Self-Sabotage '16

Intuitive thinking is the natural way of being tuned to yourself and the bigger picture. It's keeping all of your needs in focus.

Use all 6 senses to stay in touch with your body, heart, mind and soul. Don't sabotage a great meal or miss a Life opportunity by ignoring what you sense.

Choose to live intuitively and make the choice to be clear about what you are eating. This choice fine tunes your life by enhancing every choice you make.

It's easy to use intuitive tools and your 5 senses to do this. Your 6th sense balances messages from your body about hunger and priorities with what your 5 senses reveal about your eating choice at the instant you begin a meal. It's clear.

Not using all 6 senses is leaving yourself in the desert of Life without water. Notice what you sense to know what you need.

When we don’t use our senses, we don't know our selves. How can you know what you’re eating when you don’t look at your meal, taste it, smell it, or feel it enter your body? Eating is supposed to be sensual. It is intuitive to relax and enjoy your food with your senses. Try it and you will find a smile on your face.

It's self-defeating to judge yourself and ignore what you see, hear, taste, touch and smell. It's like wearing blinders and earplugs to an event - You really can’t know what’s happening. Passing judgment while you eat sabotages digestion, pleaasure and quality of Life. Negative thoughts about the past or future have no connection with your meal at all. Noticing how your body feels or enjoying eating is intuitive. Intuitive living turns the tease of temptation into opportunity.

Decide to let go of negative thoughts in your head when you eat. The past is history. Allow yourself to be present. The way to do this is to chose to respect and trust yourself and commit to using your senses to enjoy your food. Be kind to yourself and good things happen..

Spring is in the air. True love is a combination of trust and honor. Spring is a perfect time to fall in love with your self. Really trust your heart, body, mind, and six senses to protect you and let that love honor who you are when you eat.

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

Got time?

Got time? I don't know anyone who feels they have enough time. 

Eating seems to be something people jam in, almost without thinking.The idea of healthy eating feels like an added time-consuming burden. When we weigh the results of bad eating habits at the scale, it's obvious that healthy eating habits can save time.

• Intuitive eating is eating to please your body, your palate, and your frame of mind. It's intuitive to seek the best quality of life. Make things easy when it comes to eating and maintaining your weight. Eating breakfast brings the feeling of getting more time by starting your day with a rhythm of purpose. Begin by noticing what you notice.
• Give yourself a solid foundation by eating breakfast.
• Use the time, while you eat each morning, to notice how your body feels, how your clothes fit, and to think about what makes you happy. 
• By eating breakfast, you won't need to take time to snack during the morning and you won't have a mid-morning dip in energy to slow you down. 
• Importantly, by having breakfast, you won't need to gorge at lunchtime.

Does lunch or dinner turn into business meetings? Talking more means eating less. Having breakfast, protects you from excess hunger and excess weight.You have more time to do business, gossip or generally socialize. By feeding your body a solid foundation at the start of the day, you have time to feed your social, personal and professional needs without the distraction of hunger.

Try these suggestions to make time feel lighter:

• Breakfast:  
• No-cook overnight oatmeal is easy to make in advance and is fortifying in the morning. Add some orange juice to create a power breakfast. 
• Lunch:
• If you skimp on breakfast and are 'starved' for lunch, take a few deep breaths to remember that hunger comes from your body, not your mind. 
• Have a protein-packed sandwich. This can be cheese, steak, fish, tofu or any kind of burger. Take just one bite and put it down on the plate. Chew, swallow and take a drink of water. 
• Often, when we're 'starving', our body is really thirsty. Water has zero calories and it's what your body wants. Do this with every bite and you will have eaten a quick and satisfying, hearty lunch.
• If you have a salad for lunch, remember to take the dressing on the side. 
• Dressing often makes salads high calorie, so be stingy with it. Once you add any dressing, toss your salad before you eat it. You will be amazed at how little is required to get the 'taste.' Even with a salad, your body needs water. Water helps burn calories by lubricating your metabolism.
• Dinner
• If you are going to eat, you must taste what's on the plate. This sensual experience automatically will help you eat less.
•  What you choose to eat should be balanced and visually appealing.The point is to enjoy the taste and give your body fuel. 
• If you have no time, cut your portions in half.  Then, follow the same process as outlined for lunch:  take a bite, put your fork down and take a swallow of water. Eating less means less calories, and drinking some water between bites means you are less likely to have indigestion. 

Intuitive eating is being kind to yourself by protecting your body.  Give yourself some time. Learn to use intuitive tools to change your habits into free time. Learn to drink water when you eat because it has no calories, helps you feel full, and your body needs it.

"Getting my lifelong weight struggle under control has come from a process of treating myself as well as I treat others in every way."   Oprah Winfry

Download  Am I Really Hungry? 6th Sense Diet to learn tips and tricks for eating intuitively.

#JaneBernard

The Most Powerful 2015 New Year's Resolution.

Make this new year's resolution: "I will not doubt my inner sense of truth. "

Your intuition is more powerful than manipulative emotions because it connects with the truth. Emotions connect with what you wish was true, while intuition keeps you in touch with what is real. That's why you can feel deeply emotional around food and 'know intuitively' not to eat it. Intuitive tools, like determination, courage and dignity, protect and guide you away from self-defeating emotional eating.

Hunger is a physical reality. Binging is an emotional trap that treats your body like a second-class citizen. Ending emotional traps is intuitive. Intuition works with your body. When you use it to make eating choices, you tune in to self-respect and physical needs. Intuitive eating creates a safety zone of balance.

Use these questions to 'hear' your intuitive inner voice, your inner sense of truth.

• Does eating this leave me feeling physically comfortable, satisfied and healthy?
• If the answer is yes, then focus on comfort, satisfaction and health while you eat. These are intuitive.
• You can feel when you've had enough by working with your body. 
• Intuition balances what you think and what you want, with what you know and how you feel. Your inner intuitive voice filters out the truth.
• Why am I eating this? 
• Be honest with yourself about trusting your intuition. 
• The fact is, intuition is always protective. If a choice doesn't feel 'right', it's not your intuition; it's emotional manipulation.
• It's powerful to take control of self-defeating emotions, but it's not hard. Things that are wrong, crumble easily.
• Learn  to feel dignity in your heart and respond to that feeling.
• Take control this year by being courageous. 
• You are stronger than anger or disappointment. You are stronger than sadness. 
• Give yourself a space to be determined. Go for a short walk to cool off. Reset your perspective by noticing what you sense. Remember, the only reason to eat is because you are physically hungry.
• What do I really want? 
• If this is confusing, then write down what you really want and put the piece of paper where you can look at it any time.
  • Adopt an attitude of self-respect with determination and stick with it. Get what you want this year. It's time! 
• Comfort, satisfaction and health create quality of life. Eat less, chew more. Tune in  to intuitive attitudes to feel your intuition. Even if you've ignored it your whole life, you have it. 

Remember to focus on comfort, satisfaction, and health when you eat. Use determination and self-respect to follow through with what feels 'right' Be dignified and you will stay in control. Every morning when you wake up say, "I will not doubt my inner sense of truth. " You will be a different person in 12 months!

#janebernard

Inner Peace

Inner peace begins with intuitive thinking. 

Intuitive tools find your inner guidance system.

Take attitudes of courage, dignity, tenacity and self-respect to holiday parties.

Hunger is a physical reality. Binging is an emotional trap. Fighting emotional traps is intuitive. When you make an intuitive choice, it feels 'right'. Your intuition 'has your back.' Powerful intuitive tools bring freedom from emotional eating.

Holidays push our buttons. Anyone who has eaten food for emotional support knows the result is disappointment. Emotional eating is a trap. There is a way out. The 6th Sense Diet  brings inner peace by revealing new solutions and understanding that change your relationship with your body from stress to satisfying. Putting pressure on yourself will be over.

Emotional eating or binging happens when we feel bad or sorry for ourselves. Even though the media would have us think differently, food is not a band-aid. It cannot mend a broken heart or make a mean person nice. Reality is that Life can be painful, unfair and hard. Responding to pain by eating more changes nothing; instead, we feel worse.

When emotions guide food choices, there is no inner peace. Intuition bypasses emotions. That's why we can feel deeply emotional around food and 'know' we're wrong to eat it. Using intuitive tools like tenacity, courage and dignity are your surprisingly reassuring anchor to personal peace. It's personal power.

  Three questions to ask yourself for inner peace:

• Does eating this leave me feeling physically comfortable, satisfied and healthy?
• If the answer is yes, then focus on comfort, satisfaction and health while you eat. 
• You will feel when you're had enough. This is feeling your mind working with your body. 
• Intuition balances what you want with what you know and what you feel. Power eating is listening to your intuition.
• Why am I eating this? 
• Being honest with yourself is the beginning of trusting your intuition. 
• The fact is, intuition is always protective. Trust it.
• Feel dignity in your heart and listen to that feeling.
•  If you're eating to satisfy emotions, stop. Decide to take control by being courageous. 
• You are stronger than anger or disappointment. You are stronger than sadness. 
• It's powerful to take control of self-defeating emotions, but it's not hard. Things that are wrong, crumble easily.
• Give yourself a smile of determination. Go for a short walk to cool off. Reset your perspective. The only reason to eat is because you're hungry.
• What do I really want? 
• You want to fight it. No one wants to be a slave to emotions. Eating, weight maintenance, diet, work, family, responsibilities - all of these weigh on us 24/7. We need help to be strong. We don't have a lot of time to cook. Write down what you really want and put the piece of paper where you can look at it any time.
• Adopt an attitude of determination and stick with it. Get what you want. Comfort, satisfaction and health create quality of life. Eat less; chew more. Attitude is powerful.
• FitsMe is a Web app that helps you find meals and create plans that fit your diet. Tell the site your food restrictions, likes, and dislikes and it serves up recipes to satiate even your pickiest preferences. It can save time and help you plan. 

Peace comes when you focus on comfort, satisfaction, and health while you eat. Natural courage to zap fear and overcome doubts is part of your intuition. Determination and self-respect to follow through with what feels 'right', complete the picture. Be dignified when you eat. Find your inner peace; it's intuitive.

 "Anything is possible if you've got enough nerve." JK Rowlings

#janebernard

Take 15 minutes to relax.

Time to relax in mid-December? Really!? 

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 need to relax and get back my perspective of what I want.

Of course, I want to do the right thing. It's not always easy. Everything I want is not always available. When it gets to the point of not remembering what my last meal was, I know I need an intuitive pause.  I need some alone time to notice what I notice. Simple stuff, like tuning-in to the smell of perfume, the itch of my sweater or the fact that I'm exhausted helps me feel less confusion and more in touch with my priorities. Thinking with my senses resets my point of view. My favorite kind of alone time involves eating.

I tune-in to my intuition when I eat a snack alone. I choose something healthy that I enjoy.  Today it is 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 take a breath:
• 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.
• To make it last longer, I take small bites instead of eating the whole thing in three large mouthfuls.
• By chewing extra and savoring it with my tongue, the flavor has more kick. Nice.
• Because the size of the bites is small, I stay focused on chewing and my non-food related emotional tension is relaxing. Focusing on the food for it's flavor has liberated me from the dragon of stress.
• I'm enjoying myself. :)

I try this again a different day with an energy bar and a cup of coffee. The decision to take smaller bites (or sips) and to see and savor what I eat, again, resets my perspective and is ultimately relaxing! Because of the way we are wired, eating with smaller bites resets every part of our being. Who knew it was possible to relax in mid-December?

When you need to exit the discomfort of stress fueled exhaustion without being self-destructive, take 15 minutes to relax and have a pleasing snack.

• Take small bites. Chew each well before you swallow. Enjoy the personal satisfaction of self-control.
• Let part of your tongue tease your sense of taste until you feel pleased.
• Be grateful you are not homeless or hungry this holiday season.

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

#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

Design for Weight Loss

Protect yourself by knowing options for wise choices. 

A goal of intuitive eating is to enjoy food that fills us with nourishment. That way, we eat to give ourselves hours to be productive and enjoy our lives. Sometimes our eating goals are sabotaged by the environment. Some forms of distraction from goals are impossible to avoid. But when it comes to the design of your own eating environment, you can be in control.

Because we are sensual beings, our physical environment impacts how much we eat. Using our senses, including common sense, reminds us to balance internal messages with our external reality. It's always good to be curious, to ask yourself, am I really hungry for this? and choose to stay in sync with your physical needs by eating slower.

Ways ourdecorating choices impact our eating include:

• Furniture is important. When we eat standing up or on the go, we are likely to eat more than we need. Sitting at a table in the chair helps us connect physically with our body when we eat. Additionally, not watching television forces us to notice how much food we are eating. Instead of TV, why not turn on some 'mood music' and use your eyes to see how much food you want to eat.
• The size of dishes we use for eating manipulates the amount of food we eat. Choose plates that are 9"across and bowls that hold 17oz. These are the perfect size for smart eating. You will discover that you have enough to eat and that the visual of seeing these dishes full of food is satisfying. Just like when we shop for pair of jeans and we see a smaller size and think it would be nice to get the smaller size, eating from smaller plates will change how much food you naturally consume, and perhaps your pant size, too. 
• Lighting effects how fast we eat. According to Dr. Brian Wansink, director of Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab, very bright lights make us eat faster. Dim lighting encourages us to be less inhibited and eat more desserts! Keep lighting bright enough so you can see what you're eating and be comfortable to eat what is just right for your needs.
• We know colors impact our choices and dress every day with this in mind. In fact, color impacts more than our fashion sense. When eating, if the walls are painted red or orange, we rush. When walls are blue or green, this encourages us to linger and ultimately overindulge. The best color for keeping control of healthy eating choices is neutral shades like white, gray, or beige. The food on your plate should be colorful. They say we are supposed to eat a "rainbow" at every meal!

   

Blueberry Blossom, photo by RPC

  #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

Power Eating

Intuitive Eating is Power Eating

Hunger is a physical reality. Binging is an emotional trap. Fighting emotional traps is intuitive. It's liberating. When we make an intuitive choice, it feels 'right' and that is reassuring. Powerful intuitive tools free us from emotional eating.

Emotional eating or binging happens when we feel bad or sorry for ourselves. Even though the media would have us think differently, food is not a band-aid. It cannot mend a broken heart or make a mean person nice. Reality is that Life can be painful, unfair and hard. Responding to pain by eating more changes nothing; instead, we feel worse.

Anyone who has eaten food for emotional support knows the result is disappointment. Emotional eating is a trap. The only way out is to fight it.

When emotions guide food choices, we're going to gain weight. Intuition bypasses emotions. That's why we can feel deeply emotional around food and 'know' we're wrong to eat it. Using intuitive tools like determination, courage and dignity is surprisingly reassuring. It's power eating.

Here are 3 questions to ask yourself to know if a choice is 'right'.

• Does eating this leave me feeling physically comfortable, satisfied and healthy?
• If the answer is yes, then focus on comfort, satisfaction and health while you eat. 
• You will feel when you're had enough. This is feeling your mind working with your body. 
• Intuition balances what we want with what we know and what we feel. Power eating is listening to our intuition.
• Why am I eating this? 
• Being honest with yourself is the beginning of trusting your intuition. 
• The fact is, intuition is always protective. Trust it.
• Feel dignity in your heart and listen to that feeling.
•  If you're eating to satisfy emotions, stop. Decide to take control by being courageous. 
• You are stronger than anger or disappointment. You are stronger than sadness. 
• It's powerful to take control of self-defeating emotions, but it's not hard. Things that are wrong, crumble easily.
• Give yourself a smile of determination. Go for a short walk to cool off. Re-set your perspective. The only reason to eat is because you're hungry.
• What do I really want? 
• You want to fight it. No one wants to be a slave to emotions. Eating, weight maintenance, diet, work, family, responsibilities - all of these weigh on us 24/7. We need help to be strong. We don't have a lot of time to cook. Write down what you really want and put the piece of paper where you can look at it any time.
  • Adopt an attitude of determination and stick with it. Get what you want. Comfort, satisfaction and health create quality of life. Eat less, chew more. Attitude is powerful.
• FitsMe is a Web app that helps you find meals and create plans that fit your diet. Tell the site your food restrictions, likes, and dislikes and it serves up recipes to satiate even your pickiest preferences. It can save time and help you plan. 

Use attitude. Remember to focus on comfort, satisfaction, and health when you eat. Use the power of natural courage to zap fear and over come doubts. Use determination and self-respect to follow through with what feels 'right' and use attitude. Be dignified when you eat. It's intuitive power.

"Anything is possible if you've got enough nerve." JK Rowlings

#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

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!