Tuesday, May 31, 2011

What is "Normal Eating" Anyhow?




Normal eating is responding to physical cues that your body needs nourishment. It means eating until you are satisfied. Normal eating means eating foods you love and letting yourself have enough. It does not mean depriving yourself or stopping eating because you think you should. Normal eating means exercising some restraint and choosing foods that are good for your body but not limiting your diet so much that you miss out on special foods you might enjoy occasionally. Normal eating means granting yourself permission to eat at any time just because you feel like it, because you feel happy or sad or because you are celebrating or mourning. It means eating sometimes for absolutely no reason other than because you want to.

On some days, normal eating means eating three meals. On other days, it could mean having more or less than that. Normal eating does at times mean over-eating and at other times, under-eating. It means being flexible and it means trusting yourself and your body. Normal eating means letting your body adjust to the constant fluctuations in your moods, food choices and eating patterns. It means paying some attention to your eating, but it does not mean being rigid. It does not mean worrying about your food and body excessively. Thoughts about when and what to eat are necessary in order to feed yourself well but they should not take up the majority of your time and sometimes normal eating can mean taking care of yourself emotionally with an appropriate amount of food.

So, please enjoy your food and remember, sometimes it is OK to eat for emotional reasons as long as you know what you are doing and you're prepared to take care of yourself after.

Be well and warmest wishes, Dr. Denise

Monday, May 23, 2011

Perfection is NOT the Answer!

It is extremely difficult for most of the people I see to embrace the fact that it is normal and OK, in fact, to lapse at times. Most women and men who seek my services have the idea that they need to be perfect and behave perfectly at all times. Since this is impossible, they set themselves up to fail. If they insist on meeting this unattainable goal they usually end up feeling ashamed, guilty, anxious, discouraged and depressed when they “fail” and this triggers more self-abusive binging and out-of-control behavior.


So, setting unrealistic goals leads ultimately to more overeating, more self-punishing, more helpless feelings and more overeating. This is the vicious cycle that gets set up when one insists on perfect behavior at all times. Of course, each person is already perfect as is but they don’t often realize that. Instead they confuse this with perfect behavior (which none of us can achieve all the time). So, it is better to be gentle with yourself, focus on moving forward and to hop back on track each time you slip. Punishing yourself and beating yourself up will only make everything worse.

TOday is the last day today to register for my exciting teleclass series "The Appetite Connection" based on my new book, coming in July. These four classes will give you the basic six steps to creating the life and the body you long for. Only $30 and yours to download after the "live" event to listen whenever you want!

Please join me. It is an exciting opportunity for us to interact. I will pause midway through the event to answer questions or you can e-mail questions ahead of time to denise@deniselamothe.com and, if you can't make the call, you'll still have your question answered on the recording you can download after the event.

REGISTER NOW so you won't miss out!

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Win a FREE book! Teleseminars Start Soon!

Dear friends,

I am so excited to be offering this complete course to you. I have appreciated your connections and am eager to connect even more in the days ahead. These 4 teleclasses will give us a chance to do this. We will be able to interact at last! I welcome your questions and comments and want this to be the most positive and useful experience! If you can't make the dates and times, please register anyway. Each telecless will be recorded for you to download and keep to listen at your leisure. even if you are on "live" with me, I suggest recording the calls because you will want to listen to them again and again. You can find all the information below. Review and then just click here to register. You will receive a special phoine number and code just before each class that will get you on the "live" call.

Oh yes! AND you will automatically be entered in a raffle for a FREE copy of my brand new book, The Appetite Connection, when it is released in July. You will get your copy before it hits the store shelves!!! How cool is that? So, register now! You'll be glad you did!

NEW DATES FOR NEW TELESEMINARS!
Please join me, Dr. Denise Lamothe, for
FOUR 45 MINUTE TELESEMINAR CLASSES BASED ON MY NEW BOOK,
The Appetite Connection:
Six Steps to Your Delicious Life and the Body You Long For

Participants will be automatically
entered in a drawing for a signed, first edition copy of Dr. Denise’s new book !

Classes held on Tuesdays, May 24th & 31st and June 7th & 14th. Cost is $30 for all four seminars! Don’t worry if you can’t make the calls. Register anyway and you will receive a link to each call so you can download, keep and listen to at your leisure*...and, of course, you will want to be entered in the exciting drawing for a FREE book!

WOULD YOU LIKE TO:
· Stop overeating and create the body you long for?
· Understand where and why your overeating behavior began?
· Let go of those old hurts that still hurt?
· Assume full responsibility for all aspects of your life?
· Befriend your appetite and use your internal guidance system?
· Utilize the valuable principles of The Law of Attraction?
· Make smart, healthy, empowering choices?
· Craft a flexible, personalized plan to help yourself every day?
· Contract with yourself to take the best possible care of yourself?

*NOTE: A recording of each call will be available to those that register so if you can't attend live... register anyway! Hope to "see" you there!







Make this you BEST day ever! Dr. Denise

Monday, May 9, 2011

Food Prison - Let Me Out!




In my experience, people who don’t care about themselves or their lives do not come through my door struggling with emotional eating and food control issues. On the contrary, those who seek my services are generally intelligent, motivated, creative, and perfectionistic. For the most part, those who ask for help are energetic and resourceful, but much of their energy is tied up obsessing about food or weight. Because of their eating habits, their physical energy is often low and because of their poor self-esteem, their emotional energy is also affected.

I am convinced that within each of us there exists a center where we love ourselves, and harbor the desire to grow and to be creative. Our creativity may shine when we are writing, drawing, cooking, gardening, knitting or listening to a friend, for example. We want to reach out, to stretch ourselves beyond our familiar, daily routines but we often feel afraid or stuck. Being obsessed with body size and food keeps our energy tied up and this can provide us with an illusion of safety. We don’t have to confront our fears and move forward if we focus on winning this war we are raging against our bodies. Being obsessed with food is like being in a prison where we are both the jailer and the jailed. To break out of our self-imposed prisons we need to develop our spiritual selves. This is a vital part of the process of freeing ourselves to grow and to develop to our greatest potential.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Stand Up for Yourself!

It is one thing for us to challenge old beliefs and to recognize our budding desire to behave in new ways, and quite another to know how to begin. We often lack the skills and the confidence necessary to implement the changes we wish to make. When we have been silent and passive a good deal of our lives, it is difficult to become clear, direct and assertive. Although we can easily see that other people are valuable and have rights, we may view ourselves as exceptions to this rule. It is often a shift in focus to begin to see ourselves as worthy, and as valuable as anyone else. This shift cannot and does not occur easily, nor does it occur over night. We may agree intellectually that all people, male or female, have certain basic human rights, but to actually recognize and stand up for these rights for ourselves is challenging. It is a challenge worth taking on, however, and essential to creating a peaceful and serene life – a life that is free of compulsive eating behavior.