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How to eat for Spring and Summer? Tune into your body’s innate wisdom

“In the Spring and Summer, the days become longer and warmer. The increased sunlight naturally results in increased energy and a natural inclination towards more movement. Contrary to in the wintertime, eating too many heavy foods and being sedentary during the warmer months can lead to imbalance in the form of sluggishness, low energy and lack of motivation. When in tune with your body, it will direct you towards naturally cleansing foods such as more greens, raw foods, fruit, lighter proteins and less fatty, heavy foods. Your body’s natural motivation for more activity will help the winter weight melt off. Trust and know your body will take care of you when you listen. The inner wisdom exists and when you learn to trust and understand what your body is calling for, you being to create a new food paradigm for yourself – one that is easeful and goes with the flow of the seasons rather than one that leads to struggle and frustration. The answers are not outside of yourself as advertised – they are within: when you simply begin to tune into your body’s natural voice, you will know what is needed each moment, each week, each month, and each season.”  ~ Energizing Nutrition, A New Food Paradigm

 What are some of your favorite Spring and Summer foods?

*Tip: If you’re not sure where to start when it comes to integrating more seasonal foods, make a visit to your local farmer’s market.

*We’d love to hear from you!  CONTACT US to discuss your health and wellness goals.

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Energize Your Year with Spiritual Nourishment

This New Year, as you are reviewing your health and nutrition goals, I invite you to examine, energize and prioritize your spiritual nourishment.  Without spiritual nourishment, no matter how healthy you eat and how much you exercise, you may still be left feeling unhappy, unfulfilled and lacking true health.

What is spiritual nourishment?  It looks different for everyone – taking time to walk in nature, spending time with pets, or even washing the dishes with mindfulness, can all be acts that feed your spirit. 

Spiritual nourishment can be as simple as carving out ten to fifteen minutes of silent time in the mornings or listening to relaxing music rather than the news.  It can also be a more formal type of meditation practice based on what you’re drawn to or what your religious faith is.

In today’s society, we are bombarded with stimulation everywhere we go.  Our senses become overloaded and this, along with a lack of spiritual nourishment can lead to anxiety, stress, low energy, depression, burnout and unhealthy weight gain or weight loss.  Shut off the TV, get off the computer, put the phone away and take a social media fast.  These are all ways to help quiet the noise, connect internally and nourish your spirit.

Creative or artistic outlets are also forms of spiritual nourishment.  For some, it may be painting, journaling, or writing.  Movement such as dance, yoga, martial arts, or a combination of these activities is also wonderful.  You will notice that the more regularly you carve out time for such activities in daily life, the more you create a greater sense of calm, satisfaction and less of a need to fill yourself up with food for comfort or entertainment.  Your physical and emotional health will benefit and you will begin to experience true health, well-being and fulfillment.  

I invite you to begin the year by prioritizing your spiritual nourishment and see what happens.  Here are a couple of simple questions to help you begin:

 

  • What feeds you spiritually?  (ie: journaling, walking in nature, listening to music, drawing, meditation?) 

 

  • Have you devoted part of your day or week to spiritual nourishment? What are two simple action steps you can take to include spiritual nourishment in your life?

 

Wishing you a happy, healthy and energizing 2019!   

*We’d love to hear from you!  CONTACT US to discuss your health and wellness goals.

(Content adapted from Molly’s book, Energizing Nutrition: A New Food Paradigm)

 

 

 

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How to Shift from Emotional to Empowered Eating

When it comes to emotional eating, most of us experience some degree of it, whether conscious of it or not.  Emotional eating is defined as “eating when feeing stressed, angry, frustrated, lonely, anxious, bored or depressed.”  Some experts estimate that 75 percent of overeating is a response to our emotions.  Like a drug, eating certain foods act like a vice or a temporary fix when experiencing challenging situations or emotions.

Emotional eating is closely related to cravings.  When it comes to your body’s cravings, you may tend to judge yourself in a negative light, feeling like you have failed each time you indulge in chocolate chip cookies or a bag of chips.  In order to redefine and transform your relationship with food, it can be helpful to look closely at how you are relating to your cravings. 

There is a strong belief that food cravings are something to fight and giving into them reflects a lack of willpower. However common this belief is, it’s completely false.  To shift how you are relating to food and your cravings, first let go of your inner critic and exercise self-compassion.  View food with a fresh perspective; see yourself as an experiment and simple observe. Doing so helps release any negative mind chatter and self-judgement which tend to perpetuate self-punishing repetitive cycles and food drama.

Are you ready to let go of the food drama?  The first step to shifting to empowered eating is to change your perspective.  See that your cravings are actually valuable messages, signals from your body pointing to what you are needing in the moment.  Due to the overwhelming amount of information about health and nutrition out there, you may have learned not to trust these signals and feel confused about what to eat.  You may be following a particular diet plan and therefore fighting or ignoring your body’s signals in order to stick with the plan. Although well intentioned and temporarily workable, the majority of outside prescriptions around food are not sustainable or helpful in the long run because of their fixed nature.  They do not address your changing individual needs or teach you how to listen to what your body is calling for each day, week or season. 

Once you clearly recognize what your body is calling for rather than following what you “should” or “shouldn’t” be eating, you will begin to trust and know what you truly need to nourish yourself in each moment – and it’s not always food. Sometimes it’s a physical need and often times, it’s as simple as getting some fresh air, taking a nap, mental break or self-care day.

It is possible to shift from emotional to empowered eating. 

[Adapted from Molly’s book, Energizing Nutrition: A New Food Paradigm]

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