The Sensual Connection

Everything you sense connects with what you feel, what you know and what you want. Think with your senses and feel with your mind. Don't be a slave to diet dogma. Learn to eat intuitively and watch your body respond. 

You want to have a certain look. You need to eat, too! What's the connection?  It's you! What you sense is your connection.  Notice what you notice to connect with what feels good.


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.  It's how you give yourself permission to be your best.
  
Intuitive eating is all about you. Being unhappy with the way you look means it's time to change the way you treat yourself. Notice what you notice.

• 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 to feel 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?  Be happy.

• 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!

#janebernard

Just say, No.

                Keep Calm and Just Say, No.

The way to say No in an environment where there is a lot of tempting food is to tune-in with your senses. Notice what you notice. Don't let food choices push any emotional buttons. Open a channel of honesty between your desires and your needs by staying in touch with how your body feels. Use the intuitive tool called patience to stay in touch with your goals. 

Patience comes with surprises, so don't worry about the unexpected. You will discover that patience is an emotional stress buster that makes it easy to say No to fattening foods and the pressure to eat. Being patient is how to give yourself inner permission to be flexible and avoid abusive eating.

Use these three types of patience to take control of eating choices.

GIVE YOURSELF CREDIT!  Be patient with yourself to stop self-defeating habits. Taking a pause before digging in will get you surprise admiration from others and results you want.

• This means, before you commit to a meal, check in with self-respect. Notice if you feel dignified. Notice if you're really hungry.
• Look at the food on your plate. Do you like the picture? Are being honest with yourself about what feels right?

IGNORE THE CLOCK. Patience with timing is not about waiting. It's about doing what you need to do to get where you want to go. Your body is on its own internal clock. If everyone else is filling up but you don't need to eat, then just say No to uncomfortable food choices.

• Rushing when you eat cancels natural digestion in your mouth and is an automatic way to eat more than you need. 
• Patience with timing allows events and people to catch up with your inner drive. There are no shortcuts to quality. 
• Good timing, when it comes to eating, means taking time to make it good for you. 

TURN OFF SOCIAL PRESSURE. Patience with others has limits. Self-respect is the first instinct of intuitive thinking. Patience with others means acknowledging differences and maintaining your boundaries. 

• If someone is pushing your button and disrespectful, sometimes it's best to just say Thank you and Good-bye. What you eat is personal. Being polite and at the same time respecting yourself, is being patient. 
• If you are attending a buffet, carry a plate of radishes, pickles or celery around. Say No to carrying around temptation.
• No and yes are equally important for staying in tune with your personal power. Take control by saying No to what doesn't feel right. 

Think less, sense more. Take control by flexing your self-respect muscle. Take time to be true to you. In time, this will bring you just what you need to stay in control.

#janebernard

Speed and Eating

Speed makes us lose our edge. Eating fast ignores your body's natural timing by bypassing enzymes in the mouth. Speed eating is what animals do who fear for their lives. Do you eat fast because you are afraid? Slow down and breathe more. You are stronger than fear.

Speed kills the pleasure of eating. Let's be honest here. Do you really get enough pleasure in your life? If not, then eat slower by chewing more and learn to savor the pleasure of flavor with your tongue. Chewing more has its benefits. When you really taste your food, you eat less! Nice.

There was a diet fad in the late 19th century that promoted chewing more to lose weight. Chewing more slows down how fast we eat, which in our busy lives means we eat less. Studies show "those who chew more consume 12% less food". Research shows that cutting 12% calorie consumption can lead to losing 25 pounds in a year. Not bad.  

Use curiosity and self-respect to protect yourself from speed eating.

Talking more at mealtime is another way to slow down how fast you eat. Be social! We're entering a season of parties where eating slowly and enjoying the experience of tastes is an easy way to protect you from putting on pounds.

Everyone is concerned about maintaining health and weight during the party season. Pause between bites and talk more to others to feed emotional and social hunger. Here are some food facts about healthy eating to start conversations. 

Did you know?

Chocolate: dark (at least 60%) is best for health; enjoy a few bites.

Nuts: just a small handful, well chewed, gives us long-term energy.

Pumpkin & Sweet Potatoes:  are mega vitamins for our immune system.

Pomegranate:  is an anti-inflammatory that benefits the nervous system & inhibits tumor cell growth.

Cinnamon: helps maintain healthy blood sugar levels and is also anti-bacterial

Cranberries: are high in vitamin C; eat in moderation.

Nutmeg:  in small amounts can enhance sleep and regulate anxiety.

Brussels Sprouts: protect against cancer.

#janebernard

Plan for Eating Self-Control

The holiday season is in front of us. There will be parties, stress and eating temptation.
Let this plan become your habit and enjoy the season. 

• Be curious with your heart and your head.
• Ignore the ‘inner baby’ who just wants to eat. That inner baby is unhappy and a bully.
• Take control of holiday eating by being loyal to your heart.
• When an eating choice doesn’t feel good, it’s bad. 
• Trust your gut.

The holiday season is coming. Use intuition to take control of eating choices.

Curiosity is the natural intuitive search for comfort, understanding and stimulation.  Loyalty is the guideline for intuitive self-respect. Together, they are your plan for eating self-control.

Be curious. Demand, expect and create the quality of life you want by sensing what will work for you. Don’t deny your pleasures. Instead, take control by eating in moderation. This holiday season:

• Check in with your heart and curiosity to stay in control of smart choices.
• Spend time satisfying social hunger by talking, dancing and catching up with old friends.

Streamline your life by knowing that when you are at parties, you can use curiosity to:

• Eat less, but eat variety.
• Take 'tastes' and savor them.
• Pause to notice what you eat.

Use loyalty to

• Notice your body and heart. Trust your intuition.   
• Ignore your ‘inner baby’ emotions.
• Stay in tune with your gut. 

Keep intuitive tips, tricks and techniques on your phone 24/7 for support.   

Use curiosity and self-respect to get rid of guilt and end binging.

Notice what you notice with your senses.

Be loyal to you to avoid emotional eating

Be curious. Be loyal to you. Have fun!

www.farmrich.com

#janebernard

3 Little Tricks and Temptation

Because temptation is part of being human,

We all have little tricks.

 Temptation is an experience we may enjoy, but in the case of overeating, it's something we fear. 

Temptation is best managed with tenacity. Tenacity is making a commitment to be true to yourself when you eat. This will require making an effort. Decide that you are worth the effort. These three little tricks are a simple intuitive connection to maintaining awareness of purpose and confidence in our choices. The results are impressive!

At mealtime, some of us use these little tricks to remind ourselves how lucky we are to have food on the table. Here are ways this happens:

• A silent prayer of appreciation before each meal.
• Eating one bite at a time to savor the flavor and make the meal stretch out.
• Sharing food with others by working at soup kitchens, helping the needy or inviting friends for dinner.

Some of us have these little tricks to remind ourselves to eat less. We do this because we want to see our body reflect a vibrant, sexy ideal we see in our head. Here are ways this happens:

• A silent prayer of appreciation before each meal.
• Eating one bite at a time to savor the flavor and make the meal stretch out.
• Sharing food with others by working at soup kitchens, helping the needy or inviting friends for dinner.

Common challenges that can be overcome with these simple tricks include: rushed convenience eating and changing emotional eating patterns. If you are scratching your head right now because these lists are both the same, then start using the little tricks and you will learn secrets about who you really are.

Additional easy tricks to help maintain the body you want include:

•  Have your main dish on a small plate.
• Order roast beef instead of tuna or chicken salad for lunch. Tuna/chicken salad is often full of fattening mayonnaise.
• Order fajitas without the butter poured on at the end. You won't miss the taste.
• Eat dessert with a teaspoon.
• Stop eating before you feel stuffed. The way to do this is to put your hands in your lap between bites. 
• Doing this, you will notice your stomach with your hands. This will be a heads up.
• You will give your system time to recognize how much you've eaten, and ultimately, eat less.
• You will be able to maintain a clear perspective of your priorities and take pleasure in taking control of how you eat.

Tenacity is an intuitive muscle for beating temptation. The more you use it, the stronger you become. The result is, temptation won't taste so good.

"Food plays an important part in proper nutrition, but what you do to your foods and what your body does about them is the final answer." ~ Dr. Hazel Parcells
This flower will turn into a strawberry!

#janebernard

 

The Flavor of Patience

Eating is about more than food.

That's why losing weight is about more than eating.

Patience is the taste of connecting with what we really want. That's self-respect. When we ignore what we want physically, mentally or emotionally, we develop a habit of resentment. No one can move forward to achieve their goals with resentment.

Eating is about taking care of ourselves. To lose weight permanently, we have to acknowledge and feed what we care about within ourselves. Because love, conversation, sleep and relaxation nurture us, these are all ways we feed ourselves.

Approaching mealtime with an attitude of patience brings a gentle fresh perspective that we can taste with our spirit and inhale with our hearts.

• How does that happen? 
• When we're patient with ourselves, our spirit connects with hope; it's naturally soothing.
• Our heart feels efforts acknowledged, which is uplifting. 

• How does that help me lose weight?
• Self-respect reduces stress. This reduces emotional eating.

•  Seriously?! How can patience stop binging?
• We are born to enjoy our bodies. Our body is the home of our heart. When we ignore what feels right, we sabotage ourselves. Binging is a confused way we try to soothe ourselves. It's an effort to cover pain that instead, causes the pain to implode. That's why we feel badly about ourselves after a binge. 

Patience is a big part of self-respect and key to the natural power of self-control. The flavor of patience is satisfaction. Being patient by taking a deep breath before digging into our dinner is a stress buster in our busy lives. You may think, 'I don't have time for patience when I eat', but the opposite is true. Patience is an intuitive tool that prevents abusive eating.

To learn more ways of using patience and other intuitive tools, download a copy of Am I Really Hungry? 6th sense diet : Intuitive Eating.

#janebernard

Caveman Diet or Intuitive Eating?

A friend of mine, who is uncomfortable with the words self-discipline and food in the same sentence, has been tricked into being an intuitive eater!  This happened because he tried a modified caveman diet option. He ate whatever he wanted five days a week. Then, on two random days, he fasted all day - only drank water - and then ate whatever he wanted for dinner. This worked for him because knowing he could eat whatever he wanted made him happy. The surprise is that he has stopped enjoying his favorite fast food items and his 'habits' are changing. The reason why is that he started tuning-in to his body differently.

He noticed that when he did eat fast foods - especially after a day of fasting - he felt lethargic. Also, his stomach started shrinking from the small amount of fasting. He's eating less and has been steadily losing weight. I googled Caveman Power Diet and the website is easy to read, understand and follow. What they say makes sense to me. Cavemen certainly trusted their intuition. The reason why intuitive eating works for us today is, it lets us take control of our own choices and eating habits. We each are on intimate terms with our bodies. This means we can recognize what we want and need and when we feel full.

The way, we eat is often a mirror of the way we approach living. When we are barreling through life, it's common go off in the wrong direction. It's helpful to pause and get our bearing. Living well and eating well i a balancing act. Connecting with what we want and getting what we need always makes sense. 

That's why, using our senses to notice what we notice and intuitive tools to connect with what feels good, is so easy. Life is complex; hunger is simple. We need to eat for energy and good health, but we don't need diet restrictions or eating habits. Our physical needs vary every day. We don't need to be cavemen to choose what we want to eat.

      

#JaneBernard

Chocolate, Libido & Binging

Valentine's Day is packed with libido raising chocolates and other waist expanding temptations. How do we enjoy it without being trapped by the sweetness of the treat?  Of course the celebration of love is a good thing. How do we avoid unhealthy temptation and embrace tasty love?

To separate love and libido from unhealthy temptation, take a look at your sweets and your sweetheart, and check-in with the way you feel.

1. Confusing eating with satisfying intimacy causes disappointment that leads to binging. The libido thrives on anticipation, not big meals. Taking it slowly keeps you in control. Plan a light meal like tapas and put on some music. All of our senses connect with libido. Be creative with the way you choose to enjoy your treat and your evening. Rub a piece of chocolate across your lips and try to have your partner lick it off without either of you laughing. Of course, laughter is a libido boost- way more than chocolate. Libido is the drive for physical intimacy a feeling of anticipation, an openness to possibility and romantic potential.  If you feel this:

• Be true to yourself by taking your time. Patience heightens anticipation which makes your experience more exciting.
• Take it to a higher level with eye contact while you savor your treat. Also give the verbal pleasure signal of "mmnnn". 
• Just take a nibble, because you want your body to be relaxed for the next part of the evening. Feeling full signals your body to focus on digesting food. That kills libido.
•  Say Thank you! and mean it. Let the big picture come into focus naturally. 

2. Love, like eating, is an inner connection.  Food only represents love when we savor it; binging is a kind of disconnect. A great and enduring love affair is founded on open communication and mutual respect. The loving way to eat is to keep open communication with your body by tuning-in with your senses before and while you eat. It's the intuitive way to respect your body and to respect yourself. Love feels like a light in your heart, or it is a peaceful, gently exciting sense of being appreciated that is relaxing and deeply affirming. Real love is a direct connection with dignity and self-respect.

• When chocolate represents love and you take a nibble, your energy will soar. This is a happy feeling that lasts as long as you stay true to the feelings of dignity and self-respect.
• Get sensual. Love yourself by eating lightly and let that lightness connect with your heart. Touch your partner's fingers. Smile while giving your partner eye contact. Make love with your eyes - if you dare!
• Share a taste with your partner and say, Thank you! from the heart. You will feel satisfied, leaving the remaining chocolate as a symbol of love and anticipation for the future.

3. Temptation, created by emotions and stress, causes binging. Taking control of the temptation can be a turn-on for both of you, because it makes priorities clear. Take control by focusing on the big picture. Your priority is to appreciate each other and the meaning of the celebration. What you eat should compliment the evening, not rule it. Temptation is an urge often accompanied by a subtle feeling of frustration, a whiff of self-defeat in the air. If you feel this:

• Remember to be true to your body and your heart, together. To stay connected with your intuition, use determination to feel good about your experience.
• Take a taste and savor it with a "mmnnnn". Look your partner right in the eye and feed him/her a taste.
• Say Thank you! and mean it. 
• Thank yourself because you are focused on what you want and who you are.  You are honoring yourself. Love will find you through your smile as temptation turns into self-confidence. You will feel it.

Plato said, At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet. I guess, in a perfect world we would all be poets. Enjoy your chocolate, dance with your libido and fall in love all over again this Valentine's Day! Be loving towards yourself. Write a poem about chocolate instead of eating it, or share it with a stranger. Tweet about it. Remember, whether it's a cold winter day or hot in July, Love for you is in the air every day.

For more common sense ways to deal with temptation and frustration around eating and to learn how to tune-in to your body with intuitive sensual thinking download: Am I Really Hungry, 6th Sense Diet:Intuitive Eating

Wanting the love.

Everybody knows "food is love." Everybody intuitively wants love. That's why, at a celebration, where food is abundant, it's common to overeat. 

It's not surprising at Thanksgiving, a holiday of appreciation and feasting, to discover that you feel stuffed, instead of comfortably full. Maybe the sweet potatoes with marsh mellows were better than you remembered, and the vision, you intended, of portion control didn't work. Stuff happens, and it's okay. What really matters, is that you are aware of what happened that didn't make you feel good about your self, and that you commit to be kinder to your self next time. 

Don't beat yourself up. 

It is intuitive to forgive your self, because forgiving your self is a sign of self respect. Doing this will help you automatically be more prudent about eating choices over the rest of the holiday season. It is human nature to fall down, and it is intuitive to get back up and to keep going.

Because intuitive eating is having a flexible approach, post Thanksgiving is the time to cut your self a little slack. At holiday meals, the natural focus is on socializing. However, your intuition still is there. You are changing the way you want to maintain your optimum weight. Since you've already started being aware of your body, and of messages from your 6 senses, intuition is automatically part of  your food choices.

Intuitively: You take control of your eating by staying connected to what is really important to you, which is the way you feel, and the way you look.

Intuition is not something that you force on your self. Instead intuitive eating is a way of trusting your self to eat what's in your best interest for your optimum health - even when you're "socializing."

Stay committed to intuitive eating by choosing to forgive a holiday slip up, and try to maintain more vigilance the next time spirits are merry. Everything worth achieving takes time and effort - including getting the habit of being an intuitive eater.

Enjoy the holiday and enjoy eating. You deserve the love.<3

 

Navigating for Success

There is often much on your mind and shoulders when you eat. Life is a long series of hills and valleys that twist and turn without road maps. The trek brings challenges and opportunities that are distracting, demanding, frustrating, fortifying, and rewarding. Weight issues are another twist to navigate. Eat to fortify your future. It is intuitive to focus on eating for quality of Life. Doing this re-affirms your long-term perspective and realigns your priorities. The result is, the road of Life is easier to navigate. So, make meal time, a time of personal self-indulgence.

Do Not Quit
"When things go wrong as they sometimes will;
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill;
When the funds are low, and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but have to sigh;
When care is pressing you down a bit-
Rest if you must, but do not quit.

Success is failure turned inside out;

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt;

And you can never tell how close you are.

It may be near when it seems so far;

So stick to the fight when your hardest hit.

It's when things go wrong, you must not quit." (Anonymous)

What are you hungry for? Hunger is a heart felt as well as a physical experience. Hunger is real. Use your six senses to recognize it. Feed what's real and you will discover that you can get what you want, and where you want to go.

Be true to your self. When you're struggling with weight issues, or emotional issues, be kind to your self, and be ready to give your self another chance. Using your eyes, ears, taste, smell, and touch when you eat, tunes you in to your body. See it healthy and your ideal weight. Feed your ideal self. Watch it evolve.

The only time you fail is when you give up.

Your intuition will never desert you. So use it. There is always another chance to listen to your body and your heart, and do the right thing. This is your Life and this is your time. Enjoy living, and enjoy eating!

Nobody is more important than you are, so respect your self. Navigate for success.

Temptation and Obsession

What is the difference between temptation and obsession when it comes to diet?

Being tempted to eat means you are still in control. We all live with temptation. We are in a kind of flow, where choices must be made before we realize it. You are tempted to stay longer, leave earlier, eat more, work-out less, make a call, turn off the phone, take a chance, stay with the familiar, stop learning new things, start something new- . Temptation makes you think twice. It puts you to the test. Because temptation forces you to think twice, you are in control.

Temptation is the opportunity for you to remember and feed your eating priorities. This will satisfy you physically and emotionally. Think twice about what your body needs to feel satisfied by noticing what you notice. When you tune in to your body and make the choice to respect your self, things will start to make sense. Amazingly temptation brings out the best in you.

Obsessing feels like being out of control. In fact, obsession is losing perspective about what makes you feel good. Perhaps the obsession is pizza, chocolate, or pasta and you only can think of finding satisfaction with your obsession. But- the problem is that it doesn’t happen. The result is of obsessive eating is physical discomfort, and emotional dissatisfaction because in fact, food is not a substitute for what you really want. Only eating for quality of life, and to enjoy the experiences of taste and smell, can satisfy your emotional needs.

You will stay in control by remembering your emotional demands are not more important then your physical needs. Using your senses to know your self physically puts your emotional demands in a healthy perspective. Ideas that turn into obsessions about what to eat, may not be in sync with your physical needs. Be flexible with yourself and you will discover that you have the answers.

Trust your intuition. Your first intuitive sense is your survival instinct. Use it.

Don’t be tempted to: Ignore what you know. Don't abuse your body and don't defeat your eating goals.

Scan my Intuitive Eating blogs for a title that sounds like the eating temptation you are facing today and read it. This will help you connect with your intuition and stay in control of your eating.

Many people write to me because they identify with my March 23 blog: Zig Zag Eating, http://fine-tuning-eating.blogspot.com/2010/03/zig-zag-eating.html.   Is that you?

We’re in this together, and we’ll walk through this together. You are not alone. Keep your head up and your eyes open. You have "it".

Namaste.

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!

Chocolate - Share the pleasure.

This past week was my birthday, and I got a lot of tempting and delicious chocolate.

My friend Elan in Colorado baked me chocolate chocolate chip cookies from a French recipe that are huge and light and deeply, deeply, chocolate. These cookies are a delicious, amazing, seductive experience. And my daughter, gave me chocolate covered espresso beans and chocolate filled candy from an exclusive chocolatier in NYC. OMG. It has been at first very hard, because, of course, I wanted all of it.

When I spoke with Elan to thank her I confessed to actually eating 2 of the cookies in one sitting (which made me feel wildly overdosed on sugar) and she told me she only eats ½ of one at a time! Ouch.

Chocolate is wonderful, delicious, and fattening- so when you have chocolate, break it into bite sized pieces and share that wonder and delicious part with a friend or family member.  It makes them happy and it makes you feel good about your self. 

Chocolate: Connect with your body by really tasting it and savoring the flavor. Connect with your heart by sharing the pleasure. Connect with your intuition by doing what's best for you.

It doesn’t have to be your birthday to be surrounded by foods that will tempt you with their taste and make it hard to resist over eating. But do yourself and those you love a favor and keep temptation away by sharing. Take the box of candy to work and set it out on a table with a note: "Enjoy". No one will complain. And you will set a standard that feels healthy for your spirit. It’s a way of respecting your self.

Don’t be tempted by the illusion of satisfaction. Real satisfaction is a process, not a conclusion. You’ll feel good about your choice when you give your chocolate away. Having no temptation is a relief.

After talking to my friend, I remembered the Hobbits in the J.R.R. Tolkien books. They give presents to others on their birthday. So, I have been giving the chocolate cookies and candies as bite-size treats to friends to celebrate my birthday. Everyone is loving it, and I’m loving the way my body feels. It wasn’t easy but I’ve learned that difficulties can stimulate our greatest achievements! Giving away chocolates is an achievement.

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!

Change your body?

“We cannot change anything unless we accept it.” Carl Jung

Last night I had dinner with a woman who told me that she had tried to love her body, but she could not. She had been told to love her body to lose weight, and this put a lot of pressure on her. Ouch. Fortunately, she doesn’t have to love her body to lose weight, but she does have to stop fighting with it. The first step toward change is acceptance. Acceptance means you will work with your body to achieve your weight goals. When you accept your body, you trust your self. It is not automatically easy, and it takes courage.

The result of not trusting your self is, you lose self-respect. Then, you feel cowardly. Then, you get mad at your self, and act in a self-destructive way. You may eat mechanically, out of anger, frustration, or boredom. Then, eating is not about physical hunger or appetite, it’s not a response to your senses, it’s a self-destructive habit. Self destructive behavior is an example of fighting with your body.

Does this mean you have to love your body no matter what you see in the mirror? Absolutely not. When you use your eyes and look at your body in the mirror and it looks out of shape, it doesn’t feel good. When you accept your body, then you are free to choose to do what feels right to change it. Instead of fighting with your self by condemning your body, you can decide to work with your self, to pay attention to how your body feels, what messages you are getting from your six senses, and what you know, to achieve a healthier body.

When you don’t accept your self, you are creating stress inside. When you don’t like your body, you are condemning yourself. You are creating hostility inside that will bug you and press your buttons every time you look in the mirror. The result is- you will unintentionally, punish your self by self-destructive eating.

Change won't happen over night or even in a week.  What will change overnight is your attitude.  Once you stop fighting with your body, you won't look at food the same way. Instead of resenting your body, you will work with it, doing what you know and feel is good.  In fact you will be using your intuition, and your body will respond.  That's a guarantee.

When things are not ideal, it is not easy to face them. But it’s a fact that not dealing with reality will not change it! Instead it’s helpful to realize that the present is the foundation for the future, and that accepting what is real means you can change it.

Eat Cake

Yep, you read that right.  Hey, say there is something to celebrate and you want to eat cake.  Well, as an intuitive eater, that works.  Intuitive eating is not about denying yourself. It's about enjoying what you eat for the best quality of life. Oh, I can see you rolling your eyes in dis-belief, and I get it.  How can you eat cake and lose weight.  The answer is: with dignity.  

What does dignity have to do with eating cake? Well, everything. Dignity is a kind of self-respect and that is connected with your 6^th sense.  All of your senses give your pleasure and protection. Your 6^th sense, which is your intuition, has the job of balancing messages from your 5 senses: taste, touch, smell, hearing, and seeing with what you have learned from experience. But that is not all intuition does. Your intuition also responds to your emotions. When it comes to celebrating and eating cake, emotions are big.

Ah, cake- that is a pleasure.  I love to eat cupcakes, partially because they are already cut to size and this saves me from being tempted to ignore my common sense and over eat. Over eating is not a pleasure.  It not only makes my body feel bad, but ultimately I don't feel good about my self when I overeat. Intuition is connected with common sense.

Common sense is part of your intuition because it keeps you in touch with what is real.  If you think you don’t have the common sense that other people have, think again.  When it comes to eating, common sense is connected with your other 5 senses and your body. When you eat, connecting with your senses and your body keeps you clear  about what you are doing (eating) and how you feel about it (stuffed).  Try fine tuning your senses when you eat to help connect you with your common sense.

This is my story. My friend, Emma had a birthday party complete with a cake. After we sang “Happy Birthday”, delicious over-sized pieces of red-velvet cake with vanilla butter cream icing  were served all around the table. An unnaturally large piece was placed in front of me. As soon as I looked at it my mouth was watering. Red velvet is a kind of chocolate with a reddish hue, red is the color of excitement, and I was very excited to get this treat. Connecting with my eyes, I could see it was moist and then the smell of it hit me like a sweet kiss.  I really wanted this cake.

I know my intuition connects my body with my senses and my mind, so briefly I checked in with my stomach. And then I realized, I had just eaten a big dinner, and worse, that I wasn’t really very hungry.  I still wanted the cake.

I looked around the table and all of my friends were deep in to their cake. Plus, the person next to me, who btw was a slim lady, said that it tasted really good. Of course, I thought, just my luck, I’m watching my weight and get this. I needed to connect with my common sense.  I continued fine tuning my senses. I looked at my piece again and it was seductive.

Well I already knew how this cake looked and smelled.  So for taste, I discretely stuck my finger in the soft icing and then I licked my finger. Rolling it around on my tongue, I recognized sweet, delicious, and full of butter. Suddenly the man sitting opposite me burped, not loud, but I heard him and our eyes met.  Sheepishly, he said to me.  “I guess I ate it a little fast.” And yes, his whole slice of decadent red velvet cake was gone. This surprised me because I was still checking out my piece of cake. I realized that by checking out the cake I was doing "the intuitive pause".  It was giving me time to connect with my common sense. Meanwhile, my 5 senses were telling me that this cake is yes, a definite treat. 

My stomach was quiet. Obviously, my dinner had satisfied my hunger, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to eat the cake. I love cake and I wanted to celebrate.

As an intuitive eater, I’m committed to being true to myself.  That means that I have to respect my emotions as well as my body and my experience.  Sounds easy but because it’s not automatic, I work at it. My intuition was saying that my stomach would rebel if I ate the whole thing, but that my heart would resent it if I didn’t eat cake. My 5 senses were in complete agreement with eating the cake.

I looked at the cake again and took my knife and cut the piece in half.  I reached across the table and picked up my burping friend's empty plate and put half of my piece on it. He said, thinking I was doing him a favor, “Are you sure?”  And I said, knowing I was protecting my self from over indulging, “Yes, absolutely.” And we exchanged smiles.

           

I felt better immediately. I knew that I would be having this cake and that I would love the taste and texture and that it would make me happy. Following my commitment to using my senses, I ate the cake slowly, smelling the sweet kiss and really tasting, and enjoying it completely. 

I visualized my ideal body as I ate. That, is the body I protected, and that is the body I fed the delicious cake to.  I was happy afterward because I realized I had not over-eaten, but I had had my red velvet cake. My body was not uncomfortable and I was proud of my self.  I had eaten with dignity.

The next time you’re celebrating, eat cake.  Eat with common sense.  Let your 5 senses guide you and remember to pay attention to your body.  Protecting your self is done by respecting your self.  Eat cake and do it with dignity.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Mahatma Ghandi

What are you thinking?

When you choose pay attention to your intuition, you are creating a loop that includes your mind, heart, and body. Intuition balances and connects the energies from these. Now that you are starting to fine tune your 5 senses, open your self up to enjoying the pleasures they bring. Start listening to your 6th sense and feel a broad smile across your face.
Visualize having your ideal body and feed that body the next time you eat.
Your body is the home of your heart and mind,
and your body is the source of great pleasure and satisfaction in your life. 

Look within. 

The secret is inside you. 

(Hui Neng)

Intent

Intent means taking time our to reflect on what you are doing several times during the day in order to focus on and remember what matters to you. Your intent will be different depending on what you are doing. When you are driving, what matters to you at that moment is your safety. If you are with someone that you love, what matters is that you are communicating. If you are doing your job, you want to do your best, or if you are brushing your teeth, you will want to reach those hidden spots where potential decay lurks. Now that you are an intuitive eater, what are you thinking when you grab a bite to eat? What is your intent?

If you’re thinking about what you just did or what you want to do you are eating in a way that is unconscious. This is bad for your body because it’s like putting fuel in the tank of your car without seeing if it the right kind and you know all about the burps, bumps and grinds, not to mention downright ruination that can occur if you put diesel fuel in your car. It’s like washing all of your clothes without looking to see what colors they are and what could shrink, shred, or bleed. Of course, your body is not a car but it does need fuel. Your body is not a washing machine but you do put all kinds of stuff in it that may or may not fit or blend well. What are you thinking about when you put food in your body?

Intent means being conscious of why do what you do. In fact, intent is a way of actually realizing what you want. When you use your senses as you eat you will realize what you’re eating, how you feel about it and if it’s what your body needs.

As an intuitive eater acting with intent means that you create within your self positive and productive energy that supports your eating goals. Your intention to lose weight, or to eat smart will pave the way to the body you want. When you use your 6 senses to connect with what matters to you, intent helps your support your desires.

Remember, your intuition balances messages from your senses, your brain and your heart. Every time you think about what is really important to you, energy is focused from your mind to your heart and back to your mind. That is your intuitive connection.

Think about your ideal body. Imagine that you are living with your ideal body. Feed your ideal body the next time you eat. What you chose to think about is what you will create with your intent.

The next time you eat, look at what is on your plate. Smell the aromas of what you eat. Put your fork down and in your mind, imagine that you will feed your ideal body. Thing about what you are putting into your body. Slowly begin, be sure to chew well so you really taste your food. Use your intuition to know how your stomach feels and use intent to listen to all of your senses.
Using intent is a way to protect your self by respecting your self. That’s intuitive.

Make it your intention to treat your body like it is the home of your heart and mind, and the source of pleasure and satisfaction in your life because it is.  Enjoy.