We often try to rely on willpower to stop overeating. We see lack of willpower as the biggest barrier to change. We end up thinking we are lazy, stupid and broken because it doesn’t work. In reality, willpower is never enough. Over the years, food has come to fill an emotional need for you. Whether […]
Many people who find themselves battling overeating patterns think that they just need to try harder. They just need to have more willpower, stop being lazy, shame themselves into change. These strategies rarely work for more than a few weeks. To understand patterns of overeating, it is important to know why these patterns start to […]
What is the number one reason diets fail? Fear of deprivation that leads to defiance. It isn’t a lack of willpower that causes you to “cheat” on your latest diet. You aren’t a failure. You aren’t weak. Your brain is hardwired to avoid food deprivation and diets create brain panic because there are so many […]
All too often, people engage in overeating and then beat themselves up. Let me ask you…..where does this get you? I would guarantee it doesn’t end anywhere positive! We are conditioned to lead with the stick when it comes to our behavior and punish ourselves when we believe we have been “bad”. This is dangerous […]
Here is my latest interview with the Morning Zoo. In this clip, we tackled Seasonal Affective Disorder and tips to avoid overeating during the holidays. We got a little chatty and ran out of time for my last three party tips which include: Sitting down away from the food t0 eat Waiting 10 minutes before […]
Most women struggle with emotional eating. Many men struggle with emotional eating as well, but they don’t seem to recognize it as readily as women. Emotional eating tends to breed shame. When someone asks me what I do and I tell them that I specialize in emotional eating, I get one of two responses. Either […]
Overeating plagues us. Most people think that the solution to overeating is to go on a diet. A diet is just a set of rules. Sadly, there is no diet that is going to be effective for the majority of us because the battle with weight has very little to do with what we eat […]
In our clinic, we are all trained in EMDR therapy. EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. That is kind of a mouthful, so we just refer to it as EMDR therapy. This therapy was developed for trauma. Trauma occurs on a spectrum. We tend to think of trauma only as abuse and war […]
When it comes to overeating, looking to an overeating counselor is not something that most people think about for a solution. Instead, they just beat themselves up by telling themselves they are not good enough, lazy and lack willpower. So, they hit the diet scene with gusto. They hire a personal trainer or spend hundreds […]
We all overeat from time to time. We’re American…that’s just what we do! Our portion sizes are huge and we live in an abundance of food. There are a few other reasons we tend to overeat: Food is delicious! It is actually engineered to be that way. The food industry spends billions of dollars each […]
Michelle Lewis has been working in the mental health field since 2001. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Weber State University and a Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Utah. She is passionate about helping others achieve their goals. Read more