This common personality trait may take a toll on your waistline. Find out why—and what you can do about it.
Picture this: You’re at a restaurant and plan to order grilled chicken with vegetables because you’re trying to eat healthier and shed some extra pounds. Your friend, on the other hand, wants to order a burger with the works and a heaping side of fries—and encourages you to do the same.
So you switch your order just so your friend won’t feel bad about what she’s eating. Being concerned about other people’s feelings is a great trait in certain areas of your life, but when it comes to eating, it may backfire—and your waistline may pay the price.
New research from Case Western University found that people-pleasers tend to eat more. In the study, involving 101 college students, participants completed a questionnaire to determine their levels of preoccupation with pleasing others and maintaining social harmony, otherwise known as “sociotropy.”
They were then paired up in rooms with a female actor who took a small handful of M&Ms from a bowl and offered the rest to the participant. Researchers found that high-sociotropy individuals were more likely to eat greater amounts of M&Ms than other participants and admitted that they were trying to match the actor’s eating habits to make her feel more comfortable.
“People pleasers don’t like to pose any kind of threat to others,” says study co-author Julie Exline, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at the university. “They don’t want to outshine someone and in this case, the way you’d be outshining is to eat healthy or really light when the other person is eating junk.”
Not sure if you qualify as a people pleaser? Ask yourself whether you agree with any of the following phrases used in the study’s questionnaire: “I worry a lot about hurting or offending other people”; “I’m very sensitive to criticism by others”; “I’m easily persuaded by others”; and “I’m too apologetic to other people.”
Susan Albers, a psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic and author of “50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food”, says that you should also consider whether you frequently regret your decisions. If you often find yourself saying, “Oh, I should have done this instead of saying yes to that event” or “I wish I didn’t eat that cake my friend brought over,” your worry could be taking a toll on you, including your waistline.
People-pleasing aside, there’s a good chance you’ve mimicked your friends’ eating behaviors whether you realized it or not. Researchers from Radboud University Nijmegen in The Netherlands paired up 70 women and observed them eating in a mock restaurant, noting bite timing for both participants. The experts found that women tended to mimic each other’s eating behavior. In other words, they were more likely to take a bite within five seconds after their eating companion took a bite rather than eat at their own pace.
The participants were also more than three times as likely to mimic the intake of their eating companion at the beginning of the interaction—in this study, the first 10 minutes—compared to the end of the interaction, or the last 10 minutes.
Whether it’s to make a good first impression—which might explain the mimicry timing results—or because seeing someone else do an action may physically trigger you to copy them, one thing is clear: “Women feel pressure to match or mirror other people’s eating habits,” says Dr. Albers.
Sure, we’ve all been there before. It’s tough to say no when your grandmother offers you a piece of her homemade pie or to slow down when all of your girlfriends are digging into nachos at happy hour. Every once in awhile is fine, but if you find yourself in this situation a lot, it can have detrimental effects on your health. “When [these negative social eating habits] start to become more of a pattern, you need to start paying close attention,” says Dr. Exline.
By: Abigail Cuffey
Many are curious if their obesity is passed down.The heritability of obesity is a concept that points to genetics for the variation of weight in the population.Scientists have discovered a “fat mass and obesity associated” (FTO) gene that is strongly associated with BMI and obesity.
But a fat gene doesn’t have to dash your healthy weight dreams. That is, if you’re willing to get more zzz’s. A large scale study of twins found that those who slept under seven hours a night had greater genetic influences on BMI than environmental factors such as diet and exercise. The reverse was true for those who got more than nine hours of sleep. Specifically, genes accounted for 70% of the differences in body mass index for the sleep-deprived twins, as opposed to just 32% in well-rested participants.
Sleeping more therefore helps your healthy habits like diet and exercise count, while lowering how obesity genes affect you. While those with the FTO gene were found to be around seven pounds heavier, the effects of additional sleep on turning off that gene could help make up the weight difference.
By: carolyn_r
I get frustrated when people dance around descriptions of imagery without incorporating hypnosis into the dialog. This morning I saw an article on a popular weight loss website teaching the reader to visualize their weight loss without mentioning the “H” word.
It was a well written piece but there was no specific direction that would enable one to actually enter the depth of meditative thought (hypnosis) necessary to initiate substantive positive change. Instead, there was nebulous verbiage on how to take calming breaths and quietly be with the notion of weighing less.
I ask all of my clients if they have any experience with meditation, and those who do, usually describe frustration and failure to achieve the desired results. This frustration is rapidly relieved when they are shown how to take control of their thoughts with self-hypnosis.
4 steps to meditative bliss
Step 1: Take 5 deep breaths with the intention of stimulating the flow of relaxing endorphins. Why not take advantage of how the body works to get the relaxation ball rolling? Smokers think smoking relaxes them but is really because of the deep breaths they take while smoking that does the job.
Step 2: Once the endorphins initiate the shift into relaxation it is time to focus within for the purpose of entering meditative thought. The fastest, easiest way to do this is to just pay attention to the process of each breath. By paying attention to how the chest expands and contracts you force yourself to focus within thus begins your journey into self-hypnotic bliss.
Step 3: This where it gets good. With the subconscious now activated we can begin imagining, fantasizing or pretending we can inhale pure relaxing comfort with each breath. Intend for this to happen. Feel it before you feel it. This works for two reasons. 1) We all like the feeling of deep relaxation; 2) The subconscious can easily create the sensation with just a little practice.
Once you feel the shift into relaxation deepen, begin to imagine the accumulation of relaxation. If every breath carries in more and more it makes perfect sense that it will quickly fill you up, so get to the business of making it happen. You will be pleasantly surprised how deeply relaxed you will become.
Step 4: If you can pretend that you can inhale the good stuff, then pretend you can exhale and release the rest. Spend a few moments anticipating letting go of any and all limitations, frustrations or distractions. Once you get into the flow of pure 100 proof hypnotic comfort, then you can start visualizing yourself weighing less, being less stressed, or just being happier with your life.
By: Paul Gustafson RN CH
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The fear of relinquishing free will while hypnotized is a very common misconception that couldn’t be further from the truth. Hypnosis actually helps individuals tap into powerful inner resources they never knew they had. If sessions are not in line with ones values and beliefs, clients will reject the experience out right. Not only does the hypnotist have to offer sessions of value but the phraseology and technique need to be just right for a positive connection to occur.
If someone is worried about giving up their free will a more relevant concern is the insidious manipulation of advertising. As previously mentioned, we all go into a light state of hypnotic trance everytime we stare at a television. With the conscious mind taking a break it is more likely that what we see can be subconsciously filed away, and considering the nature of advertising and the content of television programming in general, the actions we take as a result may not be in our best interest.
A.C. Nielsen says the average American watches more than 4 hours of television per day. In 65 years that adds up to 9 years of tube time. To that end, Time magazine study revealed that today’s children believe that fast food is healthier than a home cooked meal. (Time 2004)
By: Paul Gustafson RN CH
Unfortunately hypnosis has been buried under decades of myth, misconception and manipulation. It has been one of the most misunderstood of the complimentary sciences. Over the years, the accumulation of positive scientific research has become too great to ignore.
Hypnosis research organizations:
American Society of Clinical Hypnosis http://www.asch.net/
Society for Clinical and Exp. Hypnosis http://www.sceh.us/index.htm
Inter Journal of Clinical and Exp. Hypnosis http://ijceh.educ.wsu.edu
American Psychological Association http://www.apa.org/divisions/div30/
Hypnosis is now consistently validated as one of the leading therapeutic tools for personal positive change. Today’s practicing hypnotists have benefited from all of the dedicated research by these fine organizations.
Knowledge is power for the practitioners and clients alike. Research certainly helps me better understand the science of hypnosis, which in turn helps me prepare and treat my clients. Informed individuals have a good idea of what hypnosis is and how to productively use it are more likely to experience their desired success.
I describe hypnosis as a daydream on demand. During hypnosis, we go to the same level of thought as when we zone out, meditate or practice guided imagery or progressive relaxation. This is when the subconscious mind becomes open and active. With hypnosis, our goal is to positively empower an individual’s inner thoughts to support their goals.
Imagine that wonderful feeling we all experience during a deep daydream moment, when we don’t have a care in the world. It feels like a layer of comforting insulation has been added between us and the stressful assembly line of life. The reason daydreams feel different than our usual reality is because the subconscious becomes a bit more open and active than it normally is.
We are all hardwired with this ability to access the subconscious mind or long-term memory. Unfortunately, until we learn about hypnosis, the only time we usually experience this is while staring mindlessly at a television or computer screen, waiting in line at the grocery store, or on a long drive when we have no conscious memory of parts of the trip.
The reason it is so helpful to visit this level of thought is that it is where we store all of our life experiences, habits, patterns, values and beliefs. With such unique access to the subconscious two important goals can be accomplished: We can remove unproductive values, habits or beliefs and we can also replace them with preferred alternatives With hypnosis, the unproductive connection to past problems can be quickly severed, thereby freeing one to establish a new life path.
You go to the physical gym to increase your stamina and strength. Why not go to the mental gym to positively enhance your thoughts and perception? The repetition of physical exercise tones and strengthens our bodies just as the repetition of hypnosis establishes and solidifies a new philosophy of positive change.
As a hypnotist, I teach individuals to relax in a particular way and then guide them into the depths of subconscious thought where dreams can manifest into a new reality. Clients apply meaning to the message in whatever manner works best for them. Some connect more with the words while others create vivid imagery. Enabling clients to understand this simple truth helps them to own the process which further empowers them to shape the lives they choose to live.
To those who doubt that they can be hypnotized, I ask if they like the idea of becoming so powerfully relaxed that they can easily establish positive change. Who could resist such a notion? If an individual has difficulty entering into hypnosis it is more likely due to inadequate preparation or technique on the part of the hypnotist. In my experience this is never an issue.
Another significant part of the process is rapport. Effective sessions require a relationship of trust and cooperation. If clients feel comfortable with the process and the practitioner, and values what is suggested to them during a session, then success usually follows.
As a baseline, even for those uninformed about hypnosis would agree that we have a short-term and long-term memory. The short-term memory is the conscious mind and the long-term memory is the subconscious mind. The conscious mind is the more active of the two. It is the gate keeper, it analyzes, judges, accepts or denies information for storage in subconscious mind.
The subconscious is a complex and powerful place. Think of it as our storage and control center. It is also the home of our imagination. The subconscious is active when we daydream, zone out, watch television, and when we sleep. It is also active when we’re hypnotized. When clients understand that entering into hypnosis is something we are all familiar with, the process is easier, more enjoyable and productive.
By: Paul Gustafson RN CH
