Frightened of Fruit?

There was an interesting programme on ITV2 last weekend called ‘My Child Won’t Eat’.  The programme followed the treatment of three children who were being treated by a psychologist, Dr Gillian Harris.  All of the children were refusing to eat ‘normal’ food along with the rest of their families.  Instead they were eating the sorts of food that parents normally reserve for treats for example chocolate, biscuits, cereals and yoghurt.

Dr Harris believes that the children have phobias relating to certain foods which means that they are actually scared to eat them.  The normal encouragement and cajoling just doesn’t work in this situation and can just creat tension around mealtimes.

This type of phobia can carry on into adulthood and  this can have an adverse effect on nutrition, growth and healthy weight control.  I have worked with weight loss clients who find it hard to eat fruit and vegetables.

So what can you do if you have a food phobia and want to increase the range of food that you eat?  Dr Harris’s approach is to encourage her clients to start by identifying one need food that they are prepared to try to eat.  Relax before meal times and picture yourself eating the new food in a completely calm state.  Then, eat a small portion of the new food.  On average you need to eat a new food about 15 times before it becomes familiar and easy to eat.

Most of all, make mealtimes enjoyable and stress free.

New Research on Weight Loss

Sometimes when you hear about a new piece of research that has been published you wonder how they ever got the funding to look into something so whacky or something that just seems like common sense.  But there have been a few interesting papers published recently on weight loss.

 

Dr David Hall of the US National Institutes for Health and his colleagues have published research in The Lancet about realistic rates of weight loss (http://bit.ly/o0i6AZ ).  In their report they say that general advice has been that if you cut 500 calories from your daily diet or burn them off through exercise you can expect to lose 1lb (0.5kg) of weight every week.  However, they say, that it takes longer to lose weight and a year of dieting will result in only half the amount of weight that experts currently predict.  Because of that, many people give up because they have unrealistic expectations.

An unusual study by Ohio State University has shown that a socially active lifestyle can dramatically speed up weight loss through the burning of fat in mice (http://bbc.in/nJH2Vv) .  The team found that relatively small changes in the physical and social living environment of the mice can alter vast amounts of white fat to brown fat which is easier to burn off.  Professor During said that "it is not the size of your social network, but its depth and complexity, and your level of engagement with that network, that counts.”

Radio 4’s ‘All in the Mind’ programme on 5 October, featured research by Dr David Neill of the University of South Carolina into the effect of bad eating habits.  Their research studied habitual popcorn eaters at a cinema.  They found that participants ate out of habit, regardless of the freshness of the popcorn.  The habit can be broken by asking the participant to eat with their non-dominant hand, that is, if they normally eat with their right hand, change to their left hand.  That change, known as a ‘pattern interrupt’ in neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), gives the participant a chance to make the conscious decision about whether they want to carry on eating.

So what are the implications if you want to lose weight?  Firstly, set yourself realistic weight loss targets and stick at it - healthy eating is for life not just for New Year’s resolutions.  Having an active social life with lots of face to face interactions is good for your emotional health and will help you to lose weight.  And finally, you can break harmful eating habits by making small changes like eating with your non-dominant hand or moving snacks to a new drawer or cupboard in the kitchen.

Confessions of a Running Beginner

Regular exercise is important to me as part of my overall fitness and wellbeing.  I get bored easily so I try to have a selection of types of exercises that I can choose from.  So I vary between the gym, swimming, Pilates and using the Wii.  

Couch to 5k

I had never been interested in running until some friends told me about the NHS Couch to 5k programme.  It is an audio running plan that you can download from http://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/couch-5K-running-plan.aspx  It takes complete running beginners to running for 5k (or 30 minutes) in nine weeks.

What I like about this programme is that as well as the 5k goal, there are goals for each week so you get lots of opportunity to achieve and feel good about your progress.  There’s also good music to run to and positive reinforcement from Laura who encourages and congratulates you as you go along.

I’ve really enjoyed jogging around the area where I live during the summer months.  What I have had to overcome is the negative thoughts that come into my head when I’m running such as ‘You don’t have to do this – you could turn around now’ and ‘You’ll never run for 25 minutes’ and ‘Aren’t you too old for this now?’  Fortunately, as a sports mind coach, I know  that these thoughts aren’t true and that there’s lots of techniques I can use to overcome them.  The important thing to do is to acknowledge the thought and understand that it is just a belief that you can change.

I can now run for 30 minutes but I haven’t reached 5k yet so there is still a goal to achieve.  So, come on Laura – let’s get those running shoes on!

Dealing with Emotional Vampires

Dr David Hamilton

I listened to a webinar at the weekend with the Barefoot Doctor, Stephen Russell interviewing Dr David Hamilton.  If you have never come across David, he is a truly interesting and lovely person.  He is a scientist who started his career in the pharmaceutical industry, researching the placebo effect in the development of new drugs for heart disease and cancer.  He is now a bestselling author and he travels the world offering workshops to help people understand the power of the mind on the body.  He has a great sense of humour and is able to make complex concepts very accessible. 

During the webinar he talked about a range of subjects including neuroscience, meditation, dealing with negative thinking, spirituality and past life.  He was also asked about how to protect yourself against other people with unhealthy states of mind and ‘emotional vampires’.

David said that everyone is susceptible to catching other people’s emotions, both positive and negative.  This is known as the ‘Chameleon Effect’ and occurs when we start to mirror another person both physically and emotionally.  

So what do you do if you start to get sucked in to a negative state? David’s tip to get out of it is to change your body language by scrambling your facial muscles, put your shoulders back, open your chest and take a deep breath.  When you’ve done that you can start to project your positive energy onto the other person. 

 

If you feel that someone is draining you of energy you can follow the same steps and, as you breathe out, express peace, positivity and inner strength.

Well, it beats wearing garlic around your neck!

Dealing with Horrible Bosses

The recently released comedy film, Horrible Bosses, proposes an extreme solution for dealing with  a boss who bullies you, makes sexual advances or is just incompetent.  The three friends coping with these horrible bosses are unable to quit their jobs so theyplot to kill them.  Inevitably their plans go wrong but, being a movie, it all truns out well in the end.

If you are having problems with your manager at work, you’re not alone.  In a survey by MIND earlier in the year,  respondents identified work as their highest source of stress and 48% were scared to take time off sick.  20% believed that if they mentioned their stress levels to their boss they would be first in line for redundancy. So what can you do? 

If you are being bullied, you should check your company’y policies on bullying in the workplace.  Is there a Trade Union or Staff Association that you can consult?  Is there a welfare officer that you can talk to in confidence.  If you are strating to get symptoms of stress (eg palpitations, higher blood pressure, poor sleep, loss of appetite etc) you may need to talk to your doctor or another health professional.

There are a couple of simple NLP techniques that you could try to reduce the impact of the experience.  If, when you think about your boss, you see an image of him/her that is big and close to you, try making that image smaller, turn it black and white and push the image as far away from you as possible so that it becomes less and less important.  To completely get rid of the feeling, you can add a red nose, Mickey Mouse ears and a spinning bow the to the image 

For some people, when they think about their boss, they hear their voice loud and close to them making derogatory remarks.  If you experience that, move that voice further away by reaching out your arm and putting the voice at the tip of your thumb.  For extra effect change the sound of the voice to Mickey Mouse - it will definitely feel less serious!

Beat the Munchies

When I was at Royston Open Secrets a month ago, several people talked to me about weight issues and the problem of ‘snacking’.  Snacks can be a real problem if you are trying to lose weight, as things like crisps and chocolate add unwanted calories.

My first question to anyone with a snacking problem is “Are you eating because you are physically hungry of emotionally hungry?”  Physical hunger comes on slowly and is associated with tiredness, stomach pangs and lowering of energy levels, tiredness.  Emotional hunger comes on suddenly and isn’t satisfied by food, in fact you might feel sick after you’ve eaten.

If you think you are physically hungry, try drinking a glass of water.  The signals from the brain that tell you that you are hungry are similar to those for thirst so it’s a good idea to check which it is.  After you’ve had a drink, leave it 20 minutes and if you still think you are hungry, eat something healthy like a banana or some dried fruit.  It’s a good idea not to let yourself get too hungry between meals because, if you do, you are more likely to want to eat carbohydrates when you do eat.

Emotional hunger is associated with feelings such as boredom, frustration, anger and sadness.  When I worked in a large office, if I started to get bored, I would wander off to the vending machine for a chocolate bar.  I would often eat it before I got back to my desk and I still felt bored – and a bit sick!

So, if you get a sudden onset of hunger, stop and take a few deep breaths, making the out breath a bit longer than the in breath.  Acknowledge the emotion that you are experiencing and stay with it for a few moments noticing how it changes.  If it’s possible, go for a short walk, preferably outside so that you can focus on nature.  If it’s not possible to take a break then just close your eyes for a moment and think about your favourite image making the image as clear and colourful and detailed as you can.  Once the negative emotion has reduced the compulsion to eat should reduce too.

If you do eat a snack, make sure that it is something you enjoy and always sit down and eat it consciously and slowly. 

Give it a try.

Stop Snoring!

Thursday, 7 July, 2011 15:49:15

blog

From:	Pat Duckworth <patduckworth@btinternet.com>
To:	patduckworth@btinternet.com

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Is there anything more annoying than being awake in the middle of the night – listening to your partner snoring?  They sound like they are really enjoying being asleep and you feel so miserable!  Apparently nearly three quarters of all partners sleep apart regularly because one or both partners snore (Woman’s Hour 30 June).

If you are being kept awake by snoring it’s important to find a solution both for your relationship and for your health.   Sleep deprivation over a prolonged period has devastating effects mentally and physically.

There are a number of options for treatment, some of which are less intrusive than others

·         devices you can wear in your mouth,

·         chin straps to keep the mouth closed

·          plasters you can wear across the nose to keep the airway open

·         throat sprays

·         laser treatment

·         ear plugs (for the listener)

There is an online snoring test that you can do at http://www.britishsnoring.co.uk/snoring/what_can_I_do_to_stop_snoring.php  This helps you to find out what sort of snorer you are and discover appropriate treatments.

As a hypnotherapist I work with both the snorer and the ‘listener’.  I help the former with hypnotic suggestions about breathing easier and I help the latter with suggestions about relaxing and not noticing the sound.  And sometimes that sound can be comforting because it means that your partner is safely asleep beside you.