Providing practical tools for identifying the specific cause of food addiction and overcoming it, The Original Experimentarium provides a clear understanding of how to stop worrying about food and start feeling pleasure from it. Give up dietary thinking, allow yourself to eat whatever ...
There is hardly a woman among us who is always satisfied with her appearance and weight.
But sometimes the relationship with the body and food becomes so tense that without their early resolution it seems impossible. happy life.
After numerous attempts to lose weight on diets, there are bouts of overeating, new pounds and despair, even if everything else in life is mostly in order.
All our emotions and desire to lose weight are well known to the clinical psychologist Svetlana Bronnikova: she listened to them repeatedly and, probably, found a solution the same number of times. The reason for excess weight, as a rule, in unprocessed emotions, pushing us to absorb food without feeling hungry, What to do?
Providing practical tools for identifying the specific cause of food addiction and overcoming it, The Original Experimentarium provides a clear understanding of how to stop worrying about food and start feeling pleasure from it. Throwing away dietary thinking, allowing yourself to eat whatever you want, learning to hear the signals of hunger and satiety, and letting your body regulate what, when and how to eat, while losing weight and not gaining any more weight - isn't that what we dream about? Without going to the doctor, but only by completing the tasks on the pages of the book step by step, you can get rid of the burden of your weight and problems.
Implement a specific plan proposed for you by a qualified nutritionist: stop exhausting yourself mentally and physically, become slim and calm.
Intuitive nutrition: how to stop worrying about food and lose weight
Author Svetlana Bronnikova, a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, is well known on the Internet under the nickname Firefly, and her method is known as the Firefly method. Has many years of experience in ridding people of excess weight. A native Muscovite, for several years she headed the branch of the largest obesity clinic in the Netherlands.
"I was responsible for the development and implementation of treatment programs, for innovative approaches with proven effectiveness and at the same time continued to be a psychotherapist dealing with the problems of people with overweight... During this time, I have accumulated a lot of observations, comparisons, ... discoveries. I have long wanted to make them available to everyone who reads in Russian, so I wrote this book. "Svetlana Bronnikova
It is unlikely that among us there is at least one woman who considers her appearance and weight to be impeccable. But sometimes the relationship with the body and food becomes so tense that without their early resolution, a happy life seems unrealizable. After numerous attempts to lose weight, despair comes, even if everything else in life is mostly okay. "Eat less and move more" and other boring patterns evoke longing from their practical
impracticability. Diets don't work: weight returns 95% of the time, says the unrelenting statistics. What's more, diets cause bouts of overeating that lead to excess weight. What to do?
All our dreams and fantasies about weight loss are well known to the clinical psychologist, psychotherapist Svetlana Bronnikova: she listened to them repeatedly and, probably, found a solution the same number of times. You, too, can get rid of the burden of your weight and problems. You don't have to run to a nutritionist or psychologist to do this.
The reasons for excess weight, as a rule, in unprocessed emotions, pushing us to eat without feeling hungry, overeat and gain unnecessary pounds. We try to make up for the lack of warmth, love, or respect for ourselves with food; we eat out of boredom, fatigue; we eat to be left alone; we eat because we are in the company; eating to drown out anger or shame.
The book provides practical tools for identifying specific causes of overeating and overcoming it. As you complete the tasks of the original Experimentarium, you will come to understand how to stop worrying about food and start feeling pleasure from it. Throwing away dietary thinking, allowing yourself to eat whatever you want, learning to hear the signals of hunger and satiety, and letting your body regulate what, when and how to eat, while losing weight and not gaining any more weight - isn't that what we dream about?
"This fascinating book provides an effective scientifically proven method of weight management. Implement a specific plan suggested by a qualified nutritionist for you: stop exhausting yourself mentally and physically, get slim and calm."
Nadezhda Nikolskaya, psychotherapist, chief practicing specialist at the Scientific and Practical Center for Contemporary Personality Adaptation
We got acquainted with the term "intuitive eating" in LiveJournal thanks to the diary of Svetlana Bronnikova. The author does not make secrets from his discoveries and his texts - the main ones can be read there, in her LJ. In the book, everything is collected in full, exercises are added - it gives the most complete picture of the phenomenon of intuitive eating.
Svetlana Bronnikova is a psychologist and psychotherapist with many years of experience in ridding people of excess weight. For several years she headed one of the branches of the clinic in the Netherlands, where she was engaged in obesity treatment. Svetlana is used to working with people whose body mass index is over 45.
The secret is simple - we have forgotten how to hear our body, and yet it perfectly tells us what it needs to eat, what it doesn’t need. If you reveal an intuitive eater in yourself (and everyone has one and the book teaches how to do this), then you yourself will not want to eat carbohydrates at night or overeat and gradually return to your original weight, ideal for your body (by the way, this there will not always be numbers 90-60-90, and you need to be ready for this).
Svetlana harshly criticizes popular protein diets such as the Atkins diet or the Ducan diet. She does not deny that they can have an effect, but claims that on such diets, you buy yourself several months of slimness at the cost of subsequent obesity (which after each diet is more difficult to fight). In addition, she describes in detail the disadvantages of an abundant protein intake, which are not written about in bodybuilding magazines (excess protein causes increased growth and, as a result, increased aging, protein molecules tend to "stick together" in red blood cells, reducing the permeability of blood vessels, which causes an increased risk of illness Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, amyloidosis and general aging of internal organs).
Svetlana also does not find understanding for the fashionable "food systems" that must be adhered to throughout her life - such as "tag" or "sect". Due to constant restrictions, such systems cause an obsession with food, nutrition. The forbidden fruit becomes two or three times sweeter, which causes an understandable desire to taste it - and this is not your fault, this is human nature. She also criticizes a variety of detox, which "cleanse" our body, which leads to the fact that we begin to consider the usual diet as some kind of dirty and clogging the body.
Svetlana's idea is to trust her own body, to give it freedom - and then it will respond by reducing body weight to your individual norm. But how to do that?
Anorexia and bulimia
We hope this is not your case, but Svetlana devotes a lot of attention to the problem of "Ana" and "Mia" (as anorexia and bulimia are called in American slang). Except for cases when a teenage girl falls ill with anorexia (and this is understandable - this is how she subconsciously struggles with growing up, which she did not choose), eating disorders can also be characteristic of people who look well-off. For example, Svetlana cites the shocking story of an ordinary woman who adheres to the "Fifteen" food system, but every day buys herself a lot of sweets, eats them, and then gets rid of them in the toilet.
It is also described here about male anorexia - yes, imagine, this also happens. Men are not at all clad in the armor of narcissism, as we sometimes think - they, too, are exposed to the mass media.
Bigorexia is also called "male anorexia", although in the last decade cases of real anorexia (and bulimia) have been recorded in men. Just as a girl suffering from anorexia sees a "fat cow" in the mirror, a bigorexic sees a "squishy" in the mirror. Just like an anorectic woman will never feel skinny enough, a bigorexic will never feel pumped enough. Bigorexic's life centers around the gym and growing volumes muscle mass... The schedule of life is subordinated to this: the most important part of the day is training; work, study, meeting friends or girls don't play the same important role in his life. Nutrition is also strictly subordinated to this: Bigorexic is a man who knows how many calories are in lentils, and how many are in a slice of cheese. Bigorexic nutrition is designed to provide the fastest and most efficient muscle growth, which is why he, strictly speaking, does not eat. It lays the building blocks for building muscle in the body.
Reader, do you not recognize yourself? But we have learned in this description very, very many = (
Food styles and food scenarios
A very interesting chapter that explains what's going on in the head modern people... The mass media has created a cult of slender, beautiful body not for you and me and not for the sake of health. Everything is done in favor of the huge fashion businesses, "healthy" food and others. There is a feeling that the body is a consumer product, it can be bought: if you have money - if you buy a product that is better, more beautiful, of better quality, there is no money - you will get by with a mass market.
In fact, Svetlana notes, our body is very little subject to any changes in weight. There is a so-called "set point" - this is the weight of a person to which he somehow returns after serious shocks - for example, childbirth. A corridor of this weight of 2-5 kg is quite normal. If a person overeats (and this is normal!), The body simply speeds up the metabolism and still burns everything unnecessary.
The only thing that interferes with this natural return to set point is diet. Here they are the main pest, they force the body to put off any calories accidentally wandered into the body in body fat moreover, they double the production of fatty enzymes.
In fact, Svetlana believes, our body does not care whether you put chicken breast and tomatoes or chocolate and cake into it - if it meets its actual needs. And if you allow yourself to eat everything that is forbidden - even bread and potatoes - the need for it will be much less. "The best way to lose weight is to ban yourself from lean meat and vegetables," the author jokes.
By choosing intuitive eating, we deliberately give up trying to control the body. We take responsibility for the body and express our willingness to take care of it - in the same way that an adult cares for a child. We create a varied, rich "nutrient medium" for the body, give the opportunity to choose and ... do not interfere.
Sounds good, doesn't it?
Fat and hormones
Svetlana talks about the difference between you and your neighbor, who can eat whatever he wants and does not get fat at the same time, in the hormone cortisol and the peculiarities of its release. The fact that you are getting fat is not the result of your laziness or licentiousness. This is the result of eating behavior, which you also did not choose for yourself - it develops genetically.
Svetlana highlights different types eating behavior - external eaters, emotional eaters. The book tells you how to work if you are an external eater. Dealing with emotions is more difficult: some people have low levels of the hormone dopamine, but with food it rises. People who overeat due to stress are an atypical phenomenon for nature: under stress, other animals want to eat less, blood rushes to the muscles, and digestion weakens. But people derive satisfaction from food, especially due to the effects of the stress hormone cortisol.
For emotional eaters, you have to focus not on food at all, but on paying attention to the positive aspects of life and on learning directed attention, including mindful eating.
Who is "overweight" hindered by?
A very useful chapter on fat. First, fat - and if you're not new to nutritional books, you know this very well - is a benefit. Fat produces hormones, all of which are beneficial, even cortisol. At the same time, obesity is a problem, a psychological problem. Obese people are rejected in our society, they are humiliated and condemned, but this is not "licentiousness" - this is a misfortune, a problem, most often a psychological one. Obesity is a way to solve psychological problems that could not be solved otherwise. Female body sometimes fat is just needed - for psychological reasons. Fat women don't win - they don't even play on this field. Excess weight allows you to cope with the itch of unfulfilled desires and unfulfilled ambitions. Fat can hide anger that women in our society are not allowed to experience. Fat is a defense against your own sexuality. For example, fat often appears in women in marriage - it is their anchor that keeps them in the current marriage.
Excess weight tends to accompany us for many years, and its original meaning is not always the same as after a few years. Excess weight can become an excellent psychological buffer, a universal solution to many problems that are buried in it, like in a cemetery, while its owner continues unsuccessful and persistent attempts to lose weight and turns out to be spared from solving other, much more complex problems.
Fat and health
And a little more about obesity. It is surprising that obesity is an exclusively human disease: in the wild, fat animals are too slow to escape from a predator or get their own food. The disease has taken on its modern form only in the last 40 years, as high-calorie foods have become more available, people have begun to move less, and diets have become a common way to approach ideal standards. Of course, there have been obese people in the past - just remember the Venus of Willendorf. But then their BMI was about 25-30, while today's BMI of obesity - 40 - then almost never met.
On the other hand, what we admire today is pronounced underweight. And a normal, healthy BMI is not 23 at all, as is accepted by the WHO, but 25-30. It is in this state that a person best resists various diseases.
The emergence of models large sizes- "plus-size" - could be described as a tendency to normalize body image in fashion and culture. It was not so. Despite the fact that physiologically and morphologically, plus-size models represent ordinary, average women - that is, you and I - in the world of the fashion industry, this term describes a certain special category of women, large so much that they are not able to wear clothes for ordinary women ...
Sugar terrorist
It is natural for a person to overeat - says Svetlana. This is a normal human survival mechanism - the signal of satiety arrives in the brain a little later than saturation itself. It's hard to fight this. It is also difficult to combat food addiction - especially sugar. How does the breakdown happen? You are prohibited from anything that contains sugar - not only cakes and rolls, but also chocolate and fruits. You endure, drawing serotonin from the unique sense of control over your own body. But then you quarrel with your loved one - and go to the store for a cake. Not for a banana and not for grapes, which you also cannot, but precisely for a cake - you cannot under any circumstances.
Attempts to completely reject sugar are fraught with not only hypoglycemia. The fact is that our brain produces a special neuropeptide Y, the main role of which is the formation of the need for carbohydrates. It is he, this neuropeptide, that triggers the search behavior, forcing us to turn the shelves of the closets in search of the lying cookie.
Diabetes, diabetes - no money for lunch!
Diabetes is the worst horror story of any overweight person. Svetlana proves that it has absolutely nothing to do with weight and can develop even in a thin person... AND best fight with diabetes is not weight loss, but moderate physical activity. And the main thing here is moderation. Sufficiently light fifteen-minute aerobic exercise 2-3 times a week and strength training 15 minutes 2-3 times a week. The key is not to confuse bodybuilding standards with healthy body standards. There is nothing in common here.
Thus, intuitive and mindful nutrition for a diabetic is not only possible, but also has a number of unconditional benefits. Of course, training in intuitive and mindful nutrition for diabetics is carried out under the supervision of a nutritionist, endocrinologist and taking into account the testimony of a glucometer - but this is perhaps the only difference from an ordinary person.
Fat and character
Is there a connection between compulsive gluttony and character? It turns out - yes, straight. Compulsive gluttons by nature are usually sacrificial people, inclined to bring their desires to the altar of strangers. They satisfy the needs of others by subconsciously considering themselves less valuable. As a result, the diminution of one's own needs is reflected in the eating behavior - a person feels that in the field of food he is able to behave only as he wants, and uses it. In addition, both women and men often "seize" anger that they cannot express.
Obese people often complain of constant physical pain - muscles ache, stressed back, swollen legs, joints. Blissful nothing, the state of true oblivion, is attainable during acts of food intake. That is why a true compulsive glutton necessarily experiences a state of "loss" during acts of gluttony. I went to the kitchen for one cookie - I woke up when the package ran out. I wanted to take a handful of nuts - I don't remember how many.
What's next?
After a thorough explanation of everything related to nutrition and emotions, Svetlana proceeds to the basic principles that will help everyone who wants to switch to intuitive eating. The principles are provided with a section "Experimentarium", where exercises are given - they must be done in order to assimilate the information. We will not list them here - buy a book and use it as a workbook, write in it, do exercises, leave bookmarks. We wish you success in mastering intuitive eating according to the method of Svetlana Bronnikova!
More interesting
The book Intuitive Nutrition by Svetlana Bronnikova burst into my life on the recommendation of Natasha Rostovtseva. In general, I have long since forgotten my desire to lose “those very 5 kg”, because I could not do it for a year and a half, exactly from the moment of birth.
“Well, there is and there is,” I thought. “Someday I’ll go on that hellish diet for diabetics and then I’ll throw it all off in a month. In the meantime, I do not have the moral strength to do it. "
And Natasha recommended the book to me not at all because I dreamed of losing weight, but because for my blog post I needed expert information on how “stumbling” and making children “comfortable” affects them in adulthood.
Then I began to study it, iiiii ...
It has already been 3 months after I read the book and did about half of the exercises. And somehow, imperceptibly and without strain, those 5 kg left. I don't even remember exactly when they left. But they are not. And I don't weigh myself much, I really eat whatever I want, I like my figure. And most importantly, I stopped feeling guilty about food. Basically. And my mood has improved 🙂
Outcome:
I recommend reading the book "Intuitive Nutrition" by Svetlana Bronnikova to everyone who has long and unsuccessfully tried to lose "those XX kg" and / or are not very happy with their weight.
So, 5 clever revolutionary thoughts from the book "Intuitive Nutrition" by Svetlana Bronnikova
1) If you are not satisfied with your weight, then it is most likely a psychological problem
Svetlana very interestingly describes modern standards of beauty and a manic desire for harmony, while citing links to Scientific research, in which "so thin" people in the end, in terms of survival, are statistically inferior to their more complete counterparts. Well, in general, he talks interestingly on topics such as "the horror of being fat", "fat and character", "who is in the way excess weight».
Fascinatingly Svetlana describes the ladies who are slender and even thin at the general human point of view, who are still “tormented by excess weight” and who have been on diets and “nutrition systems” for years.
In even more detail, she describes the types of individuals who are prone to gaining excess weight. And even the types of families where such individuals are brought up, what family attitudes contribute to this. What psychotypes are there among people who have problems with food.
And there are many, many, many interesting psychological moments related to weight gain and one's own attitude.
“If you have a stable or, on the contrary, constantly disappearing and returning as a result of acute attacks of a healthy lifestyle EXCESSIVE WEIGHT, then - ta-dam! - you have no problems with being overweight. You have problems in relationships with food, which, in turn, hide problems in relationships with yourself and the world around you ”
2) No diet or nutritional system helps you lose weight forever
An amazingly simple and incredibly revolutionary idea. Yeah, everything that is now called a proud phrase “Healthy lifestyles,” all diets, all nutritional systems actually work. Temporarily. 😃
“Any restriction in nutrition causes a completely natural resistance in us, both physiological - the body strives to suck in any available calories and put them in reserve for a rainy day - and psychological. A person on a diet is irritable, sad, unhappy. He fights temptations all the time, all the time he resists the devilish voices that ask "well, that cookie."
In general, about a third of the book is devoted to this. To help us understand that the dietary type of thinking of a modern person makes him unhappy and fat, that is, exactly what a person does not want to be. To do this, Svetlana cites links to research, and describes a huge number of nutritional experiments with large groups of people, and talks about her experience with patients. For me, very convincing. And most importantly, as a result, it works, at least for me.
3) There are no good and bad products
This is probably the most difficult thought for me to perceive and accept. I resisted for a very long time and did not understand how it was. In fact, Svetlana says that, in general, the body does not care where it gets its energy from: from fries or quinoa. Because the stomach equally splits this whole thing into energy, which feeds the body. Haha.
Therefore, there is only what you want. But exactly what you really want at the moment! Not because everyone eats, or not because it is healthy to eat celery, or not because “they won't offer such a treat tomorrow, so I’ll eat it all to the end.”
“If you crave marzipan cake, and you start spreading sugar-free jam on a dry cracker, you end up eating a pack of crackers and a jar of jam, overeating, feeling bad both physically and emotionally, but the 'taste hunger' does not disappear anywhere - you don't need - still want marzipan cake. And he will surely "lie in wait" for you - visiting friends, at a birthday party, in a cafe, in a store with a discount at the checkout - and then you will not miss yours, and, instead of one piece that you would have eaten then, it will be all yours - in vain, or something, you endured and suffered. This does not say anything about your control - the power of unmet need and the salmon forces them to go upstream to spawn. If you're eating a marzipan cake when you feel like it, voila! - problem solved. The need is satisfied, it cozily and peacefully rolls up inside until the next time, and the disaster does not happen. "
4) Feelings of hunger, like feelings of fullness, can be different.
It's no secret that hunger is different in strength. Got a little hungry or “I'll eat a crocodile now” - these are two big differences or four small ones, as they say in Odessa. However, from the same Odessa, or rather from my husband's grandmother, who spent most of her life in Odessa, I heard the following phrase: “What are you hungry for?” That is, in other words, what would you most like to eat right now.
And I never thought that this phrase is the key to being in your ideal weight and good mood.
When you give up diet food, it is very important to eat not what the nutritionist said / said at home, but what you really want at the moment. How to understand this? And you just have to ask yourself what I REALLY want right now: scalding hot or cool? Juicy crunchy or creamy? Or elastic and dense? Baked, fried or raw? Really for a couple?)) And, of course, salty, spicy or with a bitter taste?
That is, the feeling of hunger for food can be divided into taste, temperature, structure and cooking method!
Similar to hunger, the feeling of satiety can also be different. You can gorge yourself on delicious, coveted food to a pig squeal, to the very throat, so that you never want to eat at all again 🙂
Or, it turns out, and this was just a discovery for me, to eat delicious food like this, so that in a couple of hours you can eat some other food that is very tasty for you at the moment. Any food, I repeat, even eat chocolates or some milfey there. Just because you can, no one forbids! Therefore, you always leave a place for dessert, or if there is no place, then you know that if in a couple of hours or the next day you suddenly really want an eclair, then eat it as much as you want. At least two, at least three, but as much as you like. And in general, eat at least one eclairs. Nobody forbids.
Gradually you get used to the idea that you do not need to gorge yourself as in last time... You can always eat something else tasty later. And your mood is improving 🙂 And in the end, eat less, although I didn't seem to want to.
5) "Responsibility" does not equal "control"
Svetlana repeatedly mentions in the book the fact that for some reason we trust our body to breathe and tap heartbeat, but we do not trust him to nourish ourselves with the necessary nutrients. As if the body is deliberately trying to devour some nasty thing and harm itself, which means that you must definitely monitor your diet! I laughed out loud for a couple of minutes with delight when I read the following phrase: “So, we stop“ watching ”the food - because we don't suspect it of anything”.
And here in the book it is necessary not to miss a very important, as it seems to me, idea. That in order to stop following, you need to switch the toggle switch in your head from the position of “control” to the position of “responsibility”.
“Taking responsibility, I do not necessarily try to predict the desired result - I just wait with interest for its occurrence, knowing that I will definitely deal with the consequences. Taking responsibility, I am not afraid to experiment, try new things, make mistakes - the responsibility is still on me, this gives me complete freedom of action. Taking responsibility, I believe in myself and trust myself. Including - your body.
Control is just one of the ways to relieve yourself of responsibility. The “controller” shifts the responsibility to others - doctors, British scientists, nutritionists, and is constantly looking for someone who knows better what I need, my health, my body ”.
It seems to me that this thought just in general can help in life. And in a relationship with oneself, and in a relationship with a partner, and in raising children. Stop controlling the child, and instead give him responsibility for his life ...
But this is already a topic for a separate post (:
These are my thoughts after reading the book "Intuitive Nutrition" by Svetlana Bronnikova.
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Svetlana Bronnikova - a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, has many years of experience in ridding people of excess weight. For several years she headed the branch of the largest obesity clinic in the Netherlands.
Scientific editor: Nikolskaya N.V., psychotherapist, chief practicing specialist at the Scientific and Practical Center for Contemporary Personality Adaptation.
Binder used photo: Dubova / Shutterstock.com Used under license from Shutterstock.com
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How to read this book
This book is an attempt to write a self-help guide, and therefore it consists of two parts: a theoretical one, in which I talk about what eating disorders look like, what compulsive and emotional overeating is and how we got to this life. when, with the help of a diet, we are trying to solve a problem that appears precisely due to a diet, and a practical one, in which I will consistently, step by step, help you set up your own diet without any restrictions. Each chapter ends with the Experimentarium section - it contains exercises and psychotechniques that will help you understand what and how it affects your eating behavior, investigate how you experience hunger and satiety, analyze why you overeat and cope with strong emotions without the help of food ... You can: jump from the beginning of the book to the end or the middle, read in separate pieces, read everything first on a certain topic, then on another, or, conversely, read strictly according to the table of contents, from one chapter to another. We all assimilate information in different ways, and the associative connections that we form at the same time are also different. Needed: underline in the book, write in the margins, do the exercises right in the text. When you are done with the book, it will become your personal guide and map of your eating behavior. Important: do all the exercises in a row without skipping or changing their order. Doing the exercises without reading the preceding chapter is pointless, and maybe even harmful. All exercises are arranged in a logical sequence, which should not be broken: this greatly reduces the effect.
Why am I writing this
I am a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist. For several years I have headed one of the branches of the largest obesity clinic in the Netherlands. Treatment is psychotherapeutic, because it is impossible to get rid of excess weight without changing behavior, lifestyle, way of thinking. It is impossible to remain thin, being emotionally unstable, if it is with the help of food that you are used to solving your own psychological problems. I was responsible for the development and implementation of treatment programs, for innovative approaches with proven effectiveness, but at the same time I continued (which cost me quite a lot of effort, since managerial work tries to take all the time) to remain a psychotherapist dealing with the problems of overweight people. During this time, I have accumulated a lot of observations, comparisons, small but important discoveries. I have long wanted to make them available to everyone who reads in Russian, so I wrote this book.
Who am I writing this for
Modern beauty standards are ruthless: "beautiful" means "thin".
Trying to live up to these standards, millions of men and women chronically harass themselves with diets and overwork in gyms. This method of losing weight has a beginning, but no end: in order to maintain shape, you need to increasingly limit yourself in food and increase physical activity. You can't stop - you will gain weight. The price of such a lifestyle is food "breakdowns", when a huge amount of "forbidden" foods is eaten overnight, and the "yo-yo effect", when the weight is gaining, then it goes away again. Unstable self-esteem, especially bodily, depression, anxiety disorders are the "support group". Eating instead of one of the pleasures of life becomes a source of constant and tremendous stress.
Do not think that eating disorders affect only anorexic youthful girls or extremely obese "clinical gluttons". Slender men and women are painfully unable to fall asleep, because they could not restrain themselves and overeat, or, conversely, they just went on another diet and are terribly hungry. They suffer in the same way in dressing rooms and in front of the mirror because they “feel fat”.
Modern culture very strictly dictates people to be slim and at the same time offers a huge amount of cheap, affordable, obsessively advertised and “tasty” food. Slimness, as it is understood in modern culture (i.e., in fact, underweight), contradicts the physiological foundations of health. A deficiency of body fat and an excess of protein in food (and it is possible to effectively keep weight below one's own physiological norm only with an excess of protein in the diet due to carbohydrates and fats) is associated with premature aging, breast cancer, the development of diabetes, osteoporosis in women, infertility ...
For a woman to be capable of reproduction, you need to be at least a little "in the body." Studies of the African Bushmen tribe have shown that the women of the tribe become pregnant exclusively during the rainy season and immediately after it, when the tribe easily provides itself with food. During the dry season, women fast, lose weight and naturally become temporarily sterile. It is extremely reasonable, because during this period it would be difficult to feed a born child and feed a nursing mother to her fill.
Food is the very first metaphor of love, the very first relationship that a born person builds.
The child, falling to the breast, immediately receives food, and warmth, and protection, and love. That is why violations of relations with food always force us to look at other relationships in a person's life - with a partner, friends, children, parents, but most importantly - at relationships with oneself. In a very rough way, we can say that the root of eating disorders is in the violation of the relationship with oneself, in the inability to love and accept oneself.
For many of us, food becomes a psychotherapist, a comforter, a universal solution to problems. Food becomes punishment and salvation. Gradually, food, just like drugs and alcohol do, takes control over human behavior and subjugates its existence to itself.
To overcome this problem, there is no need for violence and eternal control over oneself: you just need to learn to trust yourself. People who are prone to overeating and being overweight have a special personality profile, similar character traits that make them "push in" their own emotions with the help of food. You can and should get rid of this, the name of this is compulsive overeating, but hatred of your “fat” body and “weak” will, coupled with dietary clutches, is a dead end path.
An intuitive (non-dietary) approach to nutrition has been popular in Europe and the USA for several decades. Modern research shows its exceptional effectiveness in stabilizing weight at the level of physiological norms and in the ability to keep weight at this stable level for many years. It is based on the removal of inhibitions and fears in connection with food, complete rejection from any diets not prescribed by doctors in connection with certain diseases, and allows the body to show its own initiative in the choice of food. Our body has its own wisdom that allows it to unmistakably choose the food that is most suitable for it at a given moment, corresponding to its needs. The body knows very well how much food to eat at the moment and when to start eating again. Unfortunately, from the very beginning we are taught to ignore these signals, replacing them with external forms of control - calorie tables, food pyramids, ideas about what healthy food and proper nutrition are, which are regularly changing.
The question that always arises for people getting acquainted with this approach: can I lose weight by giving up dieting and switching to intuitive eating? What can be said with certainty: your body will return to its normal physiological weight and remain at that level. For many, this weight is lower than the current one, but not always. To predict how events will develop for you personally, try to answer the following questions (quoted in Evelyne Tribole, Elyse Reisch. Intuitive eating. 2012, St. Martin Press, New York):
1. How often do you continue to eat after the feeling of comfortable satiety has already arrived?
2. Do you often overeat before starting a new diet (realizing that on a diet you cannot afford to eat all this for a long time)?
3. Do you ever eat to deal with emotions or to fight boredom?
4. Are you one of those who consistently dislike physical activity?
5. Do you only exercise when you are on a diet?
6. Do you often miss meals or eat only when you are literally starving and as a result you overeat?
7. Do you feel guilty if you overeat or eat "unhealthy food", which ultimately leads to more overeating (it's all gone anyway)?
If you answered yes to some or all of these questions, your current weight may be higher than your physiological weight, which your body has been programmed to maintain on its own from birth, without any additional effort on your part. It is very likely that you will be able to return to this weight as a result of the transition to intuitive eating. The most important thing to remember is that weight loss SHOULD NOT be an end in itself, as the transition to intuitive eating for the sake of losing weight will greatly interfere with the development of your ability to listen to the internal signals of the body.
Acknowledgments
This book would not have appeared if it were not for the efforts of many, many people.
When I started writing on the Internet blog about my experience with overeating and being overweight, I never expected such a stormy interest in these entries. Each new publication instantly overgrown with tens and hundreds of comments, spread much wider than the LiveJournal platform on which I blog, often began an independent life, having lost the link to the author and the place of publication on the way, or even gained a new "author".
This book would not exist if it were not for the readers of my blog. They not only read, commented and shared their own experience, they fearlessly experimented on themselves (which is why the practical part of the book appeared - Experimentarium) and shared the results. I am very grateful to them for the delicacy, openness and sincerity that are absolutely necessary for discussing such a difficult topic.
This book would not exist if it were not for my patients. Russian and Dutch speakers living in different cities and countries, they at different times and for different reasons made the same, very courageous decision - to start the process of their own psychotherapy of eating behavior with me. I am very grateful to them for their trust and for what they taught me.
This book would not have been if it were not for the illustrator Evgenia Dvoskina, who invented and painted faces and images for my stories about people and food. We must not forget the people who helped fill out the questionnaires and self-observation forms.
But there is one person to whom I am especially grateful. This is my husband Anton. Throughout this time, he not only supported and urged me to keep writing about it, but also provided an opportunity to do it practically - taking on household chores, preparing food, raising our two children. Darling, I don’t know how you got through it, and I don’t know if I can ever thank you for the patience and perseverance with which you supported me along the way. Thanks.
Part I
Why am I overweight?
Chapter 1
Dietetics mythology
What's your relationship with food?
If you have excess weight, stable or, conversely, constantly disappearing and returning as a result of acute attacks of a healthy lifestyle, then - ta-dam! - you have no problems with being overweight. You have problems in relationships with food, which, in turn, hide problems in relationships with yourself and the world around you. That's about this - our relationship with food - and we'll talk.
If you are reading this book, then in 7 cases out of 10 you have a weight loss experience, possibly extensive and long-term. You flip through these pages in the hope of understanding what you are doing wrong or what is wrong with you, why the diet that worked effectively for Nina, Katya, Tanya and Oleg does not work in your case, and you weigh and look completely different, as you would like. The remaining three cases were a little more fortunate - they have little or no experience of dieting, but they still have excess weight and dissatisfaction with their own body. What's the matter?
And the fact is that about diets and proper nutrition(it is even called " healthy way life ”, although this behavior has not the slightest relation to health, especially mental health, as we will see later) there are a lot of myths and legends. Massively replicated, they became a popular part of general knowledge, and did not gain from this only one thing - conformity to reality. Let's figure it out.
The first myth. It is important to find "your" diet
In the ranks of those who are losing weight, a legend is spread that there is one and only, cherished, almost specially developed for you, diet. It is worth finding it - and the problem of losing weight is solved forever. This sacred diet is easy to follow - it is perceived as comfortable and you just don't notice any prohibitions, you lose weight on it remarkably quickly and you feel great. You can stick to it all your life. But finding it is as difficult as the Holy Grail - in search you will have to try on yourself all the achievements of dietary thought ...
This myth is based on a simple medical fact: about 5-10% of people in the population are able to withstand significant restrictions in the variety and calorie content of food consumed for a long time, and therefore, to keep the weight lost as a result of dietary behavior for a long time.
These 5-10% primarily include people with a healthy, undisturbed type of diet, genetically inclined to effortlessly maintain low body weight.
We call a healthy type of diet the ability to listen to internal signals of hunger and satiety and choose food according to internal needs, and not considerations of calorie content, "benefits" / "harm", belonging to the group of proteins or carbohydrates.
When you start talking about intuitive nutrition at a lecture, you must hear exclamations: "My husband eats exactly this way!" After asking in more detail, you find that the aforementioned husband and aunt had no problems either with self-esteem or with weight - they were not at all thin, just their body suited them and did not cause discomfort, and they always ate exactly as much as they wanted - no more and no less. These are natural, natural, intuitive eaters, people whose eating behavior could not be spoiled by their parents, the mass media and the general dietary madness. If such people are "transplanted" to food with certain restrictions, they will calmly, without significant suffering, withstand this period, and then will be able to maintain a reduced weight for a long time. Usually, the situation unfolds in a completely different way: sooner or later, the diet is followed by a "breakdown", after which the motivation to continue following it is greatly reduced. "This does not seem to help," we think, "probably this is not for me, I'll look for something else." The new dietary system triggers a surge of motivation, hope and desire, this time for guaranteed success. This lasts for a while, then the cycle repeats ...
Aspiring to lose weight, as if enchanted, seeks "his own diet", over and over again trying new ones - those that are in fashion now, or those on which someone else managed to succeed. However, the truth is that any diet “works” for you personally. Yes, you heard right, and there is no typo here. Absolutely any of the existing nutritional systems focused on weight loss will sooner or later lead to a result. The differences are minimal. Why? Because the goal of any diet is to change your current nutritional system and make your body lose a certain amount of kilograms. Any limitation of fats and simple carbohydrates (and it is on this that almost any diet existing today is built) achieves this goal. It is only important not to forget that ...
Actually. Any diet works. Temporarily
You are choosing a diet that promises rapid weight loss in a short timeframe. We call fast weight loss by more than 1-1.5 kg per week. You gain courage, tragically nibbling your 4 crackers and a glass of yogurt a day and dreaming about chocolate muffins at night. You are constantly tormented by a feeling of hunger, your body catastrophically lacks vitamins and minerals (vitamins in pharmacy vitamin complexes are not only very little absorbed, but can also be toxic), in addition, you are dehydrated, because fast diets often include a component of active excretion of fluid from the body, and you forget to drink two prescribed liters of water per day. But, most importantly, the brain receives a clear signal from the digestive system: “Attention! Turn on the hungry regime! ". The human brain is little acquainted with the modern cult of excessive thinness and still thinks like a cave. In cave times, there was no abundance of food that you no longer needed to worry about. It was not there in the Middle Ages, and in the Renaissance, and later. Only the last two or three generations of Homo sapiens live in conditions of food abundance - this is very little for the brain, it has not had time to change and adapt. Therefore, the brain turns on the fasting mode, which means being in a mode of reduced calorie intake.
In addition to the symptoms of lethargy, drowsiness, reluctance to start any action, especially involving physical activity, known to everyone who has ever sat on a rigid diet (another disadvantage is to make regular physical activity an inseparable part of his life on a rigid diet), he also includes the symptom of "holding" any calories accidentally wandered into the body. In other words, anything that can be converted to fat is converted to fat. In the "starvation mode", other important changes take place in the body - for example, the amount of enzymes that produce fat cells doubles.
Our body perceives hunger as a serious threat and prepares " heavy artillery"To be guaranteed to survive the next hunger period.
Therefore, when you go on a diet, you decide not to lose weight, but to gain weight, just after a short period of a leaner life.
But what about those 5-10%, you ask? Why are they not getting better? Are their bodies regulated by other physiological mechanisms? Of course not. What is the difference then? The difference is that these people hear internal body signals telling them when and how they need to eat, without being genetically inclined to be overweight.
Any restriction in nutrition causes a completely natural resistance in us, both physiological - the body strives to suck in any available calories and put them in reserve for a rainy day - and psychological. A person on a diet is irritable, sad, unhappy. He fights temptations all the time, all the time he resists the devilish voices that ask "well, that cookie."
It is peculiar for a person to have an extremely negative attitude to any restrictions - this is one of the basic properties of the human psyche. That is why, as a punishment for violating freedom, mankind has invented a conclusion - restriction of freedom.
Before starting to study food addictions, I devoted many years to working with chemical addictions, mainly drug addiction. When I worked in a Dutch men's prison and wrote my notes about the life of Dutch prisoners who use drugs, I often encountered an indignant reaction: "In such good conditions, prison is not a punishment!" Under good conditions implied respectful human attitude on the part of the staff, availability medical care and education, the presence of decent living conditions (a small cell-room for one person with a bathroom) and hot food, the ability to work and earn money. My interlocutors had no experience of imprisonment, and it was rather difficult for me to explain that all these buns are not worth the simple fact that the territory is surrounded by gates that cannot be crossed for several more years. And that people in such conditions feel bad, very bad.
Do you know what is the favorite TV show of the prisoners? The series "Prison Break".
Diet is your personal prison, from which you will definitely want to escape with all your might. The "prisoner" will strive to "free", to the cherished carbohydrates and fats, overeat them, because this is "the last time", and then - again under lock and key. And so - an infinite number of cycles. The emergence of a new diet renews the rather dimmed motivation and adds confidence in oneself - the effect of novelty is triggered. (The most "faithful" guardians of the program in the obesity clinic are patients in the first three months. Their dynamics of weight loss is the most intense. After three months, the novelty and pride in the step taken fade, it becomes more and more difficult to maintain motivation, after 6 months the novelty disappears altogether, there is a crisis of motivation).
No wonder the clinic in which I started working with binge eating therapy, where the average BMI is 42 (this means very large excess weight, people with this BMI weigh 110-120 kg or more, depending on height), is full of people who know much more than me about all the diets that exist - they've tried all of them. There is also a special term in dietetics - "yo-yo effect". Yo-yo is a Japanese children's toy, a wheel that goes up and down on a string. Like the number on the scales of the endless victims of the diet.
Svetlana Bronnikova - a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, has many years of experience in ridding people of excess weight. For several years she headed the branch of the largest obesity clinic in the Netherlands.
Scientific editor: Nikolskaya N.V., psychotherapist, chief practicing specialist at the Scientific and Practical Center for Contemporary Personality Adaptation.
Binder used photo: Dubova / Shutterstock.com Used under license from Shutterstock.com
Proper nutrition without rules
"I know everything about weight ... and even more."
Lose weight calmly and without rules! Only in harmony can you begin to lose weight and avoid breakdowns, in which kilograms return. Irina Golovina, a psychotherapist with 20 years of experience, will teach you to hear the signals of your body, love yourself and take care of your soul and body.
"60 days with Dr. Dukan"
Starting a diet led by a renowned French nutritionist? get rid of 10 kilos in 60 days. A well-thought-out plan for every day: Nutrition tips, shopping lists and simple exercise options and motivating tips to prevent breakdowns and disruptions.
"I will lose weight"
Fitness blogger No. 1 Lena Miro offers an author's method of losing weight. A triple blow to extra pounds: we change bad eating habits for useful ones, we work according to an understandable system of classes at home and in the gym, and we learn to look at the world with a fit and self-conscious gaze.
“PP for TP. Proper nutrition for the training process "
Top blogger and author of the #Beshenayasushka project Vasily Smolny will explain why you won't achieve anything by hanging out for hours in the gym or winding kilometers around your house. Just one rule? you need to eat to look good! How and what, you will find out on the pages of this book.
How to read this book
This book is an attempt to write a self-help guide, and therefore it consists of two parts: a theoretical one, in which I talk about what eating disorders look like, what compulsive and emotional overeating is and how we got to this life. when, with the help of a diet, we are trying to solve a problem that appears precisely due to a diet, and a practical one, in which I will consistently, step by step, help you set up your own diet without any restrictions. Each chapter ends with the Experimentarium section - it contains exercises and psychotechniques that will help you understand what and how it affects your eating behavior, investigate how you experience hunger and satiety, analyze why you overeat and cope with strong emotions without the help of food ... You can: jump from the beginning of the book to the end or the middle, read in separate pieces, read everything first on a certain topic, then on another, or, conversely, read strictly according to the table of contents, from one chapter to another.
We all assimilate information in different ways, and the associative connections that we form at the same time are also different. Needed: underline in the book, write in the margins, do the exercises right in the text. When you are done with the book, it will become your personal guide and map of your eating behavior. Important: do all the exercises in a row without skipping or changing their order. Doing the exercises without reading the preceding chapter is pointless, and maybe even harmful. All exercises are arranged in a logical sequence, which should not be broken: this greatly reduces the effect.
Why am I writing this
I am a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist. For several years I have headed one of the branches of the largest obesity clinic in the Netherlands. Treatment is psychotherapeutic, because it is impossible to get rid of excess weight without changing behavior, lifestyle, way of thinking. It is impossible to remain thin, being emotionally unstable, if it is with the help of food that you are used to solving your own psychological problems. I was responsible for the development and implementation of treatment programs, for innovative approaches with proven effectiveness, but at the same time I continued (which cost me quite a lot of effort, since managerial work tries to take all the time) to remain a psychotherapist dealing with the problems of overweight people. During this time, I have accumulated a lot of observations, comparisons, small but important discoveries. I have long wanted to make them available to everyone who reads in Russian, so I wrote this book.
Who am I writing this for
Modern beauty standards are ruthless: "beautiful" means "thin".
Trying to live up to these standards, millions of men and women chronically harass themselves with diets and overwork in gyms. This method of losing weight has a beginning, but no end: in order to maintain shape, you need to increasingly limit yourself in food and increase physical activity. You can't stop - you will gain weight. The price of such a lifestyle is food "breakdowns", when a huge amount of "forbidden" foods is eaten overnight, and the "yo-yo effect", when the weight is gaining, then it goes away again. Unstable self-esteem, especially bodily, depression, anxiety disorders are the "support group". Eating instead of one of the pleasures of life becomes a source of constant and tremendous stress.
Do not think that eating disorders affect only anorexic youthful girls or extremely obese "clinical gluttons". Slender men and women are painfully unable to fall asleep, because they could not restrain themselves and overeat, or, conversely, they just went on another diet and are terribly hungry. They suffer in the same way in dressing rooms and in front of the mirror because they “feel fat”.
Modern culture very strictly dictates people to be slim and at the same time offers a huge amount of cheap, affordable, obsessively advertised and “tasty” food. Slimness, as it is understood in modern culture (i.e., in fact, underweight), contradicts the physiological foundations of health. A deficiency of body fat and an excess of protein in food (and it is possible to effectively keep weight below one's own physiological norm only with an excess of protein in the diet due to carbohydrates and fats) is associated with premature aging, breast cancer, the development of diabetes, osteoporosis in women, infertility ...
For a woman to be capable of reproduction, you need to be at least a little "in the body." Studies of the African Bushmen tribe have shown that the women of the tribe become pregnant exclusively during the rainy season and immediately after it, when the tribe easily provides itself with food. During the dry season, women fast, lose weight and naturally become temporarily sterile. It is extremely reasonable, because during this period it would be difficult to feed a born child and feed a nursing mother to her fill.
Food is the very first metaphor of love, the very first relationship that a born person builds.
The child, falling to the breast, immediately receives food, and warmth, and protection, and love. That is why violations of relations with food always force us to look at other relationships in a person's life - with a partner, friends, children, parents, but most importantly - at relationships with oneself. In a very rough way, we can say that the root of eating disorders is in the violation of the relationship with oneself, in the inability to love and accept oneself.
For many of us, food becomes a psychotherapist, a comforter, a universal solution to problems. Food becomes punishment and salvation. Gradually, food, just like drugs and alcohol do, takes control over human behavior and subjugates its existence to itself.
To overcome this problem, there is no need for violence and eternal control over oneself: you just need to learn to trust yourself. People who are prone to overeating and being overweight have a special personality profile, similar character traits that make them "push in" their own emotions with the help of food. You can and should get rid of this, the name of this is compulsive overeating, but hatred of your “fat” body and “weak” will, coupled with dietary clutches, is a dead end path.
An intuitive (non-dietary) approach to nutrition has been popular in Europe and the USA for several decades. Modern research shows its exceptional effectiveness in stabilizing weight at the level of physiological norms and in the ability to keep weight at this stable level for many years. It is based on the removal of prohibitions and fears in connection with food, a complete rejection of any diets not prescribed by doctors in connection with certain diseases, and allows the body to show its own initiative in choosing food. Our body has its own wisdom that allows it to unmistakably choose the food that is most suitable for it at a given moment, corresponding to its needs. The body knows very well how much food to eat at the moment and when to start eating again. Unfortunately, from the very beginning we are taught to ignore these signals, replacing them with external forms of control - calorie tables, food pyramids, ideas about what healthy food and proper nutrition are, which are regularly changing.
The question that always arises for people getting acquainted with this approach: can I lose weight by giving up dieting and switching to intuitive eating? What can be said with certainty: your body will return to its normal physiological weight and remain at that level. For many, this weight is lower than the current one, but not always. To predict how events will develop for you personally, try to answer the following questions (quoted in Evelyne Tribole, Elyse Reisch. Intuitive eating. 2012, St. Martin Press, New York):
1. How often do you continue to eat after the feeling of comfortable satiety has already arrived?
2. Do you often overeat before starting a new diet (realizing that on a diet you cannot afford to eat all this for a long time)?
3. Do you ever eat to deal with emotions or to fight boredom?
4. Are you one of those who consistently dislike physical activity?
5. Do you only exercise when you are on a diet?
6. Do you often miss meals or eat only when you are literally starving and as a result you overeat?
7. Do you feel guilty if you overeat or eat "unhealthy food", which ultimately leads to more overeating (it's all gone anyway)?
If you answered yes to some or all of these questions, your current weight may be higher than your physiological weight, which your body has been programmed to maintain on its own from birth, without any additional effort on your part. It is very likely that you will be able to return to this weight as a result of the transition to intuitive eating. The most important thing to remember is that weight loss SHOULD NOT be an end in itself, as the transition to intuitive eating for the sake of losing weight will greatly interfere with the development of your ability to listen to the internal signals of the body.
Acknowledgments
This book would not have appeared if it were not for the efforts of many, many people.
When I started writing on the Internet blog about my experience with overeating and being overweight, I never expected such a stormy interest in these entries. Each new publication instantly overgrown with tens and hundreds of comments, spread much wider than the LiveJournal platform on which I blog, often began an independent life, having lost the link to the author and the place of publication on the way, or even gained a new "author".
This book would not exist if it were not for the readers of my blog. They not only read, commented and shared their own experience, they fearlessly experimented on themselves (which is why the practical part of the book appeared - Experimentarium) and shared the results. I am very grateful to them for the delicacy, openness and sincerity that are absolutely necessary for discussing such a difficult topic.
This book would not exist if it were not for my patients. Speaking Russian and Dutch, living in different cities and countries, they at different times and for different reasons made the same, very courageous decision - to start the process of their own psychotherapy of eating behavior with me. I am very grateful to them for their trust and for what they taught me.
This book would not have been if it were not for the illustrator Evgenia Dvoskina, who invented and painted faces and images for my stories about people and food. We must not forget the people who helped fill out the questionnaires and self-observation forms.
But there is one person to whom I am especially grateful. This is my husband Anton. Throughout this time, he not only supported and urged me to keep writing about it, but also provided an opportunity to do it practically - taking on household chores, preparing food, raising our two children. Darling, I don’t know how you got through it, and I don’t know if I can ever thank you for the patience and perseverance with which you supported me along the way. Thanks.
Part I
Why am I overweight?
Chapter 1
Dietetics mythology
What's your relationship with food?
If you have excess weight, stable or, conversely, constantly disappearing and returning as a result of acute attacks of a healthy lifestyle, then - ta-dam! - you have no problems with being overweight. You have problems in relationships with food, which, in turn, hide problems in relationships with yourself and the world around you. That's about this - our relationship with food - and we'll talk.
If you are reading this book, then in 7 cases out of 10 you have a weight loss experience, possibly extensive and long-term. You flip through these pages in the hope of understanding what you are doing wrong or what is wrong with you, why the diet that worked effectively for Nina, Katya, Tanya and Oleg does not work in your case, and you weigh and look completely different, as you would like. The remaining three cases were a little more fortunate - they have little or no experience of dieting, but they still have excess weight and dissatisfaction with their own body. What's the matter?
And the fact is that there are a lot of myths and legends about diets and proper nutrition (this is even called a "healthy lifestyle", although this behavior has nothing to do with health, especially mental health, as we will see later). Massively replicated, they became a popular part of general knowledge, and did not gain from this only one thing - conformity to reality. Let's figure it out.
The first myth. It is important to find "your" diet
In the ranks of those who are losing weight, a legend is spread that there is one and only, cherished, almost specially developed for you, diet. It is worth finding it - and the problem of losing weight is solved forever. This sacred diet is easy to follow - it is perceived as comfortable and you just don't notice any prohibitions, you lose weight on it remarkably quickly and you feel great. You can stick to it all your life. But finding it is as difficult as the Holy Grail - in search you will have to try on yourself all the achievements of dietary thought ...
This myth is based on a simple medical fact: about 5-10% of people in the population are able to withstand significant restrictions in the variety and calorie content of food consumed for a long time, and therefore, to keep the weight lost as a result of dietary behavior for a long time.
These 5-10% primarily include people with a healthy, undisturbed type of diet, genetically inclined to effortlessly maintain low body weight.
We call a healthy type of diet the ability to listen to internal signals of hunger and satiety and choose food according to internal needs, and not considerations of calorie content, "benefits" / "harm", belonging to the group of proteins or carbohydrates.
When you start talking about intuitive nutrition at a lecture, you must hear exclamations: "My husband eats exactly this way!" After asking in more detail, you find that the aforementioned husband and aunt had no problems either with self-esteem or with weight - they were not at all thin, just their body suited them and did not cause discomfort, and they always ate exactly as much as they wanted - no more and no less. These are natural, natural, intuitive eaters, people whose eating behavior could not be spoiled by their parents, the mass media and the general dietary madness. If such people are "transplanted" to food with certain restrictions, they will calmly, without significant suffering, withstand this period, and then will be able to maintain a reduced weight for a long time. Usually, the situation unfolds in a completely different way: sooner or later, the diet is followed by a "breakdown", after which the motivation to continue following it is greatly reduced. "This does not seem to help," we think, "probably this is not for me, I'll look for something else." The new dietary system triggers a surge of motivation, hope and desire, this time for guaranteed success. This lasts for a while, then the cycle repeats ...
Aspiring to lose weight, as if enchanted, seeks "his own diet", over and over again trying new ones - those that are in fashion now, or those on which someone else managed to succeed. However, the truth is that any diet “works” for you personally. Yes, you heard right, and there is no typo here. Absolutely any of the existing nutritional systems focused on weight loss will sooner or later lead to a result. The differences are minimal. Why? Because the goal of any diet is to change your current nutritional system and make your body lose a certain amount of kilograms. Any limitation of fats and simple carbohydrates (and it is on this that almost any diet existing today is built) achieves this goal. It is only important not to forget that ...
Actually. Any diet works. Temporarily
You are choosing a diet that promises rapid weight loss in a short timeframe. We call fast weight loss by more than 1-1.5 kg per week. You gain courage, tragically nibbling your 4 crackers and a glass of yogurt a day and dreaming about chocolate muffins at night. You are constantly tormented by a feeling of hunger, your body is catastrophically short of vitamins and minerals (vitamins in pharmacy vitamin complexes are not only very little absorbed, but can also be toxic), in addition, you are dehydrated, since fast diets often include a component of active excretion of fluid from the body, and drink two the prescribed liter of water per day you forget. But, most importantly, the brain receives a clear signal from the digestive system: “Attention! Turn on the hungry regime! ". The human brain is little familiar with the modern cult of excessive thinness and still thinks like a cave. In cave times, there was no abundance of food that you no longer needed to worry about. It was not there in the Middle Ages, and in the Renaissance, and later. Only the last two or three generations of Homo sapiens live in conditions of food abundance - this is very little for the brain, it has not had time to change and adapt. Therefore, the brain turns on the fasting mode, which means being in a mode of reduced calorie intake.
In addition to the symptoms of lethargy, drowsiness, reluctance to start any action, especially involving physical activity, known to everyone who has ever sat on a rigid diet (another disadvantage is to make regular physical activity an inseparable part of his life on a rigid diet), he also includes the symptom of "holding" any calories accidentally wandered into the body. In other words, anything that can be converted to fat is converted to fat. In the "starvation mode", other important changes take place in the body - for example, the amount of enzymes that produce fat cells doubles.
Our body perceives hunger as a serious threat and prepares "heavy artillery" to ensure we survive the next hunger period.
Therefore, when you go on a diet, you decide not to lose weight, but to gain weight, just after a short period of a leaner life.
But what about those 5-10%, you ask? Why are they not getting better? Are their bodies regulated by other physiological mechanisms? Of course not. What is the difference then? The difference is that these people hear internal body signals telling them when and how they need to eat, without being genetically inclined to be overweight.
Any restriction in nutrition causes a completely natural resistance in us, both physiological - the body strives to suck in any available calories and put them in reserve for a rainy day - and psychological. A person on a diet is irritable, sad, unhappy. He fights temptations all the time, all the time he resists the devilish voices that ask "well, that cookie."
It is peculiar for a person to have an extremely negative attitude to any restrictions - this is one of the basic properties of the human psyche. That is why, as a punishment for violating freedom, mankind has invented a conclusion - restriction of freedom.
Before starting to study food addictions, I devoted many years to working with chemical addictions, mainly drug addiction. When I worked in a Dutch men's prison and wrote my notes about the life of Dutch prisoners who use drugs, I often encountered an indignant reaction: "In such good conditions, prison is not a punishment!" Good conditions meant respectful human attitude on the part of the staff, the availability of medical care and education, the presence of decent conditions of detention (a small cell-room for one person with a bathroom) and hot food, the ability to work and earn money. My interlocutors had no experience of imprisonment, and it was rather difficult for me to explain that all these buns are not worth the simple fact that the territory is surrounded by gates that cannot be crossed for several more years. And that people in such conditions feel bad, very bad.