Emotional Freedom Technique

Photo courtesy Rita Thompson

Robyn (my naturopath) is always telling me to use the 'Emotional Freedom Technique' or EFT to help with my anxiety. The problem is I am a sceptical neurotic. She taught me how to practice it myself, at home, whenever I'm feeling anxious, worried or tempted. It's also called tapping. The site all about it is here. (You can download a free manual and watch a video to learn more about it.)

When she first showed me how to do it I had come to her in tears, angry at myself for gaining/not losing weight, feeling suicidal and hopeless. We did a tapping session and she had me measure my anxiety about gaining weight and my fear of eating on a scale of 1 to 10. I said my anxiety was a 20!! When we finished she asked me again, I rated it at and 8 out of 10. Again and it was down to 4. We kept tapping until all my fears had gone and I felt calm and in control.

I couldn't believe how much it helped. EFT makes you feel VERY silly, at first I couldn't stop giggling as I was imitating her tapping... but then I started listening to the things I was saying and realised I could let my fears go. It went something like this: "Even though... the thought of eating makes me feel out of control and guilty, and I'm afraid I'm going to get fat, and I feel like I need to hang on to my eating habits to have some kind of sanity, and I feel like I let myself down by eating, and if I stop these rituals I won't know what to do.... I accept and love myself." Then I'd exhale a really deep breath and relax. It was SO HARD to say those last words when everything inside me was screaming "NO YOU DON'T! YOU'RE A WASTE OF SPACE! A FAILURE! YOU HATE YOURSELF!" After about 5 or 6 repeats, I started saying the last phrase with some conviction. The fears I had been worrying about were what was making me fail and hate myself.

I've been thinking about it a lot and I'm going to start doing it daily. Every time Robyn calls and asks me if I've been doing it at home, I say "No, I just feel stupid" or "Oh, I forgot" or "It seems like a waste of time". (She puts up with a lot from me.) But looking back, it really did help me let go of my anxiety about eating. Actually, on that day I went home and ate lunch and dinner and started to nourish myself with real foods again. The day before all I had eaten was a diet coke. The week before I had eaten an average of 500 calories a day (I know because I kept journal upon journal of food intake, calories and exercise). After that breakthrough, I stopped my obsessive calorie counting, threw all of my diaries away and put the scales in the garage. I ate again.

Despite my initial misgivings, I'm going to ignore the sceptic inside with the loud voice jeering and caterwauling and start doing EFT myself. I'm going to focus on my exercise with EFT. We've been managing to do weights 3 times a week and I've been doing a walk/run about 2 or 3 times a week for 45mins. What's holding me back from doing more cardio? Laziness. I can't get out of bed (it's lovely and warm, the covers are so snuggly... just a few more minutes...)! Also my fear of getting sweaty and dirty. So I'm tapping on those things this week and I'll see if I can manage to step up the exercise a bit more. All I want is a little more intensity and a little more frequency, I don't want to overtrain, but I do want to get fitter, stronger and gain some serous Beyoncé Butt!

Has anyone heard of this technique? What are your experiences? Has it helped you to overcome an emotional hurdle?

My Quotidian Diet - Day 9

Here's a pic of my daily eggies! Jamie Oliver eat your heart out! Eggs, parsely, feta, tomato and red onion... I'm making myself hungry.

Every day for the last few months I've eaten two or three eggs for breakfast. I like them scrambled, in an omelette, in a smoothie, fried or sometimes poached, but I save that one for when we go out for breakfast. I can never get it right! I seem to break the yolk or it gets everywhere... One day I will master the poach!

Eggs also fit in nicely with my new plan. This is the only thing that I take exception to on the BFL plan... I DO NOT eat egg whites! Why not? Yolks have all the nutrients! It's like buying cereal and then eating the cardboard box! Here's a great article explaining about eggs and their benefits. No more egg white omelettes. Besides, they taste like, well... nothing, unless you smother them in sauce or salt. Yuck.

Also I stumbled upon this article that adults who eat eggs for breakfast lose 65 percent more weight. If that's not a good reason to start eating them, I don't know what is.

But PLEASE make them good quality, free range eggs. Apart from the delicious taste, you are making sure that the chickens are looked after with a good quality of life. Cage eggs are cheap but the poor chooks suffer.

BFL day 9... already! I'm doing really well, not cheating and exercising once or twice every day. This morning I did a pilates video - ouch my abs! Last night was weight training - lower body, I smashed it. I'm loving it! Tomorrow - Wednesday - I have arms again and I'm going for 10 reps of 45kgs on the benchpress. Woot! It may not seem like a lot to all you buff bohemoths, but for a wussy little girl like me, it's huge. I'll let you know if I can hit it... or not. Either way I'm going to be putting on my ugly face!

I'll start exercising on Monday...

Bad habits. We all have them. From forgetting to floss to forgetting to let grandma out of the cupboard, they exert a negative influence on our daily lives.

They say a habit takes 21 days to form. So if you start now, by the end of the month you'll have new ones... right? Well... no. Most people sabotage their efforts before that happens.

When starting or breaking any habit we tend to tell our conscious mind we are going to change and it’s for LIFE. On the other hand, if you tell yourself you want to try something for a finite 21 days it seems a more manageable goal. It might sound a little strange to ‘talk to your conscious’... but what I mean is we all have conversations with ourselves inside our heads - should I go to the pub or should I not, should I go to the gym or should I not? There are a hundred conversations we have with ourselves every day.

Tell yourself (your conscious brain) that you are going to try it for 21 days. When you have completed 21 days, your neural pathways will have formed already and you will more than likely continue with your new habit. Just take it one day at a time!

So this sounds pretty straight forward... why do people fail to make the change?

Too difficult. People set out with a lot of ambition and enthusiasm, and start out with a big goal. “I’m going to go to the gym for an hour a day!” or “I’m going to run 30 minutes every day!” The problem is that the goal is too difficult to sustain for very long.

Too many goals. Often we set out to do too much. We want to stop smoking, and stop drinking coffee, and make healthy choices, and do our tax on time, and lift weights. Those are multiple goals, and you cannot focus on what is the most important if you’re trying to do all the others at the same time. Or you might start with one goal, but then get caught up in another goal (to stop procrastinating, for example), and lose focus on the first one.

Not enough motivation. It’s not a lack of discipline, it’s a lack of motivation. You need to find your reason to keep going!

So how does one combat these hurdles...? There are four tools in your artillery.

1. Set one easy, specific, measurable goal

Write this down. If you don’t write it down, it’s not important. Don’t set a difficult goal. Set one that is super, super easy. Five minutes of exercise a day. You can do that. Work your way to 10 minutes after a month. Make it easy to start with, so you can build your habit, then gradually increase. Be specific, what activity are you going to do, at what time of day, and where? Don’t just say “exercise” or “I’m going to walk”. Make it an appointment you can’t miss. Stick to one goal for at least a month. Two months if you can bear it. Don’t start up a second goal during that 30-day period. If you do, you are threatening the success of your original goal.

2. Keep a daily journal

As you record each day, you will start to see your progress, and it will motivate you to keep going. And you have to make it a habit to log it right away. Don’t put it off, and say you’ll do it before you go to bed. As soon as you’re done working out, log it. Just the date, time, and what you did.

3. Tell others about your progress

Do it on your blog, an online forum, with your spouse, friends, family, a workout partner, a coach, a group or a class. However you set it up, make it part of the process that you have to report your daily workout to other people. It could be through email, or the phone, or just by telling your co-workers what you did this morning. But be sure that they know your goal, and that you are going to report to them every day.

4. Motivation - Keep it up!

If you miss two consecutive workouts, you need to look at why, and add a new motivation. Rewards, more public pressure, inspiration, whatever it takes. Think of ways to reinforce your new habits in a positive way. I read of a woman who would take her own extra soft luxury towels to the gym and put on her favourite scent as soon as she finished her workout and stepped out of a hot shower.

What are my goals?
• Get up every day (besides Sunday) at 6:30am and do some form of exercise before anything else. Even if it's only a walk. Every second day, weights.
• Consistently make healthy food choices for the next 12 weeks.

What is my motivation?
• I want to wake up and feel great at the start of each day
• My dogs get a nice walk
• Each day I'm getting fitter
• I'll have more energy to get through the working day
• I want to achieve a goal and be disciplined enough to see it through
• Feel great in my own skin
• Do something healthy that's just for me

Don't wait until Monday to start hitting your targets, start today!

FREE Day!!

In case you hadn't guessed already, my poison of choice is champagne. I love the crisp finish, the slightly acid bite, the pale golden hue, the glassware, the way it pairs perfectly with strawberries... most of all the bubbles seem to appear from nowhere! Fascinating! When you are holding a delicious drop of bubbly and taking teasing sips, every occasion can be a special one. It's like choosing to add mood music when eating dinner, or candlelight. Ahhh... it's my favourite!

As I've reached my first milestone: FREE DAY no 1... I thought it was appropriate to open a bottle! Any excuse will do! No, I'm joking, I was saving it up just for today. I've been looking forward to it and now, it's allowed! I love this plan! I haven't been going crazy today, just having a little bit here and there. From what I can gather, free days are about little indulgences, rewards and satisfaction. When you eat so clean for six whole days, it helps to know you can relax one day and not get the 'guilts'.

The Guilts
Self talk... Maybe if I have one piece of cake today, it won't be so bad... I've been so good all week, it won't matter really. Besides, if I don't have some the others in the office will think I'm being unsociable. It's not that big a slice. Anyway, I deserve it. Oh, this is so good! The chocolate fudge icing is so rich! Wow, that was a big piece... oh, no, I wonder what I'll have for dinner now? Soup? I have to make up for this or I'll gain weight on my diet again! WHY did I eat it?! I feel sick and sluggish, my stomach hurts... I always do this, why can't I have any self discipline? I'm going to be a fat pig forever, no wonder I can't control myself! Every time I try to eat healthy THIS happens. I'm such a failure. I can't be bothered cooking tonight, I'll just get takeaway. It's no use trying to be good, this is not my fault, it's genetic.

Sound familiar? A lot of people have a negative voice dictating lies to them, steering them away from healthy choices. It's up to you if you choose to listen or not.

By following the body for life plan, I can have my cake and eat it too. No more guilts, no more calorie counting. It's simple, consistent and effective. There's a saying: "You don't have to take exercise seriously, just regularly". If you do that, over time your body composition will change and if you do have occasional indulgences, it's not going to matter much at all.

So this is what I had on my free day (wow, week one is over! :))
Meal 1: 2 free range whole egg omlette with grated cheese, parsley, tomato, red onion and avocado, chickory tea
Meal 2: Strawberry smoothie with protein powder (I got 2kgs of fresh strawberries for $5 at the local farmers' markets)
Meal 3: Leftover strawberry smoothie
Meal 4: Sprouted dark rye bread with cream cheese and pickles, handful of sprouted cashew nuts
Meal 5: French-style roast chicken (got this awesome free range chicken from my local butcher) with roast sweet potato, beetroot, capsicum, onion, pumpkin, 2 glasses of champagne
Meal 6: Strawberries with melted dark chocolate dipping sauce, chickory tea

Free day is also my day for a much deserved sleep in. Lovely. I also had a nana nap this afternoon. How naughty!

More diet nonsense

It never ceases to amaze me how people can be so easily sucked in to believing the media when it comes to health. Just because something is labeled 'diet' it doesn't mean it's OK to guzzle it down! Nor does it mean these foods are GOOD for you. (Slaps forehead)

The health and diet foods industry make squizzillions from the gullible public. Why? People want to lose fat! Why do they believe psuedo-scientific lying hype? Because they want to do it the EASY WAY. I shudder every time I see an ad marketing Coco Pops to Mums as a health food. Sigh. It's immoral.

I'm sorry folks, but there is no easy way. If you want to lose fat, you have to move your butt regularly, eat right, get enough sleep and drink water. Simple.

Common quick fixes and their outcomes....

'Diet', 'lite' and 'low-fat' foods
Quick fix: May help shed scale weight in the short term

Inevitable outcome:

• Artificially sweetened and over-processed foods full of chemical additives place a toxic load on the liver and can lead to cancer. Unfortunately, the liver is the organ most responsible for fat burning.
• Feelings of deprivation, leading to binges. Foods are 'guilt free' so more is eaten, even binging on 'fat free' foods results in excess daily calories.
• Muscle wasting due to less protein intake (protein is relatively high in calories, so dieters frequently cut back) and higher sugar intake raises insulin - the hormone that tells your body to store fat (lite foods use sugar and corn syrup to make them taste good). Less muscle equals lower metabolism. You may creep up to your original weight but your body puts on fat easier than muscle resulting in a lower muscle to fat ratio.
• Less value nutritionally depriving the body of vital nutrients responsible for healing, rebuilding and detoxifying resulting in lower immune function, tiredness and aging.
• Hormonal imbalances - fat and protein help regulate the body's intricate hormonal network, unbalanced hormones due to less fat and protein are responsible for weight gain, mood swings, lack of concentration and irritability

Gastric banding, lap banding and other weight loss surgeries
Quick fix: Rapid weight loss

Inevitable outcome:

• Malnutrition - the body is unable to absorb nutrients, immunity is lowered,
• Nausea and discomfort when eating
• Bowel movements impaired due to lack of bulk in diet
• Muscle wastes due to dramatic drop in calories
• Over time stomach stretches back to original size
• Complications can lead to death or extreme fatigue

Liposuction
Quick fix: Immediate fat loss, the area is visibly more smooth

Inevitable outcome:

• Fat cells have been permanently removed resulting in possible scarring and an uneven distribution
• If a strict diet is not constantly adhered to any weight gain, even a minimal amount, will be lumpy and uneven. The problem areas initially targeted will look worse!
• Nerve endings can be damaged resulting in less sensation
  
• Severe bruising and capillary damage. Blood vessels closest to skin (in the dermis) are responsible for removing toxins that can cause cellulite and work in conjunction with the lymphatic system. They also help keep the skin looking young. When they are damaged the appearance of cellulite become worse, skin in the area looks prematurely aged

So don't be a sucker, PLEASE eat your greens and go for a walk... it is less expensive, not to mention much less painful! Every single person has an amazing body that is GEARED towards keeping you healthy! Daily, hundreds of thousands of cells are being built, repaired and destroyed. Fuel that machine with quality foods, move it around and take time to rest and destress, it will respond accordingly and become efficient and energetic.

Besides... bacon flavoured coke is just wrong on so many levels. Sheesh!

Day 4... PHWOARRRR!

Oh yeah, I can't believe I'm halfway through week 1 already! So far so good, my nutrition is stellar and I've not skipped an exercise session yet! I'm so proud of myself. (Pats self on back)

I'm really looking forward to my free day, not because I can eat whatever, but because I can have a well deserved sleep in! Yawn, 6:30am... arrrgh. My NEW habit will form soon, right? On sunday I'm not going to go crazy, I'll keep it clean, but I will have a glass of champagne and a baby cup of rich chocolate icecream.

This whole thing has made me so focussed, I have a goal in mind and I want to smash it! I've got a gorgeous lingerie model stuck on my fridge at the moment (my hubby is not complaining!) and when I complete the 12 weeks, I'm going to get a shoot done with exactly that pose, in similar underwear to show how far I've come. I can't wait! Rain, hail, shine, I'm going to do this!

Day 2 BFL Challenge

Well the hard part is over. Starting. Now all I have to do is take one day at a time for the next 83 days and I'll reach my goal.

Getting up today was traumatic. 6:30am is when NIGHT SHIFT workers arise! Arrrgh. I DID get up though, had a little pity party and then just did it. Took the dogs for a big long walk and made myself a leisurely breakfast before work, omlette with feta, tomato, basil, parsley and red onion, as per yesterday. Do you know what? I actually enjoyed it once I got moving. It was very pleasant, not many people around and sunny and warm, not hot. Beautiful.

They say habits take 28 days to form. 2 down, 26 to go!

Eating all of this food is a bit confronting, you start feeling really hungry, even though it feels like you just ate! I'm thinking of taking photos of my meals and posting them here, so I can remember them when I'm stressed or busy and can't think of anything to have. Not that I'm a food stylist, but I do like to think I can cook well, Donna Hay watch out!

Cardio tonight, I'll have to go off to bed a little bit earlier I think! I have to avoid as many negatives as I can so that I keep it going. Positive association. I read somewhere that a lady uses extra soft scented towels for her workouts and makes sure to have a relaxing bath afterward as a reward. Subconciously, we need thing like that to feel good when we are cultivating new habits.