Overeating? It's NOT Lack of Willpower! It's Physiological...

"I'm glad you're overeating," I told my friend, who was complaining she has no willpower around food and consequently is overweight.
"How do you feel right after you eat?" I asked.
"Guilty," she answered.
"And before that?"
"Calm."

Exactly!

Overeating, or any other symptom or unwanted behavior always has a beautiful reason for its presence. In my friend's case, her overeating calms her, fills her, and medicates her. While it may have negative consequences in the immediacy, it is relaxing. When we are overly stressed we have to do something overly relaxing. We each have tools to bring us down.

Our nervous system is structured in a way that we can respond to each moment in a way that contributes towards either stress or relaxation. Its either/or.

If we are concerned with weight issues, impaired digestion or matters of immunity, we often examine the body and forget to take into account the effect of life itself on health, weight and metabolism.

When we are affected by stress, we contract both physically and emotionally. When our emotional energy is stuck, metabolism is stuck. We can continue to try to battle the symptom, but unless we learn ways to increase the relaxation response and care for ourselves within times of stress (career, relationship, finances,) symptoms such as overeating will most likely prevail.

Overeating is not the problem. It is the symptom.

Overeating has little to do with willpower!
Why is it that we find ourselves eating more than we think we should or make unhealthy choices despite "knowing better?" How is it that we eat a meal and hardly remember what it tasted like?

Stress desensitizes the pleasure response in the body. When we experience stress, the body is programmed to go into fight or flight, making it hyper aware of its own pain as a survival mechanism. Decreasing sensitivity to pleasure will increase sensitivity to pain. (This is why deep relaxed breathing reduces awareness to pain.)

Without pleasure we can't physiologically enjoy the foods that we eat. Stress shuts down digestion so the neural connection between the gut and brain is severed. Without this connection, the brain can't radiate pleasure to the gut and the gut can't signal fullness to the brain. When we feel full in the belly but the mouth still wants more, the connection between gut and brain is impaired.

When calm, we are able to connect to the parts of the brain that govern wisdom and reasoning around food and digestion. Under stress this part of the brain containing the knowledge of what foods make us feel good, what makes us bloated, what energizes us, or what gives us a headache is neurologically isolated. When the survival part of the brain is activated and the connection between gut and brain is impaired, it is neurologically harder for us to listen to the wisdom around which food types or quantities make us feel more guilt than pleasure in the long run.

Pleasure helps regulate our appetite. When the body feels pleasure, the brain is able to communicate to the gut the right amount of food that will maintain pleasure. When under stress we can't feel the pleasure so we eat more in search of it.

Overeating is not about willpower. We simply don't have the proper physiology to register what we're eating and how much. When stressed, the body requires more food to taste the sense of pleasure.

Stress is not bad: it is natural. Often it keeps us on our growing edge. Detrimental stress is the self-induced kind created either by our thoughts or by holding on to stress that is no longer prevalent.

We are naturally self-correcting beings and we can physiologically produce powerful healing in the body by learning to modulate our frame of mind and heart.

As a start, make sure to improve your conditions around meals. Fast eating activates stress, multi-tasking when eating causes stress, negative self-talk or judging your food ("this food is bad for me") equals stress and equating food as fat or viewing it as the enemy is ultimately stressful eating.

Making our meals more relaxed can be as simple as adding 5 minutes to breakfast, taking 5 breaths before and after each meal or turning off the computer at lunch.

Fast eating is a reflection of fast living, i.e. living in a way that is not always self-nourishing. When we slow down, we connect to feeling. The switch in our brain that turns on relaxation turns on digestion and body wisdom. We can be eating healthy foods, but if we eat them in stress or judgment, we change our metabolic chemistry.

Where else do we move too fast? Usually we are too fast in our interaction with others- a true sign of not being present.

I'll Have the Happy Meal

Enjoying food doesn’t mean giving up on health or weight loss. Counting every calorie, crunching numbers instead of nutrients, and living in deprivation; all these can take all the joy out of eating.

Rather than constantly stressing about what not to eat, shift your focus onto what you should be eating that you are not.

This will take away some of the confusion around diet. If your focus is, for example, on avoiding fat, you might be unknowingly consuming quantities of extra low quality calories through added sugars, or even worse: artificial ingredients. The continuous rise in obesity suggests that diet foods, sugar-free soft drinks and low-fat snacks are not helping people manage their weight.

Fortunately, these days people are rediscovering seasonal vegetables, nuts, berries, organics, whole grains, fresh, home-cooked meals and other healthful foods.

By adding nutrient rich foods, we can meet our hunger while eliminating unhealthy cravings and curve binge eating. No matter how much we eat, if our body does not get the nutrients it needs, it will continue to hunger for more. This is one of the reasons why caffeine, sugar and other processed carbohydrates can be so addictive. Providing an immediate but false sense of energy, the body is thrown into a cycle of a constant search for sustainability. Teasing the body into feeling it now has the fuel to charge forward, we continue to run on empty while wearing and tearing ourselves down in the process. Adding more plant-based and whole/ unprocessed foods to our diet can help keep us satiated, naturally regain portion control, regulate our hunger, and enhance our energy, vitality, and health.

The more energy we put into preparing our food, the more energy our body puts into assimilating it. Food is not our enemy. The 'enemy' is the “food-like” packaged products that has made it to feel that way.

Don’t skip out on the pleasure of home cooking. Keep it simple enough for you to handle and enjoy. Enjoying a home cooked meal creates feelings about food that makes you feel cared for. What are we telling ourselves if we mostly eat meals that were mass produced with no thought of our individual selves? Eating a home cooked meal is a vital key in creating a positive relationship with what is on the plate. These days it’s a miracle if a plate is even involved with your meal at all.

Let the Sun Shine Out

One of the beauties of the holiday season is that we celebrate light during the darkest time of the year. Often though, these celebrations serve as a distraction to keep us moving at our usual fast pace, avoiding the natural rhythm of winter.

Winter is a time for us to slow down and explore deeper aspects of who we are. While New Year resolutions can be the push we need to take care of ourselves, the commitment to the treadmill is often just another way to keep us running from our own inner sense of self.

The holiday season of lights is there to remind us that our inner light burns bright in the darkest of times. Bringing light into the darkness is the act of making the unconscious conscious.

If we light a torch in a dark room we can see clearly the contents of the room and which obstacles stand before us. Internally, as we direct our attention onto the light of consciousness, we gain a deeper perspective of the content of our mind.

Identifying and letting go of our limiting beliefs allows our entire self to become free to expand in new areas and to breathe in the greater experience of life. Even if we know this to be true, we may continue to avoid engaging such a process since a new state of uncertain possibilities tends to be more threatening than the familiar and comforting (however damaging) current beliefs.

The narrowness of our minds believes that we are not smart enough, don’t know enough, aren’t worthy enough, not good-looking enough, or that we are selfish. We spend our energy trying to cover up this dark truth in the hope that others won’t find out. We are scared of being exposed for what our narrow-mindedness has convinced us be the truth about ourselves.

In our culture it is very common to address isolated symptoms rather than address the underlying cause. By labeling people by their faults rather than their virtues we are able to temporarily boost the ego. We rationalize each situation without addressing the constant trigger that is our own limiting belief about ourselves.

Once we acknowledge that we have limiting beliefs, we free ourselves from thinking that we are these beliefs. Then we can feel far more comfortable slowing down and tuning into self. Such a realization invites a true sense of freedom. Not the freedom that comes from defending our belief systems, but the freedom that no conflict or idea can dissipate, and no schedule can bury.

As you make your New Year resolutions, make sure they serve the unlimited you. Rather than declaring yet another tiring war against your own body image or life situation, connect to motivation that it rooted in love.

For myself, when I exercise and eat healthy, I feel calmer, clearer, and lighter in both mind and body. Taking care of my body is a way of taking better care of my spirit.

Happy New Year. May the pure light shine within you, and guide your way on.

Finding Certainty in Times of Challenge

With the US presidential elections next week, powerful change is upon us.

Over the past months, many of us spent a lot of our energy and focus following the presidential campaign, as well as the stock market. Mixed emotions of hope and fear have popped our dreams of freedom and abundance.

Weaving the dreams of our future into external circumstances causes us to direct the spotlight off of ourselves, and can leave us in a darkness of dependency.

Although we thankfully live in a democracy in which our voices can be heard, it is important to check in and notice if our involvement is leaving us with a feeling of empowerment or of discouragement. Are you focusing your energy on what you don’t want to see, or on the vision that you do want to create? Be sure you are tending the right garden. Whichever you attend to will be the one that grows.

“The external” is not the primary circumstance that determines your personal health or happiness. You are. Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

Stress can block the flow of positive change. Doubt can only block the manifestation of what you want in your life.

But how do we create peace at such difficult times, with the political and financial situation being as it is? Are you haunted by a future that may never happen?

Living in fear is never going to produce inner peace. These fears are excuses for us to not take control.

If you are feeling your finances are shaken, this is a message for you to reevaluate your expenses. What habits do you finance that don’t bring you any closer to your higher self? Are your daily spendings at the vending machine or at a take-out counter more important than expanding your awareness and education? Be sure not to give up the things that connect you with your inner peace. Your yoga class, dance class, gym membership, a massage, or the donations you make that open your heart to the gift of giving. These are the investments that will give you the greatest return in the long run. When we give to ourselves and to others from a place of love, we open ourselves to the possibility of trust rather than fear.

Your quality of life is not determined by your future savings as much as it is by your current enjoyment of life. When we allow worry to weigh on our shoulders and lower our head down to the ground, we are likely to miss the subtle opportunities that come our way. Look up! When you see something that helps your spirit thrive and makes you feel good, act upon it or buy it. It will increase your energy vibration and open your channels to inspiration. The higher your “vibe”, the brighter you shine, the more you will attract the abundance you desire.

When we are respectful to money and respectful to ourselves, we invest wisely. We all have an idea of what we are doing and not doing to support our higher self. Seek the support you need to create the change you want to see in yourself and your environment.

Falling Into Reflection, Finding Balance With the Season

With the arrival of fall and winter coming around the corner, our body and mind, day by day, make gradual adjustments.

In nature, fall is a time when everything begins to slow down. The weather cools, day light shortens, and the trees and animals begin their preparations to conserve their energy for the winter season. While nature may be slowing down, our schedules often don’t allow us to do the same. Commonly this is the time of year where we fall out of sync with the natural cycle around us.

As the heat settles, so does the expansive and moving energy that it carries. Water is a perfect example of this; as it is heated it will expand into evaporation. Cold has a contractive affect, turning water molecules into solid ice. (Let us not forget that our bodies are more than 75% water.) Summer heat provides a high energy time of year and as the days cool, our energy begins to withdraw inwards and movement begins to slow down. We find ourselves in a more internal, reflective time of year.

Consciously preparing for the transition into winter can help make the darker and colder season a time of beauty and comfort instead of a time to dread. Fall provides us the time of transition into a new state of mind. Just as water does not go from boiling to ice with the change of only one degree, our bodies do not make the transition from summer to winter immediately. Fall provides us with the process of cooling and slowing down.

We must be extra careful to take care of ourselves and find time to restore. Choosing and preparing food according to the season is part of that process.

All foods and flavors have different effects in the body. Some foods are warming while others cool the body’s thermal temperature. Here in New England, the vegetables that grow in the summer cool our bodies during the hot and humid season while the fall vegetable harvest has a more warming, dense and stable balance. When we eat seasonal, local foods, we receive the energies that naturally balance out the seasonal shifts that occur within our bodies.

The way we prepare our food also plays a role in the effect they have on our body. Rather than keeping to the raw foods and grilling methods of summer cooking, which keep the cooling properties, fall and winter are about slower cooked meals that are cooked on a lower heat for a longer period of time. This releases the more warming qualities of our food and provides a settling affect on the expansive (and sometimes scattered) patterns of the warmer seasons.

Baked foods, sautéed foods, heartier foods, and root vegetables all contribute towards the thickening of the blood. If one lives in a cold climate, it is necessary that the blood get thicker as the weather grows colder.

Traditional Chinese Medicine suggests that we can use different flavors to synchronize the body’s energy with the seasons. During summer, pungent, spicy foods may have served a purpose as they provide an outwardly expansive energy; causing us to break into a sweat. Since fall is a process of contracting our energy inwards, we want to incorporate flavors that effect us in a similar way. Sour foods are a good example of a contracting food (think of the face you make when biting into a lemon!). Sour foods include sauerkraut, olives, pickles, vinegar, leeks, adzuki beans, yogurt, lemons, limes, sour apples and sourdough bread. Extremely sour foods should be used in very small amounts as they have a strong effect.(*1) Salty is another flavor that is helpful in balancing the body during the fall and winter. Wholesome salts are found in foods such as unrefined salt, seaweeds, barley, millet, soy sauce, miso, or pickles that are prepared in salt water.(*2)

In modern times it is easy to create a routine that lasts all year round. We can have the same temperature in our house, the same foods in the fridge and the same long working days even when it is dark outside. Internally our body is changing with the seasons and the more we can adapt to those changes, the more we can maintain our vitality and health.

(*1) Caution: Minimize sour foods when feeling a “heavy mind or body” or constipation.

(*2) Caution: Minimize salt in conditions of over weight, edema, lethargy, or high blood pressure.

The Natural Choice

When walking down the aisles of a supermarket it can be very confusing to figure out what we should eat in order to be maximally healthy. The shelves are stocked with edible food-like substances packaged in pretty boxes and decorated with endless amounts of “health claim” advertisements.

A box of cereal can have up to 15 health claims on its box while the unpackaged vegetable has none. Am I to understand from this that a processed cracker is by far the healthier choice?!

While the poor silent carrot sits in silence in the produce section, the sugary cereal is screaming in aisle four about its whole grain goodness. This might be good for business, but is it good for us?

If you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid most food products that make health claims. Such claims on a food product are a good indication that it’s not really food, it’s a scientific invention. Food is what you want to eat.

As a general rule of thumb: the more a food needs to be advertised, the less healthy it probably is for you.

To make things simpler, forget the advertised nutrients and look out for the hidden anti-nutrients. If nutrients help us live a healthy life, anti-nutrients are the substances that cause the opposite effect.

These anti-nutrients include:

Poor quality fats:Most packaged foods contain fats such as hydrogenated oil, partially hydrogenated oil, cottonseed oil and olestra. These are the fats that have given all fats an unjust reputation.

Poor quality sugar: Look out for ingredient names such as high fructose corn syrup, white sugar, glucose, Florida Crystals and ALL artificial sweeteners. Sugar is a cheap and addictive ingredient that some companies add to their products in order to boost sales.

Poor quality white flour: Most mass-produced breads, cookies, muffins, bagels, crackers, pastries, donuts and breakfast cereals are made from this highly processed flour. Similar to processed sugar, this food-like substance provides no nutrients. When we eat, we use some of our stored nutrient resources to digest our food. When eating white sugar and flour we get no nutrient resources in return. This leaves us more depleted of energy than we were before we ate.

Poor quality dairy:The meat and dairy industry in our country has reached a point where the animals are treated so inhumanly that they must be pumped with antibiotics and hormones in order to keep them alive. These added hormones, combined with the animals’ high level of natural stress hormones, are found in each of these products. Thankfully, due to customer demand, most supermarkets are now offering affordable organic milk, yogurt and cheese. You can also look to leafy greens, nuts and seeds for excellent sources of calcium.

Poor quality meat:This is the meat found in fast-food, processed meats (such as packaged cold cuts) and commercially produced hot dogs. Similar to the dairy industry, any meat that is not raised without the use of antibiotics and hormones is of low quality. Would you like a side of fries with your antibiotics?

The quality of your food defines the quality of your life. The food that you eat is broken down in your body and is used to build your cells and tissues. If you want to feel energized and alive you must build your body from foods that contain energy and life.

Foods that are alive have life force. They are often raw and will spoil if left out. Let’s put it this way; if microorganisms cannot thrive on it, what makes me think I can?

Foods that don’t go bad are usually already dead. They have had all life processed out of them and are packed with preservatives to keep them from decaying. Processing foods removes the natural elements of fiber, vitamins and minerals. Our cells need these nutritional elements to communicate with each other. When they are processed out of our foods, our systems are unable to function at their best. We start to fall apart both physically and emotionally. Our cells don’t just build our muscles and bones; what we consume feeds our brain cells, our nervous system and hormonal system. If your cells are regenerating from processed foods alone, how healthy do you think you will feel?

If you want your body and your every thought to vibrate with life force, you must feed it life, not science.

The Intelligence of Our gut Feeling

The term “gut feelings” is commonly used to describe intuitive insight. But how does a feeling originate from our belly?

The digestive system houses a whole network of the nervous system which senses and controls events in the digestive tract as well as in the rest of the body. Scientists have found that there is a greater flow of neural messages originating in the belly and flowing to the brain than from the brain to the belly. With more messages coming out of the belly center, it seems we do not only have one brain in our head controlling and supervising our physical and emotional body, but a second brain in our gut.

In relation to digestion, this means that the digestive commands originate from our belly, and it is not the head that is in charge of informing the digestive system what to eat and how to metabolize.

So why are we constantly relying on our “head-brain” by reading every diet book and calculating each gram of protein, fat, and carbs? While there is definite value in taking such things into account, when we do so with no conscious connection to what our body is actually asking for, we stay imprisoned to external dictatorships rather than free within our inner-knowing.

Do you have the guts to trust?

Are you going to keep looking to others to tell you what to do? If you don’t want others to tell you how to think and live, why are you so dependent on others to tell you how to eat?!

Just as the brain gets smarter over time by storing new information, your gut accumulates information over time about what dietary choices have been beneficial and detrimental to your constitution. Your body has already written your own personalized diet book _ and you don’t have to wait until it comes out in paperback.

How do I access my intuition?

To begin to access our inner wisdom, we must learn to slow down and listen.

Before deciding on your next meal, take a few deep breaths into your belly. Similarly to the brain in your head, the “gut-brain” will be more responsive and alert when receiving a strong supply of oxygen. This awakens the gut and ignites metabolism.

After a few breaths, ask your belly for advice on what foods and quantities will be good for you at this time. Ask yourself if this is the right time to eat? Once you have decided on a meal, imagine swallowing a bite of it and notice if it makes you feel nourished.

This is like learning a new language; expect to feel uncertainty. Any mistakes are just learning opportunities. They are just another small paragraph written by your gut in your diet book of inner-wisdom.

Trust yourself enough to simply call upon your inner wisdom. The more you call on it, the louder it will begin to speak.

Trust your intuition. When you feel you got it right, what could be more empowering?

Food for Thought or Thought for Food?

Have you ever finished a meal and noticed that the belly is full but the mouth is still hungry? Most likely you were not paying much attention to your meal while eating it. If the brain does not experience the pleasure of the eating through taste and smell, it will remain hungry, searching for that satisfaction by longing for more food.

Scientists estimate that 30-40% of our digestive response starts in the brain, and by putting our attention elsewhere, the digestive system does not receive the blood and energy it needs to properly assimilate food. This results in symptoms such as digestive upset, bowel disorders, fatigue, weight gain, or the inability to absorb vital nutrients.

Many people who describe themselves as having a problem with overeating actually have a problem of awareness; they don’t eat when they eat. While eating, their attention is on watching TV, reading, checking email, or perhaps driving.

To find the answer to “how much should I be eating?” change the question to “how am I eating?”

If you love food why do you rush through every eating experience?

Most people eat until they "feel full." To digest a big meal we must generate more metabolic force by pulling more blood and oxygen into the stomach. As a result, other parts of the body such the arms, legs and brain lose blood supply. This translates as a feeling of being tired and sluggish.

Instead of eating till full, eat until energized.

Estimate the point where you feel full of energy rather than full with food. At this point you will feel light and still a little hungry. This slight hunger leaves energy for you to carry into your next activity. It will ensure more blood flow to your brain to make you more alert. When you eat even one bite past the point of energy, you will feel heavier.

Begin your meal by setting an intention to eat to a point of energy. Observe your energy level several times through out your meal. Watch your sense of lightness, alertness and vibrancy. Ask yourself “How do I feel? How is my energy level? Do I still feel light? Am I starting to feel heavy?”* You will know you have gone past the peak energy point when you begin to feel sluggish and unfocused.

Put down your fork and take a moment of gratitude for the nourishment that you have received.

Try practicing this for a week and you will sharpen your ability to instinctively recognize when to stop.

It is my personal experience that as I have practiced this way of eating, I’ve become more intuitive in all areas of my life. After all, such awareness comes from the gut, not the brain. By giving our gut more attention, it becomes easier for us to connect to our “gut feeling”.

(*This exercise is inspired by Marc David, www.marcdavid.com)

No Matter What You Eat, Choose the Highest Quality of that Food

Eating quality foods is the best strategy we can use to improve our health and lives as well as the health of our planet.

Endless nutritional studies have proven that the diets of cultures that keep traditional diets of fresh, whole, & local foods are dramatically healthier than diets of cultures relying on mostly refined or mass produced foods.

Quality can mean: fresh, organic, lovingly made, homemade, locally produced, free of pesticides and herbicides (these are anti-nutrients and disease agents), free of antibiotics and growth hormones, heirloom varieties, nutrient dense, free of artificial ingredients.

Higher quality food means greater nutritional value. Food provides your body with energy and information. When you eat a carrot, the Beta-carotene in the carrot tells the body how to see better at night, the antioxidants in blueberries demonstrate how to keep your blood healthy and flowing, the B vitamins in brown rice chat with the nervous system on how to relieve depression.

So if your food is telling you its story, don’t you want to hear a happy one?

If your tomato was grown in depleted soils, it doesn’t have much to tell about minerals and vitamins. Through its taste you learn the tale of high acidity rather than natural sweetness, and if it was sprayed with pesticides and herbicides, your body ingests carcinogenic information.

There is more than just nutritional value in your food. There is life experience.

If the chicken you eat was conventionally raised, she probably never saw sunlight, never stood up straight because her cage was too small and crowded, was never healthy enough to grow feathers, was heavily fed with antibiotics and growth hormones so that she could survive long enough, and was then killed in the most inhumane conditions. We all know what it feels like to hold stress and fear in our own bodies… so how much energy of stress, tension and fear do you think you will be digesting in that meal?! As best as you can, replace poor quality meats with ones labeled free range, organic, grass fed, antibiotic and hormone free.

If your tomato was mass produced, picked and packed by underpaid workers, chopped in a machine with a thousand other tomatoes and slapped onto your fast food bun, the cellular information it contains will not be too different form that of our poor chicken. All this information lives inside your food just as surely as you live inside your body.

If your food could verbalize a story about its journey from the seed to your palate, let it be as fairytale-like as possible, filled with care and consciousness.

Upgrade any way you can: whether through choosing higher quality, through adding some Vitamin L (love) to it by preparing the meal for you and your loved ones or by simply expressing gratitude by saying grace before you chow down.

If you want your food to help you feel healthy and happy, you have to start creating it in that image.

Spring Cleansing: Self-Maintenance Throughout the Year

It is not uncommon for medical test results to show nothing wrong despite the fact that you are not feeling well. No diagnosis and yet you are experiencing headaches, body pains, insomnia, dry skin, rashes, or fatigue. Better than no diagnosis, have you ever heard the not so helpful “it’s just stress…?”

Just as stress builds up in the body over time, so does toxicity. Stress wears down the tissues and impairs the kidneys and liver’s ability to filter and clean our body’s accumulation of daily toxins. This allows the toxins to flow freely through the bloodstream. Our body, which is cleverly trying to heal itself by finding ways to release these toxins, may begin to expel them through the skin. You may then find yourself wondering why “out of the blue” you are experiencing eczema or psoriasis. Without finding alternative ways of escape, toxicity can wear down the tissues of the digestive system, contribute to the creation of an autoimmune disease, or move up to the head manifesting as a migraine or unclear thinking.

Diet plays as a large part in the build-up or breakdown of toxins. Fueled by the correct foods that complement our bio-individuality, combined with the mindfulness of eating, our body is capable of performing a self-healing process.

Are you choosing foods that harm or foods that heal?

Are you eating too much? Overeating contributes to toxicity by preventing the digestive system from properly breaking down the food.

Are you eating too fast? Digestion begins in the mouth through the saliva. When we swallow our food whole, it makes it hard for the body to break it down. This causes the food to ferment in our systems. If you are experiencing gas, it is not necessarily due to the type of food but to the swallowing of air while shoveling it down.

Are you focused on eating when eating? Do you sit down in a calm environment for each meal or are you multi-tasking fighting traffic or sorting through e-mails? Let your body focus on digestion while you eat. A meal is a conversation between your body and the food. Multi-tasking while eating is like having two conversations at once; if two people are talking to you at the same time about two completely different matters, how much of each conversation are you going to process?! And if the larger portion of your energy is focused on the other thing you are doing, your body is not getting the message to activate the digestive system. Shocked to receive food, the body is unprepared to digest.

When are you eating? Just like the sun, the digestive heat is strongest during the earlier half of the day. If we race through our days too busy to eat right, our body will be starving by evening. Eating too much too late, the body ends up focusing on digestion instead of on detoxification. Thus, the following morning we are still carrying yesterday’s toxins in our system. It is time to take a look into what we are doing and how we are doing it.

Fire Your Metabolism with Breath:

We hear much talk of diet and how exercise burns calories. Yet many people starve themselves on low calorie diets and exercise like maniacs_and the weight refuses to come off. Obviously there must be more to the picture….

A calorie is simply a measure of heat that is released when something is burned.

The amount of energy, or heat, that is released from the foods we eat is the measurement of how many calories those foods contain.

To extract the energy from food, the body breaks it down and sends it to our cells where it combusts with oxygen, releasing the energy.

Our digestive system is like a fire: it needs food for fuel and the right amount of air to maintain its power. Without oxygen we are unable to utilize the energy in the foods we eat. In simple words: Calories need oxygen to burn. With food, quality is vital; with oxygen, quantity is what counts most.

Relaxed breathing during meals strengthens metabolism. If you eat when feeling tense, eat too fast, or are distracted by work, your breathing is shallow and your metabolism weak. The breath is a fundamental ingredient to our meal.

• Work towards a deeper breath that still feels natural and unforced.
• Have meals in an area richer in air when possible, such as in a room with an open window as opposed to one with circulated air, like a sealed office building.
• If dining out, choose a restaurant that has a relaxed atmosphere rather than large and noisy dining area.
• Dine with people who inspire you and keep conversation positive.
• Sitting up straight allows a fuller breath capacity.

Metabolize Your Life

The definition of metabolism is the sum total of ALL chemical reactions in the body.

With the understanding that our thoughts also create a physiological chemical reaction, we might say that metabolism is not tied purely to the physical body, but plays a part at a mental and emotional level as well.

Food that is not properly metabolized and digested may be stored in our bodies as fat or will cause other toxic reactions. Similarly, if we rush through our life experiences and miss the lesson, we do not properly process and digest each situation. Unresolved experiences and emotions may accumulate as tension in the muscles and other tissues of the body.

Racing through life and rushing through our meals puts our body into a stress-response mode rather than a state of rest-and-digest.

If we continue to approach each of our experiences in a fight or flight response, we are expending more energy then we are creating. Our digestive system and metabolism weaken, our breath shortens, and our muscles chronically tighten.

Accumulating energy and bringing metabolism back to its optimal functioning level will happen by finding ways to slow down: achieving more by doing less.

What you eat is only half of the equation; how you eat is the other half.
Let’s work toward stopping the fight. When we love, we are receptive and open to receiving our food and our experiences. By embracing these things, we correctly metabolize because the body wants to integrate them rather than see them as an enemy that it needs to restrict. Can you start to relax enough to choose healthy pleasure over fighting the pain? Life is not working against us and food is not an evil culprit.

It is my personal belief that one of the biggest keys to a strong metabolic rate is feeling personal empowerment. When we feel self-empowered we receive a sudden huge surge of natural energy. When we feel strong, our body feels strong.

Simple first steps toward introducing mindfulness while eating:

* Eat with chopsticks.
* Eat with your non-dominant hand.
* Chew your food 30 to 50 times per bite.
* Eat without TV, newspaper or computer.
* Eat sitting down.
* Put the proper portions of food on your plate and try to make the meal last at least 20 minutes.

Soul Food

Think for a moment of a food from your past…one that for no specific reason makes you feel great after eating it. Maybe it is macaroni and cheese, mom’s stuffing or potato pancakes. Eating food like this (every now and then) can be incredibly healing, even though rationally you consider it is not nutritious.

Food has the power to impact us on a level deeper than just our physical well-being. What we eat can reconnect us to precious memories, like childhood playtimes, holidays, our grandmother’s cooking or our country of ancestry. Our bodies remember foods from the past on an emotional and cellular level. Eating this food connects us to our roots and its comforting and nurturing effects reach far beyond the food’s biochemical make-up.

Lily, a client of mine, came to me a few months back wanting to wean herself from her addiction to sugar. She consumed candy, pastries and ice cream on a daily basis. Once we added the foods and lifestyle choices that satiated and balanced her needs, her sugar cravings subsided.

For her daughter’s birthday, Lily baked a cake. As everyone was enjoying the cake she too craved a piece. If she ate it, would she be consumed with guilt? If she didn’t eat it, would she be thinking about it all week? Through our work together, Lily had gained an understanding of how to read into the cause of her cravings. When she asked herself why she wanted the cake, she immediately knew that it wasn’t her old sugar craving but a desire to share in the experience of eating something she had so lovingly made for her daughter. There was more love than sugar in that one piece of cake. Eating it made her feel alive rather than ashamed. It was delicious and she did not crave an additional piece.

The guilt or shame that we consume with certain foods is far worse than the food itself. If we eat food we consider bad for us, we are sending a message to our body that there is something harmful entering the body. This prevents us from digesting our foods correctly, causing havoc to the digestive system, preventing the assimilation of nutrients or creating an accumulation of fat.

Acknowledging what different foods mean to us is an important part of cultivating a good relationship with food. This month when we celebrate love and relationships, it is important to notice that we each have a relationship with food—and that this relationship is often far from loving. Many of us restrict food, attempting to control our weight. We often abuse food, substituting it for emotional well-being. Some ignore food, swallowing it whole without even tasting it.

What would your life be like if you treated food and your body the same way you would treat your beloved? With gentleness, playfulness, communication, honesty, respect and love? The next time you eat your soul food, do so with awareness and without guilt, and enjoy all the healing and nourishment it brings you.

The Reward Is In The Process

The New Year caries a powerful energy as many tend to turn inward and reflect upon their resolutions for the upcoming year. Goals can be helpful and yet extremely overwhelming; they invoke a fear of commitment; your mind begins to reason with resistance- “how can I commit to something when I don’t know HOW I’m going to achieve it?”
The good news is that you don’t have to know how. All you need is to be willing.

The fact that you are feeling a reaction to your desired resolutions indicates that the healing process has begun. E-motion equals Energy-in-motion. Since our mind is our creative force, the process begins the moment we think about making a change.

Impatience is another form of resistance. We want to see the results immediately rather than learn the lessons involved in what created the problem in the first place. Our lessons in growth lay in the small steps that will lead us to the solution. These small steps will insure we don’t recreate the problem in the future. It is the journey which reveals and addresses the cause rather than just eliminating the symptom. Through the process, we learn the connection between the outer experiences and the inner thoughts that create them.

This is where affirmations come in. Affirmations are tools to achieve your resolutions. With a consistently positive attitude about your goals, you are more likely to reach them. An affirmation is a statement of a belief you would like to hold about yourself.

Be sure to phrase your affirmations positively. Our thoughts create a mental image in our mind. For example if you say “I don’t want to be so self-conscious” you are still projecting to your mind an image of being self-conscious. If you are saying “I am filled with confidence” that is the image you’re creating. Also, state the affirmation in the present tense; "I am confident" rather than "I will act confident." If you state in future tense, your subconscious is receiving the image that this is something that is always just out of your reach.

Your mind is a tool and it is your choice in how you are going to use it. The thoughts you choose to think create the experiences you have. If you believe that it is hard or difficult to change a habit, then this will be true. If you choose to think “it is becoming easier for me to make changes,” then that is what will be true to you.

The power of change is always in the present moment. You are never stuck. The way you perceived your past experiences is what brought you to where you are today. What you choose to believe and say now will create the next moment and all future moments. You have the power in every present moment as each moment is a new beginning.

I approve of myself
This is the best day of my life
Whatever I need to know now is revealed to me
Everything is working for my highest good
I deserve the best and I accept it now
It’s going to be a happy new year!