The numbers of overweight and obese Americans and Europeans is so large that it’s obvious that overeating is a problem suffered by most of us. The usual ‘diet advice’ concerning how to stop overeating is to … just stop eating. That, of course, is pointless advice. If overweight folks could simply quit overeating, they would have already done so.
The truth is that we don’t have to adopt some starvation eating plan for overcoming overeating. In fact, trying to follow a calorie deprivation plan can make us view food the same way drug addicts eye their next fix. If you aren’t yet convinced, consider Oprah and Kirstie Alley. Oprah has grown thin on ‘fake food’ – and gained her weight back. Kirstie, of course, suffered the humiliating defeat or growing thin on the structured Jenny Craig diet – and gained her weight back. Suffering just isn’t popular with us humans and eating is a basic activity. In fact, it’s a rewarding activity and trying to overcome human nature is a tough assignment.
A smarter way to deal with overrating is to work with our natural inclinations, rather than against them. Here are a couple of VERY important ideas:
Don’t Deprive Yourself Of ANY Food
If you love pizza more than any other food on earth, righteously proclaiming you will Never Eat Pizza Again In Your Entire Life is a recipe for disaster. Instead, choose to have a small amount of pizza – and fill up on salad or other lower calorie food. Think you can’t stop yourself from eating the whole damn pizza? If you eat slowly and pay attention as you eat you might discover that you really don’t have to eat two giant pizzas from Pizza Hut to indulge your obsession.
Focus On Healthy, Low Calorie Foods
A great example of a super food that will fill you up, help your health and cause you to lose weight is salad – assuming you don’t add 500 calories of high fat dressing, of course. Sound boring? Well, MY salads are a work of art and never, never boring! I really focus on tons of tempting additions so they are always different and quite beautiful. If I eat my salad first, I’m in no danger of loading up on high calorie entrees.
But even if you hate and despise salad, there are a million other low calorie, high fiber and filling foods like vegetables and fruits. For instance, I love green beans and they’re about 35 calories per cup. Two cups of green beans make it tough to eat a lot more and that’s a meager 70 calories of healthy food.
Another example: I love veggie burgers and I can eat a thick burger with a bun, complete with chipotle mustard, pickles, lettuce and tomatoes for under 300 calories. Sometimes I make oven fries which are very filling, with some sea salt, for under 100 calories. The result is that I’m stuffed for under 400 calories.
Feeling “deprived” is a colossal mistake in any effort to control emotional overeating. It’s not hard to feel ‘full’ on tasty, delicious goodies that will promote weight loss and health. Then you will be less inclined to binge and eat either too much or by eating a ton of rich, high calories desserts or greasy junk food. And that’s how to control overeating!
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