Feel Good Food Connection

You want to have a certain look. You need to eat, too! 

What's the connection?  It's you!

When you feel good about yourself, it's easier to have patience with your eating choice. Feeling good tunes you into being kind to yourself.
 
Intuitive eating is all about you. Being unhappy with the way you look means it's time to change the way you treat yourself.

• Binging is a way of beating yourself up.  It's like banging your head against the wall.
• Rushing through a meal is like inhaling calories. When you rush, your body doesn't have time to feel full.
• Sneaking a bag of cookies is like poisoning yourself. It's doing to yourself the opposite of what will make you feel good.

You deserve respect. The first person you need to get it from is you!

• Eat for energy or do not eat.  This is different from eating just because you're hungry. Try it!
• Share the pleasure of eating. When you really like what you're eating, pause to taste it better. Then, talk about the satisfaction you feel.
• At parties, put something you don't like on your plate. Instead of eating, carry it around and talk to people. BUT don't talk about food or eating. Parties are for feeding social hunger. Don't let food get in the way of finding social satisfaction.

Still not happy with what you see in the mirror? 

• Wear a different color.
• Smile at yourself.
• Vow to respect your body and your heart at the same time. Since your body is the home of your heart, this makes a lot of sense.

If you feel like you've gained weight, you can be sure you're gained some bad habits. Bad habits are often created by stress.  Take the pressure off by giving yourself a chance to eat intuitively. Time is your tool. Take time to notice what makes you feel good about yourself.

• Eat less, chew more.
• Take control by being kind to yourself.
• Recognize self-defeating eating habits and decide you've had enough!

Intuitive Magic

A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch. ~George Bernard Shaw

Curiosity is intuitive. It's something you feel, not something you think. The more curious you are, the more satisfaction you will discover with yourself and in your world.

Working to live intuitively is going to change the way you eat and feel. Trusting your intuition is being true to yourself. It's respecting your body, listening to your heart and not letting your head be bulldozed into someone else's thinking pattern.

Eating is about pleasuring your body - not in a lewd or sexual way, but in a way that fills you with the excitement of living. A satisfied body feels vibrant and alive. Real satisfaction around eating is nearly sacred. That's why there are so many rituals around food and eating.

When you diet, you develop damaging rituals around eating. These lead to bingeing and purging. They  create a mind-set of defeat. It's subtle until you realize you've gained 20 pounds or worse. Stop eating to fit in a mindset and start eating to fit in your own mind and body!

There is a simple ritual around eating that's intuitive magic. It opens your eyes and your heart. Doing it feels like common sense. The intuitive ritual around eating that I urge you to use is the ritual of Gratitude - before, during and after you eat. It will change everything.

Right now, stop looking at your watch and start looking at what you're doing. If you're offered a serving that's huge, there's no pleasure in packing food in as if you're a box to fill.

• Instead, savor the flavors. 
• Take a deep breath between bites and allow your body the space it naturally needs to relax and let the digestive juices flow.
• Pamper your inner health so that you can depend on it later.

Don't think of calories; think of the pleasures of great health. Don't look at the clock; be in the moment. Tune in to the magic.
Try it!

Bon Appetite!

Tricks

Are you being tricked into eating more than you’re really hungry for?

Fifty years ago the average restaurant dinner plate was just 8 inches across. That size plate holds about 140 calories. Today your dinner is probably served on a plate that is 12 inches across (or bigger). That size holds about 350 calories. Even spoons and forks are bigger now then they were.

Yikes- the bigger the plate the more you eat. The bigger the spoon or fork, the more food goes in to your mouth at once. This doesn't give your stomach much of an option. Ouch.

Another trick that makes us eat more is a huge plate with what appears to be small portions on it. This fools us every time. It’s like trick photography where they show you the same piece of bread on 2 plates. The same piece of bread looks much smaller on the bigger plate. But, it’s a trick! Big plates are deceptive.

If you don’t want to be bigger, consider the up side of using smaller plates and even smaller spoons and forks. Think of it as the easy way for you to achieve portion control. When you downsize your spoon and fork and ask for a smaller plate, you can enjoy conversation and not pay attention to how much you’re eating because your portion will be exactly right- not super-sized.

When you don’t over eat, it makes sense that you will maintain your weight. When it comes to eating, bigger is not better. The way to take control, is to not be tricked by accepting huge plates of food. You have 2 choices- ask for a smaller plate and just put on it what fits, or ask for your plate to be divided. The extra food can be put in a bag to eat another day, or if taking it home is a form of temptation, then give it away.

Eating what you like is an intuitive trick for burning more calories!

Enjoying what you eat at every meal is intuitive. It has been proven that when you enjoy what you eat, your body digests food more efficiently. This means eating what you like, instead of forcing yourself to eat “what is good for you”, actually burns more calories. And obviously, it keeps you happy.
Nice.

Mind Trash

Pay attention, your 6^th sense is guiding to you.

Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart.  Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens.  (Carl Jung )

Have you ever imagined that you have an amazing amount of innate power?  You do. As you fine tune your senses you will discover an energy force inside that is constantly directing your attention at sights and sounds and smells. Take your desire to have a slimmer, healthy, body seriously, connect with your innate power, your 6^th sense, and watch what happens.

It won’t happen over night, but it will become obvious within a few weeks that by eating intuitively your habits have changed and so has your body. There is no magic trick, but there is the danger of mind trash that will sabotage you if you are not aware of it. 

Mind trash is an enormous mental burden that we all carry. It’s a pre-occupation with negative thoughts, belief systems, concerns or fantasies about our body or our self that stir up “justifiable” anger or impatience or feelings of being helpless. You don’t need any of it. Mind trash blocks your natural protective intuitive response to what you are about to eat.

What happens when you allow mind trash to trash your eating is you binge or purge or resent your meal. Mind trash clutters your way to the body you want with layers of fat. It creates feelings of dependency when you really are free and you really are in control.  In fact, you are free and in control every time you eat. No one is standing over you with a whip saying, you’re bad, instead, the pre-occupation with negative thoughts is making you insecure. When you eat start with your eyes.  Your intuition will connect what you see, with what you know in your mind from experience, and you can chose what and how much to eat, based on what feels right. 

Mind trash is like a road block to your intuition.  Your senses of hearing, seeing, taste, touch, and smell are the way to connect with your intuition. Use your senses to free your self.  When your senses are not fine tuned, it can be hard to know what you really need to eat to feel your best and have the best quality of life. Fine tune your senses and you will tune in to your innate power, your intuition. 

It’s time to throw out the trash, and start fresh. Every one of us makes mistakes, and every one of us can change the way we see things. When things aren’t real, they are a waste of time. Use your senses to connect with your 6^th sense, and tune in to what is real for your needs. By really smelling and tasting your food and listening to your body, you let your intuition guide you.

Often we justify what we eat or don’t eat because we dislike the truth.  You know that expression, The Truth Shall Set You Free?  Of course, you’ve heard it with your ears. Try listening to it with your heart. Try to imagine what you are really looking at when you sit down to eat. The truth is that portions in this country are often impossibly over-sized. The truth is your stomach is talking to you, telling you it hurts when you stuff it.  Hey, that’s the truth, but are you listening?  Or instead are you listening to mind trash?

The next time you sit down to eat. Before you begin, visualize your ideal body.  Now, if you’re alone, play with your food a little bit, and smell it before you taste it.  Look at the size and quality of your food. Feel your appetite and relate to your physical hunger. As you think about what you really want to eat, your focus will create an emotional emphasis that will propel you, and your intuition will guide you to protect and respect your body.

What do you see? Do you see calories, do you see rules, do you see something delicious, do you see something that will give you gas, do you see a plate full of food that will keep you up all night? Okay- if you do, you have a choice. Don’t eat it. 

Your mind is trashed when you believe you are bad because of a number on a scale, or if you believe you are unable to know what is best for your body, because a book says, “this is the answer, do this and lose weight”. While there are many excellent diet books and methods to wade through on the way to weight loss, there is only one expert when it comes to your body and that is you.  It is natural, when you’ve lost touch with your senses that you may feel out of control with eating. But that is easy to fix.

Remember this, if you cannot see that you have a choice then there is apparently no choice.  You cannot see if your eyes are covered with doubts about your self or your body because these doubts are negative filters that fuel mind trash. Open your eyes.  Every person sees exactly what they want to see. It’s only when you balance what you see, with what you hear, and what you know from experience, with what you feel in your heart, that you connect with your 6^th sense and see your truth. Then, feed your truth.

Keep your mind open as you fine tune your senses. Doubt is a form of self sabotage. Why not trust that you know more then you realize about your self and your needs. All of us are conditioned to ignore our intuition. This is especially true when it comes to eating which is amazing since our intuition, our appetites, and our hunger are all connected.