A Surprisingly Simple Way To Outwit Comfort Food Cravings

Healthy

“I try to think before I eat, yet time after time, I find myself having just downed a whole box of cookies just because I’ve had a rough day,” said Meryl Gardner, Ph.D., a consumer psychology expert at the University of Delaware. “I had wanted to make myself feel better, but 15 minutes later I’m feeling much worse. Why am I so short-sighted when I’m in a bad mood?”

Gardner’s experience is a familiar one for anybody who struggles with emotional eating — the act of eating usually rich, fatty foods for comfort during times of stress, boredom or worse. To gain more insight into why people turn to “comfort food,” she conducted a series of four escalating experiments that examined how positive, negative and neutral moods affected food choice. Gardner also looked at how “temporal construal,” a concept that involves focusing on either the present or the future, affected food choice.

Gardner found that when she elicited bad moods among the participants (by having them read a sad story or writing in detail about things that make them sad), they were much more likely to choose indulgent snacks over healthy ones. No surprise there — bad moods indicate that there’s a problem, and rich food is one way to feel better about that problem in the short-term. She also found that happier people were more likely to choose healthier snacks and were more likely to say they want to stay healthy as they grow older.

But Gardner also found that pushing people to contemplate the future — by having them imagine details about their future home — strongly mitigated the effect of a bad mood on food choices. Participants who were put in a bad mood but who were then encouraged to imagine their future home chose to eat less indulgent food, compared with participants with bad moods who were encouraged to describe their present homes.

“When you think about the future, you’re taking in a bigger perspective,” explained Gardner. “People think about what is important to them, not just what’s on the tip of their forks.”

Dieting is often described as a battle of wills between your present self and your future self. But Gardner’s findings indicate that simply thinking about the future in a more abstract sense — even if unrelated to food and/or health — could be a more effective way to subconsciously motivate yourself to make healthier choices. The reason, Gardner guessed, is because an abstract sense of the future isn’t burdened with emotional baggage that could come with thinking about your future self.

“To motivate myself [to choose a healthy option at a restaurant], I might think about my college reunion coming up — but that could put me in a worse mood,” Gardner said. “Instead of focusing on how I will look in five years, I’ll think, ‘How will this restaurant look in five years? What will this menu look like in five years?’”

Another finding was that participants who wrote detailed descriptions about things that made them happy ate 77 percent healthier than the other groups. Co-author Brian Wansink, Ph.D. of Cornell University, explains the finding in this video

5 Good Reasons To Go For A Less Intense Workout

Jog With all of the recent and much-deserved hype over high-intensity interval training (HIIT), a true and loyal friend has been left behind: good, old-fashioned steady-state training. Gone are the days of 30-minute jogs, in favor of jump squats and 30-second sprints.

In contrast to high-intensity interval training, which alternates short, strenuous bouts of activity with slightly longer low-intensity rest periods, steady-state training refers to cardiorespiratory exercise in which your heart rate is kept relatively constant for an extended period — at least 20 minutes in duration and often in the 30- to 60-minute range. The intensity may be low, moderate or moderately high, but you must be able to sustain the activity for at least 20 minutes.

You can use a “talk test” to estimate your intensity: You can carry on a conversation with ease (low intensity), you can comfortably carry on a conversation but with slightly heavier and more frequent breaths (moderate intensity), or you have to pause every few words for a breath, and you’d rather not engage in lengthy conversation (moderately-high intensity).

While HIIT delivers benefits that steady-state training does not, including dramatic increases in speed and power and comparable if not greater cardiovascular benefits in less time, moderate-intensity cardio workouts with a longer duration still have a place in most exercise regimens. In other words, don’t delete them from your friend list.

Here are five reasons to include longer, less intense workouts in your exercise regimen:

1. You’re a beginner. If you’ve been relatively sedentary or haven’t done much formal exercise for a few months or more, start with a low- to moderate-intensity workout, and gradually increase duration and intensity. Once you can sustain a minimum of 20 minutes of continual exercise, do that three to five times a week for at least one month before adding high-intensity interval training.

2. You’re training for an endurance event or sport. Your body adapts to the specific stimuli you throw at it. This specificity principle means that you will be best at the activity you practice most. If you want to run a marathon, you need to do some long, continuous runs to prepare not only the cardiorespiratory system, but also the connective tissues and the psyche as well. For most sports and recreational activities, including one to two bouts of steady-state training per week will give you the stamina to play well for longer.

3. You enjoy moderate intensity more than high. Not everyone loves the feeling of pushing their bodies to the limit, and that is what high-intensity training requires — repeated, near-maximal effort for short periods of time. If you prefer an easier-going workout, by all means stick with less intense, longer duration workouts. You will still burn calories and fat, you will still feel more energetic, and you will still get the health benefits associated with high-intensity training. High-intensity training is most important if you need certain performance benefits such as power and speed.

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How to Avoid Aspartame

Aspartame is an artificially made sweetener, obtained from the fecal matter of genetically engineered E-coli bacteria. Unfortunately, this makes aspartame not only a GMO sweetener, but it may be linked to major diseases, especially for people allergic to phenylalanine.

It poisons the body by breaking down into formaldehyde, which is toxic and is found in cigarettes. Even if you are not allergic to phenylalanine, then it is still a good idea to avoid aspartame, so this guide will teach you how to cut back.

Steps

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Read the food labels.

  1. First of all, ignore the Nutrition Facts: aspartame is not shown on the nutrition facts.
  2. Try to find the word “Contains Phenylalanine” on the label. If it says that, then aspartame is hiding in the ingredients.
  3. Take a close look at the ingredients label. Read every ingredient; if you see Aspartame, then you found a food you should avoid.
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Avoid sodas at all costs. While both types of soda are bad, diet soda almost always contains aspartame, so be sure to check the label for Aspartame or Contains Phenylalanine.

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Cut back on other aspartame-laden foods. This includes, but is not limited to: diet sodas, sugar-free gum, iced tea, yogurt, cereal and medicine.

  1. As said before, avoid sodas, instead flavor water with lemon and buy natural coconut water.
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  2. Consider stop chewing gum completely.
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  3. Brew your own tea beverages. Do not add sweeteners: it may not taste the best but at least it’s healthier. Do not buy bottled or canned tea, they often contain aspartame and other sweeteners.
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Work-Life Balance: Three Power Tips

Happy Here are three quick action steps to help you create more work life balance this week — field tested and doctor approved.

Work-life balance is key to preventing burnout , but exactly HOW do you create balance in the first place?

I am an executive coach to hundreds of over-stressed physicians. One of the key components to preventing physician burnout is restoring some balance to your life. You must chisel out some space in your weeks for yourself and the important people in your life for one simple reason.

When you are stressed at work, home is where you must be able to recharge.

There has to be some balance, or you will eventually tumble into the downward spiral of burnout.

I know for a fact that doctors don’t learn how to create a balanced life at any point in their training. In fact, residency is where we learn to focus 110 percent on work and keep going right through the complete exhaustion of 120-hour weeks.

There are no role models. Faculty members often model just the opposite… the chronically burned out and unbalanced doctor. Fortunately you will see certain older physicians who have this figured out. They have outside interests, seem more relaxed, have great relationships with their significant other… I can tell you many of them went through a burnout crisis a few years back to reach this balanced state.

Bypass the crisis… take the shortcut to work-life balance. Here are three tools I teach my physician coaching clients. Each one is short, simple and proven to work in the real world. They will work for you too.

1) Date Night Secrets

My highest work-life balance recommendation is a date night twice a month without fail. My recommendation holds even if you don’t have a significant other — see (a) below. Use the Schedule HACK Process to make sure you have a date night at a minimum of once a month — twice is way better.

Here are two date night power tips.

a) Don’t Forget to Date Yourself

If you don’t have a significant other (or yours is unavailable) take YOURSELF out on a date for gosh sakes. Dinner and a movie, mani/pedi, massage, read a book for pleasure (imagine that!) Just do it… twice a month… together OR alone.

b) The Pay it Forward Rule

Always follow this date night rule: Your date night is not done until you put the next one on everyone’s calendar.

Here’s why.

I see people try to make date night a habit. They are all excited about the first one — in many cases it is the first date night in YEARS! — and the second one never happens. They don’t schedule the next date and never find time in their busy week to put it on the calendar. Don’t let this happen to you.

At the end of your date (even if it is just you, as above) get out your calendar(s) and schedule the next one… every time. Stick to this rule and you will create the habit.

2) Put Big Rocks in the Bank

If you have a big vacation travel trip on your big rocks list for this year, here is how to make sure it will happen. Don’t wait to book it.

– Look out as far as you need to on your calendar
– Pick the dates for your trip
– Book the tickets and pay for them now

If you don’t book and pay, you will always find a last minute reason not to go and your trip is in serious jeopardy.

When you book and pay months in advance, I will guarantee you will make that trip.

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How to Motivate Yourself to Work Out

Have you ever sat on the couch convincing yourself to get up and go to the gym. It can go on for hours on end, and then by the time you’re almost motivated enough, you’ve probably frittered away enough time that you’ve got things to do. Then the guilt sets in. Then the cycle continues. But clicking on this article already means that you’re willing to work out! You can do it.

Method 1 of 3: Motivating Your Thoughts

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Find your reason. Find your why. Everybody has one. What’s yours? Do you want to be sexy (or healthy) as hell? Do you want to see your grandkids through their 20s? Do you want to fit into those jeans you wore 5 years ago? Do you have a crush on that babe at work? What is it? Isolate it. Focus on it.

  • You know how it goes — “out of sight, out of mind.” So if you keep this reason on the forefront of your conscious (that is, you’re thinking about it all the time) you won’t be able to ignore the logic behind working out. It’ll be the simplest solution to getting what you want. Humans are pretty good at doing what they want — so lining these two things up (the motivation and the action) will become easy as pie.
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Talk yourself into it. You’re probably telling yourself something like “I should exercise right now. If I don’t work out, I’m never going to get fit.” This statement has many hidden obstacles. For one thing, feeling like you should do something makes it seem like work, or an obligation. That’s no fun! You’re also thinking about what will happen if you don’t exercise — in other words, you’re threatening yourself with punishment (the image of being unfit). Subconsciously, you’re flooding your mind with negativity. Instead of thinking about how you’ll look if you don’t work out, think about how great you’d look if you did!

  • It’s very important to think in the positive. Instead of, “God, I feel terrible for not working out,” think “I’d feel better if I worked out — so tomorrow I will.” If you think in “nots” and “nevers” and “didn’ts,” you’re just bogging yourself down, making it even harder to get motivated!
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Set a goal for yourself. This can be at any point — it doesn’t have to be your end goal! If you want to work out twice a week, have a goal of two times a week — simple. Then you can reward yourself after! If you want to run 10 miles a week, have that be your goal. Smaller goals (rather than losing 50 pounds, say) bring the light at the end of the tunnel a bit nearer, making it more achievable.

  • Sign up for a charity walk or run that will encourage you to train. Once you have a set date to work towards, you’ll have a goal in mind while you’re working out. The feeling of accomplishment after you’re done will encourage you to sign up for another or to just continue being fit.
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Set up rewards. What’s the point in having goals if nothing is going to come from it? You gotta reward yourself! And again — the rewards don’t have to be dangled in front of you until the very end (that’s just cruel); give yourself teeny rewards from time to time for sticking with it.

  • Make a reward for every session, every week, every pound, or every task you do/exercise/lose/complete — whichever speaks to you. This is all about training your brain. When you see the good stuff behind all the work, it’ll give you the strength to keep going and to stick with it.
  • The other side of the coin is to make the alternatives worse. Tell yourself if you don’t work out, you have to organize the attic, donate $50 to the KKK, or call that cousin you haven’t spoken to since that awkward family reunion. Now that’s one threatening motivation.
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Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re not lazy — this stuff is just hard. A person that runs 5 miles a day doesn’t get that the energy they exert is a lot less than the energy someone uses that hasn’t worked out in years. So don’t label yourself — you’re just starting out, that’s all.

  • When you stumble and fall, you have to understand that that’s normal. It happens to everyone. It’s unimportant that you have a setback — it’s only important that you get back up. These tiny failures will happen (you’ll miss a day, you’ll get sick, whatever), so when they do, relax. You’ll get back at it. Keep your chin up.
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Hypnotize yourself. Hypnosis is a state of intense concentration, when your mind is extremely receptive. The “Best Me Technique” is a form of hyperempiria, or suggestion-enhanced experience, which encourages you to pre-experience the accomplishment of a goal. See the video below for more insights as to how self-hypnosis can help you get motivated to exercise.

  • This will only really be effective if you believe it’ll be effective. If you’re a skeptic, don’t waste your time. Stick to more concrete endeavors.

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