1) Don’t believe the silly thought that you need to try one of everything or you will be missing out.
2) Don’t believe the lie that you won’t have as much fun if you don’t try everything.
3) DO avoid the table altogether if you think it will be too much a temptation or if you are in a moment of weakness.
4) DO carry a cup of water around with you to take frequent sips so your hands will have something in them (to avoid feeling empty handed and to avoid munching as a way to stay busy).
5) DO focus on people more than food. Remember, you aren’t at the event just to eat. You are there to celebrate with friends. Focus on that instead of eating.
6) When you are not in a moment of weakness, choose a couple of things you want to try and eat them slowly. Enjoy every bite, realizing that eating less is having MORE fun because you are in control.

If you have struggled with overeating for a long time, chances are that these tips may not be enough to help you break free from a bad cycle. If that is the case, look at the right sidebar of this website and check out my Amazon best-selling book Stop Overeating Today!

- “I made a goal today to run for 30 minutes every day!” (This person never goes running)

- “I am going to bike for 10 miles 3 days per week.” (This person has no habit of bike riding)

- “I made a goal to never eat cake again!”

I’m all for ambitious goals, but I want people to also feel a sense of accomplishment and success by setting smaller and realistic goals, especially when they’re starting out. That’s key to maintenance. Lots of people can lose a bunch of weight by doing something drastic like a juice fast, but six months later, did they keep the weight off? Let’s revise the above goals:

- “I made a goal to go running tomorrow for 30 minutes!”

-”I am going to bike for 10 miles this week.”

- “I made a goal to only have a small slice of cake at the birthday part this weekend and to not go back for seconds.”

After achieving success with your first small goal, you are now on your way to setting more small, simple, and reachable goals. The feeling of success with propel you forward and help you grow into setting even bigger and more exciting goals. Leave me a comment and let me know how your goal setting is going!

I call this the rubber band theory. You can only stretch a rubber band so far before it is going to snap back. Some people pull the rubber band back more quickly than others (they restrict in more dramatic ways) and others do it slowly and methodically (they restrict just enough that they can get by for a while). In either case, eventually, the rubber band will snap and they won’t be able to keep up their unhealthy patterns of self-deprivation. They will overeat and feel guilty.

How do you relate to the rubber band theory? Do you restrict all week long and overdo it on weekends?

How can someone break free from this vicious cycle? The key is moderation. To stop setting unrealistically high goals. One way to make sure your goals are reasonable is to share them with someone you trust. They can see things from a more rational perspective.

For more ideas on how to stop overeating, check out my book preview page!

Here’s the chapter from my book, Stop Overeating Today!, that I want to share with you for free that talks about a new and clever way to slow down. The Japanese have been practicing this tip already for years.

Tip #6
Hara Hachi Bu

You know that feeling you get when you are just about full? You want to keep eating more, but you can tell if you do you will have a bellyache later.

The Japanese call this concept Hara Hachi Bu. This is a teaching in which people should focus on eating only until they are 80% full. Since you can eat faster than your body digests, you don’t get the full signal until after you have finished your meal. If you aren’t careful, you’ll end up eating more than you need.
It can be tricky at first to apply the Hara Hachi Bu rule because you don’t feel completely full or satisfied when you are only 80% full. And if you’re like me, your eyes are bigger than your stomach so you just want to keep enjoying your meal.

However, applying just this one rule could be the magic you need that helps you not only stop overeating, but lose weight. Because each pound you gain or lose is basically 3,500 calories, consuming 3,500 less calories over a period of time means you have just lost one pound. Pretty simple! Stopping when you are 80% full could mean you eat 100 less calories than normal. After a year of following the Hara Hachi Bu rule, you could lose ten pounds!

Tip at a Glance

Don’t worry about finishing everything on your plate…just stop when you feel like you are almost full. Since you can eat faster than your body digests, you don’t get the full signal until after you have finished your meal. So, slow down, eat less, and you will still be full in the end! Just remember…Hara Hachi Bu!
———
Here’s the study: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091104085230.htm
Enjoy!

His words remind me of one of the tips in my best-sellng book Stop Overeating Today! The tip is all about how to play an empowering role.

If you are battling with your thoughts and emotions to stop overeating, “don’t let your box define you” is a very important thing to remember. Take a break from your identity as someone with an overeating problem. Take a break from focusing on your weaknesses around food. Don’t tell yourself who you are if your description is negative. Just be what you need to be in the moment, reinvent yourself, don’t let negative thoughts about who you are keep you stuck in old patterns that never end.

“It all boils down to emotional dependence on food, which can’t be cured from the 15 week fitness and eating makeover that the show presents,” adds McConnell. “Emotional eating does not just affect women with recent break-ups who binge on chocolate. Men eat emotionally, whether they realize it or not. Boredom, loneliness, stress, and self-pity are leading causes of overeating in men. Emotional eating can happen on the sofa at home with a bag of potato chips and a beer, or at the office in the form of sugar-filled lattés and doughnuts. It affects men and women universally. Because Biggest Loser Contestants are in a controlled environment while taping the show, they are not as likely to overeat as they are when they return home.”

Studies have proven that individuals who associate with others with poor eating habits are likely to eat poorly as well. For this reason, Biggest Loser contestants who return to homes with overeating spouses and children are likely to quickly fall off their health and fitness bandwagon.

Viewers of the popular TV show may get a false sense of reality from watching The Biggest Loser. They will see contestants lose extreme amounts of weight in a short time and feel motivated to start exercising and eating healthy as well. However, when they discover contestants from previous years have regained the weight that they lost, they may feel deflated and think that healthy eating and exercise don’t cure obesity. The show’s inability to put people in real-life situations for longer periods of time where they still work eight hours per day and live at home while losing weight may give viewers a false sense of hope and disappointment.

In best-selling Stop Overeating Today!, McConnell discloses psychological, cognitive, and practical tips to help overeaters stop emotional eating, sabotaging thoughts, and set up their home and work environments to ensure success.

I didn’t know much about the young star other than her talent for writing and conveying emotions through songs. Here is one reason why she is a guru on how to not overeat as well.

She doesn’t deprive herself on a strict diet and then end up binging later.

She “is a role model in an insanely dieting world,” according to the article and Elisabetta Politi (Duke University’s Diet and Fitness Center’s Director). During the week, Taylor sticks to a practical, common sense diet to give her energy and keep her healthy. After all, she has a busy schedule and needs to stay in top physical condition. She lists off what she eats, “‘salads, yogurt, and sandwiches…no sugary drinks. I try to keep it lighter, but it’s nothing too regimented or crazy. I don’t like to create too many rules where I don’t need them. We know what’s good for us, thanks to common sense.”’

On the weekends, she gives herself some wiggle space and lets herself eat her favorite foods. Because she doesn’t overly deprive herself during the week, she doesn’t feel the need to go out and binge. She just follows a “simultaneously practical and celebrating approach to food…”

Who knew Taylor Swift was not only the 12th most powerful celebrity grossing $45 million last year, but she was also a role model with practical and moderate eating? Go Taylor!

To learn how to both be practical and still celebrate with YOUR eating, buy the best-selling book Stop Overeating Today!———–

To read the full article, visit: http://www.webmd.com/magazine/default.htm

1) Why did I overeat? (Was a starving? Was I emotional or tired? Was I zoned into the TV? Was I anxious?)

2) How could I have avoided overeating in this situation? (Could I have eaten snacks during the day and not gone to dinner starving? Could I have calmed my emotions before eating? Could I have planned my meal better and put the bag of chips away so I wouldn’t just keep grabbing for more?)

3) What will I resolve to do next time so I don’t repeat the mistake?

Here’s an example from my life. My husband and I went out to eat on his birthday. We went to Claim Jumper, famous for their huge proportions. I ordered the club sandwich, which actually includes four mini (let’s be honest, at Claim Jumper, nothing is really mini) sandwiches. I had one and was full. We got a box and I was proud of myself for not going overboard.

THEN they brought out his complimentary birthday dessert. We finished it off together and it was perfect because I hadn’t overeaten at dinner and so eating the cake was still staying within my not-too-full limit.

BUT THEN we went to my parent’s house to light candles on the REAL cake and celebrate with a bunch of family. I wasn’t about to skip out on the REAL birthday cake that I made for him, yet I could have chosen a small piece. I got caught up and distracted in the excitement and didn’t cut my regular sized cake piece so it was tiny. That was my plan. Little itty bitty piece of cake so I could still participate and not go overboard.

Even though I didn’t overeat to the point of being truly uncomfortable, I still didn’t stay within the limits of eating smart and moderation. So…it was time to “think about what I did” (doesn’t this remind you of when you got in trouble with your parents as a kid?) and figure out what I could do differently next time I get caught up and distracted with the excitement of a food event.

So now I will answer my own questions:

1) I overate because I wanted to participate in the traditional birthday cake and I failed to take my regular sized piece of cake and cut it to a 1/4 of its size.

2) I could have asked someone in the family to help me to serve the cake. I was so busy frosting it and cutting and serving it that I didn’t take care of myself and what I needed.

3) Next time, I resolve to give myself permission NOT to eat an entire piece of cake and to eat a tiny piece, even if that means I stand out and everyone else gets a normal piece. I resolve to plan it out and make sure my healthy plans still happen amid chaos and excitement. I will be true to my goals.

Ok, now it’s your turn. When was the last time you overate? Grab a pencil and write out the three questions, answering them succinctly yet completely. What you find out may surprise you, because you may discover hidden reasons that caused you to overeat and may discover creative and unexpected ways to avoid it in the future.

What did you find out about yourself?

As I was tiptoeing into the water, a little bit of that old dare devil thinking sparked inside my head and I felt like running into the water and throwing my fears to the wind. So I did. And I LOVED it.

So what do 65 degree water and overeating have in common? Our reactions to both of them are affected by what labels we give ourselves. I had stamped the “I’m an old mom who doesn’t like cold water and stays on the sand” label on my forehead. It became my identity for a while and I was comfortable believing it and playing that role, feeling it was somehow out of my hands.

Likewise, labels we give ourselves after we overeat can give us a certain self-identity or role to play and affects our actions. For example, if the last three times you have eaten doughnuts you have eaten too much and gotten a bellyache, you may label yourself as someone who can’t help but overeat around doughnuts. So the next time doughnuts are in front of your face, you are expecting yourself to eat too much. You may even joke about it. Since you are believing your role as a doughnut overeater, you expect yourself to cave time and again. And you will until you can figure out how to peel that label off your forehead and replace it with a new more empowering one.

Make sense? I elaborate more on this in my book Stop Overeating Today! (see above)

So take a second and identify one of the roles you have given yourself that you don’t really like or that doesn’t really serve you. What is it? How does it hold you back? What would you like to replace it with?

How can Shannon change her self-image and empower herself? Another excerpt from my book, Stop Overeating Today!, explains: “Choose a role that empowers you…If you find it difficult to start playing a more empowering role, come up with some adjectives to describe the type of role you’d like to play.” Shannon could choose strong, powerful, and healthy as her three adjectives.

Next, she needs to imagine herself as a strong, powerful, and healthy person and think about how such a person would react in front of the tantalizing brownies. She needs to visualize specifically what she will do instead of eating the brownies with crystal clarity, as though it’s already happened. On the other side of the room, Shannon sees three friends in the middle of what seems to be an interesting conversation. She sees herself standing up, leaving the table, and heading in their way to join them. After crafting her crystal clear visualization, she makes it happen, focusing so much on fulfilling her visualization that the brownies are no longer a temptation.

Phew! Now that you have a tactic for avoiding overeating in pressure situations, do you want to take it a step further? Grab a pen and a piece of paper and write down the role you have been playing around food that keeps you stuck in a cycle of overeating. Have you been feeling victimized, powerless, or depressed? After you identify your role, take that piece of paper and rip it up and throw it away. Don’t spend any more time dwelling on it.

Next, take out a fresh piece of paper and write down a phrase defining yourself with your new adjectives. For example, Shannon’s would say, “I used to feel weak, guilty, and out of control around food, but now I realize I am strong, powerful, and healthy enough make smart decisions.” Try it. What does your phrase look like? Every time you feel the urge to overeat, pull out that piece of paper and repeat your mantra. The more you practice this, the more natural sounding it will be and the easier it will be to follow. Before you know it, you are not just playing a new role, you have become a new person with healthier habits and a new sense of self-confidence.