Psychology of Eating

The Great NEWS posts in 2015 are dedicated to sharing Healthy Habits. Today’s post on the Psychology of Eating is inspired by an interesting conversation with a psychologist from Haiti at a retirement party. One of our most important healthy habits is making conscious choices and decisions about the beverages, foods and nourishment we consume. This post is dedicated to helping you develop the healthy habit of programming your body and brain to desire healthy nourishment by creating a positive Psychology of Eating.

While at a friends retirement party a psychologist shared her desire for helping clients create the mindset needed to make better decisions about eating healthy foods instead of unhealthy foods. She was finding it challenging and frustrating because too many people feel their eating habits are unhealthy yet struggle with making the healthy changes they need.

Many people are over consuming excessive unhealthy fake, fast and junk beverages and foods.

Can you remember a time when your eating psychology was out of control and causing you to eat too fast or overload on unhealthy junk foods? I have and I know many others have as well. Many people are over consuming excessive unhealthy fake, fast and junk beverages and foods.

To better maintain our long term happiness, health and hormones requires us to be diligent and intelligent about what forms of nourishment we put into our body. When we combine healthy eating with regular fitness and exercise habits we set our self up to win at the game of life. Other wise we become possible contestants for the biggest looser show.

We must learn to act, live and think as if eating intelligently is one of the most important factors and goals for building a strong health foundation because it is. Too many people go on autopilot mode and eat unconsciously which is a recipe for being sad, sick, stressed and stupid. Yes you read that right. You are what you eat so if you eat dumb food choices you become dumb and dumber which results in people eventually becoming stupid.

When we learn to identify the signals, signs and sinister tricks used by the food industry we can download and install the protection software needed to keep the malicious fake, fast and junk food programming from infiltrating our body and brain. Without a strong internal reference and healthy operating system and software we will experience a difficult time reaching our happier, healthier and higher potential.

Unfortunately many ad agencies, companies, government departments, institutions, lobbyists and organizations have decided, dictated and directed the regulations and rules which result in the ads, commercials, food choices and recommendations you are exposed to. Most often these groups do not have our best interest or health in mind. They are more interested in our money and ongoing consumption patterns for their current profits and future profits.

One of the most detrimental things that have occurred in the food industry is the undisclosed and unlabeled use of GMO ingredients. Foods that contain GMO canola, corn, cottonseed oil, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and soy are flooding the market and we may not have a clue when buying or eating them. Today’s world is vastly different from 100 years ago when small farms produced the majority of food we ate and food was more natural and organic. Today it is very difficult to know, read and understand the ingredients or manufacturing process.

Today most food is adulterated and manufactured by being highly processed, refined and treated rather than being in the form nature intended it. Fresh locally grown nutrient dense organic whole foods are best and we are better off avoiding the rest.

In the US especially there is much deception and misinformation around the ingredients and quality of food that most people are in a state of confusion. These days the buyer must become educated on how to do due diligence on the foods before we buy or consume them. The phrase “caveat emptor” which translates into “buyer beware” is more important today than ever before.

Due to a lack of adequate labeling laws and lax federal regulations and rules regarding food disclosure you never know what might be in that fake food item you are buying and consuming. Different businesses and companies can manufacture a food item almost any way they see fit as long as the product has some basic ingredients that originally came from a food source even if the end result is so far distorted and processed as to be unfit for animal consumption.

Most food is designed and manufactured to supply salt, sugar and shelf life rather than health, nutrition and vitality. We must own the responsibility to investigate and research the food products before consuming them if we want to protect our health and well being. Any unhealthy products we eat on a regular basis will weaken our health and immune function. This can result in major hospital and medical bills that rob us of our happiness and hard earned dollars.

While the US government claims to have many agencies in place to protect us, the truth is we must be vigilant and wary in spite of these agencies. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Federal Drug Administration (FDA), Department of Health and Human Services and Center for Disease Control (CDC) are more closely aligned with the big agriculture, biotechnology and food industries than they are with “we the people”. The government agencies and their programs are delivering substandard policies and procedures with disastrous results. They are driving up the real cost of foods while driving the small farmers out of business.

The US may be one of the biggest exporters of certain crops like corn, rice, soy and wheat but we have one of the worst epidemics of cancer, diabetes, heart disease and obesity in the world. As a result we have one of the worst records for health and mortality in relation to the dollars we spend on disease and health care. We lead the world in fake, fast and junk food production, promotion and problems. Is it any wonder we are losing the battle of the bulge and seriously in trouble over our future short falls for healthcare, Medicaid and Medicare? Our lack of good health and proper nutrition is challenging our current and future standings in business, education, employment, finance, healthcare, medical services, productivity, retirement, sickcare, success and wellness.

We spend $Trillions on disability, doctors, healthcare, hospitals, lost time, lost productivity, medicines, pharmaceuticals, sick days, surgery and trauma all caused by our lack of control over what we put in our mouth.

We need to invest the energy, money and time to educate our self on making healthy choices and decisions even before we head to the grocery store or a restaurant. That is what this blog is about. Our goal and passion is helping people invest in their self and financial future. Without a mastery action plan to provide the alarms, beliefs, beverages, exercise, fitness, food, health, nutrition, resources, role models, success strategies, thinking and wellness information you may make the worst choices and end up fat, sick, stupid and tired.

Healing Our Emotions

To begin we must learn to understand how, what, when, where and why our emotions drive our behaviors. Then we need to learn how to better direct our emotions. Emotions drive our actions, behaviors, habits and rituals. Our emotions combined with consciously or unconsciously directed energy results in the choices we make. Most people respond much more like programmed computers than free thinking human beings when it comes to decisions regarding food choices.

Eating provides the body with a combination of emotional, mental, physical and psychological relief.

Since we were an infant the adults, children and environment around us has been conditioning and training us to develop certain behaviors and beliefs. Like Pavlov’s dogs we are animals that have been trained to respond to different stimuli.

All adult and children deserve and desire a safe, secure and supportive environment. When people do not feel they have these they learn to respond in a wide variety of ways. Different people choose to exercise, get angry, have hurt feelings, throw a fit, yell or eat to deal with their feelings. Eating provides the body with a combination of emotional, mental, physical and psychological relief.

Food provides nourishment in the form of calories, carbohydrates, fats, proteins and sugars. Often the beverage or food is cold, cool or warm and provides extra sensations and tastes.

These various combinations of stimuli create sensations in the body of content, control, energy, fullness, nourishment, nurturing, power, relaxed, reward, richness, satiation, satisfaction, sleepiness, smells, survival, sweet, tastes and warmth. All of these sensations cause us to feel better by being more content and satisfied. So it is easy to see how we are conditioned to eat to relieve and satisfy many different emotions and physical needs. We must learn to process emotions and events intelligently and logically rather than simply being a knee jerk reflexive reaction. This way we make positive progress with our nourishment versus negative progress when we loose control and reasoning over our beverage and food choices.

Using modern technology the food industry now knows more about our appetite, behaviors, color choices, cravings, digestion, eating, emotions, environment, favorite foods, fats, flavorings, grocery habits, ingredients, interests, junk food, labeling, likes, moods, night cravings, patterns, programming, smells, sounds, spending, sweet tooth, taste, time, tongue, urges and visual stimulations than we do. They know how to deliver the best education and information on their products in such a way as to make us want to buy again and again. They have mastered the process my which we learn and process emotions and information to make our choices down to a fine art.

They use ads, colors, commercials, music, pictures, radio, sights, smells, tastes, touch, toys, TV, and any other technique they can think of to brainwash and hypnotize us into buying and craving their products. They deliver our favorite tastes of fats, salt and sugar in clever and creative ways.

They study our behaviors and habits to find the best and most effectives ways to program us to buy their products. We need to educate our self on the best information about cooking, digestions, growing, health, nutrition, organics, preparing, probiotics, smells, spices, taste and visual appeal

Adults and children deserve access to a well designed and thought out holistic education and information system. We need resources and role models with empowering information about agriculture, cooking, disease prevention, exercise, fitness, food labeling, food preparation, gardening, health, ingredients, lifestyle, meditation, minerals, nutrition, organics, shopping, stress reduction, vitamins, yoga and wellness.

It is an extremely beneficial and wise investment to educate young people on making healthy food and lifestyle choices. To grow up to be the best person they can be requires access to high quality food and health information. The money and time invested in educating adults and children on how to be happy, healthy and holistic will pay big dividends. Promoting fake, fast and junk foods will create a long term economic loss and financial drain on our economy and society.

Simple Steps Include

Promote exercise and fitness training programs that help students learn the correlation between calories in and the calories consumed with exercise.

Promoting and providing locally grown nutrient dense organic whole foods is one of the easiest and most beneficial steps we can implement quickly to help with a child’s development and education. Our brain needs to link good foods to good performance. When we have the proper fuel to function and learn it is easier to enjoy peak performance. Putting organic gardens on every school campus would help educate students regarding healthy food choices while providing high quality nutrition and a positive example to emulate. Many schools have surplus land growing grass instead of groceries.

Promote exercise and fitness training programs that help students learn the correlation between calories in and the calories consumed with exercise. This will also help them be fit, flexible, strong and toned which helps with self esteem. The lack of food and physical education is a key contributor to so many children being out of shape and overweight. Every grade level could easily provide basic exercise, fitness and nutrition programs to help children establish healthy habits for life.

Most experts, researchers and professionals in the education field would agree that a child’s level of fitness, health, nutrition and mental well being plays a major role in their ability to perform well in school and later at work. Children and parents will benefit from focusing on a positive psychology of eating at an earlier age before many of the unhealthy patterns are deeply established and programmed into our conscious and subconscious thinking. Our future financial success depends on us reducing long term healthcare, low and lost productivity and wellness related costs.

It is imperative we help adults and children understand the emotional, mental, physical and psychological factors that drive our behavior so we help people be more productive and profitable. Balanced, fit, flexible, smart, strong and toned people perform better in school and later in their careers.

Adults and children are more likely to be happy, healthy, motivated, productive, resilient, smart and successful when they have a well established positive psychology of eating. When this happens we will see better communities, companies, families and society in general. When people are educated, empowered, happy and healthy our economy and productivity will profit.

Investing in the steps to insure our citizens are happy, healthy and holistic will yield big dividends in our quality of life. A positive psychology of eating will produce positive long term results for our selves and future generations.

Programming a Positive Psychology of Eating

Make shopping for locally grown and organic foods a priority.

Affirmations and incantations in the morning is a great way to program your brain for better choices
Ask questions and research the products you are considering to purchase.
Creating a Values & Vision Board for daily living alignment and reference
Find the guidance, help and support needed to create a better blueprint that matches your destiny and dream life.
Find the leverage from personal values that will drive the new behaviors needed. We are driven by our core values and must remain consistent with who we think we are.
Learn self hypnosis to program your self for personal growth and self development.
Learn to maintain positive emotions and energy to drive positive actions and motions.
Make shopping for locally grown and organic foods a priority. Help support your local organic farmers market
Pick your peers carefully. Remember who you spend the most time with is who you become most like. Choose healthy friends and peers.
Read the ingredients and labels on all foods. Simply being aware of what you are avoiding and eating is a giant step forward.
Remember “You are what you eat” so choose wisely.
Turn off the “brainwashing” that comes from commercials. Any product with a budget to advertise on TV is probably not healthy for us.
Tune out the hypnosis from the mainstream media promoting unhealthy products.
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is one of the most powerful forms of energy psychology that can turn negative emotions around and enjoy positive emotions again. Learn to apply EFT tapping on a daily basis to improve yur quality of life.

Healthy Habits

The Healthy Habits 2015 series offers simple suggestions to help create more happiness and harmony. The positive psychology of eating is a key life skill to develop and promote. We all deserve and desire to be happy, healthy and in harmony with life and the planet. When we do our part to program our body and brain with healthy habits we set our self up to be happy, healthy and successful.

This Great NEWS post on Healthy Habits shared some simple suggestions for creating a more positive and powerful psychology of eating. We must do our part to establish the techniques, thinking and training to establish the skills, support and systems to succeed in life.

What is your current Gap?

What are you doing to reprogram your mind and thinking for an even more positive psychology of eating? What resources and role models will help you to create a powerful psychology for eating and health?

Mastery Action Plan (MAP)

What daily mastery action plans and steps will help you reprogram and restore your psychology of eating for even better rapid results? What mentors resources and role models do you know or can find to show you the way? Who is getting the rapid results you deserve and desire?

Call to Action

What comments, commitments or concerns come to mind regarding the psychology of eating and other healthy habits? What other ideas and inspiration will help motivate us towards better behaviors, beliefs and biology for a great 2015 and beyond?

Next week the Great NEWS blog will share:

Healthy Habit Calcium Bentonite Clay

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Psychology of Eating