Both of these foods have too much sugar and can contribute to insulin resistance. Sugar can cause irritability in some people. Juices should be sweetened with fruit juice concentrate or just have natural sugar because there is good nutrition in juice. Eating the fruit itself is best.

2. We eat lots of white flour foods.

Most "wheat" bread is enriched white bread. Think of all of the foods made with white flour: breads, pasta, cookies, muffins, Danish, crackers, pretzels, snack foods, biscuits, pancakes, waffles, all cakes, all pies. White flour can turn into sugar in the bloodstream as fast as regular table sugar. White flour foods contribute to obesity and insulin and leptin resistance.

3. We eat too much sugar.

Most all of the white flour foods in #2 above have sugar in them or added to them. We all love candy, cookies, cakes, pies, ice cream, and fruit juices. Sugar, especially the very high glycemic high fructose in salad dressings and fruit juices, contribute greatly to our inability to manage sugar in our bodies. If we eat too much sugar foods, or what we call high-glycemic foods, the body must produce more insulin than usual to control the sugar. This is what leads to insulin resistance. Sugar cannot easily be taken into cells to burn for fuel, so the glucose is quickly led into fat storage.

4. We love those potatoes.

Potatoes are a staple of American life. We love French fries, country fries, hash browns scalloped potatoes, mashed potatoes (especially whipped with garlic), baked potatoes, boiled potatoes, and potato salad. We love them with butter, sour cream and chives, bacon bits, and melted cheese. We might allow a little bit of vegetable in them like broccoli on occasion. Potatoes are a good vegetable, high in potassium. But we really overdo it. All potatoes are high glycemic except for the red new potato which is more difficult to break down into sugar. What that means is that the potato, like white flour, quickly turns into sugar in the bloodstream.

5. We have food cravings. Foods call to us.

We really crave food if we eat any of the foods above that have a high glycemic value and raise our blood sugar only to have insulin drop it. The insulin drop can cause overwhelming, uncontrollable cravings. Think about eating a lovely Italian meal with pasta and garlic bread. You usually wind up overeating…being almost too stuffed to walk out the door. Unfortunately, when we crave food, we usually crave a sugar food as in #2 and #3 above.

6. We love to drink wine in this sophisticated age.

We also love beer and martinis, etc. Alcohol easily turns to sugar in the body. One drink is rarely enough. We'd be okay if we stopped at just one, but it's usually two….or more. That automatically stops any weight loss program you are on for at least three days. To pace yourself, order a glass of water with lemon along with your drink order when you go to a restaurant. Sip on both of them. That way you won't be finished with your drink by the time your meal comes.

7. We eat too fast.

We often shovel in the food before the brain signals us that we are full. That's why we may overeat and not realize it until we are done, or until we leave the restaurant. Many restaurants and fast food places serve very large portions. Generally, we are eating more food than we need and feeling too full at the end of our meals. When we go to a restaurant, the bread is brought out first along with any type of alcoholic drink, if we order one. Then it takes a long time for the food to come. This isn't an accident. Restaurants know they can often get another drink order if they wait. It's important to slow down. The best way to do this is to put your fork down frequently during a meal. That way you can converse and enjoy your meal more.

8. We eat late at night or before going to bed.

This causes the leptin signal to your brain to create more leptin instead of slowing it down so the body can get the message to burn fat. Fat burning occurs while you are asleep, and it will burn fat at a 60% rate if there is a span of 11 hours between eating at night and having breakfast in the morning. If the leptin remains high before you go to bed, the fat burning process turns off.

9. We often go on crash diets or fad diets to lose weight fast.

Taking weight off fast without ultimately changing your eating patterns only assures you of a fast rebound of weight gain. The body likes its fat cells just the way they are, and when you try to reduce them, the body responds by lowering your metabolism thinking its going into starvation mode. Then when you eat "normally" again, the weight is immediately regained, and often more than you took off.

10. Everything is all or nothing.

When we are on a diet and eat something we shouldn't, we have a mental voice that says, "Well, I better eat it all so it won't be in the house tomorrow when I go back on my diet." So we eat more cookies, have that second (or third) piece of pie or cake….finish the box of chocolates. We lose our sense of moderation. We feel if we screw up with one meal, the day is lost. It's really small mental adjustments throughout the day that keep us successful in maintaining our weight. If you have that piece of sourdough bread for lunch, that doesn't mean you have to go wild with your eating the rest of the day. However, if the carbs are too high, we often become uncontrollably hungry and often for more carbs.

You may think gaining weight is a result of just eating too much food, but for many it's not the quantity of food but the type of food that results in weight gain. Hypnosis works so well with weight loss because it basically records over old tapes we have in our mind about how we relate to food. New re-programmed habits can then automatically, almost effortlessly replace the old conditioned responses we have to eating. Used in conjunction with the right type of eating plan, hypnosis can play an important role in losing weight.

(c) 2006 - Marie Rogus