Who Is In Control...You Or The Food?

Do you feel like you lose your mid around certain foods? Do you binge eat? One of the things I used to do years ago before I started on a "diet" was to eat everything that didn't run away from me the day before my "diet" was to begin. So what did that do to me? First, it made me feel lousy when I went to bed that night and woke up the next day. I had hat I call a food hangover. My blood sugar would be all over the place so I craved the foods I consumed in great volume the day before. This made it tough to start my "diet" so I would delay it another day to quell my cravings with the foods I was trying to avoid. This cycle made me a serial "dieter" and ultimately led to my large weight fluctuations. 

I was also always, and still am, a fast eater. I have, for years, often not given myself the proper amount of time to sit, down, relax and eat slowly and mindfully. By eating quickly, you don't give your brain the time it needs to realize you have enough, or even more than enough, food in your stomach. It takes your brain about twenty minutes to catch up with your stomach. If you stuff your food quickly, you may find yourself overeating before you even know you've had enough. 

Mindfulness, in general is a Buddhist philosophy that brings your rapt attention to what you are currently doing and the feelings experienced while you are engaged in the task. It's a form of meditation and helps you to recognize feelings and emotions. Mindful eating is the practice of giving your full attention to the food in front of you and your consumption of it, how you feel as you eat emotionally and physically.

To practice mindful eating, follow these steps:

• Sit down away from distractions like the television, computer, phone, or anything that can take your attention away from the food and eating it
• Eat slowly, chewing every bite until it is almost liquid in your mouth. Digestion begins in the mouth and the more of a head start you give the digestion process in your mouth, the more nutrients are available to you.
• As you eat, feel the physical cues your body is giving you. Are you feeling satiated? Does the food taste good? Is the texture pleasing?
• Before you eat, make sure you are feeling true hunger and not a reaction to a stressor in your life. If you are truly hungry eat something that is nutritionally sound and not junk food. If you don't care to et something good for you, chances are you weren't really physically hungry in the first place.
• Try not to eat while you are feeling stress. Stressful eating affects digestion and may lead to poor food choices. If you are feeling stressed, go for a short walk or sit and do some deep breathing to help relieve some of the stress before you stuff your feelings.
• Be aware of the aromas, the texture, the visual impact of the food as you slowly eat and savor every bite.
• Never eat while you are watching television or are engaged in other activity where your attention is not on the food or the act of eating. This leads to mindlessly consuming volumes of food without you even being aware of it.

Mindful eating is good for weight management, stress management, portion control and helping to get in touch with your feelings. Try it the next time you get hungry.

ICYMI...How about a sugar detox? I don't have a fancy name for this program but I can tell you a little about it. We'll begin on September 17th and end October 15th using Zoom. Each session will consist of a short presentation by me, followed by Q&A, discussion of challenges and celebration of wins.

If you want to get your energy back, lose a few pounds and generally feel better, this is the place for you. I'll share some of the strategies I used to eliminate sugar from my life and to get back on track in my own weight loss journey. 

Won't it be nice to eliminate cravings, not feel that "hangry" feeling when your blood sugar drops, and to be able to control what you're eating?

Click here to schedule a quick chat with me so we can decide if this is a good program for you. You'll be glad you did.

As a health coach, I work with women who are facing serious health challenges like heart disease, metabolic syndrome and diabetes or who have been diagnosed as having a precursor to a serious health issue such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol or high blood sugar. I help them make food and lifestyle changes so they can get healthy, live longer and enjoy a fuller, happier, more energetic life. If you would like to have a free consultation about the health challenges you have and the improvements you would like to see in your health, click here to schedule a no strings attached call.

I Hope You Dance

Another post I thought was worth repeating

I Hope You Dance by Lee Ann Womack

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder

You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger

May you never take one single breath for granted

God forbid love ever leave you empty handed

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean

Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens

Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

I hope you dance

I hope you dance

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance

Never settle for the path of least resistance

Livin' might mean takin' chances, but they're worth takin'

Lovin' might be a mistake, but it's worth makin'

Don't let some Hellbent heart leave you bitter

When you come close to sellin' out, reconsider

Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

I hope you dance (Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along)

I hope you dance

I hope you dance (Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder)

I hope you dance (Where those years have gone?)

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean

Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens

Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

Dance

I hope you dance

I hope you dance (Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along)

I hope you dance (Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder?)

Songwriters: Tia Sillers / Mark Sanders

I love this song and always tear up when I hear it. I wish someone had encouraged me to be and do whatever my heart led me to do when I was growing up. But sometimes growing up means just surviving from one day to the next. And so I did. I have had to learn as a late stage adult that I really can be and do what I want when I grow up.

Follow your dreams and do what makes your heart sing. If I had known then what I know now, my life would have taken a much different path but of course I might not be where I am now if I did things differently...or maybe I would have arrived a lot sooner.

There are things about my life I wouldn't change. My family, both nuclear and extended, is filled with an eclectic array of personalities and talents and I love each and every one of them.

I wish as a child, I would have been encouraged to participate in sports or other fitness activities but in those days, girls were not necessarily pushed in that direction or given many opportunities. Thank you Title IX.

If, as a young person, I had some insight into what makes me happy now I may have taken a different educational path. That's not to say that I didn't have a very successful career for thirty years but it never really inspired me like health and nutrition coaching does. My thirty year career made it possible for me to retire early and do what I love. But if I had been doing what I love all along, I never would have needed to retire, because what I do now I don't consider work.

Life is a journey. If you find something that you really love to do, make your own path. Don't wait for someone to tell you it's okay because that permission may never come. Don't be what someone else tells you to be. You're the one who has to live with that decision so make it yours. And when given the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance.

ICYMI...How about a sugar detox? I don't have a fancy name for this program but I can tell you a little about it. We'll begin on September 17th and end October 15th using Zoom. Each session will consist of a short presentation by me, followed by Q&A, discussion of challenges and celebration of wins.

If you want to get your energy back, lose a few pounds and generally feel better, this is the place for you. I'll share some of the strategies I used to eliminate sugar from my life and to get back on track in my own weight loss journey.  

Won't it be nice to eliminate cravings, not feel that "hangry" feeling when your blood sugar drops, and to be able to control what you're eating?

Click here to schedule a quick chat with me so we can decide if this is a good program for you. You'll be glad you did.
As a health coach, I work with women who are facing serious health challenges like heart disease, metabolic syndrome and diabetes or who have been diagnosed as having a precursor to a serious health issue such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol or high blood sugar. I help them make food and lifestyle changes so they can get healthy, live longer and enjoy a fuller, happier, more energetic life. If you would like to have a free consultation about the health challenges you have and the improvements you would like to see in your health, click here to schedule a no strings attached call.

Summer's Over...Now What?

Maybe you've spent the summer eating, drinking and being merry. Maybe you don't feel so great about where you are on the scale or how your clothes feel on your body or maybe you just don't feel so great.

Summertime brings all kinds of reasons to eat foods that don't necessarily provide the best nourishment. Whether it's "road food" while you're traveling on vacation, or barbecue food including what I call "white salads", or lots of happy hours with finger foods and alcohol, you can do a fair amount of damage to your healthy lifestyle.

Maybe it's time to do something about it. Wouldn't you like to feel better in your jeans? Wouldn't you like to have your energy back? Wouldn't it be nice to go into the holiday season in better shape than you are now? As we get older, our bodies don't bounce back like they used to. Many find it harder to lose weight and the extra weight tends to collect in the abdominal area, which will put you at higher risk for diabetes and heart disease.

I have a solution. How about a sugar detox? I don't have a fancy name for this program but I can tell you a little about it. We'll begin on September 17th and end October 15th using Zoom. Each session will consist of a short presentation by me, followed by Q&A, discussion of challenges and celebration of wins.

If you want to get your energy back, lose a few pounds and generally feel better, this is the place for you. I'll share some of the strategies I used to eliminate sugar from my life and to get back on track in my own weight loss journey. 

Won't it be nice to eliminate cravings, not feel that "hangry" feeling when your blood sugar drops, and to be able to control what you're eating?

Click here to schedule a quick chat with me so we can decide if this is a good program for you. You'll be glad you did.

As a health coach, I work with women who are facing serious health challenges like heart disease, metabolic syndrome and diabetes or who have been diagnosed as having a precursor to a serious health issue such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol or high blood sugar. I help them make food and lifestyle changes so they can get healthy, live longer and enjoy a fuller, happier, more energetic life. If you would like to have a free consultation about the health challenges you have and the improvements you would like to see in your health, click here to schedule a no strings attached call.

It's A Holiday...Should You Eat Like It's Your Last Meal?

It's a beautiful day here in the northeast and many of us are continuing the celebration of Labor Day by grilling, going to the beach (or as we in New Jersey say, "down the shore"), going to an amusement park, attending end of summer parties or any number of reasons to eat. Many people also go into this weekend considering it their last hurrah before they clean up their eating and buckle down to more sensible food consumption. 

I think buckling down is a very good idea but healthy eating isn't something that should only be done when there isn't a reason to celebrate. We can always find an excuse for a party, whether it's an annual holiday, a birthday, a wedding, a funeral, someone is visiting, someone is leaving, whatever the occasion. If we need to gorge ourselves every time we find ourselves gathering with other people to acknowledge something, we will remain very unhealthy.

Aren't these occasions for being with those you care about and enjoy spending time with? If you are around my family, all of these occasions except maybe the weddings and funerals, have the same foods whenever we celebrate them. We have certain traditional dishes we always have for a particular day. If that's the case in your life, why do you need to eat those things at unhealthy levels? After a few bites of something, even something you really love, the law of diminishing returns comes into play. The value or benefit of eating that food reduces with each successive bite, so why not just have a little taste of it and move on? If it's a trigger food for you, consider leaving it behind and live with the memory of how it tasted.

Rather than focusing on the food all around you, consider going around the group and chatting with everyone. Introduce yourself to someone you haven't met before and get to know them better. Help the host pf the party if it isn't you. You get to move around and you'll be too busy to eat a lot. Don't just plant yourself in front of the nachos, get a plate of veggies and nibble on them.

I went to a party yesterday that had so much delicious looking food that it was almost overwhelming. I was able to find something that fit my needs and I was quite content to eat my grilled salmon and veggies. It was delicious. I spent my time at the party laughing with friends and having a great time.

 If you like to drink when you get together with friends, do so sparingly. Alcohol can cloud your judgment and hamper your inhibitions. Stay away from sugary mixers and even diet soda and use water instead. If you're drinking wine, make a spritzer by mixing the wine with sparkling water. I haven't had alcohol except for a sip of champagne at some weddings I have attended, in almost ten years. If you're concerned about people commenting on your abstinence from alcohol, get some sparkling water with a twist and they'll think it's gin and tonic. I think more people are being careful about alcohol consumption these days so there isn't as much pressure to drink. Even if there is pressure to drink, stand up for yourself. You're the one who has to live with the consequences, not the person looking for a drinking buddy.

You can have a good time at a party or anywhere without going completely off the rails with your eating and drinking. And even if you do fall off, get right back on when the party's over. Don't let one day turn into one week, month, or forever. Stop the trend before it starts. You'll be glad you did. You'll never regret your recovery but you will very likely regret your downward slide.

Happy Labor Day weekend!

As a health coach, I work with women who are facing serious health challenges like heart disease, metabolic syndrome and diabetes or who have been diagnosed as having a precursor to a serious health issue such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol or high blood sugar. I help them make food and lifestyle changes so they can get healthy, live longer and enjoy a fuller, happier, more energetic life. If you would like to have a free consultation about the health challenges you have and the improvements you would like to see in your health, click here to schedule a no strings attached call.

Emotional Eating...What Are You Stuffing?

I don't think I have ever met anyone who hasn't used some type of substance to "take the edge off". Whether it's having a glass of wine the size of a human head, smoking a joint or several, or eating comfort foods until you fall asleep in a food coma, we all are likely to have used some type mechanism to escape the pain of the moment. Indulging in any of these behaviors on very rare occasions may not hurt if all else is done in a healthy way, but we start down a slippery slope when we use substances to dull the emotion we aren't allowing ourselves to feel.

Pain is awful, and chronic pain whether it's physical or emotional, is almost unbearable at times. When we lose a loved one or we discover our body is betraying us by developing a disease or disorder that will alter our lives forever in a significant way, or we find a loved one is betraying our trust and love, it's hard to look that pain in the eye and confront it head on. But the alternative to that is to develop unhealthy coping mechanisms that only temporarily mask the pain but they don't address the underlying grief that will rear its ugly head at the most inopportune times. Trust me, that has been my story more times than I care to count.

So what do we do to deal with such strong emotion that we are terrified to confront? Certainly numbing the pain is a temporary bandaid but eventually that pain will bleed through and no amount of chocolate will stop the hemorrhage of emotion that is bound to flow forth.

Because nutrition and lifestyle is my jam (see how cool I can be?) I'll focus here on emotional eating rather than the abuse of other substances. You don't need to be completely distraught to use food as a numbing agent. You might be responding to a particularly stressful situation that is temporary but still nerve-wracking.

When you turn to food for comfort, you may temporarily feel better because the rush of dopamine that floods your brain from eating something that tastes good. But that good feeling is fleeting and soon you will feel worse than you did before eating it. Going back for more food, you will likely discover that you need more and more to regain that false feeling of well-being you found when you first started down the path of eating comfort food. And you haven't addressed the underlying problem that caused you to eat the food in the first place. By avoiding the problem, you cause yourself more stress and anxiety and then it piles on because you feel badly about eating the food that you just consumed. It becomes a downward spiral into the abyss of overeating/feeling guilty/feeling sick/ getting more anxious/eating more and so on. This is when we find ourselves in trouble.

If you find yourself in a situation where you want to make questionable food choices, here are some strategies to help you through:

• Assess whether what you are feeling is true hunger or a reaction to what is happening around you - If you are truly hungry, then a healthy choice is likely to be able to satisfy your hunger. Look for a healthy snack to stave off that empty feeling. If that doesn't appeal to you, it's likely you aren't physically hungry but rather emotionally depleted.
• Try to step away from the situation you find yourself in that is causing the stress - Get away and pause to take some slow deep breaths. Take a walk. Write your thoughts, feelings, frustrations, in a journal or a letter to the person who might be at the center of the turmoil. You don't have to ever give that person your letter but the mere act of writing it all act diminishes the power it/they have over you.
• Distract yourself with a mindless task - Do the laundry. Straighten up a room. It's been said that if you organize up your external environment, you can gain some clarity in your internal environment (i.e. get out of your head).
• Meditate - I love the feeling of meditation when you really get into it. You don't have to be a master meditator to enjoy the benefits. Just sit quietly alone and do some measured deep breathing. Focus only on your breath and when a stray thought wanders into your consciousness, simply dismiss it and carry on with your breathing exercise.
• Exercise - You can release some "feel good" hormones by getting your sweat on. Do some strenuous exercise to use up some of that nervous energy. Really tire yourself out if you are physically able to do so. If you are limited in your ability to exercise strenuously, try some  gentle yoga poses. These can be done on the floor or in a chair and are available at different levels of ability. Plenty of Youtube videos can help with that.

   These are a few strategies to use to replace emotional eating. Most of my clients find themselves in this situation at some times in their lives. I help them to develop the healthy coping skills to make better choices in their response to stressful life events. You can't avoid the stress but you can control how you respond to it. Take control today.

As a health coach, I work with women who are facing serious health challenges like heart disease, metabolic syndrome and diabetes or who have been diagnosed as having a precursor to a serious health issue such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol or high blood sugar. I help them make food and lifestyle changes so they can get healthy, live longer and enjoy a fuller, happier, more energetic life. If you would like to have a free consultation about the health challenges you have and the improvements you would like to see in your health, click here to schedule a no strings attached call.

Who Are You In Competition With?

Do you feel like you need to measure up to someone else's standard? Do you feel like you aren't smart enough, successful enough, thin enough, young enough, or you're just plain not enough? Do you think you won't be taken seriously because others don't see your value? I used to be that way and if I am not paying attention, I can easily fall back into that mentality.

But here's the thing...there has never been, nor will there ever be, another you...or me, for that matter. I spent many years questioning my value professionally and personally. And there are still people who, if I allow them to get into my head, can still make me question myself.

There are a lot of people who are health coaches. But none of them do it the way I do. I bring unique experiences to my coaching that allow me to relate to my clients in a way that no one who is NOT me can do. What I have been through in my life in every area gives me the unique perspective that is mine alone and it adds to what I bring to every relationship, including the one I have with myself.

I've been updating you from time to time on my weight loss journey that began at the end of June. It's been slow going and a little frustrating because I'm not losing weight as quickly as I would like to. I've been  persistently following my intermittent fasting plan which keeps my eating to within eight hours of the day and allows me to go several hours before bed without eating so that my stomach is empty when I sleep. This practice is good for keeping blood sugar at a healthy level and allows my body to repair itself during the night. I am also limiting portion sizes and making only healthy food choices. Since the end of June I've lost 13.2 pounds. I was hoping for more by this time but there are several factors at play. I have Hashimoto's, which is and autoimmune disorder that keeps my thyroid from functioning normally, and I am on a beta blocker that slows my metabolism.

You may recall at the beginning of August, I pledged to myself that I would go to the gym 90 days in a row to develop the habit of exercising. Since that day I have gone to the gym and exercised no less than 30 minutes every day and most days closer to an hour. I just did day 27. I have made exercise non-negotiable soI don't go to bed until I have done so. Some nights it's 10:00pm when I get to the gym, but I'm honoring my commitment to me.

I'm learning a few things about myself. Even though my weight loss is slow, I'm making progress and I'm learning to accept non-scale victories like feeling stronger and more energetic. My clothes fit more loosely, and the nagging foot pain that I have had for almost a year is almost completely gone. The only person I want to compete with is who I was before. I want to be better, stronger, healthier, more positive, and more focused than the person I was yesterday. I don't need to compare myself to anyone else and neither do you. There is no one on this planet that can be you better than you.

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” - Dr. Seuss

As a health coach, I work with women who are facing serious health challenges like heart disease, metabolic syndrome and diabetes or who have been diagnosed as having a precursor to a serious health issue such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol or high blood sugar. I help them make food and lifestyle changes so they can get healthy, live longer and enjoy a fuller, happier, more energetic life. If you would like to have a free consultation about the health challenges you have and the improvements you would like to see in your health, click here to schedule a no strings attached call.

Probiotics...Do You Need Them?

Bacteria...the name itself makes you think of germs, doesn't it? We've probably all taken antibiotics at least once, and probably more times, to kill a bacterial infection. So isn't it weird that we might want to invite MORE bacteria into our lives? Well, there are good bacteria that live within our digestive system and throughout our bodies with which we have a symbiotic relationship that is mutualistic, meaning both the bacteria and the host (you) benefit. In fact, there are actually more bacteria living in and on our bodies than cells that make up our physiology.

Probiotics are the beneficial live bacteria found in your gut. A good amount of your immune system lies in your gut and probiotics are said to help support a healthy immune system and a healthy digestive tract. Out digestive tract needs a healthy balance between good and bad bacteria and when that balance s disrupted and the bad outnumber the good, trouble occurs.

How does such an imbalance happen? One only has to look at our poor dietary choices in the Standard American Diet to see one of the major causes of this imbalance. You can also point to stress, sleep deprivation, environmental factors and of course our overuse of antibiotics. Antibiotics don't discriminate when they go after bacteria. They will kill all bacteria in their path, including the beneficial ones.

When the gut is healthy, it can filter out harmful things like bad bacteria, chemicals and other toxins, and harmful waste. But when the gut has been compromised by the factors previously mentioned, the imbalance occurs and the filtering system breaks down.

Are probiotics a necessary supplement to add to your diet? Do you really need them or are they just part of the hype machine? Probiotics can be found in certain foods like kefir, yogurt with live cultures, and fermented foods like sauerkraut. The problem with using the commercially prepared versions of these foods is they may be pasteurized. Pasteurization is the process used in food to eliminate pathogens and extend the shelf life of the foods. But the pasteurization process could also kill the beneficial bacteria growing in the very foods you might eat to promote probiotic growth in the gut.

Many people suffer from bloating, excessive gas, constipation and diarrhea among other digestive ailments. Taking a good quality probiotic that can survive the highly acidic environment of the stomach and make its way to the intestines where it can work its magic can be a game changer for some. If you are not getting adequate coverage from your diet, supplementation may be the right answer for you. 

As a health coach, I work with women who are facing serious health challenges like heart disease, metabolic syndrome and diabetes or who have been diagnosed as having a precursor to a serious health issue such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol or high blood sugar. I help them make food and lifestyle changes so they can get healthy, live longer and enjoy a fuller, happier, more energetic life. If you would like to have a free consultation about the health challenges you have and the improvements you would like to see in your health, click here to schedule a no strings attached call.