Food Triggers

Changing your eating habits requires you to be totally aware of possible food triggers. Begin by understanding the situations and emotional triggers that can potentially lead to overeating. It's a good idea to be aware of behaviors that may have led to your current weight and health situation, such as emotional triggers, guilt based eating, and stress snacking as shown below..

Every time you eat just pay attention if any of these triggers are activated in you.

Are you compelled to eat as an emotional response to your thoughts and feelings?

If you eat when you're upset, frustrated, angry, lonely, or tired, the answer most likely is Yes. Food feels like the perfect temporary solution - that is, until it is finished, and then guilt sets in because the food choice may not have been healthy. Try to choose other behaviors as an emotional response, such as taking a walk or calling a friend.

Do you eat when you are not hungry because you think you should?

Sometimes the time of day is enough encouragement to eat a meal or a quick snack, despite a lack of actual physical hunger. Instead, learn to listen to your body. If you are not hungry, you shouldn't eat.

Do you feel guilty leaving food on your plate?

Perhaps when you were a child, you were told to finish all of the food on your plate. This sense of guilt should no longer gauge how much food you should eat. It is acceptable to stop eating when you feel full.

Do you make food choices because of peer pressure?

It is far easier to go with the flow when those around you are eating unhealthy foods. It takes a lot of self-control and determination to follow your weight loss plan at social gatherings, especially with friends and family. Stay strong, stay with your plan!

Do you eat out of boredom?

Food can become a time-filler when you are bored. Don't fall into this trap! Try to motivate yourself and choose a fun and interesting activity as an alternative to snacking. If you are otherwise occupied with an activity where food is not involved, it will be easier to wait for our regularly scheduled meal.

LAUGHTER IS HEALING

Laughing is a good emotional and physical release from stress. A good laugh exercises the stomach muscles and diaphragm - It relaxes the shoulders and it's good for your heart too!

We probably all need to laugh at ourselves more often - many of us take ourselves far too seriously!

Laughter distracts us from any problems or worries we may have. Of course it won't make problems go away - but it can give us a healthier attitude towards them and can divert our focus from them.

When we laugh, we can transform our negative emotions - such as from anger, frustration or worry into a happier frame of mind. Laughter is a powerful antidote to stress, pain, and conflict.

Nothing works faster or more dependably to bring your mind and body back into balance than a good laugh. Humor lightens your burdens, inspires hopes, connects you to others, and keeps you grounded, focused, and alert.

Laughter makes you feel good. And the good feeling that you get when you laugh remains with you even after the laughter subsides. Humor helps you keep a positive, optimistic outlook through difficult situations, disappointments, and loss.

More than just a respite from sadness and pain, laughter gives you the courage and strength to find new sources of meaning and hope. Even in the most difficult of times, a laugh-or even simply a smile-can go a long way toward making you feel better. And laughter really is contagious-just hearing laughter primes your brain and readies you to smile and join in on the fun.

Laughter is your birthright, a natural part of life that is innate and inborn. Infants begin smiling during the first weeks of life and laugh out loud within months of being born. Even if you did not grow up in a household where laughter was a common sound, you can learn to laugh at any stage of life.

Begin by setting aside special times to seek out humor and laughter, as you might with working out, and build from there. Eventually, you'll want to incorporate humor and laughter into the fabric of your life, finding it naturally in everything you do.

The ability to laugh, play, and have fun with others not only makes life more enjoyable-it also helps you solve problems, connect with others, and be more creative. People who incorporate humor and play into their daily lives find that it renews them and all of their relationships.

Putting The World Back Together

One night a father was relaxing with his newspaper after a long day at the office. His son, who wanted to play, kept on pestering him. Finally, fed up, the father ripped out a picture of the globe that was in the paper and tore it into a hundred tiny pieces. “Here son, go ahead and try to put this back together”, he said, hoping that this would keep the little boy busy long enough for him to finish reading his paper. To his amazement, his son returned after only one minute with the globe perfectly together. When the startled father asked how he achieved this feat, the son smiled gently and replied “Dad, on the other side of the globe there was a picture of a person, and once I got the person together, the world was okay.”

HAPPINESS

I once asked my Teacher, my father, why some people never seem to be happy, even though they appear to have all of life's advantages - their health, their looks, their job, their money, etc... His reply was simple but profound: "It is not possible for life to make a self-centered person happy, whatever temporary satisfactions may come along. But, he added, "life cannot but give you Joy if you live for the Joy of others."

The Livings Key Principles