who treated epileptic children with high fat diet, is a no hunger diet.
Why?
Because it is not about restriction but about changing the fuel in your body to very fulfilling, satisfying energy source. – Fat!
We learned since childhood to think of fat as the enemy where in fact, if the body changes fuel, fat can do wonders for our body. When we use fat as a fuel resource, we are full, satisfied and are no longer on the roller coaster of high and low insulin level that triggers hunger. Only after this is sorted, we can work on our emotional eating habits.
I remember the first time I started. My older sister introduced it to me, and I just couldn’t believe the scale. I ate camembert, cream, eggs, butter, melted cheese, coconut cream, cream cheese and mayonnaise, my calorie count for each day was around 5000 a day and sometimes more and I was not hungry at all. My sister suggested I add butter to my coffee, and I just couldn’t do it. My mind was totally scared of eating so much… fat! Fat for so many years was my enemy. The hardest thing was to witness every day that it is the opposite of what I thought. Only after that, I could witness when I’m eating to: be in the company of others, to manage stress, in fear that I might won’t have that food next time, as a reward for hard work, as comfort, to manage boredom, to rapport with others, to match the family timetable…
If we want to address the emotional side,( this success will last forever), we need to find diets that
are not too focused on restrictions and diets that won’t make us hungry. Hungry means we are in survival, and we can’t do any emotional work when we are in survival.
When we starve our body from carbs (20 – 30 grams a day) our body uses the glycogen reserves and when that finishes, it moves into ketosis. It takes several days for this process to happen. Ketosis is a state where your body moves from bad fuel – carbs, to efficient fuel – fat, and if needed, will use your fat reserves ( extra fat) as energy.
How do you know you are in ketosis?
You simply don’t feel hunger. You are free from hunger. Only then, you can address the reasons you crave food in the first place and learn to control it.
Not feeling hungry is the best feeling of freedom. I think that every person in the world must experience it to feel free from the chains of hunger, from the fear for his/her survival and clear the space to the emotional side.
Here are my tips for your diet adventure that will allow you to stop hunger. When this is achieved, only then you can start working on the emotional reasons.
1. Choose diets that use fat as fuel (low carb/ ketogenic/ carnivore)
2. Choose diet that allows you to eat plenty of food.
3. Fill your fridge and cupboard with food that are recommended so you always have something to eat and your mind thinks “abundance” and not “restrictions”
4. Move the destruction out of the way. For the first week, avoid going to eat outside, going to events, hide the snacks. All you need is a week until you feel you are not hungry and after it you’ll manage it better.
5. Every time we diet, we think about food all the time. Have plenty of snacks that are within the recommended food so you can overcome the addictive thoughts. (Cucumbers, nuts, crackers, cheese, bell pepper, fat bombs…)
6. At first, don’t limit yourself to 3 meals a day if it is hard, eat 10 times a day if you can. (You won’t but feel free to experiment with it)
7. Eat slowly. Relax. Don’t rush. Think you are nourishing the body. The slower you eat, the more you chew, the faster you reach being full.
8. Every time you eat, eat until you are full! Until your mind says, “I can’t anymore”. This will keep you out of survival mode.
9. Forget counting calories, counting quantities, counting meals – all of them trigger the feeling we are out of control. Think abundance! (You have an abundance of fuel in a form of fat. It’ll last you for a long time).
10. If you are hungry, eat more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
11. Find ways to relax. Meditate. Do think you love. Focus on spending time with supportive people. Fucus on hobbies. Stress increases cortisol, which increases insulin and makes us hungry. Anger takes you into the hunger game. Stay away from anger!
12. Go to sleep earlier in the first week. Why? because we need less energy when we sleep, and the body heals itself when we sleep. We want to make it easy on the body to move to ketosis so, help your body.
13. If you can, make a window of 12 hours fasting, from the last meal of the day to the following morning. You can have coffee, tea, water, and some say even cream, obviously without any sugar – you can have sugar that does not increase blood sugar: Stevia, erythritol, xylitol, allulose. If that is too hard, measure your existing fasting period and focus on increasing it slowly. (That is not hard at all. After several days of this way of eating, you won’t feel the need to eat breakfast naturally)
The aim is… to feel not hungry!
When we are not hungry. When our body uses fat as fuel, the body moves to a repair mode and starts fixing itself. Most people will tell you that losing weight was just a bonus to a healthier mind and body.
Remember, the real work starts only after you are no longer hungry. It is an emotional process of dealing with why we seek food in the first place. What emotional need are we trying to satisfy, with eating sugars and carbs?
This is the real work, the most important process of increasing our emotional intelligence. To reach the state of dealing with this emotional hunger, first you must stop feeling hungry.
Start today!
Good luck on your journey towards healthy weight
Remember, happiness is a choice. Health is also a choice
Choose well!
Make your day a great day!
Ronit Baras
The Happiness Coach
You can find me on : https://www.behappyinlife.com
