Next we’re going to spend some time on common sticking points I routinely encounter when working with patients. We’ll start with unhealthy eating habits. Noooooooo!!!!
Most of us had to take a health class or two in school, and we can all draw the food pyramid. Nevermind the myriad of new fad diets that comes out every few years. And, if you chose to view the lecture series offered by the Culinary Institute of America that were discussed in previous posts, you absolutely know how to cook. So, if we all know the core components of nutrition and healthy eating, and have numerous allegedly healthy and successful diet options available to us, why is the obesity rate in the United States high and ever-increasing? Because, like pain, or fear, or relationship problems, it’s not about the nutrition. We eat for a variety of reasons- to be polite, to be social, out of boredom, to mask pain or otherwise avoid dealing with relevant issues… Unless we address these matters, we’re likely to struggle with our weight and the ripple effect it has throughout adulthood.
Taken directly from her own website, “Lynn Rossy, PhD, is a health psychologist, author, researcher, and Kripalu yoga teacher specializing in mindfulness-based interventions for eating, stress, and workplace wellness. She developed a mindful eating program called Eat for Life. She is the President of The Center for Mindful Eating and Executive Director of Tasting Mindfulness.” Dr. Rossy wrote a book entitled, The Mindfulness-Based Eating Solution: Proven Strategies to End Overeating, Satisfy Your Hunger, and Savor Your Life. I like this book because, unlike other mindfulness-based books addressing eating habits, readers do not complain that the book seems to be written by a nutritionist, with a smattering of mindfulness techniques interspersed. Instead, it focuses upon the mind-body connection and the various contributing factors to poor eating habits. In fact, the book was listed as one of the Top 10 Mindful Books in 2016 by Mindful.org. Give it a glance or two.