If you’re overweight and trying to reduce, does it sometimes feel that all you think about is food?  Not just food but everything around diet and exercise?  I do.  It seems that when I’m really concentrating on losing weight it’s like it’s a full time job.  Every waking moment is filled with anxiety if I eat too much or being hungry if I eat too little or wondering how much more exercise I’d need if I ate that muffin.

So I went to the nutritional psychologist today for the first time.  It was an hour and a half ($225) and it was great.  I loved every minute of it.  The first hour or so was going over why I was there and what I wanted to accomplish by seeing him.  I told him that I wanted to find joy in every day and stop putting it off until I’m thin.  What if I’m never thin..  I’ll never have joy in my life.

I have to learn to release the guilt I was raised with and start removing myself from the bottom rung on the importance ladder of my life.   My first exercise is to sit in a comfortable chair with my feet on the floor (difficult at only 5′ tall!).  I’m to close my eyes and think about my big toe… feel it.  Then think about my right elbow… feel it. Then imagine a circle around my chest where my heart is.  Then I’m to breathe into that circle slowly – in and out.  After 5 or 6 times I am to release a positive emotion as I exhale.  Today I thought about gratitude but I can choose any emotion.  Love, joy, happiness, forgiveness – anything positive.  I can aim that thought to the world or to someone I know.  I’m to do this exercise twice a day or any time I get filled with anxiety.

Next week we’ll build on that so that I can get to a place that doesn’t need food to feel OK.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 at 3:43 am and is filed under Eating, Psychologist. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.