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

This brings me to what I really want to talk about – Bluetooth headsets and accessories. I’ve always found it curious to watch people walking down the street or driving in their cars appearing to be talking out loud to themselves. Now I can do that too with one of the Bluetooth headsets that I just got. It’s amazing that I haven’t been an accident yet due to talking on my cell while driving. But with the headset – I don’t have to use my hands. My lack of cell phone signal has increased my knowledge of Bluetooth accessories. I heard the ads of phones that were “Bluetooth ready”. I had no idea what that meant.

I thought that Bluetooth was the name of the little device that seemed to grow out of the heads of a select group of people. But, Bluetooth is actually a technology that allows devices to connect without the nasty cables that have infested most of our lives. The Bluetooth headsets are the devices that a fixed to the ears of many people, but there are many more Bluetooth accessories. Some of the accessories include – stereo speakerphones and these cool adapters that let you wirelessly connect your PC with other Bluetooth-enabled devices such as headsets, mobile phones, cameras and printers. It’s very cool.

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

1. No caffeine in my coffee - I can live with this, but…
2. No milk, creamer, any type of “lightening” agent in my coffee - I can’t live like this. I use the Wal-mart brand sugar-free creamer and I’ve found that I MUST continue this practice
3. Only diet Ginger Ale or 7-up to drink - again, I NEED my diet lemon flavored Snapple - I don’t see the problem with this.
4. Only fruit is melon and strawberries - not a big fan of either, I believe I will expand my list of fruits to include others, just not sure which, yet
5. I understand why I cannot have bread, rice - other carbs…. but, I believe I will need to include rice cakes. I will use rice cakes made from brown rice. I have found that I need some foods that I can eat with my hands. My life is a constant emergency and even if it’s not a great idea - I HAVE to eat while I drive sometimes. A fork is far more dangerous in a car than a cell phone (my personal opinion)
That’s my modified weight loss plan today. I will probably be adding to my modifications as they come up, but to be realistic about my future weight loss efforts - I need a little room for reality.

1. After many, many years waiting - my divorce finally became final in February 07 (but not before my now dead-ex-husband decided to get remarried under a false identity)
2. My father was diagnosed with bladder cancer; had surgery to remove and rebuild a bladder; receives a clean bill of health
3. My ex-husband died of a heroin overdose (fingerprints had to be used to identify the body due to the assumed name)
4. I married the Emperor Pixelhead (my father performed the ceremony)
5. My youngest son (17) ends up in a “program” due to poor behavior
6. My father’s cancer returns and is extremely aggressive
7. We decided to buy a house where my parents can move in with us
8. My father dies
9. We purchase the house and move in immediately after my father’s funeral
10. My son moves back home in two days

The main reason I had not been able to follow the Ultra Lite plan was due to moving. For at least a week, I was basically without a kitchen and with EVERYTHING needed to be prepared - it became impossible.

I still feel like I’m trying to recover from all of the events of the past year. I hope to be back to active blogging and a healthful lifestyle soon.

I started doing some research about the beloved banana to see if I could find any information that would support the claim that the are not healthy. It was very difficult - everywhere I looked held the banana in high regards, stating all the benefits of the banana including it as an excellent source of potassium and fiber.

I remembered that the origination of this particular health plan - Ultra Lite was in New Zealand. I found an article that has shed some light on the poor banana and other fruits now banned from my life - An Apple a day… is that bad for you?

Honestly, I don’t anticipate bananas and other fruits always being forbidden fruit - I suspect the first stage of this diet is about seriously limiting sugars; detoxifying my body; and teaching me a new way to eat and think about food.

I am trying to keep it real and act as if this is a lifestyle and not a diet - which exactly what I want it to be.

So, I can have 2oz of protein for breakfast and lunch; 5 carbs for breakfast and 10 carbs for lunch; 4oz of protein for dinner and 5 carbs. The list of proteins and carbs are small - especially the accepted fruit. I never knew apples, oranges and bananas were bad! They must have a lot of carbs in them. The only fruits on the list are cantaloupe, honey dew, watermelon and strawberries - and 100gm has 4 carbs. The veggie and protein lists are short lists too.

This is what I had to eat day 1 & 2:

Breakfast - 100gm of cantaloupe & 1oz of reduced fat cheddar cheese for day 1; 1 egg with 1/2 oz reduced fat cheddar and 100gm of cantaloupe day 2

Lunch - 100gm lettuce, 30gm mushrooms; 15gm onions; 30gm cucumber and 60gm tuna - 50gm almonds & Dannon carb control yogurt.

Dinner - 4oz salmon, zucchini and onions.

I’m drinking 8 glasses of water a day; taking potassium & magnesium supplements; walking 30 minutes a day; and starting day 3 (today) testing my urine for ketones (I’m happy to report I’m in the correct zone).

I planned out my menu for today last night - which is very helpful to me.

Onward and downward!

The pressure of knowing that I’ll be starting this very structured and restrictive program in one week has triggered all my feelings of being trapped and I’m really nervous about this too.

The binging continues.

I assume that not too many studies on the effectiveness of weight loss supplements have been completed yet – but, there are tons of these types of products on the market – all claiming that they will enhance your rate of weight loss exponentially. How can I know if they actually work? And, then even if they don’t necessarily make a significant difference in the rate or amount of weight loss – but they make a big difference psychologically – isn’t that just as important when trying to lose weight? The psychology of weight loss plays a considerable role in how successful the diet will be.

This is my next quest - find a well-balanced dietary supplement that could help with my weight loss. I think it’s possible and I must do my due diligence to find the right supplement. A friend of mine has a site that offers all types of natural health supplements - I will start my search there. Any suggestions or recommendations are welcomed and appreciated.