Category Archives: Brain

What are your behavioral cues or triggers?

Losing weight is not about a diet or food plan. It certainly is not about an exercise plan. Losing weight is about changing your behavior. You have to design a life where weight loss is automatic. Changing your behavior is very difficult because you have associations, cues and triggers about food that are hard wired through repetition and reward pathways in the brain. If your unconscious eating habits are making you fat, sick and tired it is important to realize that the reason you can’t stay on a healthy eating plan is because you are not conscious of your underlying patterns. Therefore, while there are a number of ways to effectively help people change these patterns you first have to recognize them so then you can “reprogram” your behavior. Environmental triggers are by far the most common type of trigger. Seeing a bag of chips, chocolate chip cookie or the ice cream in the freezer is an obvious environmental cue to eat, eat more, eat too much. Shifting the unconscious choice is as simple as removing the trigger. Of course, first you have to have motivation to change, but assuming that is there – remove the ice cream and you have behavioral design! You have removed the trigger so you don’t eat it. Over time the association to even eat ice cream at home or at all begins to dissipate because you have not rewarded the association – thus you have behavioral change. Systematically identifying, removing and replacing your emotional and behavior association with food is a multi step proposition and usually requires help. I can help – schedule a time to discuss, id and narrow down your emotional eating patterns. There are lots of behavioral cues you have to deal with and I know them all. Let me help

I would really appreciate your comments below. Ask me any diet related question or let me know what you would like to know more about.

If you read this article and could forward it to a friend you could really help them out.
Most importantly, if you are struggling and need help all you have to do is email me at tiffany@skinnycoach.com and I’ll set up a complementary session with you to pinpoint your triggers and help you with ways to deal with them. You don’t have to struggle with your weight and health. I can help you.

Get Skinny!
Take the Skinny Coach quiz and the
Skinny Coach will call you with the results.

Please add me to your Facebook friends and I will send you the list of the 100 names of sugar and 1 tip to lose that belly fat. www.facebook.com/skinnycoach.

Is your child a dog?

Don’t reward yourself with food – you are not a dog!

Turns out that when you reward your children with food it can trigger emotional eating when they grow up – DUH!

While most parents try to keep their children from eating bad foods they also often reward good behavior or ease pain with these exact foods and it has been shown concretely from research at both Loughborough and Birmingham universities that children were much more likely to emotionally eat later in their lives if their parents used food as a reward or to ease pain.

If you are an emotional eater can you remember instances in your childhood where your parents rewarded a good grade with a special dessert, or perhaps went for ice cream after a win in sports, how about a lollipop after a penicillin shot at the doctors (remember those?), the dentist even gave us candy after filling a cavity! I can think of many ways in which I was given food to placate or deal with bad AND good events and emotions so according to this research I am not surprised I am addicted to food.

The good news is perhaps we can do better for our children now that we know. Think of other ways to celebrate and comfort your children now before the moment happens so that you are equipped.

Now what about you? Is it too late? No, of course not, you can establish new connections, new patterns and change your relationship with food. Unfortunately, because emotional eating is so rooted and cemented in the neural connections of the brain it is nearly impossible to change on your own because you only have the brain you have – the one that currently makes those connections. ReWiring the brain to make new associations and habits, those of a healthy, skinny person requires someone to teach you these new ways of thinking – just like they were taught when you were young – by your parents – the Skinny Coach can teach you how to be skinny. It takes time, it takes dedication but it is doable, you just need to know how. Start by taking the Sugar Addiction Quiz and schedule a talk with the Skinny Coach and surrender to a little help.

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Take the Skinny Coach quiz and the
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How Rachael Handled the Bake Sale

I am feeling exceptionally good this morning and feel like writing, a month into maintenance after dropping a cool 51 lbs this year. It is the day after the big AYSO Picnic in the Park event with which I was very involved this year – soccer tournament and kids carnival – long hours in the sun, lots of physical activity, kids running wild, you get the picture.

On this day, day 198 on plan, it was there I found myself pushing my hand-truck of boxes past sponsor booths, games booths and the dreaded FOOD booth, breathing the savory aroma of fresh pizza, subway sandwiches, chips and chilled juice boxes. Not one other bite, I repeated to myself, you’ve eaten all this before and really, where did it get you?

Next up, the catering booths – tacos, bacon wrapped hot dogs, I don’t know what else but again, armed with my mantra, I turned aside, hell-bent on my mission to get to the end of the field with NOT ONE OTHER BITE.

And just as I rounded the last row, I peeked to my right and there I saw it, a booth so crowded it’s 6 foot tables were completely obscured by kids and parents jockeying for position, thrusting their tickets at the volunteers with requests I could barely make out over the noise. Slowly I glanced up at the banner hanging from the easy-up canopy and like a lighthouse beacon calling out to a lost ship I saw it …. BAKE SALE!…BAKE SALE!….BAKE SALE!

Slowly and with great caution I approached the far side of the booth, for I had to pass this way in order to deliver my crates of supplies. Eyes forward, I stole a glance at the plates and platters piled high with… with….well, I won’t torture you longer with my ranting and raving. Suffice it to say, if it went in an oven and had frosting – it was on that table!

BUT, relying on what I learned from my 10 months of training with Tiffany (and the fact that without tickets, you could not buy food and I purposely left all my money in my car so as to make it terribly inconvenience to buy tickets), head held high, teeth gritted against the onslaught of “treats for sale, help raise money to help your kids!” I soldiered onwards, sailing past the Bake Sale booth and down to the field of carnival games and team photos, safe in the knowledge that having passed this way the first time without incident, it would be that much easier for the remainder of the day to continue to do so.

And it was.

By the end of a 13 hour day, having eaten my own packed lunch of 4 oz turkey burger patty, half avocado, cup of carrots and tomatoes and 10 mary gone’s, I can say, with only slight hesitation (as we know, this journey is an ongoing one) I GET IT.

Thanks! Rachael

Can you believe she said no?

I was teaching a workshop recently and a woman there had sleep apnea, was 100 pounds overweight, was on medication for weight related issues, and has a daughter following her eating path and had been talking to a Skinny Girl for 3 years about being a Skinny Girl. In fact, they had been talking about weight issues for years before that. Even knowing four people in her community that are on the Skinny Coach Solution – she still could not bring herself to help herself. The insidious nature of this disease still surprises me today. The food addicts mind is a computer of rationalizations, guaranteed to fool even the most astute. This computerized mind holds several rationalizations for every kind of situation. The people serious about getting control over their eating behavior, the behavior that is LITERALLY killing them has to be able to recognize the rationalizations before it is too late. As food addicts, we have been using these mind games for years and they are an integral party of their personality.

“I’ll have just one”

“I’ll start tomorrow”

“What will people say if I give up sugar”

“It’s the only thing that makes me happy”

“The holidays are coming”

The most important part of the Skinny Coach Solution is to get rid of these rationalizations and the feelings that come with them. We are vigilant and consistent. This is why a diet alone does not work. Without these changes in thoughts and attitudes you will go back to the treadmill of your inevitable obesity related death. Your diet must include a mental remake. The Skinny Coach Solution does just that. I can help you. It is a lifetime program so you can’t fail unless you quit.

I would really appreciate your comments below. Ask me any diet related question or let me know what you would like to know more about.

If you read this article and could forward it to a friend you could really help them out.
Most importantly, if you are struggling and need help all you have to do is email me at tiffany@skinnycoach.com and I’ll set up a complementary session with you to pinpoint your triggers and help you with ways to deal with them. You don’t have to struggle with your weight and health. I can help you.

Get Skinny!
Take the Skinny Coach quiz and the
Skinny Coach will call you with the results.

Please add me to your Facebook friends and I will send you the list of the 100 names of sugar and 1 tip to lose that belly fat. www.facebook.com/skinnycoach.

Why Crash Diets Do Not Work (Not Keto- Not Juice Cleanse – Not Starvation)

Crash – and burn. All crash diets have the same result, eventually you crash and burn. Once you go back to the sugar, the flour and the overeating you will gain the weight back, and statistically, you are more likely to gain more than you lost and adding some.

Obviously people do these diets because they have quick results, and also because restrictive diets tend to be easier to follow. You know the rules and it is very clear what you can eat and what you cannot. The restrictiveness makes following the plan very easy in the short term and with the reward of fast weight loss- it is not wonder people keep falling for these get thin quick fixes.

Why do you gain the weight back and why do these diets only work in the short run? After some time, usually 10 days or so, sometimes longer, the lack of nutrients, vitamins and minerals that you need for the body to function causes your body to resist these types of diets. Your body adjusts to the changes and because it is missing so many key ingredients for a healthy functioning mind and body, your system goes on lock down and will store anything and everything it can in order to preserve itself. This of course slows down your metabolism and causes weight gain.

THE WORST PART and what most people don’t know or think about is when you lose weight you are losing both fat and muscle. The faster you lose- the more muscle you lose BUT, and this is so important, when you gain it back – which you will, you will gain back only fat. Therefore, even if you were the exact same weight as before you started, your body will have a much higher body fat index. You will be squishier, less strong and your clothes will not fit as well as they did before.

Think about this – would you rather lose weight fast even if it means losing wonderful, strong, beautiful muscle? Even if it means you lose pounds but not many inches, because fat takes up so much more space than muscle? I can’t imagine if anyone could see what diets like Keto do to the composition of your body, the strength of your body and the texture of your body that they would ever embark on these diets – it is ugly, unhealthy and unfortunately the muscle is lost forever.

If you are over 30 years old, you have to know that crash diets, like anything fast and easy, don’t work. I know the desperation involved in wanting and desperately longing to lose weight, but these crash diets are not the answer.

The Skinny Coach Program is healthy and simple and includes a change in the neural structures in your brain that make it EASY. You can fix this with so little effort, simply take the sugar and addiction quiz and schedule a call with me. I do these calls at no cost because I believe everyone should know what true healthy options are out there that will help you out of this vicious weight cycle.

Re-wire your brain to break your food addiction

Your fat cells have been trained to take in and store excessive amounts of calories which means that less calories are in the body to fuel your metabolism – because of this your brain tells your body to increase your calories – In other words, eat more and save energy, in other words, store fat. New research from the Journal of the American Medical Association has shown that calories in, calories out has confused the cause and effect of our biology. Overeating does not cause us to be fat, in fact, being fat causes us to overeat.

But why are we so fat? Three times as many people are fatter today than in the 60’s. The reason is we have vastly increased the amount of highly refined carbohydrates that we are consuming. Highly refined carbohydrates, like sugar and flour, produce high glucose levels, which cause the body to produce too much insulin, which in turn prompts your body to store fat.

Proof? Certainly, another study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that despite eating the SAME number of calories, people that ate a low fat diet burned 325 calories LESS then people that ate a low refined carb diet. That is equivalent to an hour of exercise.

The food industry is very motivated to promote the simplistic antiquated notion that all calories are created equal because the profit is immense. They can produce cheap, nutritionally deficient, highly addictive, food-like products and tell the public that, through no fault but their own, they over eat. Great business model but unfortunately it has caused a terrible obesity epidemic. It is the equivalent of putting vodka in 80% of the foods an alcoholic consumes and saying it is the fault of the alcoholic that they can’t moderate their intake.

There is a bottom line –

1) 1. Look at the ingredient list and if there is any sugar or flour listed- don’t eat it.

2) 2. Eat protein at every meal

3) 3. Eat enough food

If you need help with what to eat or how to re-wire your brain so that you can break your addiction to food – call me or email me.

12 Ways to Actually Lose Weight

By Kelly Lynch of WorldLifestyle in Health+Fitness

Dr. Tiffany Wright, Ph.D studies the link between behavior and weight loss, focusing on compulsive overeating. She created the Skinny Coach solution, based on scientific facts about the body and the chemistry of food.

Having lost 100 pounds herself, Dr. Wright’s method involves coaching her clients through personality motivation and behavioral modification. Here, she shares some tips that cut through the excuses we often give after failing to lose weight.

1. Remove the sugar and flour! Eating too much sugar and flour over time causes our cells to become insulin resistant. When your brain cells become insulin resistant you can lose your memory, become disoriented and can cause protein plaque that is linked to Alzheimers. You have had enough sugar and flour for the rest of your life. It is time to get our mind and bodies fit and healthy and there is no place for refined foods in a healthy body.

2. Switch from flavored yogurt to plain, whole fat yogurt.  Most fat-free yogurts contain extra sugar to make up for the lack of taste in the nonfat versions. Cook some frozen berries until they are warm and gooey then mix that into your yogurt and add some cinnamon for a tasty treat.

3. Don’t feed your addiction. Sugar is highly addictive and for some one bite is never enough, so if you cannot moderate then you have to go cold turkey. Look on the ingredients list for any type of added sugar and if it is there, leave that food on the shelf. Make sure you eat enough protein, fruits, veggies and whole grains like rice, potatoes, and beans so that your blood sugars stabilize.

4. In order to lose weight permanently, you have to learn dieting skills and practice them every day, and with time dieting will become easier and easier. For instance, if you normally say, “I’ve worked really hard today, I deserve to eat,” which drives you to eat, instead practice saying “I’ve worked hard today, I deserve to relax with a walk or manicure.” You have to replace long established patterns and associations with productive patterns and associations and then practice them every day until they are set.

5. When you are feeling like “one bite does not matter,” remember that every healthy dieting choice you have ever made was sabotaged by one bite. One bite does matter. Think: “If I eat this, I will strengthen the habit of failure and unhealthy eating, which will make it more likely that I given in next time.” Think: “One bite does matter, I am not going to eat this because it is not good for me and I don’t eat what is bad for me.”

6. Regular weighing is critical. People that monitor their weight regularly lose more weight and keep at a steady weight. Weigh yourself once a week and if you gain more than 3 pounds, buckle down and get back to your normal weight before it is out of hand.

7. I know you heard this a million times – eat breakfast! But more importantly, eat protein at breakfast. Eating protein increases muscle mass, which increases your resting metabolic rate. Protein at every meal also stabilizes your blood sugar which keeps cravings and energy dips at bay. Try a Skinny Girl Smoothie: 1 cup of plain Greek yogurt, 1 cup of frozen fruit, and 1/2 cup of liquid egg whites blended in a magic bullet.

8. Boring is okay. People often worry if they are eating the same thing all the time that they will be bored and that will make them cheat. In reality, research has discovered that people who eat the same things regularly consume significantly less calories. If you want to vary your menu, by all means you should. However, do not worry if you like the same Skinny Taco Salad every day for lunch. Skinny Taco Salad: 4 ounces ground beef cooked with chili power, garlic, and cumin served with 1/2 cup of garlic black beans, 1/2 cup of brown rice, 1 cup of fresh salsa, and 1/2 avocado on a bed of shredded lettuce.

9. Flour is worse than sugar. 2 slices of WHOLE WHEAT bread increases your blood sugar levels more than table sugar. If you have ever tried to give up sugar and still had cravings, withdrawal, and lack of weight loss, it is because you are still eating flour. ANY flour is processed and as such is immediately converted into glucose, which causes a cascade of negative health and weight consequences, including premature aging, obesity, high cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes. If the ingredients have any type of sugar or flour listed – leave it out.

10. Plan your menu for tomorrow, commit what you are going to eat, and then stick to it. Menu planning and accountability dramatically increase your chances of eating what you want rather than giving in to temptation at the moment. When you wake up, if you already know what you are eating for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you are less likely to get into a dialog in your head about what to eat or not eat. Plan, commit and just eat it – no matter what, and you will be Skinny Forever.

11. Remember being a little hungry is okay. Being hungry is uncomfortable, but remember that when you overeat, that is uncomfortable, too. Both feelings are uncomfortable, but one gets you skinny and the other has made you overweight.

12. You cannot have everything you want and you know that in all areas of your life. But for some reason with food, people think that you should be able to eat anything you want or you will feel deprived and binge later. That is nonsense. If you were allergic to strawberries, you would not eat them. I am here to tell you if you are overweight then you are unable to eat whatever you want and be healthy, so you should not eat those foods that make you fat, sick, and tired. You can have a cupcake or you can have health, but you can’t have both. Which do you want today?

To learn more about Dr. Wright’s Skinny Coach solution, as well as her clients’ success stories, click here.

9+ Reasons Why Being Overweight is a Nightmare

Being overweight is a nightmare. Let’s see…where to start:

• What can I wear today?
• Nothing fits
• Reading diet books
• Browsing diet articles
• Starting fads
• Quitting fads
• Cutting out carbs
• Cutting out sweets
• Not being able to move the way you like
• Being a bad example to your kids
• Avoiding bathing suits

Just worrying about it all the time – the mental energy can be overwhelming and very time consuming. One of the most difficult parts of dealing with long-term weight issues is feeling like nothing is going to work because nothing has. The thing to remember is nothing has worked yet.

If it was possible to read a book and follow a diet and lose weight permanently, then two-thirds of Americans would not be overweight. It is critical to re-wire the thinking process. You have to LEARN how to be a thin person. Now, think about that. If you had a brain that could stay on a good eating plan, you would have done that by now. That is why you have to be taught!

As a Skinny Coach, I teach people how to incorporate daily skills and cognitive behavioral techniques to literally change the way their brain is wired so that they simply become a person who eats like a Skinny Girl. It becomes second nature. It is not easy – my Skinny Girls write to me everyday, they commit their menus for the next day, they call me everyday to check in and we discuss struggles, ideas and strategies.

The reason nothing has ever worked is because it takes more than a good diet. It takes learning to think, learning the language and learning the thoughts of a Skinny Girl. A coach, a mentor, a support person, a teacher – whatever you want to call me – I am here DAILY to guide you in your journey to learn what you didn’t as a child – how to eat well, how to enjoy food, how to be thin and how to LIVE as a Skinny Girl.

If you think you might like to have the kind of support and guidance that I offer, then why don’t you schedule a call with me and we can talk.

Schedule a call here:
http://skinnycoach.com/schedule

Take advantage of an hour with Dr. Wright, the Skinny Coach, talking about YOUR weight story and underlying psychological issues. Schedule your appointment here!

Schedule a complementary Get Skinny Strategy Session:
http://skinnycoach.com/schedule

My mom is in surgery

I am sitting in the hospital and am amazed at the number of severely obese and overweight people. The surgery board is full of weight-related surgeries. I wonder what percent of surgeries are the consequence of people not being able to control what they put in their mouth? 100%? 90%? 10%? What do you think?

If you are over 45 years old, like I am, I am sure thoughts of health are becoming more relevant than issues of looks and vanity. The CDC says all overweight people compared to normal weight people are at an increase for “All causes of death.” ALL! Lets see – high blood pressure (meds until death), high cholesterol (meds until death), type 2 diabetes (meds until death), stroke (physical and mental disabilities until death), gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, cancer, low quality of life, mental illness and body pain.

The Skinny Coach Solution is not only a good, healthy diet that has been recommended by many medical doctors, it offers the psychological support and emotional support to change your patterns by changing your brain. It really doesn’t matter how many diets you have tried, you have not tried one like this because it does not exist.

If you commit to being skinny, healthy and in control, then I as your Skinny Coach will be here for you to help you along the way. Every day we work together to keep you on the right path mental and physically. Sign up for a complimentary consultation and we can talk about what is going on with you and why you have struggled before. Most importantly, I can tell you what you can do now to change your health forever.

For New Year’s Eve, What Size is Your Little Black Dress Going to Be?

The season of eating has begun. From Halloween candy corn to New Year’s Eve egg nog, we will have Christmas and Hanukkah feasts and many parties in between – and that means weight gain. I have the solution at the end of this blog… Long term studies have shown that we gain a large proportion of our yearly weight gain over the holiday season, and more importantly that weight is NOT lost during the rest of the year. Magazine article, after blog entry, after nutritionist tip will tell you: 1) exercise more 2) drink less 3) eat less 4) try these low-calorie, low-fat (yucky) recipes 5) focus on socializing If anyone could follow these tips they would not be gaining weight over the holidays. If you gained weight last holiday season, if you gained weight during the 2014 holiday season, and the 2015 festivities… you probably can’t exercise more, drink less, eat less and focus on socializing – OR YOU WOULD HAVE. Last year during elementalyou the Get Skinny For the Holiday – a special group of 7 women started the SKINNY COACH SOLUTION DIET and together they lost over 100 pounds by the New Year (check them out). RIGHT NOW you can be part of the Get Skinny for the Holiday Group — How much will you lose by New Year’s Day? skinnycoach-black-dress

Which Little Black Dress will you be wearing New Year’s Eve?

This holiday season don’t gain weight… AND don’t disappoint yourself with another broken New Year’s resolution, but actually get control over your eating and turn your belly fat into belly flat! Email me or give me a call (310) 633-1333 – space is limited only 3 Skinny Girl spots left.

SNAP OUT OF IT

Do you need someone to hold your hand, to help you through the tough moments?

The Skinny Coach does not focus solely on diet and exercise, she teaches you the principles of behavioral modification through cognitive behavioral therapy so that you can overcome the psychological barriers to losing weight. Bottom line, if you can do it on your own – GREAT, but many people need more help. Just like you have a teacher to teach you to do math, or your mother to mentor you on how to cook, or a trainer to get you to and teach you how to do the right exercises – the Skinny Coach, can teach you to be a Skinny Girl. Together, everyday, you and the Skinny Coach plan your menu for the next day, commit to eating the right foods and instill EVERYDAY – the why…. Do you want to know why? – because if you eat what you decide today and don’t take one other bite, then you will lose the weight, you will be able to wear those clothes again, you will lower your cholesterol, you will be a Skinny Girl.

Listen she knows it is hard. She struggled for years to lose weight. Tiffany tried everything, just like every other testimony on the internet, the difference is, she has a Ph.D. in Psychology, she lost 100 pounds, she knows abstinence is the only answer and she is there EVERYDAY to help you – no one else offers that. Why? Because in order to be there for her Skinny Girls everyday, she can only work with a few people at a time. Believe you me, that is what it takes, someone you can call everyday, anytime you want to help you through those difficult moments.

If you closed your eyes and thought about what you actually need, what would help you stay on a diet permanently – and you think it is someone to hold your hand and be there through the hard moments to say, “SNAP OUT OF IT!” then she is your answer. Take the Sugar Addiction Quiz and schedule a talk with Tiffany RIGHT NOW!

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Take the Skinny Coach quiz and the
Skinny Coach will call you with the results.

Do you have a brain disorder?

Finally, what a relief, it has finally been proven by 80 experts – 80 experts involving a four-year long process that addiction is not a social or moral problem but a brain problem. Food addiction is a neurological problem. Addiction has been treated as a result of emotional problems, a result of trauma, a result of low moral character – and that is why addiction treatment does not work.

After over 20 years of neuroscience research we know that addiction is rooted in the brain’s reward circuitry. Previous experiences with food trigger cravings and to repeat the process because this is the part of the brain that controls impulses and judgement and it damage is permanent. Controlling this “craving” is literally over riding your brain chemistry. Distortions of cognitive and emotional function lead to compulsive need to intake more sugar It is NOT A CHOICE.

What is a choice is getting help. What kind of help can fix the neurological circuitry of the brain that is damaged? One thing we know for sure is abstinence is necessary. The only way to rewire the neural circuitry of the brain is to stop triggering the reward system. I understand that is easier said than done, I did it 20 years ago and I work with people every day to teach them the skills necessary to achieve abstinence and RE WIRE the neural circuitry – to fix the underlying neurological issue. Through a system of cognitive behavioral therapy and behavioral modification techniques, along with daily talks with me, we can get you off of sugar, healthy and, of course, get the weight off. If you would like to know if you are addicted to sugar take the Sugar Addiction Quiz and you can have a complementary cognitive therapy session with me to get you started.

Why suffer another day – just take the quiz and we can talk.

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