Eat for Fun!

When eating isn't fun, it's a problem. Fun feels good, tastes good and keeps us smiling. How can we eat for fun and not overeat? When does fun stop and personal abuse begin? Why do some people get to eat 'whatever' they want and not gain weight? How can I take control of my diet and still have fun?

• To eat for fun, know what puts a smile on your face. Is it food? No. Food is strictly nourishment for your body. Feed social hunger.  Symptoms are loneliness, boredom and frustration. Food can't satisfy social hunger.
• Don't eat when you're alone. When we talk with others at mealtime, we eat less. 
• Instead of snacking in your free time, use it to play with your pet, appreciate nature, call relatives, take a cat-nap, take a power walk. Burning energy will feel like fun.
• Schedule to volunteer once a week to help others. Being appreciated is when you share energy with another or many others. It can be a smile, a thank you, a pat on the back or just eye contact. This energy connection feels like fun.

• Take control of what's fun. Taste your food. Taste is a source of pleasure. Oral gratification includes taste and smell. Feed physical hunger.
• Symptoms include hollow feelings in your stomach, fatigue, pangs and lack of concentration. Eating satisfies this.
• Take small bites to taste better and get the pleasure. Eating fast means less nutritional benefit and you miss out on the oral gratification.
• Eat with the idea in your mind that you want to enjoy the pleasure of your food. Don't let time, other people, work or TV remove this option. Make pleasure your choice.

• Be good to yourself. See eating as an investment in your future - a way to get more energy, to have healthier skin, to increase sex drive. Choose what to eat based on what you care about.
• Discover who you are. When it comes to fun or to hunger - we are all unique. It's common to underestimate how much we eat when eating is a habit or a reaction to stress. Tune-in to what's making you feel hungry. Be curious and be honest with yourself. 
• If you have trouble being clear about what you're eating, keep a food journal to help break the cycle of food denial.
• Intuitive thinking is how to understand the source of hunger. It's the answer to undoing internal traffic jams that cause binging, overeating and emotional eating.
• Get curious about how you feel and what you think about what you eat. Write it down. You might be surprised. 

To get lots of helpful tips for transforming from a dieter to an intuitive eater, download Am I Really Hungry? 6th Sense Diet: Intuitive Eating.  Learn how to recognize and take control of frustration, temptation and social pressure. It's time to have fun!

• Learn to satisfy your intuitive appetite for clarity, balance and protection. These are your source for personal success, enthusiasm and fun.  
• Learn to forgive yourself and Carry On! Alcohol has lots of calories, but music and dancing have zero. Dance more! 

New Diet

The newest diet that works takes us back to old eating rules. Feed your heart, your head, your spirit and then your body at every meal - and you will lose weight. The new diet is:

1. Eat Less, Talk More
2. Isolate Less, Socialize More
3. Trust Less, Protect Yourself More

Of course, fifty years ago, general obesity wasn't a problem. Here are some reasons why:

• Plates were smaller.
• Filling up a smaller plate makes it seem like we are eating a lot. 
• Try to find plates that are only 12 inches across and enjoy a full plate of food with every meal. 

• People did not watch television while they ate. Instead, they talked to each other.
•  Making mealtime social takes the edge off of loneliness and feelings of isolation. The result is less bingeing.
• Sharing the enjoyment of good food is satisfying and leads to other kinds of mutual pleasure.

• Food had less chemicals and was not genetically modified. Diets varied by season.
• It was easier to get healthy foods and, because our organs are always regenerating, the variety of food fed physical needs. 
• Today we can no longer trust that foods which appear pretty, are healthy for us. Fifty years ago, the worst ingredient in a frozen dinner was MSG. Today, chemicals in foods make us crave salt, sugar and oil. Some people say the greed of food manufacturing companies has created the obesity epidemic.
• If a label is loaded with words that you don't understand, don't buy the package. Today, we need to protect ourselves from the greed.  
• Instead of eating strawberries in the winter, eat apples. Eating what is in season is the best way of avoiding modified, chemically altered foods.
• Make the effort to balance how you choose what to put in your body. It's worth the time and leads to losing weight naturally and having more energy. 

Don't be sabotaged by habits, laziness or corrupt manufacturing practices. Use all of your senses, including common sense, to take control of eating options and long-term results. Download Am I Really Hungry? for intuitive insights to help deal with frustration, stress and misleading diet dogma that sabotage losing weight.

It's time for us to Get Some Satisfaction!

Tiny New Years Resolutions that Last

Happy 2014! May the New Year fill you with self-confidence and the knowledge that this year, you are going to gradually lose weight.

Resolutions that are big are like meals that are big. They overwhelm our body and are doomed to backfire. Instead here are some easy tiny resolutions for intuitive eating that guarantee long term satisfaction with your body and an enjoyable eating lifestyle.

• Eat with your heart. This means use all of your senses, including common sense. Take time to be sensual and you will eat less and discover truly enjoying food.
• This takes courage because it's fun and easy. Dieting is the opposite. Break the habit of diet-induced fear. Decide to stop denying what feels good. It feels good to respect your whole body - including your heart.
• Look at the big picture. See each meal as your next step along the path to permanent weight maintenance. Unless you are running for your life - another meal is just a few hours away. Eat less. Enjoy the freedom of not being bogged down with food. Listen to your heart.
• You inner voice is not judgmental and will always be protective. Thinking about eating strictly in terms of calories or rigid diets keeps you in your head which misses the point eating with your heart. Sometimes your inner voice feels like common sense. Sometimes it will surprise you. There are no rules in Life except to honor yourself. Your body always let's you know what you actually need. 
• Take 3 deep breaths if you are unsure about whether you are still hungry. Look at what you've had and notice what you notice. Ignoring what you notice doesn't change what you see. Listen to your eyes. You will know.

• Talk more at mealtime. Hunger is emotional, social and physical. With conversation, you feed social hunger. Words, laughter and camaraderie are surprisingly satisfying.
• You will discover some eating habits you have that are annoying to you! It's your choice to let go of them. Don't let food get in front of personal satisfaction or long term goals for your health. By socializing, we learn that sharing moments with another is liberating. Use this sense of freedom to eat with your heart.

Tenacity is the intuitive commitment to yourself that creates opportunities for success. Use it to take some tiny steps and trust that they are safe. Depend on your common sense. There is a fact about human nature, which is that until we believe we are doing the right thing, there is the chance we will draw back. Don't take that chance. It's new year! Step forward in to the magic of 2014!

Make a commitment to eat with common sense and listen to your heart. 

Don't trust anything that doesn't feel right to you!

Get practical intuitive solutions that are common sense for maintaining a your healthy weight, download: Am I Really Hungry? 6th Sense Diet : Intuitive Eating

and overcome eating challenges.

"If you can't solve a problem, it's because you're playing by the rules." P. Arden

Look Great, Feel Great Eat Great / Three Tips

It's holiday party season and you want to look your best. Because going up and down like a yo-yo physically and emotionally feels awful, and forcing yourself to follow an eating program that feels like a struggle is awful, it's time to stop. To look great you need to feel great.

When you feel great, you know you look great and that makes it easy to eat intuitively. Here are three tips for turning holiday stress into looking and feeling great:

1. Eye Contact : No matter who you are talking to look them directly in the eye. This relaxes you because it's not superficial. Everyone looks best when they are relaxed.
2. Share Tastes : Pick your favorite holiday food and share a taste with someone you want to know better or with someone you want to renew your sense of connection with. It's almost like starting a conversation with a tease of taste. Begin with eye contact and talk about how good the food tastes. This will cause both of you to smile. You look great when you smile.
3. Soul Food : Deepen the wonder of who you are by letting yourself enjoy music, chocolate (in moderation), dancing, prayer, or being playful. Suddenly, you will remember that the gift of being alive is great and that you don't need to force yourself to do anything that doesn't feel right. The purest soul food is self-respect. It's never abusive or mean. Find a place to sit and don't do a thing. Tuning-in to your soul is liberating. You feel younger and you look great!

When you feel good, there is no emptiness to hide or cover. You respond to hunger easily and enjoy the taste and the pleasures of satisfying your body, feeling great and enjoying this holiday season. Here are three tips for eating great:

• Eat with your eyes.
• Taste with your tongue.
• Love with your heart.  

Laugh more, eat less and fill your heart with sparkle that comes from eye contact, sharing pleasures and honoring your soul.  You will look great! Guaranteed.

 

Taking Smaller Bites

You want to do the right thing which is - not gain weight that your body doesn't need. You are committed to looking your best. So what happens? This is what happens to me: stress, deadlines, bills, social commitments, etc., and before I know it, I've lost my perspective of what I want.

Of course, I want to do the right thing. It's not always easy. When I reach the point of not remembering exactly what my last meal tasted like, I know it's time to take an intuitive pause. This means, I must find some alone time and use my senses to find out or end - what is wrong. Yes, it is wrong to ignore the power of our senses. The more we ignore, the more confusing life becomes. Personally, I don't like feeling confused.

Here's how I tune-in to my intuition. I eat a snack alone. I choose something healthy that I enjoy.  Today it was a piece of crusty bread with a tablespoon of peanut butter smeared across it and some yummy honey spread delicately on top.

• I look at it and pause:
• to realize how lucky I am to have it.
• to see how much I took and if the portion is what I really want to eat.
• I decide to only take small bites instead of eating the whole thing in large mouthfuls
• to really taste what I'm eating. I chew each small bite savoring it, with my tongue. This is surprisingly exciting and satisfying. 
• Because of the size of the bites, I realize I'm starting to relax non-food related emotional tension. Focusing on the food for it's flavor, has liberated me from the dragon of stress.
• I discover I'm enjoying myself. My perspective is no longer tense.

You can even do this with an energy bar or a cup of coffee. The decision to take smaller bites (or sips) and use your senses to see and savor what you are eating, is an intuitive pause that will reset your perspective so you can do the right thing for yourself. Because of the way we are wired, eating with smaller bites resets every part of our being. We relax.

Remember this the next time life is too complex, or confusing or just too busy:

• Take a smaller bite. Chew each well and swallow. Then take another.
• Let each part of your tongue tease your sense of taste so that you feel pleased.
• Be grateful you are not homeless or hungry.

How I feed myself food is a reflection of how I feed myself life. I'm determined to taste and savor every morsel of what life throws at me, because I like to feel very alive. Whether the glass is 1/2 full or 1/2 empty, we can always add more. Sip, don't guzzle, and enjoy the personal satisfaction of self-control. 

For practical intuitive solutions that are common sense for maintaining a your healthy weight, download: Am I Really Hungry? 6th Sense Diet : Intuitive Eating

and overcome eating challenges.

"If you can't solve a problem, it's because you're playing by the rules." P. Arden

Stress and Weight Loss

Stress is emotional pressure that distracts us from thinking clearly. The result is, stress can cause weight loss or weight gain. Because emotional stress creates physical tension, chronic daily stress can cause a hormonal reaction so that your body thinks you're in danger. A result is your body may go into a fat-storing mode, which will make you feel a need to eat more. 

You can control this physical reaction to stress by tuning in with your senses when you eat. This works because your senses are physical, not emotional. Using your senses is a way to focus with your body. When you focus with your body, ultimately your mind shows up and it's easy to remember that you don't want to put on weight.

These 3 sensual techniques help solve the problem of stress 'hunger,' by distracting you from emotional eating.

• Breathe deeply into your belly. This guides your body to relax and eases stress-driven emotional hunger by taking the edge off.

• Taste what you eat with your whole tongue. This saturates your taste buds and identifies for your brain the fact that you are eating. It also slows you down so your body relaxes and digests more efficiently and you find it easy to eat less.

• Go into the bathroom and look at yourself in the mirror. Look into your eyes and give yourself a smile. Watch your face relax.

Stress is part of life but it doesn't have to impact your weight. Sensual thinking is a solution for coping successfully with Life stress. Today, use your 5 physical senses to reconnect with your body in a healthy way.  Your body is amazing.

Control Weight

Control what you weigh by getting in rhythm with your body. When you listen to music, dance! Here's what happens:

• You easily burn calories.
• You stimulate your organs so that your metabolism kicks into gear.
• You have fun. When you're having fun, there is no 'stress or binge eating'.

Control weight creeping up by eating more protein instead of empty calorie salad fillers that don't really satisfy you. Here's how:

•  If you're still hungry after a salad, eat an energy bar with at least 5 g of protein. It will help to stabilize your blood sugar and you will feel satisfied for hours. Always drink a glass of water or have another unsweetened drink with an energy bar to help your body break it down for good digestion.
• When your pants are too tight, cut your carbs in half but don't skimp on the protein. You will still feel satisfied. It takes more energy to burn protein. Eat less, chew more is a weight control mantra.
• Have one hard-boiled egg for breakfast. Eggs contain protein and iron. Both are dependable energy sources. Hard boiled eggs take longer to digest than scrambled eggs, so you stay satisfied longer. It's important to drink at least a full glass of water, full cup of coffee or tea or other non-sugared drink with the hard-boiled egg to aid your digestion. Doing this helps your body break down what you eat, so you digest the nutrients efficiently.  btw: Oatmeal is a complex carb, not protein. Skip it if your pants are feeling tight. 

Getting a good night's sleep on a regular basis helps you control weight.

• Hormones in our body, called Leptin and Ghrelin, are responsible for suppressing hunger  and stimulating your appetite. Getting regular sleep keeps these urges balanced.
• When you're tired, it's easy to confuse fatigue with being hungry. When in doubt about why you want to eat - take a nap for at least 20 minutes. That could do the trick.

Use common sense every time you eat. Be a little bit outrageous. It's important for controlling your weight to have fun by being playful and easy with yourself. An unusual way to control your weight is to Think Positive: Imagine you are standing naked on a stage.  Inhale, lift your sternum up, hold your stomach in and lower your shoulders. Now, listen to the applause. You're starting to take control of your body. You can also do this when you're wearing clothes.

For practical intuitive solutions that are common sense for maintaining a your healthy weight, download: Am I Really Hungry? 6th Sense Diet : Intuitive Eating

and overcome eating challenges.

"If you can't solve a problem, it's because you're playing by the rules." P. Arden