weight loss, key lime pie, serotonin and stress eating

Good Christmas Eve morning..First and foremost I want to wish every one of you an incredibly safe journey if you are traveling. For those of you staying around town, I hope the night brings you great warmth and happiness. I have been writing the chapter in our upcoming book about serotonin and its effect on eating behaviors and then I heard a story yesterday clearly points out the rle of neurotransmitter imbalance on eating behaviors.

Yesterday I had a very prominent attorney tell me that when she feels under stress at times, she will indulge by eating an entire key lime pie. She was not talking about a piece of it....we are talking the entire pie. She actually explained that she does separate out and discards the whipped cream, but the tart part and crust is then consumed.

This attorney has a very stressful position and especially for females, the brain chemical serotonin becomes depleted during times of stress. The brain manufactures serotonin from the building block amino acid tryptophan. This amino acid is found in large amounts in carbohydrates and sweet food sources. When the brain becomes deplete of serotonin, the person is compelled biochemically to seek the food sources that have the building block. Unfortunately that amino acid is found in high-caloric foods.

I had three answers for my very stressed out attorney: 1- Recognize the behavior sequence and do not allow herself to be in the position of having the availability of that key lime pie..i.e. do not have it in the house and do not go to a restaurant that offers this 2- Take the serotonin supplement three times a day 3- Go back to school and become a dermatologist!!! (no weekends, nights, emergencies, etc!)

Stress eating

No matter what the outcome of the election is today, remember that ingesting lots of calories will not: 1) change the outcome if you are not happy with the results 2) make you feel better tomorrow morning about the outcome 3) positively effect your long term goals

Stress eating is a constant theme that we have discussed previously, but there is much angst that surrounds a presidential election and today will not be an exception. Some people are more "into" the election than others, and will tend to be hanging on every word tonight uttered by the numerous news anchors and talking heads/pundits. If you are in a weight losing mode, please do not starta distracted eating pattern, meaning ingesting popcorn, nuts, chips and other small, high-caloric repetitive food sources as you watch. You will consume far too many calories without even knowing it.

Linda writes a great blog at: www.stresseaterdiet.com and I would strongly encourage you to read this daily, especially today.

Whether your candidate wins or loses, please remember that at all times your health is the most important issue, because no matter what happens politically, if you fall ill to a devastating illness, you will not care for one minute who is President.