Power Up Your Diet.

At The Hungry Heart, we know how difficult it can be to keep from emotionally overeating.  Yo-Yo Dieting is another common practice we see amongst our clients.  We find that it helps to have as many tips in our back pocket as possible to keep our diet on track.  Here are 5 suprising superfoods that will keep you on the right track!

When the experts want to get leaner, stronger, and healthier, they reach for these 10 surprising healthy food superstars. Meet your new mealtime secret weapons.

Tomato Salsa

This low-cal staple pumps up the flavor of everything from chicken breasts to scrambled eggs. “It’s jam-packed with antioxidants, including lycopene, which may reduce the risk of some cancers, and beta-carotene, which may help fight heart disease,” says Joan Salge Blake, RD, an associate clinical professor of nutrition at Boston University.

Eat It Up: Beta-carotene and lycopene are more easily absorbed by the body when consumed with a bit of healthy fat, so add some chopped avocado to your salsa-topped chicken. Or add salsa to Low Sodium V8 for extra fiber.

Nutrition facts per 2 tablespoons: 9 calories, 0g protein, 2g carbohydrate, 0g fat (0g saturated), 0.5g fiber

Whole Wheat Pitas

Give your usual turkey sandwich a healthy upgrade by swapping the bread for a whole wheat pita pocket. If you put veggies in your sandwich, it’s usually a few lettuce leaves and a slice of tomato or else the bread falls apart. “But with a pita, you can stuff it full of vegetables and still get a healthy dose of whole grains,” says Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, a FITNESS advisory board member and author of The Flexitarian Diet. Just be sure to check the ingredients list: “enriched wheat flour” means the pita is an imposter. Look for the words “whole wheat.”

Eat It Up: Go Greek by filling your pita with feta, hummus, diced cucumbers and tomatoes, arugula, and black olives. Or put a Mexican spin on your sandwich by adding low-fat refried beans, salsa, avocado, and chopped romaine lettuce. Rather have a snack? Make pita chips. Cut a pita into triangles, drizzle with olive oil, add a pinch of salt, and bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, or until crispy.

Nutrition facts per 1 large pita: 170 calories, 6g protein, 35g carbohydrate, 2g fat (0g saturated), 5g fiber

Popcorn

“Because it’s super-low in calories, popcorn is the perfect food for those times when you don’t want to worry about portion size,” says Sharon Richter, RD, a nutritionist in New York City. And it’s loaded with fiber, which is crucial for staying slim. In fact, people who maintain a healthy weight consume an average of 33 percent more fiber daily than those who are overweight, according to research.

Eat It Up: Save calories (and money) by getting a basic air popper. One we like: Orville Redenbacher’s Gourmet Hot Air Popper by Presto ($25, bedbathandbeyond.com). Pop the kernels with a bit of salt and toss with nuts and raisins for a tasty trail mix.

Nutrition facts per 1 cup air-popped: 31 calories, 1g protein, 6g carbohydrate, 0g fat, (0g saturated), 1g fiber

Oranges

Apples get all the glory, but oranges are the unsung heroes of fresh fruit, says Susan Kraus, RD, a clinical dietitian at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. “They’re very low in calories and a good source of potassium, fiber, and folate,” Kraus says. Not to mention that a large orange has a day’s worth of immunity-boosting vitamin C.

Eat It Up: Add orange slices to a spinach salad topped with goat cheese, chopped nuts, and some slivered red onion. Or blend 1/2 orange, 1 cup yogurt, and 1/2 cup frozen blueberries for a delicious, nutritious smoothie.

Nutrition facts per large orange: 86 calories, 2g protein, 22g carbohydrate, 0g fat (0g saturated), 4g fiber

Plain Yogurt

“Yogurt contains the perfect ratio of carbohydrates, protein, and fat — the carbs give you instant energy, while the protein and fat are released more slowly, keeping you full longer,” Kraus says. In a recent study, dieters who consumed three 6-ounce servings of yogurt a day lost 61 percent more body fat overall than those who didn’t eat yogurt. The researchers believe that the calcium in dairy increases the activity of enzymes that break down fat cells. Look for yogurts that have at least 20 percent of the RDA.

Eat It Up: Mix plain yogurt with a teaspoon of cinnamon or top it with berries for an easy, low-sugar snack. Or use plain Greek yogurt for an extra protein boost in recipes that call for mayo or sour cream, like tuna salad, veggie dip, or salad dressings.

Nutrition facts per cup: 137 calories, 14g protein, 19g carbohydrate, 0g fat (0g saturated), 0g fiber

Eat Before You Overeat.

Eat Before You Overeat.

Stopping yourself from grazing the second you get home is as easy as one, two, three.

1. Find a diversion. Wait 15 minutes between coming home and eating something. (Or wait even longer.) Check blogs, log on to Facebook—do something relaxing that will break the connection that makes you think you need to snack the second you get home.

2. Have one small snack—while you’re sitting down. No standing at the counter shoveling food into your gullet. Try:
• An apple, which has a low-glycemic index—meaning its natural sugars and fiber are digested slowly, making you feel satisfied longer. If an apple alone is too dull, add a one-ounce piece of reduced-fat cheese.
• Carrot sticks or a bowl of berries.
• A pickle (or a small bowl of cornichons) if you want something salty.
• Pepitas (toasted pumpkin seeds). About 90 seeds (1/4 cup) are just 150 calories.

3. Be prepared to prepare dinner. To keep from picking and tasting your way through cooking, chew a piece of gum or suck on a cough drop to kill the flavor of anything you’re tempted to nibble.

Avoid Stress Eating.

There is an empty pretzel bag on your desk, and all clues—looming deadline, lack of sleep, a cranky boss—point to you; even if you don’t actually have any recollection of eating a full bag of Rold Golds. “Stress eating is completely unconscious,” says New York City nutritionist Lauren Slayton, founder of foodtrainers.net. You just keep putting something in your mouth and chewing and hoping for calm and comfort. To avoid wood-chipping through an entire sleeve of Oreos, you have to recognize your triggers and find replacement activities, says Susan Roberts, a professor of nutrition and psychology at Tufts University. “Drinking a cup of sweetened hot tea works for some people. Simply brushing your teeth works for others.” New York City diet expert Stephen Gullo points out that it’s possible to feed your stress with healthful snacks such as broccoli dipped in nonfat Greek yogurt with a few teaspoons of onion soup mix. Slayton says to “make a rule that when you eat, you focus on the eating,” and not, say, on your email inbox. It also helps to write down everything that you eat.

Lauren’s Story…Emotional Overeating.

Lauren’s Story

I created the program because I had struggled with my own issues of compulsive overeating, binging, and yoyo dieting. I went through periods of my life where I would exercise excessively and attempt to starve myself to lose excess body fat that I had gained from my binge eating.

Although I had periods of time I could get my eating under control, it wasn’t long before something would set me off and I was eating out of control again.

This battle destroyed the quality of my life, inner peace, and self esteem. I spent years gaining and losing weight while I tried every diet, club, group, doctor, therapy, and book available. It took me years of work and self study to overcome my problems with food, BUT I DID IT!

Taking Control

After 10 years of not needing food to deal with my life, maintaining my weight, exercising regularly, and approaching food in a healthy manner, I realized how fortunate I was to be free of this painful cycle that had once ruled my life. I decided if I could break out of this pattern, then others could too.

I spent 2 1/2 years putting the program together, pulling from all the different resources and tools that allowed me to be successful and live a healthy balanced life. I now live life the way I was meant to. I enjoy each day as it comes, work through my emotions without eating to block them, and take care of myself without using food to do it.

I started working with clients in Laguna Niguel, California and was amazed at the results I was able to see consistently. By giving clients the tools to create permanent life style changes, and working through resistance and self sabotaging behavior, clients would feel better about themselves, take better care of themselves and lose weight naturally and permanently.

I have shared this process with other counselors that have struggled and worked through their issues with food that are located in Irvine, California San Diego, California, Del Mar California, Castlerock, Colorado, Sarasota, Florida, St. Petersburg, Florida, Wappingers Falls, New York. Providence, Rhode Island, Brentwood, Tennessee, Virginia Beach, Virginia, Newport News, Virginia, and Bellevue, Washington.

We have put together an entire process to help others in an efficient and effective manner to get the results they are looking for. If we can do it, so can you!

Sincerely,

Lauren Grant
Founder, The Hungry Heart
Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist
Nutritional Counselor
Email: questions@HungryHeart.org

You might be an Emotional Overeater if…

More of us are emotional overeaters than we might think...

Is your best friend Haagen Daz or Sara Lee? Do you snuggle up at night with potato chips and M&Ms? Have you eagerly awaited the end of an evening event so you could go home and eat? Do you welcome solitude so that you can have an uninterrupted food spree?

If you see yourself in any of these situations, you are an emotional overeater — a person who eats in response to his or her feelings — a person whose overeating has nothing do with hunger.

You will know it’s emotional overeating because the food is consumed in large quantities, is usually fast foods or snack foods, tends to be eaten very quickly (often barely tasted), and is usually consumed in secrecy Hunger will have nothing to do with it. And you will feel terrible about yourself afterwards…

When the most comforting though in your head is the candy bar stashed in your desk drawer, you know that you have a problem. Food, like tobacco or alcohol, can be addictive and the drug of choice. In particular, quick and easy high fat, high sugar foods are addictive because they numb out feelings. When life gets too stressful, boring or tense, food can be the emotional anesthetic that makes it better. for many people, food is an emotionally addictive anesthetic.

Emotional overeating protects people from tension and worries. As strange as it may seem, emotional overeating can be calming; it “works”, at least in the short run. And that is why it is a difficult cycle to break. The emotional facts are that it is often easier and less upsetting to be angry at yourself then it is to be tense upset or angry at an important person in your life. Perhaps you are afraid of the feelings of disruption, aloneness or abandonment that can come with being angry at a significant other…

Often, an upset feeling can be transferred into emotional overeating. Through the distraction of food, repetitive chewing and swallowing, and obsessive food thoughts, intense feelings are redirected into overeating behavior. These behaviors tend to be psychologically safer than confrontations with a loved one which might cause conflict, arguments, disharmony or withdrawal.

The first step in breaking the emotional overeating cycle is to find out what feelings you are avoiding. Often, this is not easy to do. You have to be a bit of a detective and look for clue~ anytime you find yourself overeating or wanting to overeat.

If food has been your anesthetic, then to cure emotional overeating you will need to bear some discomfort–the discomfort of saying what you are really feeling, the discomfort of an argument, or the discomfort of someone “disconnecting” with you. The alternative — superficial harmony — is only attained through your silence and the act of swallowing your true feelings along with a large dose of food.

We all want warm loving accepting relationships. But real life is more complicated. Relationships between grown adults have differences, angers and tensions. Relationships are prickly not smooth The price tag on a smooth relationship is that one person (sometimes both) obliterate their opinions, values, thoughts or feelings.

So — the cure for emotional overeating is speaking up and spitting out — having the courage to express yourself to the persons meaningful in your life.

5 Minute Lunches!

5 minute Lunches
1.) If you are in a work place or environment where it is hard to stop for lunch, make sure you bring lunch with you. Stop on your way in or plan on Sunday for the week to bring the food with you for the week. Leave jarred or canned foods in the office so they are available when you need them, as well as bread, fruit, and vegetables. If you need early, bagel stores are usually open early. Instead of a bagel and cream cheese that has little nutrients or fiber. Get a tuna, chicken salad, turkey, etc on bagel with tomato and sprouts, if possible. Eat 1/2 at breakfast and 1/2 at midmorning or 1/2 at lunch and 1/2 at 3pm You can pick up 2 sandwiches if you are desperate to  carry you through the whole day. Also grab a piece or two of fruit  and coleslaw to help carry you through the day.
2.) Homemade tunafish (water based)  with Spectrum  mayonaise and  raisins, apple, almonds, walnuts, or celery. Its quick and easy. Have with good high fiber bread and a salad, soup, or fruit. You can eat the other 1/2 a sandwich at 3pm
3.) Good Bread with peanut butter, banana slivers, and drizzled honey with a glass of milk or soymilk. You will not be looking for anything sweet after this treat.
4.) Boca Burger or Garden Burger. Heat in toaster oven add tomato and precut up spinach. Bruchetta spread from Trader Joes or other store. Good bread and Spectrum Mayonaise and mustard.
5.) Soup and Sandwich or Salad and Sandwich. Eat 1/2 the sandwich and soup or salad. Save the other 1/2 a sandwich to eat at 3pm with some fruit.
6.) Left over fish from last nights dinner.  Toast a Fish Taco with Spectrum mayonaise and a little mustard.
7.) Stir fry from last nights diinner. Heat up rice or pasta noodles an add egg, vegetable protein mix, and frozen vegetables or left over vegetables. Add Braggs Amino Acid, taste like soy sauce, or tomato sauce.
8.) Left over chicken make chicken salad. Add raisins, grapes, or apple pieces with spectrum mayonaise and crackers or on healthy bread and fruit.
9.) You can buy frozen chicken or fish patties. Put in the toaster over and have with a premade salad and healthy chips.
10.) Eggless eggsalad or hummus and tabouli. You can buy premade add to good bread with some carrots, tomatoes, cucumber, sprouts. Buy precut vegetables and dip. 
11.) Split pea soup or chicken noodle soup and good high fiber bread.
12,) Prepare a large quantity of food over the weekend so you have it ready during the week. For example soup or lasagne and then you can have it as a snack or meal through out the day.
13.) Buy soy meatballs heat and cook 2 minutes of angel hair pasta, stir in some frozen vegetables.Soy Yves sandwich meat as an alternative, to ham or turkey.
14.) Take leftovers from the night before and freeze in a lunch portion for the next day.
15.) Health Valley chilli with corn bread or other good quality bread. Health Valley makes a turkey and vegetarian canned chilli. Quick and taste good.
16.) If you are eating out, get comfortable ordering it without creams, cheeses, oils, etc. It is expensive to eat out so we might as well have food prepared the way you like. Plan for your 3pm snack time. Plan to take left overs with you for your afternoon snack. Order an extra soup or fruit, so you can save some of your main meal for 3pm.

The Hungry Heart provides the Weight Loss Solution for Long Term Success!

The Hungry Heart is a caring approach to out of control eating.

Overeating?
Binging?
Yo-Yo Dieting?
Constantly Making Poor Food Choices?

Create Life Long Changes in Your Eating Habits, with a Permanent Approach to Out of Control Eating. As former overeaters, our team of Certified Clinical Hypnotherapists and Nutritional Counselors have all been through it. We understand the frustration and confusion of losing weight only to regain it again. We work together as a team to create LIFE-LONG changes in your eating habits. This is a Permanent Approach to Out of Control Eating.

Our 8 session systematic program combines behavioral and nutritional counseling with hypnosis to reinforce new behaviors and thought patterns. A guilt-free, safe and discreet environment where … You Will Get Positive Results!.