Personality Change

Weight loss and more importantly, weight maintenance, is all about personality change. A sufficient personality change to bring about recovery. Along with personality change, or likely the cause of personality change, are changes in the beliefs and values, including what we consider to be food, when and how we eat, and the like.

It is the personality change that must occur to give the fixity of personality required to maintain a weight loss. That is what I now consider to be the missing ingredient in most weight loss schemes, but what do I know.

PHD.. Piled higher and deeper

http://evolutionarypsychiatry.blogspot.ca/2013/02/emotional-eating.html

It is my opinion only that there are three levels of overeating in relatively healthy obese. The first is chemically/physically driven, by insulin, insulin reaction, as described in Fat Chance. This must be addressed first, that is no sugar, grains, omega 6 oils, or any of those nasty chemicals that drive appetite. We should include in this group all the vitamin and mineral, protein deficiencies. A Paleo / Primal / low carb food plan is the first step.

Second are all those environmental, emotional, social, stress, boredom situations that are beyond or control, that we are powerless over. We need methods of moving those into the third category in order to deal with them. For me, this is OA and stoicism of some form. Cravings and to some extent hunger fall into this category. Hunger, true hunger, can be identified with a small amount of fat rich protein. Satiation and satiety are separate issues.

The third category are those food drives that are within my power to do something about, even if all I can do is take myself away or to bed. These, I must address through education of the correct way of thinking, or stoic study, or similar methods.

But what do I know, I am not educated in the food science, research,  but I have beat my problem down a long ways.

   

Obesity, desires, and excess

Is obesity the result of thwarted desires?

Survival in evolution past times seems to favour those who had a strong desire for survival, desires for action, desires for work, and those things work can bring. In modern times, survival is no longer dependent on such thing, but social skills, and, combined with birth control, does not cause increase in the birthrate, but a decline in birth rate. Aka, less evolution. But the desires remain.

Many of our desires are beyond our needs. Is overeating one of those desires, or needs that is simply an available way of satisfying an evolutionary desires in a biologically damaging way?

http://www.dietdoctor.com/why-calorie-counting-is-an-eating-disorder

Sharma and Bating

http://www.drsharma.ca/obesity-energetic-offerings.htm  Sharma has provided a lovely list of studies, but failed to note that recovery from obesity is or involves a change in philosophy with regard to what food is, is for, and about life in general.

Bating of the easily temped, to increase sales, is a contemptible thing to do, and that is exactly what big food companies, fast food chains, and the like do. It is recognising this, that these companies are treating us like the animals we are, that gives me the separation to see the shit that they are putting us animals through. It is time to use reason to stop consuming the juices squeezed from plants, concentrated, and dried. Ground seeds and other tubers, processed in a similar manner are also part of the problem.

Bating is just evil. It relies on basic need, the desire to be liked, the feeling of security, of belonging, of sex, and delivers bondage to products, to desires, not what is suggested. It is just like the leg-hold traps of old, with bate, and a slow terrible death. The big food and drug companies are just the modern trappers, and we are the pray.

What do I know?

Obesity is an endocrine disorder

Woo says it. http://itsthewooo.blogspot.ca/2013/02/why-people-reject-ketogenic-diets-even.html

Fat Chance, Robert Lustic says it, but goes further, to say hyperinsulinemea, is primary about 40 percent of the time, then comes acellular induced hyperinsulinemia, ie sugar and wheat flour, and other ground carbohydrates. Add to this the trans-fats, excess omega 6 oils, a few chemicals, and then there are those fruits in continual supply, and you have the majority of the causes. 

Add the few psychological, philosophical, social and envrionmental causes and we have the problem. Understand and remove each cause and there should be some relief.

The problem is the cravings, caused by primary hyperinsulinemia, never go away. Those of us with this issue, need support of some kind, to continually battle against natural urges to eat that never lets up. Now there are lots of people that will not accept that this occurs, but I also know that there are many of us who suffer from this issue.    

After Paleo

The eating issue that I face on a daily basis is largely a result of how I think about life and food, after we deal with the endocrine issues. Those are bad, but the food cravings are fat worse. This falls into the realm of philosophy or psychology, for which there is little help to solve the problem.

With the philosophy, at least, I can change the way I think. Just for today, I will believe that all things are divided into what I control, those few thing that I can influence, and those many things, including my body, that are beyond my control. The endocrine induced cravings are beyond my control, hence should be none of my concern, yet drive me to the food. There is no solution beyond resistance, non action, and yet these persist.

I live in a world of nutters, so I can expect erratic behaviour a every turn, so expect the unexpected.

There is little choice for me but to live in the Paleo lifestyle, but the cravings are bad still. Nobody knows what to do about these, at least not anything that impacts the cravings. The cravings come and go, but how long have they been present this time, over a year I think.      

Start here

A large young lady, that I have known for years, asked how she should eat to lose weight the other day.

After we get past the apathy, ignorance, and wrong information, start with getting all the manufactured white stuff out of your life. Then perhaps watch this:

http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2013/02/06/smarter-science-of-slim-author-launches-new-educational-resource/

Beware, the information is good but the tone is aggressive.

What is food?

A question with a lot of answers, but for the individual we can say what is not food to start with. I do not have an issue of eating stuff that I do not consider food. It is just a matter of reminding myself what are and are not foods, until it becomes habit.

Short list of non-foods: Sugar, wheat, omega 6 oils, many grains,  exorphins, anything containing hormones, flavour enhancers, GMO's, and other stuff.

Long list of proper foods: Meats, fish, and roots, stems, and leaves, blooms, in there cooked or raw form. Take it easy on seeds, for they carry much energy.

The thinking that these are or are not foods must come first, and control / influence the action. Sharma does not agree, but that is his problem.

But what do I know?

Projection

Today, Dr. Sharma, demonstrates projection.
http://www.drsharma.ca/coming-to-terms-with-obesity.html

Obesity is a wide stretching problem, and here is one that is spiritual  philosophical, psychological, with a philosophical and physical solution.

Projection is one of those things that really never was, that I overcame. Oh, how far I have come, and not yet reached the ends. We cannot look at people and know what they are thinking, all we can do is think how we feel and project those feelings onto other people.

The solution is to understand that it is not the event that makes us uncomfortable, but what we think of them. Our thoughts are impressions, mental objects, and that is what we react to, not the actual situation. If I have the thoughts and project it onto someone else, it is still my thoughts. It does not matter what the other person's expression or comments might be. It is still up to me to deal with my stuff.

What is in my control, and what is not? I can control my will, some of my violation actions, and nothing beyond that. Eating is part within my will, and part of it is outside of my will, outside of my control. I can, however, control my position in the environment, and get up and leave the table, as a method of control. All else is out of my control, and none of my concern. God will just need to take care of that. I use the term god here, as that collective stuff outside my responsibility and control which must be god's responsibility.

Back to Sharma's girl; she has not resolved what she thinks about herself yet, as voiced through projection. Or perhaps, it would just be simpler to address the real problem, what ever ones of the few hundred it might actually be. But then, I still have not addressed all my issues yet.

But what do I know?

for reference

http://screamingfatgirl.blogspot.ca/2013/02/this-is-why-youre-fat.html

One of the many aspects of the brain that I've been studying has been something called the HPA Axis. For those who care, this is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. You don't have to understand it, but just believe me when I say that it is an important part of your brain when it comes to stress management and anxiety. When you are a child, if you experience the wrong kind of stress, and I don't mean abuse or serious trauma, your HPA Axis can become compromised in such a way as to create a high likelihood of a variety of disorders.

The HPA Axis is responsible for handling stress hormones and there is a "loop" of activity which handles a negative stimulation, activation of bodily systems to handle the stress of it, and then puts an end to that activation. I'm massively oversimplifying here, but anyone who wants to learn more knows how to do a Google search or ten and can get more details.

The bottom line is that early childhood issues such as insecure attachment to parents, chronic unresolved stress, neglect (even moderate), etc. can create issues in this area of the brain. There are multiple potential consequences including the potential to suffer anxiety disorders and depression. This is, in simplistic terms, due to over-activity in the HPA axis. Another, and this is a theory, but it's a plausible one, is that you can become a compulsive eater.

The way this works is that imbalances in the HPA axis which result in over-activity (from stress) can be slowed down by eating comfort food. Food that is high in carbohydrates in particular can produce more endogenous opiods (e.g., endorphins) and stimulate reward pathways. You can, quite literally, become addicted to food.

Here is the thing, once the HPA Axis is screwed up due to childhood experience, it cannot be made normal again. There is nothing you can do to repair the balance to what it should have been had you not had the stressors that created the imbalance. You can try to replace your food addiction and find something else to stimulate the same pathways such that you slow down the over-activity, but you will never be normal like other people.

FT... one more description. But what about hyperinsulinemia?