Eat Several Small Meals A Day... or not?

Are you a grazer like this sweet "lil goat? Aradia is quite sweet as well!

 

I do not agree with this current health trend, health advice.  

Now I will tell you, as always... figure out what works for you, in your life, so you feel your very best, vibrant self every day.

So back to the several small meals a day advice... that I do not agree with, my diet myth buster:

Why?

1.  If a person struggles with over eating, this only gives license to over eat more times in a day.

2.  If one eats well balanced meals:  fruits and veggies (fruit in am, veggies with lunch & dinner), quality protein, and quality fat... you will be well satiated for a good 4 to 5 hours.  No need to snack or eat several small meals in a day.

3.  Eating several small meals trains your blood sugar to want to be "up."  When we get used to meals that sustain us comfortably, without overeating, our bodies get used to feeling gently full and then feeling empty, gently empty.  Empty is good.  Revel in this feeling as you innately know you are not going to starve if you feel hungry for a while.  We live in a culture with ample food. Pick 100% whole foods to fill yourself at meals.

4.  Eating constantly will leave you feeling hungry all the time.  It is the blood sugar is "up" constantly issue.  Once your blood sugar goes down, even just a little, this triggers the "Oh my, I am hungry"  feeling again. Feeling empty is ok.

5.  If you constantly are giving your body fuel, calories, when will it have a chance to go into fat burning and use up your stored fat calories?

6.  Do you really want to spend all your time preparing food and doing dishes?

7.  The digestive tract needs rest.  If you eat every 2-3 hours, it never gets a rest. Your digestive tract will always be working to digest and eliminate food. Would you want to be working your skeletal muscles constantly, no rest, no sleep?

This is my thoughts, using common sense and wisdom gained from years around food and as an eater myself! Use this in any way that works for you and makes your life a better place to be!

Cheers & Blessings!  Paula

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 

Boys lounging on Porter Mt 

Atop Cascade 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.

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…

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