Bonus post for Thursday -- Enjoy!

"Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the
universe, a moment that will never be again. And what
do we teach our children? We teach them that two and
two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France.
When will we also teach them what they are?

We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are?
You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that
have passed, there has never been another child like you.
Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you
move.

You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven.
You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel.
And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is,
like you, a marvel?... by Pablo Casals (1876-1973)

Who will teach you that you are a marvel? Perhaps it is time to teach yourself.

Thanks to Patti at 37 Days

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.

Paradigm shift

From Virus of the Mind:

Every so often, the work of science experiences something called a paradigm shift. That happens when one of the basic, underlying assumptions we've been living with changes, such as when we shifted from looking at the universe as revolving around the earth to the earth revolving around the sun. Another shift occurred when Einstein discovered the relationships between space and time and between energy and matter. Each of these paradigm shifts took some time to penetrate the scientific community and even longer to become accepted by the general public.

Because understanding this new science involves a significant change in the way people think about the mind and culture, it has been difficult for them to grasp...

The trick to learning a new paradigm is to set aside your current one while you're learning rather than attempt to fit the new knowledge into your existing model. It won't fit!

So the first question for a person struggling with the practice of eating mindfully is:

Are you willing to set aside your current paradigm (with all of its self-knowledge and prejudices) to explore a new one (mindful eating)?

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?

Stinkin' thinkin'

This morning, I was talking to one of my favorite, positive-attitude coworker (B). B had just given me a book (Virus of the Mind by Richard Brodie). I was talking to B about the premise of the book and am very excited to read it. Part of the premise, as I understand it, is to recognize there are thoughts we carry around in our head accepting them as truth that may or may not, upon closer examination, be true. And these thoughts can limit us in what we can accomplish.

B categorized these thoughts as "Stinkin' Thinkin'". Apt, no?

So -- What thoughts about your eating habits, who you are, what your genetics are doing to you, what you are capable of, etc can be classified as "stinkin' thinkin'"? --things that are not true and just make you feel darned bad or doom you to failure before you even start out.

Keep an ear open for the thoughts you tell yourself -- if you can shift your perspective away from stinkin' to something that sets you up for success -- your life will be better for it and you won't even need to pay a co-pay for it.

Reducing Friction

More thoughts on Leo's post from yesterday's ZenHabits.

Reducing friction --

Yesterday we talked about Done. But how do we get to Done. Leo suggests reducing friction. Now...I have had some hours to think about this and this is what I have come up with.

Friction occurs when your desire to listen your hunger/fullness (H/F) signals is in conflict with the desire to eat a Big Bag of M&M's or potato chips or _________(insert food of choice).

How do we reduce (notice we didn't say eliminate) friction in this example?

Make the trigger foods inconvenient. If you can mindlessly down a whole bag of chips while watching Dancing with the Stars, get them out of your house. This doesn't mean you can't ever have them -- just make them harder to get. If you really want them, you have to be committed to driving to the store to get them -- fine -- you put the thought into it -- you really want them -- eat the whole bag -- but make a conscious decision and then put the work in to get them.

I have told this story before but for those of you that haven't heard it...
I realized some years ago that I am not disciplined enough, mature enough ... something, to have Girl Scout cookies in my house. I will eat them -- all of them -- lickety split. Stick them in the freezer, you say? Nope...just makes them better. Every time I move from one room to another, it is via the kitchen until the cookies are gone. Can't help it -- it is just the way I am. But...I can't eat 12 or 15 boxes of cookies like that and expect not to gain some weight. My solution? Buying the cookies (like normal)but then boxing them up and taking them to a friend's house. She stores them for me and doles them out in a reasonable fashion. Weird? Yes. But does it work? Yup. Makes me work harder for something I love to eat -- plus, it is embarrassing to go over there 4 times a day to ask for a new box.

Maybe you need to have your food of choice on hand, for some reason. Take, for instance, the holiday baking you do at Christmas time. You enjoy doing the baking. You have to have the baked goods on hand so you can bring them to parties and give them as gifts. But then what to do with them after they are done, before you can give them away, and while they are calling your name every minute you are home?

How about storing your tempting foods in the basement or garage? The key is to put them out of your normal path of vision. Trigger eating happens when we become aware the foods are there ... just waiting to be eaten. Either don't buy those foods or keep them out of sight. They will call to you less if you can't see them.

That is the whole point of the dieting tip of not going in the kitchen after dinner -- if you can't go into the kitchen, you can't see (or get to) the foods that trigger you.

So this weekend: take a look in your cupboards and pantry. See if your trigger foods are right at eye level -- sitting there calling your name. Move them to a higher shelf, move them to a cupboard or closet that you normally get into. Or (and I am a big fan of this one) clear them out of your house all together -- you can have them...just make yourself work for them.

Done

“If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you up in your work. Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities. The thing is to get the work done.” - Dale Carnegie

Today in ZenHabits, Leo is talking about the power of Done. I am a huge advocate of Done -- push through, create, achieve an end point, Done, Hurray!!! Look what I've done!!!

ZenHabits was my inspiration for culling down the philosophy of Eating Coach to:

Omit needless calories. (Simple concept, don't you think?) Done.

But Done in the realm of weight management is a tricky thing. When can you be Done with Mindful Eating?

Is it when you reach your goal weight?

Is it when you have achieved your goal weight and maintained it for one year, two years, five years?

What about when you are just beginning to learn to eat mindfully -- doesn't Done (when you have just mindlessly finished a whole bag of Frito's) seem like it is very far off?

Let's take the Done of mindful eating down a notch. Mindful Eating (by definition) is a practice -- which means you will always be practicing. The Done comes at the end of a meal when you make a conscious decision to stop (even though the food is super-delicious) before the plate is clean and when you have just noticed the very first sensations of something filling your stomach. That definitely gets a Done.

Done is at the end of the day when you realize you didn't have your 3pm snack because you weren't hungry. Done is when you accept that you are really hungry (even though you don't know why) and you eat to satisfy that physical sensation.

But with this definition of Done, it means you keep picking up the ball and striving for "Mindful Dones" at every opportunity.

It is the completion of lots of little Dones that will get you where you want to go and keep you there.