Friday, November 6, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Endless Cravings
It was a lovely Halloween with all of the candy and treats, which could tempt anyone during the entire month of October. For me, it wasn't any of those dastardly treats that got under my skin or into my stomach, it was my mother's homemade chili, rolls, homemade sugar and pumpkin cookies, and even doughnuts (which I don't particularly like) that sent me reeling into the big black hole of bingeing on Halloween night. I reminded myself, before heading to my mother's party, that food is not love, that I can choose what I eat, that if I stay away from sugar I will be able to hold to my healthy goals only to last – hmmm let me think – two minutes before I was devouring the cookies and moving on to everything else with vim and vigor.
I left my mother's party with a stomachache and that gnawing negative mind chatter, "I always do this; I have no discipline; what is wrong with me?" It reminds me of the doomed King Sisyphus from Greek mythology who was punished by being cursed to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, repeatedly for eternity. In my most dramatic self talk, I repeated, "Will this always be my battle? Can't I just eat one and be done when I am at my mom's? Will this ever end?"
My first response was that I will always be fighting my mother's cheese, butter, cream and sugar. But my more educated and calm response was that no, I know what it takes to change neural pathways in my brain. This change is hard business, but it is achievable. We must commit to the process, the time, the patience and the endurance, whether it is a day, a month, a year, or even many years.
Neural pathways in our brain, which are linked to cravings and comfort, are like ruts in the brain. It takes lots of driving over them, grading them, and filling them in to create new pathways. It took years to create the old ruts and, although with conscious effort it can be shorter, it takes a lot of hard work to change them. Sometimes we give up and consider ourselves "doomed" simply because we don't realize how long it really takes. We feel defeated and give up. Well, I'm here to tell you, don't give up! Just keep going. If you haven't reached the transformation, it doesn't mean your efforts have gone to waste. Those efforts are smoothing out those ruts, and if your neural signals do get stuck in part of those old grooves, learn from it quickly. Get right back to the task of changing your responses and neural pathways.
It can be done. I know it, because I work on it daily. Is it easy? Actually, once you truly understand cravings and what is causing them, it is easier. When you understand what is happening physically in your mind and body, it is easier not to beat yourself up emotionally and to stay your course. Keep pushing the rock up the hill, and you will be surprised when one day it just lands in a nice grassy area and never budges again. Keep going; you can do it!
I left my mother's party with a stomachache and that gnawing negative mind chatter, "I always do this; I have no discipline; what is wrong with me?" It reminds me of the doomed King Sisyphus from Greek mythology who was punished by being cursed to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, repeatedly for eternity. In my most dramatic self talk, I repeated, "Will this always be my battle? Can't I just eat one and be done when I am at my mom's? Will this ever end?"
My first response was that I will always be fighting my mother's cheese, butter, cream and sugar. But my more educated and calm response was that no, I know what it takes to change neural pathways in my brain. This change is hard business, but it is achievable. We must commit to the process, the time, the patience and the endurance, whether it is a day, a month, a year, or even many years.
Neural pathways in our brain, which are linked to cravings and comfort, are like ruts in the brain. It takes lots of driving over them, grading them, and filling them in to create new pathways. It took years to create the old ruts and, although with conscious effort it can be shorter, it takes a lot of hard work to change them. Sometimes we give up and consider ourselves "doomed" simply because we don't realize how long it really takes. We feel defeated and give up. Well, I'm here to tell you, don't give up! Just keep going. If you haven't reached the transformation, it doesn't mean your efforts have gone to waste. Those efforts are smoothing out those ruts, and if your neural signals do get stuck in part of those old grooves, learn from it quickly. Get right back to the task of changing your responses and neural pathways.
It can be done. I know it, because I work on it daily. Is it easy? Actually, once you truly understand cravings and what is causing them, it is easier. When you understand what is happening physically in your mind and body, it is easier not to beat yourself up emotionally and to stay your course. Keep pushing the rock up the hill, and you will be surprised when one day it just lands in a nice grassy area and never budges again. Keep going; you can do it!
Monday, October 19, 2009
When Would You Stop Eating?
When would you stop eating?
I had an odd thought yesterday. Suppose you had a large plate of your favorite food and you began eating. But after a few bites, you noticed that the amount of food on your plate remained the same as when you first started eating. No matter how much you ate, the same amount of food was left on your plate. You really couldn't measure how much you had eaten. There was no way of knowing when you had finished your meal by the plate being empty, because it just kept replenishing itself. Would you know when to stop? If there were no way to measure or calculate how much food you were eating, how full would you want your stomach to get before you stopped?
Try this little mental exercise while you are eating sometime: Pretend that the amount of food will remain the same no matter how much you eat. How will you know when to stop if the plate is never clean or partially empty? Can you use your hunger index or full index to determine when you have had enough? Can you feel how full your stomach is? With no external clues, can you listen to your body to know when it has been properly refueled and has actually had enough?
Try it! Test your ability to trust yourself and intuitively tell yourself when you have eaten enough. Your body knows; you just have to learn to listen.
If you want to learn more about W.H.I. (What is your Hunger Index), logon to TotellWellness.com for more information.
I had an odd thought yesterday. Suppose you had a large plate of your favorite food and you began eating. But after a few bites, you noticed that the amount of food on your plate remained the same as when you first started eating. No matter how much you ate, the same amount of food was left on your plate. You really couldn't measure how much you had eaten. There was no way of knowing when you had finished your meal by the plate being empty, because it just kept replenishing itself. Would you know when to stop? If there were no way to measure or calculate how much food you were eating, how full would you want your stomach to get before you stopped?
Try this little mental exercise while you are eating sometime: Pretend that the amount of food will remain the same no matter how much you eat. How will you know when to stop if the plate is never clean or partially empty? Can you use your hunger index or full index to determine when you have had enough? Can you feel how full your stomach is? With no external clues, can you listen to your body to know when it has been properly refueled and has actually had enough?
Try it! Test your ability to trust yourself and intuitively tell yourself when you have eaten enough. Your body knows; you just have to learn to listen.
If you want to learn more about W.H.I. (What is your Hunger Index), logon to TotellWellness.com for more information.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Eating Tip
While researching and studying emotional eating, I have often run across the emotional eating tip: “Eat from a smaller plate.” The idea behind the tip is that it will trick you into thinking you are eating more, and you won’t feel so deprived, thereby empowering you to continue to diet. I’m not convinced our minds are that simple, but I would like to offer a modified tip: “Eat from a plate.” That’s it! Simply try to eat from a plate. Ask yourself how often do you eat from a fast food sack, a paper covered tray, a cellophane wrapper in the car, or standing in the kitchen while eating right from the dish the food was prepared in? It’s a little crazy to think we are soooo busy that we can’t get a plate out, dish up a meal, and sit down to actually nourish our bodies with food. We have minimized taking care of ourselves and nourishing ourselves to a rushed activity with nothing more than our food served in paper or anything else that is convenient and fast.
I think you will find that eating from a plate makes the food so much more enjoyable, and you actually notice THAT you are eating and WHAT you are eating. Eating is your most basic need. Let’s treat eating right. Let’s eat from a plate, and actually pause while we nourish ourselves!
I think you will find that eating from a plate makes the food so much more enjoyable, and you actually notice THAT you are eating and WHAT you are eating. Eating is your most basic need. Let’s treat eating right. Let’s eat from a plate, and actually pause while we nourish ourselves!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Big Change, Small Efforts!
How do we really create the life of wellness we so desperately want? Robert Collier, founder of the once popular Collier’s Weekly, coined the phrase “Success is the sum of many small efforts.” We often create this huge dream of what our lives should look like, and we become overwhelmed and discouraged when we wake up from that dream to find that nothing has changed. Big change comes with small efforts! It actually is a nice thought: We don’t have to do anything big or grand, we just have to do something small today. How wonderful!
My son is a motorcross racer and wants to improve his performance committing to working out daily to achieve his goals. As many of us do, he gets discouraged waiting for the BIG CHANGE in his body to arrive. While waking him up this morning I simply said, “You want to be your best at racing, don’t you?”
Of course, he responded with a sleepy, “Yes.”
To which I reminded him, “All you have to do is get up and do 30 minutes of cardio before school. That is all you have to think about for the next 30 minutes, and you will reach your goal. You don’t have to think about tomorrow or the next day; just think about the next thirty minutes.”
It sounds simple but it is true: If we just make our small efforts over and over again they soon add up to our big accomplishments. Be specific; choose that goal, and break down those small efforts.
If you want help in reaching your big goals and need help in keeping those small efforts going every day, call Totell 801.231.0001. We want you to be successful!
My son is a motorcross racer and wants to improve his performance committing to working out daily to achieve his goals. As many of us do, he gets discouraged waiting for the BIG CHANGE in his body to arrive. While waking him up this morning I simply said, “You want to be your best at racing, don’t you?”
Of course, he responded with a sleepy, “Yes.”
To which I reminded him, “All you have to do is get up and do 30 minutes of cardio before school. That is all you have to think about for the next 30 minutes, and you will reach your goal. You don’t have to think about tomorrow or the next day; just think about the next thirty minutes.”
It sounds simple but it is true: If we just make our small efforts over and over again they soon add up to our big accomplishments. Be specific; choose that goal, and break down those small efforts.
If you want help in reaching your big goals and need help in keeping those small efforts going every day, call Totell 801.231.0001. We want you to be successful!
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