Overcome Old Behaviors Around Food

Many of the issues we have around food began in our childhoods.  Old family rules around food and eating can appear in our lives long after we have left home.  They are unconsciously programmed deep into our subconscious.   They show up during times of stress or when we are distracted.  As a result, we find ourselves repeating old behaviors around food that we have struggled with our entire lives, or we find ourselves repeating old behaviors that we thought we had dispensed with long ago. 

What were the rules around eating in your childhood?  Was it important that you finish your entire plate?  Many of us came from households that had very specific rituals and rules around eating and dining.  Some of these rules were helpful like washing your hands before eating.  Others were not, like requiring all the food to be eaten on your plate.  Whatever the case, we carry with us those early lessons around eating. 

It would be helpful for you to take a few moments and write down all the different rules around eating that you experienced growing up in your family.  Make a note of those that were helpful and those that were not. 

Now, take an inventory of those unhelpful behaviors that you continue to practice today.  More likely than not, you do those behaviors unconsciously and may have never thought to question them.  Behaviors such as finishing everything on your plate before eating any desert or if you take a piece of cake you must eat the entire piece and not just the frosting part that you like. 

I’m now asking you to question those old beliefs and learned behaviors.  Make a list of the one’s that are not helpful.  Were your parents over weight?  If so, what were their beliefs about their weight?  Did they hold negative feelings towards themselves?  Did they hold negative feelings towards people of average size?  Do any of those old beliefs affect you today?  Take an inventory and write these and others you come up with down on paper. 

Write down an action plan to address each one.  Then, imagine what it would be like if you no longer did those counter productive behavior around your eating experience.  Also write down what it would be like if you no longer thought those negative thoughts around eating.

For more information on losing weight, and to listen to free samples of Dr. Walton’s award-winning album, named “Best Album of the Year” at the JPF International Music Award,” log onto “Dr. Walton's Ultimate Weight Loss.” For more information on Dr. Walton, log onto LAtherapist.com. Press Release

You Can Find the Motivation to Lose Weight

Losing weight is not about hating the body you have right now.  It is about appreciating and loving that very body.  Within its own physical limitations, this body has been a wonderful and loving servant of your will. 

Your body is the point through which you experience all of your thoughts and feelings, all of your physical sensations and perceptions of the world around you.  Your body is the point through which you experience the entire reality of your life.  It is the one thing that you’ll always have with you from birth until the end of your life.  It deserves your love no matter what condition it is in at this given time. 

Your body is not your enemy; it is not working against you.  The body does not act independently from your treatment of it.  Your body only responds to the way you treat it.  It reflects the care that you give it.  If you feed it foods that cause it to gain weight, it will respond by gaining weight.  If you exercise it within reason, it will become more efficient and toned.  It is a loving servant of your will within its individual limitations. 

How you treat your body affects your health - which affects how you feel about yourself and that affects your perceptions of the world around you.  It is so important to keep it fit and healthy through appropriate exercise and eating habits in order for it to help you experience life to its fullest. 

Losing weight and becoming more fit can be done for no one else but for yourself.  Those members of your family and friends who have been urging you to lose weight love you and have your best interest at heart, but their urging alone is not enough if you are to succeed.  If you are not motivated on your own and are only bending to their demands, then you’ll only end up resenting those people who love you and sabotaging your efforts at losing weight. 

To succeed at losing weight, you must realize that you are the one in control of your decisions and life.  Losing weight is a process rather than an event.  As with all processes, the movement forward is built upon a foundation of successes and setbacks.  Our setbacks can be as valuable as our successes and are opportunities for learning more about ourselves and our desires.  Learning from our setbacks allows us to move closer to the success we desire.

It takes determination to lose weight.  Unhealthy eating habits and lifestyles are not easy to overcome.  It is both a physical and emotional sacrifice you must make when it comes to achieving your desired weight goals.  The result of a sacrifice is to make something sacred.  When you change your eating habits and adopt a healthy exercise program, you perform a sacrifice that symbolizes to yourself, and those around you, that your health and quality of life are sacred to you. 

In some Native American tribes, it was called upon for young men and women to make a sacrifice to achieve recognition of adulthood.  Often, that sacrifice involved a ritual of scaring the body.  The sacrifice you may endure on your journey to achieving your desired weight can be as meaningful to your psyche as any scar left upon the body and deserves to be honored and respected. 

A scar represents pain and injury; it also represents a capacity to heal and grow beyond what has been.  Scar material is always stronger than what existed before. 

You may have begun over eating as a response to medicating yourself from a painful emotional experience.  Food became a way of pacifying bad feelings.  Eating is a comforting and soothing experience that takes us back to younger days when we were children and a loving parent soothed our feelings with food. 

By choosing to lose weight at this time, you have chosen a sacrifice that symbolically moves you beyond the immaturity of your youth.  It may be viewed as a rite of passage into adulthood. 

For a sacrifice to have meaning, it must be a personal choice made by you alone.  True sacrifice is not an imprisonment, but rather, it is the ultimate expression of your free will and that is to be honored and revered.

For more information on losing weight, and to listen to free samples of Dr. Walton’s award-winning album, named “Best Album of the Year” at the JPF International Music Award,” log onto “Dr. Walton's Ultimate Weight Loss.” For more information on Dr. Walton, log onto LAtherapist.com. Press Release

You Can Enjoy Food Even More and Still Lose Weight

A satisfying dining experience is much more than just eating food.  It involves all of our other senses as well as taste.  The environment in which we are dining, the color and presentation of the food, the smells and conversation and even the music contribute to satisfaction of our dining experience.  By noticing and experiencing each of these while you are dining, you will slow down the eating process and open up to a greater sense of satisfaction as you are dining. 

Often times, we eat so fast that we don’t even notice the flavors of what we are eating.  In our rush to consume the food as fast as we can, we miss out on the wonderful and very pleasurable experience of eating.  In an effort to bring more pleasure and awareness to our eating, it is important for us to slow down and enjoy the experience.  Actually tasting the food is an important part of enjoying the experience and getting more out of it.  In order to taste the food, we have to slow down the eating process to enjoy it. 

It is so important to eat slowly when losing weight.  It takes 20 to 30 minutes for the brain to register that the stomach has eaten something and cut off the hunger signals.  We can consume a tremendous amount of food in that 30 minute period if we aren’t careful.  By slowing down and enjoying the other experiences around you during your dining, you will not only have more opportunities to experience a wider sense of satisfaction, you will also give your brain enough time to register that you have eaten something and cut off the hunger signal. 

One way to slow down the eating process to give yourself a chance to cut off the hunger process is to chew your food slowly while putting the fork down between each bite.  While you are chewing, notice the different flavors of the food.  Notice how they mingle and try to pick apart the different ingredients that went into its creation. 

While you are chewing on the food, notice its temperature.  Is it warm or cold?  Notice its texture.  Is it crunchy or soft?  Fully experience the food that is in your mouth and enjoy the experience. 

Play with the food on your plate.  It’s ok to do.  In fact, it will help you slow down your eating.  It is a little trick that will cause you to delay the eating process and

If you are dining with others, do most of the talking yourself.  This will give your stomach a chance to send the signal to your brain that you have eaten something while enjoying conversation and receiving some attention.  

For more information on losing weight, and to listen to free samples of Dr. Walton’s award-winning album, named “Best Album of the Year” at the JPF International Music Award,” log onto “Dr. Walton's Ultimate Weight Loss.” For more information on Dr. Walton, log onto LAtherapist.com. Press Release

Emotional Weight Loss from Sadness

I was recently interview on a network news show about a reality star's weight issue. She had recently lost a tremendous amount of weight over a short period and I was asked to comment on the mental health surrounding such weight loss and it’s influence on the public, especially young girls.

She appears to have lost between 20 and 30 pounds, by my estimation, over a three month period. According to the reporter, she stated that she lost the weight from sadness. I stated that it’s not healthy to lose that much weight that fast especially if she is not doing it through a well managed diet. When you are purposefully trying to lose weight, losing one to two pounds a week is safe.

Losing weight in a healthy manner includes exercise and eating healthy foods and supplementing with vitamins to replace the vitamins you are not getting from a restricted diet. If she lost all that weight from not eating because she was unhappy, then she was not taking care of her body. She was probably not eating the healthiest foods nor taking vitamins nor exercising if she was not taking care of her body. That alone is unhealthy way to lose weight.

Aerobic exercise is very important to maintaining good health and it also helps to lift us out of depression. Her unhappiness combined with weight loss sounded more like a possible depression. When we are depressed, we can stop eating because nothing feels pleasurable to us anymore.

Instead of seeking pleasure, depressed people sometimes turn inward and isolate away from pleasurable opportunities. People suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can also lose weight as a symptom of the disorder. Often, we can’t lift ourselves out of a major depression or PTSD by ourselves. At those times, we may want to seek out a therapist to help us through those times.

I have a sense that she is not really setting a bad example for girls in this particular case. If she were touting her sudden weight loss as a sexy desirable thing to do, then yes she would be doing young girls a disservice. I’m not so sure that this is what she is doing. This seems to be something episodic for her and that she’ll probably go back to her more natural weight when she has resolved the issues in her life that are triggering this weight loss.

At least she was aware of the connection between the sadness and the weight loss. Undesired weight loss is a sign that something is wrong emotionally and that something needs to be addressed. She has an opportunity serve as a wonderful example to young girls as someone who listens to her body and her feelings and takes action to take care of and respect it when it speaks. We all go through phases of sadness, fear, loneliness and depression. That’s normal.

By honoring those emotions with patience, respect and self-love, we are able hear the quiet whispers of what those feelings are trying to tell us about ourselves. Her body may be trying to get her emotional attention. She may want to listen to what it is trying to tell her. My guess is that her body is asking for more love and acceptance of herself. In order to do this, that love must be found from within and not from the outside.

Always consult your physician should you experience sudden or unexpected weight loss. It could indicate a serious medical condition that needs attention.

For more information on Dr. James E. Walton you may log onto his website at LAtherapist.com There you will find free affirmation downloads, videos, self-help CDs and helpful topical pages for you to explore.

"Ultimate Weight Loss" Named Best Album of the Year

This past weekend I attended the 2009 Just Plain Folks International Music Awards in Nashville, Tennessee. Over 1,400 people were in attendance. It was quite a spectacular and exciting event. JPF is the world’s largest independent music awards organization. They are the only awards organization to include self-help/meditation as a category.

Just Plain Folks is a community of over 51,500 Songwriters, Recording Artists, Music Publishers, Record Labels, Performing Arts Societies, Educational Institutions, Recording Studios and Engineers, Producers, Legal Professionals, Publicists and Journalists, Publications, Music Manufacturers and Retailers and about every other type of member of the Music Industry. These are the people who judged and voted on what they considered the best albums of the year.

My album, Dr. Walton’s Ultimate Weight Loss received the honor of “Best Self-help/Meditation Album of the Year.” It was quite exciting to be called up on stage. I have photos of the event on my fan page on Facebook. More photos will be posted as they become available.

I wanted to share with you the short acceptance speech I gave:

"I would like to thank Brian and JPF for making this amazing award possible. Thank you so much.

I’d also like to thank my friends and my family for traveling all the way to Nashville to be here with me tonight.

My album is on weight loss, however, it is not about judging the body you already have. It’s about loving that body in all its forms, heavy, skinny, and every other way just as it is right now.

It’s the only body you have and the only one you’ll ever have for the rest of your life. It will always be with you. Love it and respect it for what it is.

So, succeeding at weight loss is not as much about losing the weight you carry with you in your body as it is about feeling the lightness you can carry with you in your heart that makes all the difference in your life.

Thank you very much."

If you would like more information on Dr. James Walton, you can log onto his website at LAtherapist.com. If you would like more information on the international award-winning album “Ultimate Weight Loss,” you can log onto Ultimate Weight Loss. Press Release

Weight Loss - Loving Your Body Right Now

Losing weight is not about hating the body you have right now. It is about appreciating and loving that very body. Within its own physical limitations, this body has been a wonderful and loving servant of your will.

Your body is the point through which you experience all of your thoughts and feelings, all of your physical sensations and perceptions of the world around you. Your body is the point through which you experience the entire reality of your life. It is the one thing that you’ll always have with you from birth until the end of your life. It deserves your love no matter what condition it is in at this given time.

Your body is not your enemy; it is not working against you. The body does not act independently from your treatment of it. Your body only responds to the way you treat it. It reflects the care that you give it. If you feed it foods that cause it to gain weight, it will respond by gaining weight. If you exercise, it will become more efficient and toned. It is a loving servant of your will within its individual limitations.

Losing weight and becoming more fit can be done for no one else but for yourself. Those members of your family and friends who have been urging you to lose weight love you and have your best interest at heart, but their urging alone is not enough if you are to succeed. If you are not motivated on your own and are only bending to their demands, then you’ll only end up resenting those people who love you and sabotaging your efforts at losing weight.

To succeed at losing weigh, you must realize that you are the one in control of your decisions and life. Losing weight is a process rather than an event. As with all processes, the movement forward is built upon a foundation of successes and setbacks. Our setbacks can be as valuable as our successes and are opportunities for learning more about ourselves and our desires. Learning from our setbacks allows us to move closer to the success we desire.

It takes determination to lose weight. Unhealthy eating habits and lifestyles are not easy to overcome. It is both a physical and emotional sacrifice you must make when it comes to achieving your desired weight goals. The result of a sacrifice is to make something sacred. When you change your eating habits and adopt a healthy exercise program, you perform a sacrifice that symbolizes to yourself, and those around you, that your health and quality of life are sacred to you.

In some Native American tribes, it was called upon young members to make a sacrifice to achieve recognition of adulthood. Often, that sacrifice involved a ritual of scaring the body. The sacrifice you may endure on your journey to achieving your desired weight can be as meaningful to your psyche as any scar left upon the body and deserves to be honored and respected.

A scar represents pain and injury; it also represents a capacity to heal and grow beyond what has been. Scar material is always stronger than what existed before.

You may have begun over eating as a response to medicating yourself from a painful emotional experience. Food became a way of pacifying bad feelings. Eating is a comforting and soothing experience that takes us back to younger days when we were children and a loving parent soothed our feelings with food.

By choosing to lose weight, you have chosen a sacrifice that symbolically moves you beyond the immaturity of your youth. It may be viewed as a rite of passage into adulthood.

For a sacrifice to have meaning, it must be a personal choice made by you alone. True sacrifice is not an imprisonment, but rather, it is the ultimate expression of your free will and that is to be honored and revered.

For more information on losing weight, and to listen to free samples of Dr. Walton’s latest album, log onto “Dr. Walton's Ultimate Weight Loss.” For more information on Dr. Walton, log onto LAtherapist.com. Press Release