FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Melissa Sileo
856.489.8654, ext.308
melissa@smithpublicity.com

EAT WHAT YOU LOVE, AND LOVE WHAT YOU EAT

Mindful Eating Expert Reveals How to Break Free of the Eat-Repent-Repeat Cycle

Eat mindfully, live vibrantly. These four words are the basis for inspirational speaker and award-winning author Dr. Michelle May's ultimate plan for breaking free from yo-yo dieting and emotional eating to live a healthy, vibrant life. And here's the best part-you can actually eat the food you love!

Once a chronic "yo-yo" dieter, May decided it was time to take a fresh approach and develop a healthy, balanced relationship with food. From her personal struggle, May founded the proven Am I Hungry?® Mindful Eating Workshops, guiding participants to eat instinctively, not mindlessly, and live a more active and healthy lifestyle-ultimately creating a balance between eating for enjoyment and eating for nourishment.

Armed with a credible background in medicine and psychology, May developed a comprehensive plan that combines psychology, nutrition, and fitness as the "antidote to ineffective dieting."

"Most if not all diet plans cause feelings of deprivation and guilt, which are two of the most powerful emotional triggers for overeating." says May. "As a result, many people feel trapped in a vicious cycle-but they blame themselves instead of the diet." The solution? May says, "Learn how to eat what you love fearlessly, and love what you eat mindfully."

Consider May's Five Steps to 'Eat Mindfully, Live Vibrantly':

#1: Accept that diets don't work for long-term weight management; instead they fuel your eat-repent-repeat cycle.

It's a fact-if diets worked, there wouldn't be an obesity epidemic. Diets focus on what and how much to eat. These two factors are only part of the problem.

"What you eat isn't important until you know why you eat," warns May. If you are eating in response to boredom, stress, or an emotional situation, you are much more likely to reach for convenient comfort food, usually in large portions.

Going on a diet doesn't address the real reasons you overeat. "They provoke deprivation and cravings, inevitably lead to overeating and guilt. When you go off your diet, your triggers are still there," May points out.

#2: Relearn to manage your weight effortlessly using your internal cues of hunger and fullness.

"As a society, we resent the fact that some people seem to eat what they want, yet somehow remain thin," says May. "We believe that those people are somehow 'blessed' or have incredible willpower. But they aren't dieting; they are managing their weight effortlessly. In reality, we are all born with this instinctive ability to eat when we're hungry and stop when we're full, but many have forgotten how to do it.

"If you aren't hungry when you start eating, how do you know when to stop?" asks May. "You are likely to clean your plate or finish off the bag."

#3: Eat what you love-there are NO good or bad foods.

Your goal when trying to implement a healthy lifestyle should not center around eating less, but loving the food you eat more. Despite all the fear-based messages about nutrition, food will not harm you as long as you practice moderation.

"Nutrition information should not be a weapon. It should be a tool to help you create a balance between what you want to eat and what you need to eat. Remember, satisfaction does not come from fullness alone. When you experience the pleasure of eating the foods you love without guilt, you'll find that the amount of food you actually need is less than you thought," advises May.

#4: Love what you eat!

Many people eat quickly, mindlessly, or secretly. If you are watching TV, driving, working, or attending to another task while you are eating, you can easily miss your internal cues of hunger and satiety. What's more, if you are not taking time to enjoy your food, you will be left feeling unsatisfied by what you ate so you want more.

Eating more mindfully helps you eat less and enjoy it more. For starters, put your fork down between bites. "If you are loading your fork, you are always paying attention to the next bite, not the one in your mouth," says May. Savor each bite, noticing the flavors, textures, and aromas. According to May, eating should be a sensual experience.

"I eat with the intention of feeling better when I'm done than I did when I started," adds May. "The goal isn't to be good, but to feel good."

#5: Exercise for a vibrant, healthy life, not to earn the right to eat.

News flash-exercise is not punishment! Exercising oftentimes feels like an obligation for people, an effort that's sole purpose is to counteract food intake. Trying to calculate the balance between calories eaten and calories burned is a cumbersome, impossible task-one that causes you to miss out on the true rewards and benefits of exercising.

"Exercise, when approached with the right mentality, is an enjoyable experience," notes May. "Exercise improves health, energy, fitness, function, overall well-being, and appearance. It is good for everyone-whether they are trying to lose weight or not."

Michelle May, M.D. is a recovered yoyo dieter and the founder of the Am I Hungry?® Mindful Eating Program which received the Excellence in Patient Education Innovation Award. She is the award-winning author of Am I Hungry? What to Do When Diets Don't Work. Her newest book, Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat: How to Break Your Eat-Repent-Repeat Cycle will be available in October 2009. She holds an M.D. from the University of Arizona College of Medicine, and a B.S. in Psychology from Arizona State University.

May has trained and licensed over 150 health professionals to facilitate Am I Hungry?® Workshops worldwide. She has been featured on the Discovery Health Channel and Oprah and Friends with Dr. Mehmet Oz and quoted in Body+Soul, Fitness, Parents, Self, USA Weekend, US News & World Report, Vim & Vigor, and WebMD. Her personal success story was published in Chicken Soup for the Dieter's Soul. Dr. May's shares her compelling message and constructive approach with audiences around the country, conducts corporate weight management workshops, and advises numerous organizations about promoting healthy lifestyles.

May must practice what she preaches in order to balance her personal and professional life while maintaining her own optimal health. She cherishes her relationships with her two teenagers, Tyler and Elyse, and regularly enjoys yoga and hiking near her home in Phoenix, Arizona. She and her husband Owen, a professional chef, share a passion for gourmet and healthful cooking, recipe development, wine tasting, and traveling.

To learn more about mindful weight management, or to pre-order Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat: How to Break the Eat-Repent-Repeat Cycle, please visit www.AmIHungry.com.

FULL ARTICLE AVAILABLE- 5 STEPS TO "EAT MINDFULLY, LIVE VIBRANTLY"

###