Assisting people with improved diabetes management behaviors has been a specialty of mine in my psychotherapy practice since 2009. My Wife has a been a senior research coordinator at the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes in Denver since 2006, and through bonding with her passion to assist in this area, I have developed my own modes […]
Category Archives: Physical Health and Wellness
Addiction, Self-determination, Flow, Mindfulness, Culture, Emotional Intelligence, and Human Bonding
Addiction, Self-determination, Flow, Mindfulness, Culture, Emotional Intelligence, and Human Bonding What are the components of addiction? why is addiction less desirable? and what aptitudes help us to avoid addiction? “Let’s Turn the conversation towards Efficiency and Away from Morals” The Psychobiological and Relational causes of undesired, addictive, and compulsory behavior: Flow (peak experience) – Humans are […]
Choice is Oppression
Wow that is a provocative way to start! of course Choice is also liberation and a billion of other things, but in the post I want to shine some light on how individualism has created a blind infatuation with choice – and how ‘choice’ is actually the very source of our oppression. perhaps the single […]
Weight loss – what does that food mean to you? Insight, reflection, and replacement in achieving weight loss goals.
Quick summary: I will discuss why certain foods seem or feel impossible to give up and offer a brief suggestion as to what you can do to overcome such an obstacle. Food (as with many other things in life) often has a symbolic importance which is more influential or otherwise important that the simple tangible object that it seems to be.
Realistic Weight Loss Work Sheet – Keep what you love, substitute and add where you can, and remove the unimportant
Quick summary: When it comes to weight loss the tortoise wins and the rabbit ends up going the wrong way. Unrealistic eating plans get in the way of your weight loss goals (some even make things worse). If you are using too much personal restraint you may be setting yourself up to fail. This questionnaire will help you to create a reasonable plan to achieve an eating pattern that can be maintained for a lifetime. Moderation, Balance, and Realistic Expectations will help you find hope and wellness.
Components of the Obesity and Nutrition Problem in our Shared Country
Quick summary: I am providing a list of themes with very brief explanation of how they are related to obesity and other nutritional concerns in our country. Some of the themes are more related to the individual while others are more related to society as a whole.
Why some fail to lose Weight – Restraint theory
Quick Summary: Restraint theory suggests that restrictive diets lead to failure and in some cases actually increase weight gain. The theory was developed after research was showing that people on restrictive (don’t eat any of these ‘bad’ foods diets) had almost an 80% rate of failure and people were often gaining back more weight than they had when they started the diet. This post will look at how restraint theory can explain some of the failures of weight loss programs and will finish with a more reasonable solution for people trying to lose weight.
Overcoming addiction to substance – find a replacement behavior that offers a comparable result – hope involves you being both reasonable and honest with yourself
Quick summary: Overcoming a substance addiction can be truly difficult as the majority of substances that people become addicted to offer: significant results, consistent results, fast onset, and results with little to no effort. The reasonable way to overcome an addiction is to isolate what emotional state (happy, uninhibited, spiritual, relaxed, euphoric, carefree, distracted etc) you are trying to achieve with the substance and then isolate and engage in an alternative or a replacement behavior(s) that can lead to the desired emotional disposition (example: if you are trying to feel uninhibited what else can you do to attain such a feeling with less consequences?). Let me be very honest with you… it is rare to find a replacement behavior that will match the ‘quick onset’ and ‘lack of effort’ characteristics of a substance… In short, your replacement behavior will likely require more effort and the emotional disposition that you are trying to achieve will likely take a bit longer to achieve. For most people it is subjectively “more difficult” to attain a desired emotional disposition with a healthy replacement behavior than it is to ingest a substance. Being hopeful involves being both reasonable and honest… many substance abuse programs are therefore selling false hope in my opinion. There seems to be a belief that being honest about the effectiveness of substances impedes recovery… I am suggesting an alternative view… this is my view: substances are incredibly effective and there is no easier way of achieving a desired emotional disposition than to ingest something… healthier behaviors that can elicit the same emotional dispositions have far fewer consequences, often have other wellness benefits (to your physical, emotional, relational and social health), they can have more long lasting results (the emotional doesn’t always leave when the substance leaves your body), and they can help you achieve the desired emotional disposition without a disruptive dependence (you can embrace freedom)… in short the replacement is better for you, and the substance will be easier for you.
7 Health and Weight loss tips from a psychotherapist who is married to a nutritionist
Quick summary: My wife, Franziska Bishop, is a Master’s level nutritionist who writes a really awesome nutrition blog www.justalittlechocolate.com . For this post I am going to be extremely brief and quickly tell you a few tricks that I have picked up from my wife that have been immensely beneficial to my ability to maintain optimal health.
Combined Wellness intervention
Quick summary: this is a template for a psychotherapy/nutrition combined service which mainly looks at the psychotherapy intervention. A psychotherapist and a nutritionist offer a combined service to assist a client’s mind, body and spirit to work together in achieving optimal health.