Divine Weight Loss Tip #6

Back today with some more thoughts and ideas around weight loss, which are really thoughts and ideas around healing body, mind, and spirit.

Took the day off yesterday (well, sort of!) to climb two Adirondack high peaks with my kids.

Boys lounging on Porter Mt 

Atop Cascade Mt.

Hiking on to thoughts on health, healing, and weight loss...

Forced to eat things we did not like... forbidden foods, foods to make our boo-boos feel better, over-abundance of food, not enough food... we all have events, in our past, that shape the way we think about, function around, choose, and eat food.

Can you think of 2 things, right now, that shaped your habits around food?

Tip #6

Acknowledge, address, and let go of emotional / spiritual issues around food, health, and your life.

Ok, so are you saying: "Hey Paula, easier said than done?"

Most of us, whether we consciously acknowledge or not, know what is keeping the weight on our bodies:

• binge eating
• sneak eating
• hiding forbidden foods
• constant snacking
• eating to soothe negative emotions and loneliness 
• overeating
• sugar addictions

I am certain there are many other emotional eating habits we could come up with, if we sat down and brain stormed together.

Examples from my funny life:  (I do have to laugh at myself... right?)

• The chocolate chips I hid in the cellar freezer.  When they are not right there, handy, I did not eat them as often or as many at a time. Sitting in the cellar, eating piles of chocolate chips was just not pleasant. But, they were there for me to grab, a few each time, when I went down to do a load of laundry or grab a real food item out of the freezer.
• The big bag of organic raisins kept by my bedside for night time snacking while reading. What is wrong with this? They are organic. They are just fruit. Fruit is good for me! Totally justifiable.
• My favorite confession... the pint of organic ice cream, in the before mentioned cellar freezer. Spoon was kept on the metal-loop, door handle on the breaker box. Hey, the breaker box was right next to the freezer. Convenience was important on those trips down to do laundry.
• One of my habits (Or lack of) that I find even funnier, is about the deprivation thing, my Mom did not buy us soda. One would think I would run to it now with Mom not around to control my drinking soda or not. Nope, never liked the sickly sweet stuff. (Well, Coke was always good for that occasional hangover, college keg party induced, back in the day...!)

Thoughts and suggestions on letting go of these issues that allow us to hang onto unhealthy lifestyle choices*:

• Holistic Health Coaching with me!  I would love to support your goals, give me a shout!
• Acupuncture. If in the St. Lawrence County area of NY State, give Shelby Connelly a call. You will be glad you did!
• Yoga... hey, haven't I mentioned this one before? Local Yoga action:  Yoga Loft in Canton, NY;  Northern Lights Yoga in Canton, NY; SUNY Potsdam CLEAR Program in Potsdam, NY; and I would be happy to work with you around Yoga. I am a NYS Health and Phys Ed Teacher, Holistic Fitness instructor, and a Yoga Teacher. Yoga is part of my daily life!

• Rich Tenace: Rich practices a Subconscious Analysis and Re-programming Therapy. This is a Spiritual System / Psychological Help, a unique way to take away fears, bad habits, phobias, and issues... those issues that keep you sabotaging your healthy eating intentions! I can vouch for this guy; he ended my kid's terrible spider phobia! 

• EFT - Emotional Freedom Training.  This is a "treatment" that Wayne Dyer recommends! Looking for a skilled EFT person to help you out of emotional and spiritual issues around food and healing? My top recommendation is Joanne Jaworski. Yes, I have known her for 15 years. This amazing lady has worked, successfully, with the US Olympic teams and people all over the world. Check out her products page, she has fun stuff coming to support people on their quest to release "issues." Joani is in the Rochester area... not such a stretch if you are in my local area and she works via phone and skype!
• Hypnotherapy for sugar addiction. Seriously, it works. Wendi Frisen is a clinical hypnotherapist and yes, I have successfully used her hypnotherapy programs. I would love to have a local person to send you to, here in Northern NY. I am not aware of a hypnotist, currently practicing, in our area. Wendi is in Colorado.

*In case you are wondering... Hey, is this just a big infomercial for local healers? Nah, I get zero kickbacks. Bummer, right?! And my recommendations are not all local. Colorado and Rochester, NY are included here! The only way I benefit (we both will benefit!) is if you work with me.

The rest I toss out to you as options, options to support you in your mind, body, spirit healing. No one therapy will appeal to everyone. Options, to find the healing method that speaks to you, is a beautiful gift I can give you. Every one of the practitioners above I have personally worked with and know their abilities to heal... mind, body, and spirit.

When we heal the emotional and spiritual blockages that are preventing us from making the best choices for our health (wellness over weight loss), we begin to make the best choices for ourselves in every given moment. That is my wish for you!

Be well, work out the issues, and make whole foods your #1 healing choice!  Peace, Paula

Practicing mind, body, spirit healing.

Divine Weight Loss Tip #5

This is a biggy.  This tip* has the power to heal every cell in your body, balance your hormones, balance your blood sugar, and create a body weight that is optimal for you.

Tip #5

Whole foods.

I know, I say this over and over, like a broken record. But this tip comes from deep inside my heart and soul. (From deep inside every one of my healthy 'lil body cells... if you have attended one of my Whole Food Healing workshops, you know how I encourage you to feed your body cells with 100% whole foods.

Whole foods feed each and every body cell with the right balance of nutrients needed to support your body in every one of its daily functions. A lifetime of whole food eating fortifies the body for longevity (life-gevity) that is vibrant and happy. Living a long life is good; living a long life of vibrant health is awesome!

The nutrients, nourishment, from whole foods penetrate right down to the microscopic organelles in each and every body cell. This process keeps your cellular health fueled and lubed for optimum health.

This diagram displays the microscopic organelles that exist inside your body cells. These precious, little powerhouses are the building blocks of each and every cell. Your cells are in turn, the building blocks of you tissues; tissues compose organs; organs compose organ systems; organ systems compose YOU. You want all of this healthy, correct?

I am someone who prefers to focus on the positive. I also believe education helps people to be informed and understand the consequences of actions.  Education allows the option of informed decision making. Eating refined foods is like throwing Kool Aid into your car's gas tank. Kool Aid is going to gunk things up and ruin your car's engine. Refined food does this to your body cells; refined food is gunk to your cells. 

On a vanity level: we are aware that certain substances, like cigarettes and alcohol, age the body. This is because both substances add toxins to your body cells, clogging up the mechanisms of metabolic activity (the life activity of your cells), and accelerates the aging of your cells. This is why smokers get premature wrinkles. Refined food also clogs body cells, slows metabolic processes down, ages the body, and contributes to adipose accumulation (body fat).

I dare you, double dare, to eat nothing but 100% whole foods for 2 weeks. You will feel remarkably well. I bet you won't ever want to go back to processed, packaged, refined foods.

Two weeks will fly by. Try it, you just might like it.

After two weeks, if you need convincing, go on a 2 day, refined-junk food, product binge. Then tell me how you feel... I am thinking: food hangovers!

Love your body with whole foods. Your body will love you right back.

PS For more information, the details, on whole foods, click one of the blue links above. The links will take you to an article, defining whole foods, that I wrote for Healing the Body Canada magazine.

*Benefits You Gain From Whole Food Eating

• high, even keel energy all day

• body weight balances to normal for you

• sleep better

• move better

• age slower... think wrinkle and degenerative disease prevention!

• happy moods, peaceful feelings that create

• healthier relationships with loved ones

• look & feel awesome / younger

• swap cravings to whole foods

• better immune activity meaning less colds, flu, etc.

• better digestive tract function and gut microbial health

• heal your divine body of ill health symptoms

Do these things speak to you, tantalize your senses, and urge you to make healing changes in your eating habits?  

Divine Weight Loss Tip #4

In Divine Weight Loss Tip #3, I suggested you take self-responsibility for your health, healing, and body weight re-balancing. I am certain some of you, maybe many of you, thought it was a great idea but (here I go with the but again!) you may be asking... "How do I get here, Paula, to this space of self-responsibility and intrinsic motivation around my own health?"

Tip #4

Yoga... I know I have said this before and I am saying it again, yoga helps you return yourself to you. It is that intrinsic motivation thing.

Yoga is an activity of mind, body, and spirit merging, reuniting. Yoga brings you back to yourself. When you work from a space of inner calmness, you will make choices based upon what is best for your health.

A friend of mine from the world of yoga, Charlotte Bradley, wrote an article on her Yoga Flavored Life blog where she stated:    "I believe that my yoga practice can help me become the best person that I can be."  She asked her readers to share with her: "What is your why for practicing yoga?" To which I replied on her blog:

"I LOVE yoga because it makes me feel good, inside and out. Truly a mind, body, soul healer that brings a calmness to everything I do in life (even my melt downs have a calmness, serenity, about them!) Can’t beat that!"

Now I will confess, you can get to this space of inner wholeness, intrinsic motivation, in other ways. There are many mind, body, spirit (M, B, S) activities that work to heal you from the inside out. This is just a partial list from off the top of my head:

• Tai Chi
• Qi Gong
• Tae Kwon Do (If you are in the Potsdam-Canton area of NY State, I recommend Andrea Malik. She teaches classes for both kids and adults and is truly an awesome human being!)
• Meditation
• Prayer
• Breath work
• Walking meditation

Practicing a mind, body, spirit activity (exercise) helps you to explore your potential and invite the real you to emerge. When you come home to yourself, you will move towards loving yourself. Loving yourself includes the inner, intrinsic desire to take better care of you. You will consciously choose to eat better and make positive lifestyle choices to improve your health. As you feel better, from your healthy lifestyle choices, you will want to feel even better. Healthy choices beget healthy choices. You will create a crazy, fun, snowball effect of health, healing, and the desire to treat yourself in a whole health way.

Will you trust me and give yoga or another M, B, S activity a try? 

Namaste, Paula

Divine Weight Loss Tip #3

First of all... use these weight loss tips to heal any health issue that challenges you and your beautiful body!  

Healing your body, mind, and soul is an amazing process; make it fun... start today!

It is me, in my summer (2014) yoga studio working towards wellness goals and nourishing the intrinsic motivation I have created in my 23 years of practicing yoga (now, in 2020, its been 29 years. Wow). What you do not see here is my 4 cats, lounging about the deck, engaging in their own form of yoga and wellness promotion. My camera man, Eli, missed the cats!

So, here we go...

Tip #3

Self-Responsibility: If you want to lose weight AND keep it off for life, you HAVE to take self-responsibility for your own health and healing... self-responsibility for your life.

You are responsible for choices you make regarding your health. 

Health is about self-responsibility. The ability to heal lies within us.  The responsibility to care for our bodies to ensure lifelong health, prevent disease, and heal lies within us. 

By making natural choices in one’s eating and lifestyle choices, the symptoms of disease heal and an individual can and will return to whole, vibrant health. 

Whole Health Healing is not about what you are giving up, it is not about deprivation.  It IS about what you are inviting into your life: the choices, changes, and additions that will open doors to healing, health, body weight re-balancing, and happiness in ways you may have never imagined or experienced.

Gathering support:  I do encourage you to surround yourself with like-minded people, people interested in pursuing their health and healing and re-balancing their body weight. However and but… is there not always a however or a but?, ultimately the responsibility to change your life lies with you and within you.

Intrinsic motivation is absolutely needed to create wellness goals and intentions, work towards your goals and intentions, and turn them into permanent lifestyle changes.

Support is a beautiful thing (here is the but) but you have to be your best support, your best cheer leader and coach.

Let’s say you rely on a support buddy to get you through a decision. What happens when you text or FB message your support buddy and get no reply?  “Help, I am about to order and eat an entire banana split” or “Help, I cannot seem to get my shoes on and get out the door to go for my daily wellness walk.”

Now what? Who do you rely on right now? You, of course! You are your best wellness coach because you do want to choose what is best for your long-term health, body weight re-balancing, and healing.

I am, in the link here and above, referring you back to Divine Weight Loss Tip #1.

Have much fun creating your intrinsic motivation, your personal self-responsibility for you! Paula

Divine Weight Loss Tip #2

Eat Fat and Other Divine Weight Loss Tips

Ok, first I need to take a step backwards from weight loss tip #1. I am so quick to let the words flow from my fingertips onto the keyboard. Then, I have more thoughts... it's a wonderful cycle (no viscousness here).

Weight loss is the process of re-balancing body weight, returning the percentage of adipose tissue (fat) to lean body tissue (muscles, bones, organs) back to a healthy ratio.

Weight loss is truly a mind, body, spirit exercise. When one approaches it just from the space of physical, "Oh, I need to lose weight from my physical body" and neglects to address the needs of the psyche and soul... weight loss is rarely successful over the long haul.

My intention, in offering up these tidbits of wisdom from my life, is to support you in your quest to balance body weight.

So... here comes tip # 2.

Tip #2:  

Stop deprivation. Invite pleasure into your life.

Reminder: Fat IS pleasure.

Fat is pleasure to your taste buds, to your body's satiation* signals, to your cellular health...

Learn more about healthy fat and learn to eat it.

Me... I love butter, obscene amounts of butter from grass fed animals!

*When your body feels satiated by being nourished with adequate fat and protein (from healthy, whole food choices, of course!) you avoid the "snacking on carbs between meals syndrome." Fat helps you give up your refined carb and sugar habits.

Eat well: nourish mind, body, and spirit with wholeness*.  Love, Paula

PS Feel free to leave comments around your wisdom with weight loss, body weight re-balancing.  When we band together, for the greater good, we all benefit. Your stories can help others in ways you cannot even imagine.

And remember, the *words and thoughts you take into your being are foods for the mind and soul. Feed yourself well with whole, positive thoughts and words FAT with Love!

Divine Weight Loss Tip #1

Want To Lose Weight?

Choose Wellness

and

Other Divine Weight Loss Tips

A White Pine Wellness Romp at Debar Pond, NY

Tip #1

Choose Wellness NOT Weight Loss. 

Wellness Romp, with Nancy and Basil, at Debar Pond.

So, I have heard this many times... "What would you know about weight loss, you don't have any weight to lose?'

I confess, this was not always the case. After growing up as a rail-thin child and teen, I flourished into my adult years thinking I could eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.  This had always been my eating plan... why should I change?

By age 30, I weighed 20 pounds more than I do right now. (My sisters called me "Nanny with the Fanny") Now this is not such a horrible thing but how did I get here and how was I to not get any further on this weight gain path? Losing 20 pounds was tough, very tough for me. Remember, I grew up super skinny no matter what I ate. It's a tough deal, 30 years later, to need to learn how to lose weight. 

My concern: That 20 pounds had literally ambushed me. I never saw it coming.  I ate healthy (or so I thought I was eating healthy... a vegetarian, high complex carb eating plan) and I was concerned that if 20 pounds could overtake me in 4 years... where would I be in 20 years? 50 to 100 pounds overweight? Yikes!

I knew I needed to make some big changes in my life.  If not, where would I be today? 

Bottom line:

• I changed my eating habits. I gave up vegetarian eating. My first pregnancy helped out here. Pregnancy had me dreaming, literally, of roast beef, chicken and dumplings, and pulled pork dinners.

• My big breakthrough was choosing wellness over weight loss. Yes, click this blue link and remind yourself what this wellness choice means for you and your mind, body, spirit health.

• When I stopped trying to lose weight, stopped focusing on my weight, and instead made lifestyle choices based upon what was best for my wellness... well, the weight loss was no longer an issue.

• This is a self-responsibility choice. When we take responsibility for our health and healing, in all areas, our weight drops and our health soars, healing happens.

Stay tuned for more Divine Weight Loss Tips.  I have several more in store for you.

Be happy, be healthy, chose wellness!  Love, Paula

PS I have about 12 more tips and will post more frequently until I have polished off my list of wisdom around weight loss. Remember, it is my wisdom. Use your experiences and create your own wisdom around health, weight balancing, and healing.

Future Wellness Romp: Kayak down Debar Pond to Debar Mountain (You can see Debar Mt. at end of pond), bushwhack to Debar Mt, and climb to the top. Guess I will have to bushwhack back to my kayak and re-paddle the pond! This is a true wellness choice that will entail burning a few calories and building muscle and vitality. 12/30/2018: no, I still have not accomplished this BUT I have climbed many, many ADK High Peaks in the 4+ years.