Lose Weight - Diet Program Review: FatLadySingz.com

Note: This is a post by Andrew editor of How To Stop Eating
Growing up I was always overweight, or fat, yes the big “f” word Then during my college years, I decided it’s time to lose the weight. So I set out on mission “get skinny or die trying”, off on my way I was. I was able to drop half of my extra pounds. But no matter what I did I just couldn’t drop those last 15 pounds. I would drop 5 of those pounds and gain them right back. This went on for 3 years.

Of course this was very frustrating, maybe you are even in the same boat and know exactly what I’m talking about. After doing lots of research, I found out I’m an emotional eater. I often ate to cope with tough and negative emotions such as stress, fear, sadness, anger, or boredom.

Emotional eating is where the term comfort food comes from. You know when you are having a stressful day and at night eat your favorite comfort food. Maybe it’s ice-cream, pizza, cookies, potator chips, or some other junk food. Either way often when we are stressed out we crave those comfort foods and end up engating in emotional eating.

Are you wondering if your an emotional eater? To find out you need to think of instances where you overate, or ate more than you normally would. Did a certain emotion cause that? Maybe something stressful happened prior to your overeating episode? Read about emotional eating triggers for some more insight.

So how do you stop emotional eating? Well the first step is increasing your awareness of why you eat. As you are reaching out for food ask yourself if you are physically hungry. If you are then go ahead and eat. If you are not physically hungry, then try to figure out why you are reaching for the food. Maybe you are just used to eating at this time everyday. Maybe you are bored and you are about to eat for entertainment. Maybe you just had a stressful day and are trying to comfort yourself. Just be aware of why you are reaching for food. Don’t judge the reason, go easy on yourself.

The more awareness you have around food, the more you’ll be able to spot emotional eating. Once you spot your emotional eating you will find that there are certain emotions, events, or circumstances in your life that’s causing it. You need to come up with action steps to take care of those events and circumstances, preferably eliminate them if possible.

Let’s say you are finding out that you are always stressed at the end of your work day. Then maybe you need to talk to your manager about making some changes at work. And if that doesn’t work, maybe you should consider slowly transitioning to a new job.

Getting over your emotional eating takes time, and is a gradual process. However it will help you build healthier eating habits and finally drop and keep off those extra pounds.

Note: This was a post by Andrew editor of How To Stop Eating

Posted on August 1st, 2008 by Andrew Bolis
Filed under: Weight Loss Ramblings | 93 Comments »

This is a bit off-topic, but one of my best friends - Kate - went with her family to Guatemala last summer with an organization that builds houses for those desperately in need of shelter in the rural areas of Guatemala. Kate, who I’ve known since freshman year at Tyler School of Art (Temple University’s Art School) and her husband adopted a baby boy from Guatemala over 12 years ago. I believe he is the inspiration to help the rural poor in this country.

The experience they had last summer was life-changing to say the least. Her eyes light up every time she speaks of their summer in Guatemala and as expected - they’re heading back there this summer. They only went for one week last summer and this year they’ll be staying an additional week in order to do some more exploring of the country. In fact, this year they will be staying with a host family to get even more immersed into the culture. They have three children, two went with them last year and all three are going this year. The two older kids are in grade school and they have been learning Spanish since kindergarten and are way ahead of their parents. They are taking their youngest child - who is four years old.

The organization they are volunteering for is called From Houses to Homes (FHTH). It was founded in 2004 with the intension of improving the lives of those living in rural Guatemala. Most of the poor live in cornstalk homes with a dirt floor. The volunteers are responsible for raising funds to build the concrete block homes. FHTH assemblies teams of three adults to provide the labor to build the homes. It takes approximately $1500 in materials to build one home. Kate’s family, through the generosity of their friends and family, raised enough money to build 6 homes last summer.

They are looking to raise money to build even more houses this summer. In addition to building homes - funds can be put toward building bunk beds ($250 for the beds, mattresses, sheets, pillows & blankets); stoves ($150 buys a stove); and school supplies ($40 - $80 tuition and supplies for one year $40 for grade school and $80 for junior/senior high school).

There is also a great need for used, operable laptops.

For information or to send a donation, here’s the address:

Foe Collins, Executive Director
From Houses to Homes-Guatemala, INC
X-12 Farmhouse Lane
Morristown, NJ 07960
(973) 538-3987

You can also make tax deductible donations online at the FHTH website. If you’d like to make a donation specifically for Kate’s family add “Viola Family” in the memo line or comment box! Here’s the video they made describing their experience last summer - I hope you’ll be inspired too!
Thanks,

Lizzie

Posted on June 6th, 2008 by lizzie
Filed under: Life in General | 147 Comments »