Susan B Roberts, Ph.D. is professor of nutrition and psychiatry at Tufts and director of the Tufts’ Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) Energy and Metabolism Laboratory. Robers and Betty Kelly Sargent have come out with a book called The Instinct Diet. From her research, Roberts has found that people eat based on biological instincts.

These 5 instincts are:

Hunger – we eat to satisfy ourselves and we like the feeling of being full.

Availability – the more easily food is available to us, the more we want to eat it.

Calorie density – we love to eat food that is full of calories.

Familiarity – we like to eat food that we recognize and associate with experiences that make us feel safe.

Variety – we like variety and the more variety of food that we have, the more we eat.

Roberts focuses on the Familiarity Instinct, and why it so strongly influences our eating habits. Roberts points out that we eat foods we like and are familiar with and when we eat these types of foods our familiarity instinct is activated. A perfect example of this is the effectiveness of food commercial that show people eating pizza or drinking a particular soft drink. When we see others eating and drinking certain food they become familiar to us.

Roberts gives several tips to work with our instincts to improve eating habits and control weight gain:

• Introduce new foods into your diet by initially eating small amounts of new foods.
• Gradually substitute healthy foods for unhealthy foods
• Eat healthy food when hungry to have your brain start to look forward to eating healthy foods to satisfying your hunger.
• Have a “time to stop eating” signal that you use at end of your meal. This could be a cup of tea or piece of sugarless gum.
• Give yourself structure – eat only at planed meal and snack times. Your body will stop having random hunger and cravings between eating times.

To curb cravings:

• When you have a craving, instead of giving in, tap your forehead until your mind is distracted from the craving.
• Wait 15 to 20 minutes or call a friend to do something besides eating.

If you are interested in a supportive way to work with beliefs and associations that can sabotage your weight loss visit

http://manifestingwellbeing.com/manifest/

Here’s to your success!

Deborah Barnett, Ph.D.

www.ManifestingWellBeing.com

www.DeborahBarnett.com

One of the benefits of EFT is that it is beneficial for healing and soothing a vast array of conditions and symptoms. This is what one woman had to say after tapping on concerns about her weight:

“You are amazing, your facilitation of tapping is amazing, and I get it. . . .After our session I made a phone call to a friend to share how wonderful you are AND [to share] some of the experience of tapping . . . Two hours after our session I felt the full weight of my body like I never felt it before BUT there was no debasing dialogue going on, no critical self ranting about ‘I really should be blah, blah, blah.’  AMAZING.”   

-K.L. New Hampshire.

Often what keeps us “stuck” and prevents us from being clear is our own internal dialogue that we have going on inside our head. It is as if the there is an inner critic or judge that comments on everything we say, think or do. This just compounds whatever physical or emotional challenge we are facing, makes us feel worse, and pulls us down. By using EFT, that internal struggle or chatter is often quieted. The internal fight ceases as we come into alignment energetically and become clear. This is the place in which healing occurs and new possibilities are available that were previously out of reach.

Please post your comments on some of the techniques that you have used for quieting the internal struggle. Do you have a particular affirmation or phrase that you have used?

Deborah Barnett, Ph.D.

www.ManifestingWellBeing.com   www.DeborahBarnett.com

Emotional Freedom Technique Description and Benefits

What is EFT?
Deborah Barnett, Ph.D.

. Energy Psychology is an emerging field of psychology that is based on the premise that everything, in its essential state, is energy. From this perspective our thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations are a manifestation of energy. Therefore, using specific techniques, we can bring ourselves back into balance by rebalancing our energy.  Thus, distressing thoughts, emotions and physical sensations are soothed and feelings of well-being, joy and physical balance are restored and enhanced.    

  The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is a popular Energy Psychology technique that is gaining wide-spread recognition and respect for its rapid effectiveness.    

Benefits of using EFT may include:
 Emotionally

            Ease depression
            Soothe anxiety
            Decrease stress
            Calm anger
            Soften the impact of past traumas
            Enhance well-being
            Promote joy 
            Gain self-confidence
            Improve relationships 

 Physically

            Relieve pain
            Support weight loss
            Enhance ease in exercising

  Addictions/Habits/Phobias

            Smoking cessation
            Support in relieving alcohol/drug craving
            Greater control over eating choices
            Free yourself from phobias 

Research

Preliminary research is being conducted on the effectiveness of EFT and the results are very positive http://www.emofree.com/Research/andradepaper.htm

Deborah Barnett, Ph.D. www.DeborahBarnett.com   www.manifestingwellbeing.com