Instant Gratification is a myth.

Instant Gratification is myth.  

Change that lasts only a short time is a tease. 

Only slow progress endures because we're organic.  Trusting organic change requires determination and responding to what you sense. Learn to think with your senses and feel with your mind.

Because we're conditioned to "trust" instant gratification, there's a disconnect from our intuitive truth.

Instead of responding to social conditioning use your 6 senses to stay in the present. The past is history. Tune-into your choices today. 

The truth is there is no such thing as instant gratification when it comes to long-term physical changes or long term personal accomplishments.  It takes time to climb any mountain and anything can be a mountain. Thinking with your senses makes the terrain easy.  

We're programmed by media to expect instant gratification. Diets promise we'll lose 5-10 lbs a week and be an ideal body in a month. The truth is, it won't happen. Losing 5-10 lbs by starving yourself now will boomerang and end up around your middle in July.  Aren't you tired of losing and gaining weight?

Don't buy into media hype about instant gratification. Since your body is a natural system, it requires time to process change. When you use all 6 senses at mealtime, physical needs and healthy food boundaries become obvious. Real nourishment is truly achieved when you're in sync with yourself. Make a commitment to know yourself and use determination to connect with messages from your body at mealtime. Go for real gratification. It is filling and satifying at the same time.

Don't buy into diet hype about the need to eat what you don't want when you're not hungry because of a scale or a clock or a book. You have the answers and they are very personal, custom tailored to what your body needs. Your body is amazing, alive and constantly evolving.

Use intuitive tools to trust your body. Tune-into how it feels. Your body is always focused on healing and creating energy. It is more efficient than the most advanced super-computer.

Gratificaiton that's real stays around so we can enjoy it. Everything worth having takes effort. Effort creates energy of excitement and anticipation. Anticipate loving your Life and enjoying your heart, body and soul. Anticipate what you're going to do with extra energy you sense.

Notice what you see, hear, taste, touch and smell before you put anything in your mouth. Natural intuitive tools connect your head with your heart and your body. Timing and eating have a lot in common. Download a copy of Am I Really Hungry? Learn to recognize when you're hungry and when you're not. That's instant gratification.

Begin intuitive eating and discover vibrant living! 

#janebernard

Sensual Fuel

Sensual Eating Fuels Good Health

Use every meal to maintain quality of life. Intuitive eating is a lifestyle of finding pleasure in eating without the stress of dieting. 

Attitudes towards food and eating are mirrored in every relationship you have. When you are tense with the intimate act of eating, you're tense with other intimate acts. Instead of pleasure and sharing together at mealtime, personal resentment and self doubt build. It's the opposite of using food as sensual fuel.

Intuitive values are attitudes that work like tools for losing weight. Make life easier. Be an intuitive eater. Your life will change in more ways than losing weight. The best  is, by using sensual thinking guidelines to eat smarter, good decisions spill over, enhancing every relationship - personal and business. Life gets easier.

It's important to  stay in sync with your body's needs. Your senses are natural guides towards healthy priorities and personal satisfaction. Intuitive eating is an easy balance of taste, scent, personal and physical satisfaction.

Eating updates your energy. Honor yourself by tuning into how your body feels when you eat. Staying open and curious about your options is smart, uplifting, empowering and fun. 

We already use our senses to focus as we text, write and speak, which tunes us in to what we feel with our minds. As a result, we relate to our bodies differently. We have become obsessed with our bodies, fitness, and image, because we are making this sensory connection. We feel with our mind, and connect with what we sense in a whole different way. The sensual connection is relaxing because by feeling with our minds, we have good timing.

Be curious. Notice your health and tune-in to how you feel when you eat. Be dignified. Respect and allow what you physically experience by acknowledging it. Let your next meal be sensual fuel. 

Tuning into you body is natural. Sensual thinking makes life easier.

Stay in sync with your body.  Talk less, sense more. Like the way you look.

#janebernard

Get Physical.

Get physical at mealtime. 

Intuitive eating is physical.

Being physical when we eat means connecting with what we sense and what we feel.  

The feeling we all look for is happiness. Happiness isn't complicated. Sharing a smile, a song or eye contact keeps energy of happiness bouncing around us. The intuitive way to feel this is by being grateful. Being grateful is how to feed your heart. Gratitude, importantly, reduces the risk of emotional eating.

• Be grateful before you put any food into your mouth.  Feed your heart first by remembering that you are not homeless, at war, or ill. 
• Feed your heart by being thankful for the chance to be thankful.

Then, turn your brain off.  Eating is not intellectual.

Whenever possible, take pleasure in the food you eat. Intuitive eating is a spontaneous physical response to the moment. How do we trust being spontaneous when so much hinges on our responses? 

• Eat with an attitude of dignity and comfort. Make this attitude your priority at mealtime.

Respond to eating with your 5 physical senses. As a result, you will enhance automatic intuitive nudges.  When food is in front of you, before you eat, be grateful for food on your plate, and then:

• Tune in with your senses. Think with your senses when you eat. Respond to what you notice and how you feel.

• See what you are eating . 
•  Notice portion size. Do not eat any serving bigger than your fist. 

• Connect with your body. 
• When yo enjoy food, digestive enzymes are more efficient and more calories are burned. 
• Eat only up to your physical comfort level. Stop when you feel good, which is before you feel full.

• Listen to your thighs, your gut and your heart and you will eat wisely. Ignore your head. 
• Eating is physical. It's like putting gas in the car. 
• It doesn't matter what's playing on the radio inside the car. The goal is to fill the tank with gas for power.
• Your head does not know what you need to eat; only your body does.
• Don't overload your body or put in the wrong fuel. 

• Chew more, taste more, talk more and you will eat less. 

Being physical by being grateful, using your senses more and connecting with your body, will reveal insights about your heart. Being intuitive connects with feelings of self-respect and pleasure. Give yourself every opportunity to be the best you.

Learn more about how to connect with your intution by reading Fine Tuning, Connect With Your Inner Power. Learn more specifically about using natural intuitive insights to stay in sync with your body by reading, Am I Really Hungry, 6th sense diet:Intuitive eating.

It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day to day basis. – Margaret Bonnan  

#janebernard

Results from Eating Tiny Bites

Tiny bites are the secret to eating less. But is it practical to eat in tiny bites?

3 Results from Eating Tiny Bites

(1)      We absolutely eat less.  

• The physical reason we eat less is that we give our body time to signal us that we're full. 
• We don't have time to eat as much, but we do have time for enough.
• The emotional reason we eat less is it feels good to pamper ourselves in ways that are good for our body. It's good to indulge the need to take control. Tiny bites is you taking control.

(2)      We get more pleasure from eating. 

• More physical pleasure happens by putting less in our mouth, because we allow our whole tongue to experience the flavors released when we chew. This also has the physical benefit of letting digestive enzymes that naturally exist in our mouth begin breaking down food. Eating tiny bites creates more efficient digestion, so we get nutrition out of what we eat. 
• The emotional reason for more pleasure is we're taking care of ourselves. We're nurturing our health, our self-image and our state of mind. 
• If we're eating with a partner, a sexy benefit of small bites is the tease, sharing the taste sensations and going back for more. It's especially fun with dessert!

(3)      We eat what we want.

• Physically this is intuitive eating. Because we're taking tiny bites and tasting them, we can tell if our body is pleased. We can also tell if the food is too greasy, salty or sweet to be really enjoyable. If you eat tiny bites and don't like the taste, don't eat it. Listen to your body.
• Tiny bites allow us to tune into our priorities. We're more comfortable with our choices. When we're comfortable, we savor our food. It's good to be good to you.

Tiny bites and savoring our food are sexy and time-consuming. When you don't have time for all the fun, here is how to take control when you eat tiny bites:

• When rushing, take control by dividing your portion, eating only 1/2, but still take tiny bites. You will discover you feel satisfied and not 'loaded down' when you continue your day.
• When watching TV, don't put the whole meal in front of you. Put food on a small plate or in a tiny bowl instead. When you want more, get up and get it. The act of getting up between bites burns calories. If you're too busy watching your show to get up, you're full. Stop eating and enjoy TV.
• When starving the way to take control is to remove the temptation to gorge. 
• Eat with a teaspoon or small fork. 
• Do not stuff your mouth under any circumstances. Put your hands in your lap between bites.
• Cut a sandwich into four pieces and then cut each piece in half. Eat one piece at a time. Put your hands on your lap between bites. 

After eating tiny bites you won't get that 'full' feeling. Instead you will be filled and happy. Best of all you will have taken control of your choices, your time and peace of mind. You decide if it's practical.

#janebernard

Mirror, Mirror

We look in the mirror and what do we see?

When we look in a mirror with a critical eye, our emotional buttons are pushed, making us tense. Mirrors make us emotional. Intuitive thinking  connects us with dignity, which relieves our emotions by refreshing priorities, so we eat for good health and pleasing appearance.

• Emotions feel complicated.
• Keep it simple by thinking with your senses. 
• The point is to connect with your body when you eat.

Notice your posture.

When our shoulders are relaxed, our heart is comfortable. This way it's automatic to tune-in to priorities and personal boundaries. Look at your posture in the mirror. Tuning-in to our body helps overcome emotions that drive us to make uncomfortable choices. Where does your body hold tension? We all hold tension in different places. I hold tension in my stomach. Notice what you see and feel:

• Feel your body.
• Where are your shoulders?
• They should be lower.

• How does your neck feel? 
• Gently, tilt your head back, then forward. 
• Gently lean your ears toward your shoulders.
•  
• Be patient with yourself. 
• Appreciate your effort to be the best you can be. 
•  
• It is automatic to tap into strength we recognize intuitively. Here's how:
• Identify with someone you admire who makes good decisions in stressful moments: James Bond, Superman, Wonder Woman, Harry Potter, Mother Teresa.

Life is a gift. The more it's savored, the better it tastes.

Sensual intuitive thinking is a direct physical response to our environment. It keeps the big picture clear so we're in tune with personal priorities and boundaries. Look in the mirror for help. Notice your posture and honor yourself by feeling dignity. Appreciate who you are. When you eat, savor every morsel!  After you eat, look in the mirror again:

• Give yourself a big smile and a knowing wink.
• Enjoy the rest of your day.

The better you understand yourself, the happier life is. Practice looking into the mirror for help. You are your best friend. Trust your gut. For help overcoming emotional eating challenges, pick up a copy of Am I Really Hungry? 6th sense diet: Intuitive Eating, or download a copy and keep it on your phone for quick help! 

#janebernard

Break Habits

Take control of what you eat by breaking habits.

Habits happen when we grab what is easy, convenient or fast. The result is emotional eating because habits are not a response to our body. Eating is not supposed to be a habit. We're supposed to respond to hunger.

Ignoring our body often means we are not satisfied by what we eat. Physical needs are unique and change all the time. When we ignore what we want, we feel lousy. Emotional eating is an unsatisfying way of rebelling against what doesn't feel right. Don't let emotional eating be a habit.

Habits are ruts. Being in a rut feels like being old. Worse, habits make us feel trapped. Yuck! Shake off eating habits by getting into the season. Open your eyes, inhale the new fragrance in the air. Try new foods that smell and look good. New experiences renew us. There is a feeling of excitement and anticipation that makes us look and feel younger.

• ·Habits limit choices and kill spontaneity, which makes us look drawn and tired. Eat to feel good.  Don’t be in a rut.

• Add spice to life with new experiences. Instead of a big meal, eat small amounts when you try something new. Really taste, smell and experience the newness. Eating is supposed to be a pleasure.

•  Be kind to yourself.  Don’t dwell on the past. It’s history. What matters is eating to keep healthy and fit today. Leave the past behind. Take a moment to be grateful for good health and the ability to move forward.

•  Initiate change in routines. Spring is the season to be spontaneous. Allow yourself time and space to do personal things differently. Eating is personal. If you don’t feel like eating, don’t; if you want to just have appetizers, do! Connect with curiosity you were born with. Have more fun. 

• Taste more by chewing and savoring what you eat. Stop talking about your body, weight, diet or frustration. Talk about ideas and what makes you feel good. Spring is a season of new beginnings.

• Simplify eating decisions by using your senses more. Notice what you notice. It will be clear if you’re bored, excited or hungry. Listen to your body. The rule is to honor yourself.

Take a breath. Take time to give yourself a chance. Stay in the present and enjoy Life!

• Think with your senses. Check in with the way you feel before and while you're eating. Make decisions spontaneously.

• Feel with your mind.  Use intuitive tools like courage, dignity and curiosity to guide eating choices. Before you eat ask, "How will I feel about myself if I eat this?" Respect and protect yourself.  Be intuitive.

  Am I Really Hungry, 6th Sense Diet: Intuitive Eating  will help you reset mealtime priorities and recognize what holds you back from eating when you're hungry and stopping when you're not. Pick up a hard copy and stick markers on pages that help you stay true to yourself, or buy an e-copy and access intuitive tools from your phone!

#janebernard

Get ready to be seen.

Spring fever is around the corner. It's time to get ready to be seen. Intuitive eating is an attitude of taking care of our whole body, inside and out.  When we look good, we feel good.

Looking good demands immediate gratification. In the Spring, we cover-up less.  Look good and feel your best with these tips that include foods to help achieve long-term weight goals.

• Nails - clean, neatly shaped nails are attractive. I polish mine and currently am welcoming in Spring by wearing turquoise blue. Men and women look at a persons hands when they meet to feel a connection. Keep your hands beautiful and you will feel beautiful.
• Our nails are both genetic and an indicator of health. Eat balanced meals for optimum appearance.
• Nail polish - even clear - always makes hands look nice.
• Hair - clean hair smells nice and looks good. Spring is a perfect time to get a new hairstyle or to get your current do trimmed and shaped. You will know you're looking good and the smile you're wearing will be a turn-on for all who see you. 
• Eggs, wild salmon, pork, lentils, tofu, spinach, bell peppers, sweet potatoes and oysters are all considered good for shiny, healthy hair.  They are also not fattening and having any of these in moderation with your dinner will help you shed those pounds for bikini season.
• Depending on your hair type, there are many products in the drugstore that can enhance the way hair looks or feels. Clean hair that smells good is sexy. Have fun.
• Skin - is exposed more in the Spring. Healthy skin feels and looks good. After a winter of being under wraps and exposed to elements, you might want to indulge yourself in a full body rub with moisturizer to smooth bumps and refresh dry spots. Skin that glows with health is a magnet.
• Our skin loves, tropical fruits, which are high in vitamin C. Broccoli is collagen booster. Try it sprinkled with lite soy sauce or liquid amino's and you may discover it's strangely addictive. Almonds and whole wheat products are skin nurturers but be sure to have these in moderation as they are also calorie intense. Carrots, salmon and sardines are also great for our skin.
• Eyes - Wow!  Eye contact brings people in to your heart. When your eyes are bright, alert and looking glamorous, who knows what can happen? :)  
• All of the foods above that are good for our nails, hair and skin are also good for eye health. Additionally wheat germ and beans are eye food. 
• Why not put on some eye shadow to compliment your nail polish, or if you like the natural look, just put on your best attitude and watch what happens!

Intuitive eating is an attitude of getting results by staying clear about the big picture. Losing weight is a long term goal. When our nails, hair, skin,  and eyes look good, we feel good.  People pick up that energy.  Focus on your assets and you will be so busy looking great you will eat less.

It's not what you do, it's the way that you do it and that's what gets results. ~ Jane Bernard

Diet Crisis : Frustration Tips

A diet crisis can happen if we're frustrated or even when feeling good! Either way, it's going off the track of what we really want, and it feels lousy. Stuff happens; we're human. It's time to keep moving forward. Don't get stuck in a diet crisis.

The way to start moving forward is to forgive yourself. 

Do it to reconnect with the relief of momentum! 

Remember, no matter where you are, if you don't keep moving, you won't reach your goal.

Here are tips for staying on track. They are intuitive, and easy to remember when you feel a crisis. Before you begin eating, especially when you feel frustrated, always take 2 slow deep breath in and out. Look at the food and see what feels right to you. This connects you with your intuition and your body.

4 intuitive tools to connect with calm and relief:

• Patience with yourself ends frustration and helps overcome the temptation to give up. It is an opportunity to prove yourself to you, to be all that you can be. Patience connects with the big picture. This keeps our attitude flexible and we feel less pressure.

• Determination to follow through is deep inside each of us. You can call on it by remembering that you are worthy of fighting for. Fight for yourself by eating just enough and no more. Listen to the voice of determination that lives in your heart. This creates the comforting feeling of balance and control.

• Dignity to honor yourself is especially helpful if you feel frustrated, deprived or sorry for yourself. Dignity directly connects with determination. This means when you try to feel dignified when frustration happens, you will get an extra assist from your intuition to honor yourself. You will discover an inner attitude of gratitude that takes away your appetite.  Dignity is a guide to see, do, feel and be what is best.

• Prudence is like comparison shopping. It connects with common sense and is very helpful for shedding self-disappointment, frustration or doubt. It is the intuitive way to recognize that there are always options. Frustration connects with a self-defeating victim mentality. Prudence guides us to see choices. It  keeps our minds open.  In fact, determination proves that there is always another option, and prudence is a stress-buster.

There are ten organic, intuitive tools that are amazing for getting rid of frustration at any time. Find them in chapter 15, 'Frustration', in Am I Really Hungry? 6th sense diet: Intuitive Eating.

Is more better?

People ask me if eating 'more', instead of strict dieting, can ultimately be better for keeping a healthy weight? 

Sometimes, the answer is yes, but -

This is tricky because, eating more is not about quantity, it's about quality. 

• More is good if:
• Focus is on nutrition, not taste or calories. This way, we feel satisfied longer and burn calories efficiently. This helps our body burn fat and not muscle.
• We drink more. Often we think we're hungry when we're thirsty. 
• Try drinks without added salt or sugar. 
• Drink water. Add a squeeze of lemon or teaspoon of fruit juice or 1/2 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar for refreshing flavor!
•  Be careful: Don't be trapped into retaining fluids.
• We can find salt in a milkshake! Salt is used in ice cream because of its special property that lowers the freezing temperature of water. 
• There are 55mg of salt in a can of Coke! It's like drinking a pizza.
• "Natural" flavored bottled water may contain sugar or salt. Save your money and your body, drink from the spigot. 

• When eating less calories than our body genuinely needs, our metabolism alters. To cope with the stress, it slows down to stretch the calories further for long-term survival. It's physically instinctive to stabilize our weight for survival. 
• Additional results of calorie shortage:
• We feel hungry and unsatisfied by what we're eating.
• We do not lose weight because our body adjusts to the new regimen.
• When we resume eating 'normally',we gain weight.

Our bodies are not machines but they are efficient and designed to respond to what we eat and how we treat ourselves. Put the right fuel in to get results you're looking for. Adding foods or regimens that you're not suited to digest, or deal with emotionally, creates problems. 

Here's what everyone needs to have more of at every meal:

• Love
• Self-Respect
• Dignity
• Laughter

Tune in with your senses to know what feels good to your body and heart. More is better when we focus on quality, nutrition and common sense. Bon Appetite! 

Keeping Weight Off With Intuition

Intuition works like a vitamin that you take to stay good to yourself. It helps keep off the weight you lose by keeping clear about what feels good to your body, heart and mind.
Take this Intuitive Vitamin every morning to reinforce smart choices and stay clear about keeping weight off:

• Every day before you get out of bed, say out loud, "I will notice how I feel before I eat. I will remember my body is the home of my heart and treat it with respect. I will see, smell and taste all food that I eat." 

Intuitive eating works because you learn to know when you're physically satisfied and when you're being physically abusive. For example, you're at a party and aware that your favorite party pants are feeling tight, but there is a tray of your favorite cookies. You don't feel hungry but your friends are eating the cookies and you want to be 'social'. Also, you know you can't eat just one.

• Ask for help: Friends will be surprisingly supportive. Tell the truth - you're not really hungry. 
• Help yourself: Grab a glass of something to hold or put something you don't really 'want' on a plate and hold it as you socialize. It's intuitive to protect yourself from old defeating habits.
• Reward yourself at the end of the evening: Look back at the evening and the way you handled yourself. Give yourself credit for taking steps to keep your body looking and feeling good.

Intuition works like common sense.  For example, you lose 15 pounds:

• You like the way you look and feel. 
• You decide you want to stay looking and feeling good. 
•  You commit to yourself.

If you're not sure how recognize your intuition, then grab a copy of Am I Really Hungry to learn how to defeat social and emotional hot buttons that make you feel like overeating. Or download a copy so you can refer to it any time. Intuition is something you were born with and you can connect with it 24/7.

Be good to yourself. Use your intuitive vitamin to keep weight off long-term:

• Feed the body you like.
• Eat when you are hungry to maintain your energy and health.
• Choose not to eat what you don't need by respecting your body.

Keeping the weight off is really satisfying.
It gives you time and energy to focus on finding satisfaction in other areas of your life - and you will!

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.

When self-discipline fails.. PHAT

We all have those moments when the effort to put on the brakes is too much. Here's the intuitive way to fulfill your inner baby and protect your real-time body:

Start easy.

Bypass the emotional hot buttons to connect with your body when frustrated with temptation by relying on the intuitive basics - your physical senses. 

Pamper yourself by eating sensually. 

Just use one sense: Taste.

• Taste what tempts you and really savor it. 
• Make love to your food with your tongue.  Do it slowly.
• Taste what you eat as if it's your last meal.
• Search for pleasure and satisfaction. 

Intuitive eating is sensual and very seductive in a satisfying way. 

It's when you zone into your body and what feels good with every bite. 

There is nothing forbidden, but lots that's pretty, hot and tempting. 

Enjoy eating, and enjoy yourself by tuning-in to what you taste. 

 
Pamper yourself with pleasure and dignity. Be sensual and get satisfaction. As you use your intuition you gain a permanent weightless understanding of yourself and you lose weight.

For the past few weeks, Am I Really Hungry? has been a best seller on amazon.com under health: mind and body and mind-body connection! People are using the book to change their lives! Give yourself a gift!

Self-discipline is a handrail to grab to stay clear about where we want to get. But sometimes it's hard to reach our goals. We're too tired, or our inner baby just wants to eat cake. That's when the only available transportation is a leap of faith.

• Have faith that you deserve a body that is healthy and feels good. 
• Trust that it's worth the short-term frustration of ignoring your inner baby to have the long-term result of liking yourself. 
• Take the leap when you can't deal with self-discipline and you'll discover yourself smiling.