Sustaining Health and Weight Loss... Deal With Your Stuff

Are you working on your relationship with yourself?

Sustaining health, in my experience, is more about dealing with your stuff and learning about your mind & heart than it is about the perfect food plan, although, the food plan certainly does help.

Buddha said, “To keep the body in health is a duty… otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind clear.”

If a clogged mind is part of the challenge to sustaining health, then a healthy diet is part of the answer. Food helps to clear your mind. What you put in is as important as what you take out. A cleanse can be life changing. Sustainability after a cleanse is the optimal path to health.

We are so busy taking care of others, burning out our adrenals because we don’t sleep well, and then we get cravings and fall into eating “bad” foods and feel guilty afterward.

By working on our relationship with ourselves we are showing appreciation for the self. When you do this often, you will find you don’t gain weight or feel sluggish, or soft, and bloating around the belly isn’t so bad either. We begin to listen intuitively and get to know our body and feelings.

5 Tips to Aid Your Sustaining Journey of Health and Weight Loss … No Matter Where You Are On The Path

1. Intuitive Eating + Gut Feelings
   The truth is that you already know many of the things you need to do to help you heal. It is helpful to have people to help us tap into this. For example, many physical reactions in the body, for many of us, prove that our bodies hate sugar. You may get headaches, allergies, hormonal issues, and more when you have too much sugar. You may not think as well and it may stifle your creativity or even make you feel really moody.

   If you take the opportunity to win the sugar game and decrease your sugar intake, and then have more sugar again, you may feel yourself getting drawn back into the addiction , and wanting more, even if you feel the headache coming on. Sugar can make you want more sugar!

   Intuitive eating happens when you notice these things and look at them with curiosity versus judgment. Then you are able to make the choice to stop the process of eating what does not make you feel good.

2. Patience a Virtue, Really?
   Patience is a quality that frequently eludes us. We want what we want when we want it! Fortunately, we get what we want when the time is right. We must believe that the answer/result/outcome always comes in its own special time and place. The laws of the universe/spirit/God have a different timetable. Think back to past requests and how they worked out for you. They happened at just the right time. Take the steps for your own growth and have faith . There is a bigger picture.
3. Eat a High Protein Breakfast.
   What if you were to eat what you are used to eating for dinner for breakfast? Why not? Let the judgment go . Steamed veggies with eggs. grass-fed beef sausage with greens, beans and eggs, or lentils with veggies. Enjoy a green smoothie and have some hardboiled or poached eggs. Remember… a high protein breakfast + good fiber and dark green leafy veggies brings a balanced blood sugar, fat burning, calm, clear, and happy day. Cravings will be gone or diminished if you feed yourself properly in the morning.
4. Avoid Relapse Triggers.
   This is defined as the act of not following through with your commitment and then feeling stuck in fear to overcome it. For example, if you can make a list of the situations, places, people, and emotional states that bring on the triggers, you have a much better chance at success versus the triggers ultimately resulting in a relapse. Examples include: being in the surroundings where you have acted out this behavior in the past, including television, bed, travel, workplace, your car, etc. Emotional examples include: Hungry, angry, nervous, sad, lonely, tired, bored, etc. There can be many so you need to identify your own. Accountability is a must! Hire a coach or health practitioner for 1 hour every 1-3 months, for example, to help keep you on target.
5. Move Your Butt.
   When we are moving our body regularly we feel better about ourselves and we’re more likely to eat well. When we are moving our body our mental state is happier and we’re less likely to binge because of sadness. If you are exercising, do not self-sabotage and pig out afterward either because that can be fear of success. What would happen if you were in the best shape of your life, what would have to be true?

Make the decision to take action to move your body! Join boot camp or yoga or a gym or a hiking club… whatever gets you moving. You may find it challenging at first, and make up every stinking excuse as to why you shouldn’t go… even on the drive there. If you just go anyway, you can feel incredible in just a few weeks, form a new circle of people on a similar path and feel much better in your body, which in turn will make you want to eat healthier.

Here’s a fun, 3-minute workout>/a> to get you moving! Enjoy!