Many people think about the Atkins diet and imagine all the horror stories you can think of, about tasteless bars and unexciting meals twice a day. Contrary to popular belief, someone on an Atkins diet eats five times a day, and each dish can be made in a healthy way that is still very appealing to people with all types of preferences.

The meals go in the following order:

Breakfast

Snack

Lunch

Snack

Dinner

When you eat as suggested above you are more likely to get the nutrition you need for your day and to make more energy throughout your entire day rather then having spurts of energy until you are hungry again. This also helps you to limit yourself because when you eat smaller amounts more often a person tends to not feel the need to eat as much in one sitting and rather to simply make sure they get the nutrition that they need while still getting to be full and able to function.

Many people feel as though they need coffee or other items to wake them up in the morning before they go to work or start their daily activities. With this diet you should no longer feel as much of a need for sugar or caffeine and will have more energy on a regular basis as long as you stick to the diet as it is mapped out and keep on schedule for eating.

The Atkins diet was originally created by Dr. Robert Atkins to try and battle against obesity and help people to stay healthy so that they will be able to live longer and healthier. People do not have to be obese or even heavy to go on this diet, you can simply want to get to a healthier brighter you who is able to have more energy and be able to get in shape. When a person feels the need for caffeine is can many times be because they feel a need for energy that they do not have because they do not have a healthy diet that gives them the nutrition that they need.

In many ways the Atkins diet is easily compared to many other normal diets where you are mainly trying to eat in a more nutritious fashion to become healthier. Many people think of the Atkins diet as being very different then other diets when in many ways the only difference is that they try to encourage you not to eat as much cholesterol while still trying to keep you as healthy as possible. The Atkins diet is primarily tying to help a person be at their key weight and be able to be as active as they want but more importantly to keep them healthy. With the delicious recipes that are available for everyone to try, you are sure to be able to get to your best weight while still eating things you enjoy.

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Being addicted to alcohol, drugs or gambling is tough, but at least you don’t need those things to stay alive. But can you imagine being addicted to food? The very thing you are trying to stop being addicted to is the very thing you need to survive. Having such an addiction would have to be incredibly frustrating, not to mention hard to get over.

But is it really possible to have such an addiction? According to researchers it is. One they have tested this is by scanning the brains of people that were addicted to food. They then had them think about food. So, what did they find? They found that these thoughts activated the same parts of the brain as an alcoholic or drug addict when they thought about drinking and drugs.

Another finding was that people who were addicted to food share something else with other addicts. That was having fewer dopamine receptors (dopamine is familiarly known as the “feel good hormone”). Because they have fewer receptors, it is believed that addicts need to seek that good feeling from outside sources just to feel as good as “normal” people.

When people overeat, the brain makes food addicts experience a deeper pleasure from their eating by making them less aware of the other parts of their body. To make matters even worse, they can experience many of the same withdrawal symptoms as drug addicts. Symptoms like moodiness, irritability, depression and anger, to name a few.

But…again, we need food to stay alive, so can food addiction be controlled? It can, but it will take commitment. Here are a few things you can do if you’re addicted to food:

Think when you eat. Pay attention to the food as you eat it. This will keep you from eating mindlessly, and that will help you control the problem. Also, switching your focus from filling your stomach until you can’t eat anymore to focusing on the enjoyment of the food; savoring it. You will naturally slow down and be more aware of what you’re eating.

Write it down. Just keeping track of everything you eat will help to ease your addiction. You don’t have to share this journal with anybody, unless you choose to. That means you can feel safe writing everything down. You may be shocked at just what you’re eating and how much, but sometimes we need a jolt to get on the road to recovery.

Get help. You can get help from a counselor, your personal doctor, or a support group…or all three if you need to. Each one can help you in their own way. The main thing to remember is that you don’t have to struggle with being addicted to food alone.

Avoid your triggers. If there are certain foods that make you lose control, then avoiding them will help prevent the problem. In other words, it will be much easier to handle temptation if you are not tempted to begin with.

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