How does it make you feel?

Ever gotten a brain freeze from eating something cold too fast?  (I have)  Ever eaten so many M&M's that you feel sick because you had too much sugar in too short of a time? (Yup)  Ever craved a salad? Or meatloaf or pasta or asparagus?

Have you ever taken time to ask yourself how the food you have just eaten makes you feel?

Have you ever left a table feeling sick, sluggish, weighted down and slow?  You body isn't designed to feel that way.  That is not how you live optimally.

I had a woman tell me she and her kids had been celebrating a life event and eating fun food for awhile when her kids asked her to cook pot roast with potatoes.  Why?  Because if we pay attention, even the most hard-core sugar lovers or fun food lovers will start to crave nutritious foods.

The caveat??? 

You have to be willing to listen to your body -- not just run on autopilot.  That's why most kids (if we parents haven't wrecked their eating behaviors yet) might eat fun stuff for a while but will eventually ask for fruit or veggies or meat -- something with more vitamins and minerals that the average hot dog.  -- they are more in tune with what their body is telling them -- AND they are willing to act on it.

Yours will let you know what it needs by how you feel after you've eaten it ..... but only if you take the time to listen.

Do Something Friday -- Go for Quality

There are certain quality merits to everything. What I think is top notch might not do the job for you and vice versa. For example: There are people out there that really enjoy the taste of the waxy chocolate of inexpensive Easter Bunnies. They seriously enjoy them -- not just endure them!

I, on the other hand, can safely and happily never eat a piece of that kind of bunny and still live a satisfied life. But...some of the wines I love make my wine snob friends, cringe. We all like different stuff.

Going for quality means your personal quality. I don't have a favorite potato chip -- when I am in the crunch and salt mood, almost any brand will make me happy. Not true for certain crackers. I don't care what you say, a Cheez Nip is in no way as good as Cheez-Its. I am not going to waste calories on a seriously inferior snack cracker!

If I am going to spend calories on ice cream, I want it to be great tasting full-fat ice cream. The creamy texture and richer flavor (that obviously is the result of a high fat content!)is what makes eating ice cream rewarding to me. Low-fat ice cream? Forget it -- I pass.

The point here is: calories are calories are calories. A person gains weight from eating too many calories -- not calories from a certain macronutrient.

What do you find rewarding about your favorite food? What is it about the taste, texture, temperature, smell that makes you willing to go to great lengths to get this food?

If you can answer this question about your favorite food, then start giving it some thought as you start to put the next food item in your mouth -- what will be rewarding about this eating experience? Just listen to the answer you give yourself -- you might be surprised at what you learn.

For those of you who loved the idea of "not right now"...

How do you feel about Michelle May's statement: This lawsuit [Weight Watchers suing Jenny Craig]and your own experience should not cause you to ask, "What do I do now?" but "What do I do from now on?"


Changes you can live with. Perhaps even changes that make you feel great -- not because you're losing weight (although that can be part of it) but the changes that make you feel like you are successfully in charge of your destiny.

Sometimes, choosing to have the perfect dessert at the end of a beautiful meal is what is going to make you feel successful. Sometimes, choosing to say "not right now" is the success of the moment. But here's the important part: You are choosing. You are not running on autopilot or letting yourself be run by habits that are no longer working for you.

Mindfulness -- getting into tune with your sensations of hunger and fullness -- learning to ask the question "Am I hungry?"/"Do I want this right now?"/"Is this piece of xyz worth it to me right now?" --We are not looking for rules to follow -- we are looking to find what fits most perfectly in THIS moment. Long term success is a string of "This Moment" successes.

I had this discussion with.....

So, how much holiday food do you still have in your house?

I had this discussion with myself last weekend and with a client and 4 members yesterday. It is time to get the holiday food gone. We have eaten enough cookies, sweets, peanut brittle, chocolates, drank enough soda, etc. It is time to clear things out.

For myself, I still have cookies. I am NOT going to throw them away (they are special once a year cookies and cannot, under any circumstances, be mistreated0. But it is time to get them out of the kitchen freezer and into the garage freezer. There, I will leave them alone for month or so while I detox all of the Christmas sugar out of my system.

And start drinking more water! I know it is cold outside (at least here) and sometimes that makes it hard to drink water. We have to move the sugar out of our systems. If you are getting those sugar cravings (because you have had at least a month with tons of available sugar around the office) drinking water will help you get over the cravings. Just make sure it isn't sugared water. If you don't like plain water, try it flavored with lemon, lime or orange. Or find a tea you like.

It is time to reestablish the things you do well. Once that is done, then move on to one new small change.

The best prescription ever!!

Alright....this might be the last mention I make of something I read in the new compilation e-book (but I'm not going to firmly commit to that just yet!)

Here's what I am thinking for this week -- yes, I know you're busy! Me too but surely you can find the time for this:

A prescription fro Jay Parkinson, co-founder of Hello Health. Jay says:

Your health is up to you.
Start small.
Eat well.
Eat less.
Move your body.
Love your lover.
Be a good friend.
Let others care about you.
Say you're sorry.
Laugh a ton.
Drink one (sometimes two) for me.
Simplify.
Buy more experiences than things.
Create your health.
Do it yourself.

How about that for a Christmas list?
How about that for a gift to yourself and others?

This is not a news flash...

I just got done reading a research article about the efficacy of the Wii Fit gaming system as a mode of cardiovascular exercise. Then I moved on to an article entitled Could Vitamins Hurt Your Workout?

Good Lord, people! Why, I ask you, are we still searching for the fountain of youth? Let's think about this...

When my butter, bacon (even bacon grease), eggs, whole milk eating great-grandma cooked -- she didn't worry about low-fat anything (did I mention molasses cookies made with lard? YUM!!) She didn't worry about low/no sugar varieties of foods. She didn't think about "getting exercise". She ate. She moved. She actively lived her life.

I can't attest to whether or not she ever bought some kind of anti-wrinkle cream that promised amazing results or whether she ever "watched what she ate". But I can tell you that she was a wonderful cook and meals at her house were (to my memory) delicious and always came with dessert (real whipping cream -- mmm mmm mmm!)

I assume, like much of her generation, she didn't snack all of the time, she moved when she worked, and she didn't drink soda on a day to day basis.

I think she did a better job of appreciating the food she ate and eating things because they nourished her body and soul. She didn't need to rely on research articles to tell her she should move more. She didn't need them to tell her to eat lots of whole foods. These things would have been common wisdom of the times -- just like as we age we are going to get wrinkles and lose muscle mass and eventually be no longer young. Perhaps we should head back to that common sense approach. Enjoy the simple pleasures that life brings,not over analyze them and not spend so much time trying to stay young that we forget to appreciate what we are doing right this minute.

Mindfulness in both directions

It might be because most of my clients are trying to lose weight or perhaps just because, as a culture, we are so concerned with thinness but I tend to spend a lot of time trying to get people to eat less -- but there is another side to mindful eating.

The other side is understanding (and being okay with) the times you are truly more hungry than normal. Case in point ---

Last night at dinner, I sat down like normal not feeling overly hungry. Once the first bite of food hit my mouth, I realized that I was starved! I couldn't really figure out why until I realized I had eaten a lot less than normal during the course of the day and had been busy working on a couple projects -- the kind that require a certain amount of brainpower to get done correctly.

Because the projects needed to be completed by the end of the day, I was working steadily on those and not giving much thought to the hunger that was building throughout the day.

So, long story short, for dinner I ate a much greater volume than normal before I started to feel something sitting in my stomach. I even slowed down (in case I was eating too fast) to let the fullness sensations catch up.

The non-judgement mindfulness requires, extends to accepting the times when you are more hungry. To be able to trust your sensations enough to act on them and not freak out is important in both directions --fullness as well as hunger.

Do something Friday

Today is the end of the work week. Either you are counting the minutes until you can go home OR you are working like a madman to get what you need to done so that you CAN go home. Stress either way. Potential for trigger eating either way.

What to do....

When you know you are going to trigger eat (face it -- sometimes you just need SOMETHING to get you through) pick the perfect food -- not just any old thing.

Today, for me, the perfect food is a fountain Coke. What I am actually going to get is a 20oz bottle of Pepsi because I am in the latter scenario (working like a madman so I can leave the building). My building only has bottled Pepsi and fountain Coke is all the way across the campus at the Speedway.

Now...I could try to eat the apple that is sitting on my desk -- certainly, a more nutrient filled option than Pepsi. However, the apple has no appeal (pardon the weak pun). If I eat it, it will not satisfy me and I will still end up with the Pepsi. (And have consumed extra calories)

Out in our cafe there is a protein bar -- nope, that isn't going to do it either.

Three cookies from McDonald's after work? Nope. Not only will I not be able to make it that long -- the cookies don't sound that good and I will get a Coke while I am there and since I drove all the way there for cookies, I will get those too.

Here's the take home:

Think about which food is the PERFECT food to satisfy your craving -- don't try to buy yourself off with something else and end up eating the something else AND THEN the food you really want too. Total calorie waste!

Chalk one up for Mindfulness

I have told you all in the past, I love!! to eat. But here's the thing -- sometimes I eat like there is no tomorrow (really!! -- anything that is not nailed down is goin' in! And I am STARVING when I sit down) Other times, I am not hungry at all. It sometimes freaks me out when I am going through on of those "Hungry/Starving all the time" stretches -- but I don't seem to get in too much of a crank when I don't get hungry.

Then there are the times that life gets too busy to cook. You know how it goes -- one kid needs to be here, the other dropped off there, project at work is due, house is a wreck, lawn needs to be mowed... with all of that going on, sometimes I don't cook. So...the kids cook, or we eat something quick that really isn't a meal so much as just concentrated grazing.

A few weeks ago, we went through that cycle. I didn't really cook a meal (maybe for a whole week). I mean, there was soup for dinner, or pasta or whatever but the food was just stopping the hunger and not really inspired -- so there wasn't a whole lot of reason to eat much.

By that Friday, I was feeling blah! Nothing seemed to be going right and I couldn't seem to muster my usual sunny disposition.

That night -- because I didn't want to eat just anything (again)and because I didn't feel like cooking, the girls and I ordered pizza. We were veggin' and eating pizza in front of the tv (which normally doesn't happen so it is a treat for all of us).  As I was half way through my second slice, I noticed my mood was improving. My sunny disposition was returning. Life looked more positive than it had when I handed the delivery guy my money. Weird, huh?

But here's the thing -- good food feeds the soul -- not just the body. Food elicits all kinds of neurochemical reactions in the brain but good food also make you feel nurtured.

I don't know why I had such a strong uplifted mood boost from the pizza -- I haven't ever noticed that sensation before. But it doesn't really matter why it happened -- the point is it did. And the more important point is that I recognized it. If I would have been on autopilot, I wouldn't have noticed it and the opportunity to know myself better would have passed on by.

Settling in - yes. You're uncomfortable...good...now relax.

With grows/exploration/being creative, initially, there is resistance. Resistance to change. Resistance to the possibility of failure. --Successful people find ways to overcome this resistance.

********

Here's some irony for you...I work in a great fitness facility and I am so busy, it is very hard for me to workout with any consistancy. So... I decided to start doing yoga in the mornings before work (stress management with the crazy holiday season coming up!)

After some initial bumps in creating a plan, this morning I did my first home yoga session. Have you ever tried to touch your toes at 5:30am before having coffee? I can assure you, every single muscle was soooo tight -- even the opening poses were difficult.

As I was struggling through the routine, a rememberance of an article about yoga popped into my head. Now...for those of you who don't know -- yoga is a whole lifestyle comprised of much more than just the poses you see on TV.

The idea behind yoga (or my paraphrased version, anyway) is that yoga poses put you into uncomfortable positions (positions that make muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints stretch) and ask you to relax into the discomfort. Yoga makes you stand in ways that make you very unstable with the goal of not falling down -- and be relaxed in your stance. Yoga asks you to challenge yourself so that you become less rigid, more flexible, better balanced and have greater understanding of your body. All of this for healthy growth.

Are you making the leap I'm leading you to?

Okay -- yoga is a metaphore for you mindful eating practice. Putting yourself in the uncomfortable (and sometimes scary) position of trusting your sensations of hunger and fullness and relaxing about the outcome.

In the beginning, is feels very foreign and unnatural -- how can you relax? You have been trained to be forever vigilant for the foods that are going to cause you to blow your diet!! But as you practice, as you start to link how you feel with what you do and what you do with how you feel. You become more adept at dealing with the discomfort of living by your own insights. You become better balanced with the amounts you eat. You become less rigid with your food rules and more flexible in your outlooks on eating.

All of this promotes personal growth --healthier patterns of eating and more joy with eating and non-eating times.

Are you willing to settle in?

Settling in: Quieting down enough to feel what you feel.

Settling: Reaching the conclusion that this is all you are Fated to have and you had better just get used to it.

We are talking about settling in today. Are you willing to feel uncomfortable? Cravings, generally, are feelings that make us feel uncomfortable -- we have trained ourselves to get rid of the feeling of discomfort as quickly as possible -- that is why we find ourselves staring through the glass of the vending machine having no recollection of how we got there.

To become more mindful means to register and acknowledge those uncomfortable feelings. Experts say cravings come and go quickly (most in 90 seconds). If you can hold out on a craving, it will go away -- But you need to be willing to feel uncomfortable for a little while.

Uncomfortable isn't bad. It is not something to be avoided. Feel it. Embrace it. Learn to live with it and understand it. Act -- don't react to it -- there is a BIG, HUGE Difference!

Do something Friday

Bliss point.

I was reading The End of Overeating and the author was talking about the importance food engineers put on finding the bliss point of a food. In this context, it is the optimal mixture of fat, salt, and sugar put into processed foods that will keep us coming back for more -- whether or not we are hungry.

Let's take that phrase and look at it a different way. Let's look at it from the perspective of:

--How much of your favorite food is the perfect amount to eat before you slip over the edge into feeling gross. If you are an M&M eater, you know that half of a medium sized bag will send you sailing past your bliss point. But three might leave you on the unsatisfied end of things.

Same can be said for any food. Love burgers or steak? Pasta with cream sauce? How much can you eat and still leave the table feeling light, satisfied and ready to move on with your day? As opposed to stuffed, slow, heavy, and ready for a nap.

Today, pick one of your favorite foods. Make plans for some time this weekend to sit quietly and mindfully eat that food. Start hungry so your taste buds are primed to pick up all of the flavors you love. Don't get distracted (no TV, books, daydreaming about other things). Keep a tally of the bites you take. The first time you realize the bite you have just taken doesn't taste WONDERFUL, be done with the food. Count your tally marks and see how many bites did taste wonderful. You might be surprised at how few it takes to actually hit your bliss point.

Falling off the Wagon

One of the things about creating the habit of mindful eating is sometimes we "fall off the wagon". Weight you have lost creeps back on and all of the sudden you realize you weigh 3 or 4 pounds more than you did when you were so pleased with yourself. Time to jump back on the wagon!

Time to pick up your food journal and commit to 2 or 3 weeks of writing down everything that goes into your mouth.

Remember -- mindful eating is a practice. You never achieve mindful eating perfection -- but that is is not the goal anyway!. The real goal is, when you leave your practice and notice the scale starting to move upward, make the conscious decision to reawaken your sensations of hunger and fullness -- you know what they feel like and you know what they mean -- and start using them again.

Weight management is not about achieving perfection. It is about noticing the small changes and knowing that you are in charge of changing your behavior to stay in your healthy range so that you can take those 3 or 4 pounds off and not stress about it.

Can we do it?

I belong to a discussion forum for weight loss professionals. It just started up and seems to go in fits and starts (like so many things just starting up).

I commented on a post several weeks ago -- my post was essentially addressing the fact that, as a culture, we eat too much. And we are confused the difference between eating too much (of anything or everything)and that really nutritious foods shouldn't count when we are talking about eating too much. The fact is, there are people out there getting fat on nutritious foods.

I went on to opine: We (professionals) should be helping our clients deal with the real issues of weight gain (our love of being stuffed, using food for comfort, eating because we are bored out of our skulls at work, etc) -- without changes to our relationships with food, we will not be able to keep the weight off long term.

Obviously, I am passionate about this position.

Two days ago, a comment in response to my post showed up in my inbox. The commentor was advocating portion controlled meal supplements (Lean Cuisine style meals or Ensure-like meal replacement shakes) as part of long term weight control measures.

(as an aside: when I followed her link to her company page, she sells these products. I can't get in too much of a crank about that though -- even though I would like to -- because I provide Eating Coach services as part of how I make my living too)

So the question I am asking is:

Is it too much to expect from the general population to believe that we CAN control our weight by just learning to eat less?

Yes...I know it will take a cultural shift in how we approach food -- both macro (the US as a whole) and micro (the people you eat with most often).

But is it unrealistic to believe we can start listening to our bodies and eating in a sensible way without HAVING to resort to prepackaged portions -- can we learn to portion, sensibly, for ourselves?