Relax and Lose Weight

Time flies and habits happen and next thing you know, your pants are too tight. What does it mean? It means you're probably tired and working hard. It means you deserve to take 5 minutes today to relax. Yep, that's the intuitive solution to keep from gaining weight due to stress and exhaustion: RELAX.

When you get stressed emotionally, it tenses your body making it think you're in danger. The physical response is to hold on to fat cells so you have extra fuel to 'fight the danger.' That's one reason stress makes you put on pounds. Here's how to relax to take them off.

• Before you eat or go out to eat, go to a quiet place and sit or lie down for 5 minutes with your eyes closed. . This will calm your body.
• Put your fork or spoon down between bites This relaxes your urge to chew so fast.
• Before you get out of bed in the morning, vow - out loud - to notice what you're eating at every meal. Be sure you hear your voice. Be sure you mean it. This programs you to slow down. Do it every morning. In 2 weeks you'll discover changes.

Habits often come from frustration or exhaustion. Instead of grabbing a bag of cookies or chips when you're at that point, it will relax that urge to drink a glass of water and if possible, go for a simple walk around the block. A change of scenery  is surprisingly refreshing. Getting out of the house can reset your perspective.

Your body is a barometer for your spirit and your heart. You gain weight because these parts of you carry the burden when you are too tired, stressed or frustrated. Relaxing nourishes your heart and spirit and this relaxes your body. Then it has no reason to hold on to extra weight.

My book, Am I Really Hungry? is full of tips for knowing yourself better and for ways to relax and protect yourself in eating situations that push your buttons. It contains tips like creating an eating plan that responds to your lifestyle, and how to recognize different kinds of hunger and how to feed it.

When time flies and you lose track of taking care of your body, it feels yucky. Winter is flu season and avoiding that too, takes awareness. The more relaxed you are, the more aware you feel.

Remember, spring is around the corner and your body is going to feel the change of seasons. Be ready for spring by using winter to keep your body trim and relaxed. You'll be so glad you did.

Stop choking and lose weight!

"A man begins cutting his wisdom teeth the first time he bites off more than he can chew." Herb Caen

We are supposed to learn from experience. Biting off more than you can chew means gaining weight, choking or feeling bloated after you eat.

Wisdom is slimming because it lightens life's burdens. This means when you take control of  eating by noticing how much food you're putting in your mouth, you will lose weight. It's easy to be wise.

Common sense is intuitive. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Use taste to enjoy what you put in to your mouth. Talk about the pleasure of it. Pleasure of taste and texture is much sexier than calorie count for dinner conversation.

So what's stopping you? Old habits. Habits are like old age. They creep up and bend us out of shape and dull our minds. A habit that chokes is a monkey on your back. Shake it off.

The habit of focusing on negative thoughts about eating during mealtime will actually cause you to gain weight! Instead, eat sensually:

• Look at the colors on your plate. If they're not appetizing, don't eat it.
• Smell the food on your fork before it enters your mouth. Does the smell make your mouth water? Your mouth is the beginning of eating. 
• Talk more. Feed your emotions and your mind by being social at meal time. Time is all we have. Don't ignore opportunities to feed your soul as well as your body.

You will stop choking on your food and choking on your life by taking smaller bites and noticing what you're putting into your body. Losing weight is easy when you stop the diet habit and use common sense to be wise.

Bite off exactly what you can chew and focus on personal satisfaction. Don't let habits choke you! Be wise for yourself and lose weight.

You're too young to be a victim of habit. Plus, the victim mentality is so yesterday. 

You're never old enough to give up on yourself.

Stress Eating

Stress eating is chronic eating that doesn't make sense. It's a response we learn and unfortunately adopt as habit.  Don't gain weight because of stress eating.

• It's not fun.
• It doesn't feel good
• You don't like yourself when you do it.

Stress is a natural response to protect yourself from danger and makes sense. Natural stress has a clear beginning middle and end: You're threatened, you avoid the threat and the threat passes.

Chronic stress is a habit of the 21st century that keeps us out of touch with our genuine priorities. It's a physical out of sync feeling we identify as fear, anger, anxiety or general insecurity.  If you're chronically stressed, eating food will prolong your suffering because it won't release the stress. Chronic stress eating includes:

• Turning to the freezer for ice cream  - This makes problems worse. 
• Jamming food down your throat without tasting - This is totally unsatisfying.
• Eating a huge mound of food because it's available but not because you feel a physical hunger - This is is like shooting yourself in the foot.

When you're stressed, your whole body tightens up and hormones tell your body to hold on to fat cells just in case you're about to be attacked! By holding on to a habit of allowing chronic stress around eating, you are holding on to fat.

Chronic stress is physically released by sleep, sex, exercise and laughing. Music is also a way to release and relax your body. Tune in to music, feel your body relax and tune in to yourself.

Stress is the opposite of relaxing. Relaxing tells your body it's okay to lose weight!

Eating is supposed to be relaxing. When food is tasted and enjoyed, eating becomes a prelude to other pleasures. It opens the doors to zero calorie conversations, self-affirming eating choices and mutual excitement.  This is how to eat to nourish your whole self.

When you eat, enjoy a nice relaxed meal. You'll eat less, talk more, feel better and look your best. It's amazing how treating yourself with respect works like a vitamin!

• Eat for pleasure, 
• Eat because it feels and tastes good and
• Be happy and relaxed with yourself.

On April 16th, I will be talking about How to Break the Cycle of Stress Eating at 9:30am central time streaming on www.wqqx1490am.com.  The show with former East St. Louis, Illinois Mayor, Carl E. Officer is called "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness", which is a good thought to focus on when you enjoy your next meal.

The Blame Game

Do you play the 'Blame game'?  

Jessi is a dieter who is becoming an intuitive eater. She decided to have a healthy snack and opened a bag of carrots. She took a bite and the carrot tasted strange. The inside of her mouth felt tingly, even fuzzy. Jessi ignored her senses and decided it was her fault for buying the carrots in a bag instead of fresh. Because she 'knew' that carrots were 'good', Jessi assumed she was 'bad' and the source of the problem.

Her mouth was practically screaming that the carrots were unhealthy. But the diet mentality is to blame yourself and ignore your body, and so she did.  She ate 5 carrots and then grabbed a cupcake to get the taste out of her mouth. No one wins the blame game.

When you play the blame game you stop noticing what you notice with your senses. Ignoring your senses betrays your inner dignity. This feels really awful. 

  

Forcing your body to eat what it rejects is not intuitive.  

Eating intuitively is to respond to your body. 

As soon as you respond to your body, you are in control. 

That's all it takes!

Jessi is learning to notice messages from her senses. Her tastebuds told her the carrots were bad. But the habit of diet programs told her she was bad. This blame game had become her habit. Once Jessi realized it was a habit and that she could take control, she felt like a different person. 

Notice what you notice. Habits are hard to break. But self-defeating habits are worth breaking. It is never intuitive to 'blame' yourself. The intuitive choice is to look for options when your senses give you a heads up.

The Eating Challenge, Take 2

Intuitive eating is knowing that what you need for energy and health is what you want to eat. It takes courage to maintain your intuitive connection through challenging eating situations.

You may need to eat bread with your meal, or protein, or you may just feel like having yogurt. You may decide that you had such a big lunch that you will just have an appetizer for dinner. Sounds simple, but it takes courage. Courage is when you recognize what you know, and you respect who you are. Courage is following through with what you know and doing what you respect.

Words make it sound easy, sure. Doing what sounds easy just may surprise you. The real eating challenge is to trust yourself to be good to yourself. 

Challenging eating situations happen every day. We feel tempted or starved, or like there is no choice, or like pleasing others. The challenge to be true to physical needs, while feeling pressure from stress or from exhaustion is often the result of not trusting what you intuitively know your body needs.

Take the eating challenge and observe yourself around food. Use your eyes, your ears, taste, touch and smell. Notice messages from your stomach and notice how you feel in your heart and your head. Fine tune your senses. Listen to your intuition, and recognize habits that end up making you feel badly about your self. When it is time to eat, use your senses to smell, taste and see what you are eating and think about how your body feels and what you want for your self. Give your self a chance.

Intuition is a kind of natural courage. Connect with your intuition, and eat only what you know and feel is right. When you tune into your body, and your hunger with courage, you start to recognize your eating needs. Then you trust your self and take control of feeding your hunger. This is not easy because it's probably not something that you thought about before. So, give yourself a chance to think. Take a deep breathe in and now breathe out really, really slowly until there is nothing inside. Good.

It takes courage to recognize and trust your self.

It takes courage to stand up for your self.

It takes courage do what is right.

It takes courage to acknowledge what you need.

It takes courage to recognize habits, but if you don’t, you will never be happy with your weight. Ignoring your senses, your body, and what you know, creates a vicious cycle when you eat, and all it takes to stop, is connecting with the courage to follow your truth.  Ah yes, that is the eating challenge.

 

Guilt and Stress

Guilt around eating is motivated by a short term perspective and it creates unhealthy stress that leads to binging.

Guilt around eating is not part of intuitive eating. Guilt is a short-sighted 5 letter word. Binging is a self-destructive temper tantrum. Anything that motivates you to abuse yourself is not intuitive. 

 A habit of dieting is to think about eating foods as "good" or "bad". This creates guilt and stress. Try to let go of that. Instead, think of eating intuitively, as satisfying or comforting. Use your senses, including common sense and eat to feel good. Intuitive eaters eat what they want. When they slip, intuitive eaters get back on track because they are motivated to look and feel good. 


It is natural to learn from eating experiences. There is no magic mirror of approval when it comes to your body. Measuring progress at every meal creates emotional stress and misses the bigger picture. What you eat is the foundation for the rest of your life. Every meal is a step along your path. Nobody walks a straight path because stuff happens. 

Intuitive eating is a long-term perspective because your body is constantly changing. It's intuitive to see the bigger picture instead of judging every meal. Eating is about nourishment. Life is a do-it-yourself project. You can adjust, correct, and not-repeat choices. You are in control. Your body will be the result of choices you make today. Decide to eat what looks and feels good.


This is a new year and a time of new beginnings. Respecting yourself is a combination of trust and honor. Now is a perfect time to respect your self. Really trust your heart, body, mind, and six senses to protect you and let that self-respect honor and guide your eating choices.

Shake it up!

This is the first day of Autumn. Leaves are turning colors and wind has picked up. The seasons are a symbol of natural rhythms that are part of Life. Shake up your eating habits and look at colors differently. Eat something that is only fresh now, and notice how your body responds. I think you'll have an unexpected energy boost.

Just like the weather has seasons and you change your wardrobe, the seasons are also a natural time for you to change the kinds of foods you eat. When eating is a habit - like you have the same lunch every day, or always eat a certain breakfast, or never have eggs for dinner- you lose touch with what your body really wants and needs.

Your body makes it clear when you're hungry. However it's important to realize your body's needs change all the time. That means different foods satisfy you at different times. Don't eat the same foods all the time because your body won't be satisfied, and you will still feel hungry. ouch. Take a few moments to notice what you're eating and how you feel.

It's September, and suddenly there are different fresh foods at the market. This is a natural head's up that something new is available. Take it as an opportunity to eat seasonal foods you never tried before. Different foods nourish different organs in your body. Your body will tell you what it needs. Be bold and enjoy the experiment.

You will achieve success of your eating goals by using your senses to notice what's going on with your body. Your senses naturally connect with what feels right, because your senses keep you in touch with the bigger picture of your life. Use your 6 senses and you will maintain, not gain weight.

When it comes to diet and eating, your habit may be to see your self though others eyes, or to feed your body what others suggest. Taking suggestions makes sense only when you use your brain with your gut and respond to what your body feels. You have the answers for you. Nobody else does.

Changing your eating routine is going to be exciting. Shake it up, feel refreshed and benefit with the body you want.

3 CHOICES

Eating habits are not healthy.

Each time you eat a meal, you have one choice which is to satisfy your hunger. That is the purpose of eating. The way to do this is not so simple because of habits that tell you there are three choices when you see a large plate of food in front of you. These are:

#1: Allow things to work out is your intuitive choice.

This means you tune in to your body, and listen to your senses, and remember what you know from past eating experiences. If you tune in to your body and there is no hunger response, the choice is to not eat. You are not always hungry. This is listening to your inner truth. It is you, connecting with your intuition.

Allowing things to work out takes courage and determination. Courage is energy you are born with and can always tap into. Like your intuition, it is always present. ( March 2010 blogs speak about courage in depth.)

Allowing things to work out means trusting your inner truth, and
connects with your self-esteem.
Ultimately it feels great and you look great!

#2: Forcing your self is a habit.

When you force your self to eat certain foods, or within certain calorie constraints, you are fighting your self. The result is often dissatisfaction with your meal, and even rebelling by over-eating Even if you succeed in restricting your intake based on external rules, the victory is both hollow and temporary. 95% of people who lose weight by dieting gain it back.

Eating is natural. Instead of forcing your self, tune in to your body, and your heart, and reflect on what makes you feel good, when you eat. Connect with your whole self. When you trust your self, you will not be destructive.

Yes, it’s good to learn about diets and food. Curiosity is a powerful intuitive tool. Use it as a guide, and trust where you’re going. Reading this means you’re going toward your goal of being your healthy weight.

People who are starving are restricted by circumstances. Celebrate your good fortune by respecting your self and allowing things to work out. Keeping clear about your priorities connects with your inner courage and you feel liberated.

#3: Ignoring the problem is a habit.

Ignoring something doesn't make it go away. Because every meal brings a new set of circumstances, it is not always wrong to relax your sense of balance, and eat an extra donut to celebrate or have desert, because you are with good friends. However, ultimately you must respect your body and your senses, and not eat destructively.

It feels wrong to abandon your self-respect.
Remember, if it feels wrong, it is wrong.

Relaxing "self-control" does not mean abandoning self-respect. It means allowing your self to listen to your whole being- heart, mind, soul and body and to stay in the moment. Trust your intuition, don't ignore it.  Your intuition keeps your perspective clear so you can allow things to work out in your best interests.

You have one choice and you have habits. Habits around eating are not helpful. Lose those habits and enjoy the difference in your quality of Life!

ATTITUDE CHECK

When you don’t believe you can lose weight and keep it off, this attitude is communicated to every cell in your being. A habit of being cynical, skeptical, or even indifferent, towards your body and your ability to be a healthy weight, cripples your 6^th sense.  Habits shut us down.

In our fast-paced world, we forget to give our self, breathing room. The way to check in, and then change limiting attitude habits, is to give your self space.  Space is breathing room.

At meal time, slowly breathe in and out at least  3 times, before you even think about eating choices. It’s what I call doing the “intuitive pause”. You can think of this exercise as the way of pushing your own  "refresh" button.   

Take 3 long, slow, deep, breaths in, and 3 long, deep, breaths out, and give yourself the opportunity to take some time to tune in to your heart, body, and soul.  Then use your 5 physical senses to be clear about your eating choices from this re-freshed perspective.

If you are eating alone, write short answers to these questions when you take your 3 breaths. Doing this will connect you with defeating attitudes towards your self and eating that are habits.

            Breath #1: Who is the person I am feeding? 

            Breath #2: What do I really want out of this meal?

            Breath #3: What is my attitude about food and eating?

This is an opportunity to connect with your self-respect. Practice doing this and all of your effort will pay off. Visualize your ideal body and feed that body when you eat. 

As you fine tune your 5 physical senses, taste, smell, touch, hearing, and sight, you are tuning in to your 6th sense, your intuition. Because all of your senses are always working together, it happens naturally.

As you become firmly committed to respecting your whole self- body, mind, heart, and soul, you will discover that your attitudes evolve, and that your intuition about who you are, what you really want, and how you feel about your self becomes clearer. You will learn from experience how to create what serves your genuine desires. This happens over time.

You will discover this attitude change lifts the weight of fears and doubts from your being. Ridding yourself of the habits of self-defeating attitudes literally rids you of weight by connecting you with your natural intuitive voice.  Try it!

Emotional Buttons and the Heart

Emotional hot buttons create self-doubt. To lose weight using your intuition, you need to know and trust your self.

Trusting your intuitive voice removes the confused energy of self-doubt, and opens opportunities for you to make choices that feel good to your body, and your heart. Your intuition is always kind, and allows making and correcting mistakes. Eating mistakes are generally the result of emotional confusion around food and eating.

As you fine tune your senses, you are constantly renewing a unique human connection within your self. This connection will keep you in the present, providing clarity and focus about what matters. Your six senses will help you recognize the power not only of your physical appetite, but also of your emotional appetites. When you are clear about these, you are in control, and eating choices are easier.

The habit of "dieting" create pools of emotions based on self-doubt. Doubt pushes deep emotional buttons that are experienced as fear, envy, anger, desire, vindictiveness, ambition, and even stubbornness. These negative emotions are ones we turn on our selves, and they always create some kind of renewed self-doubt and fear. Fear exaggerates our emotional buttons. Choosing to make your intuitive connection makes fear tiny.

Intuitive eating focuses on enjoying food for quality of life. Using your intuition, you stay clearly in the present, and recognize the experience of your emotional hunger, and the need to feed your physical hunger. As you feed your body intuitively, notice how you feel- when you open your eyes in the morning and throughout the day- about your self, about your body, and about your choices. Even though eating relates to nourishing your body for strength and health, making your intuitive connection is a choice that connects with your heart.

Your intuition will never desert you. There is always another chance to listen to your inner voice and do the right thing. Choose to feed your dream body. Be true to your heart.

The Eating Challenge

It takes courage to maintain your intuitive connection through challenging eating situations. Learn to recognize hot buttons to make good choices.

Courage is when you recognize what you know, and you respect who you are. Courage is following through with what feels good to your body.

You may need to eat bread with your meal, or protein, or you may just feel like having yogurt. You may decide that you had such a big lunch that you will just have an appetizer for dinner. Sounds simple, but it takes courage.

Challenging eating situations happen every day. We feel tempted or starved, or like there is no choice, or like pleasing others. None of this is real. The truth is we have abundant food and only have to please ourselves

The challenge to be true to physical needs, while feeling pressure from stress or from exhaustion, is often the result of not trusting what you intuitively know your body needs. It's natural to tune-in to your body. In fact, when you do, eating what works for you long term becomes easier.

Take the eating challenge and observe yourself around food. Use your eyes, your ears, taste, touch, and smell. Notice messages from your stomach and notice how you feel in your heart and your head. Fine tune your senses.

As you do this you will recognize habits that end up making you feel badly about your self. When it's time to eat, use your senses to smell, taste, and see what you are eating, and think about how your body feels and what you want for your self. Give your self a chance.

Intuition is a kind of natural courage. Connect with your it, and eat only what you know and feel is right. When you tune into your body, and your hunger with courage, you recognize your eating needs. Then you trust your self and take control of feeding your hunger. It's probably not something that you thought about before. So, give yourself a chance to think. Take a deep breathe in and now breathe out really, really slowly until there is nothing inside. Good.

It takes courage to recognize and trust your self.

It takes courage to stand up for your self.

It takes courage do what is right.

It takes courage to acknowledge what you need.

It takes courage to recognize habits, but if you don’t, you will never be happy with your weight. Ignoring your senses, your body, and what you know, creates a vicious cycle when you eat, and all it takes to stop, is connecting with the courage to follow your truth.  Ah yes, that is the eating challenge.