NEED RHYTHM?

Taking just one normal breath into your heart is a personal commitment to feeling your natural rhythm. Breathe more, eat less. Notice your heartbeat. That's your rhythm. 

Breathing into your heart, before each meal or snack puts you in rhythm with your needs. For best digestion, breathe relaxed when you eat. 

Everyone needs a breather to reconnect mind and body. It's how we stay in tune with ourselves. Intuitive eaters take breathers to check in with their senses and personal priorities before they eat. It’s an orgy of the eyes and tongue that considers taste, timing and the desire to look and feel good. Intuitive eating is a personal commitment to finding the right rhythm.

Breathing easy finds a rhythm that helps you lose weight because it keeps you balanced:

·      It connects you with your body.

·      It connects you with your heart.

·      It resets your mind, alleviating stress and refreshing your perspective.

Do this before you eat: Breathe in and think of your heart, and breathe out, one slow focused breath.

·      Remember, you can always eat less.

·      Be aware of signals from your body.

·      Don't rush yourself. Be patient.

·      Be thankful for having food and your life.

Intuitive eating responds to natural rhythms in your life. It's going with the unexpected & taking advantage of your body's rhythm by depending on it. It's breathing easy instead of counting breaths.

Before you close your eyes to sleep, a nice normal breath focused into your heart resets your body rhythm. This is a healthy habit that feels soothing, gentle and polite. It’s an intuitive way to respect yourself. It's a smart way to program your body/mind/self to stay in rhythm.

Resetting your natural rhythm reduces stress eating and inhibits binging. Diets and the ‘count the calories’ mentality lose sight of what eating is all about. Eating is personal. It's about pleasure, comfort and survival. Use breathing to check in with your body to find rhythm when you eat. 

It’s already mid-August. How does summer affect your appetite? Mine gets out of rhythm. So, I take a breather. 

For practical intuitive solutions that are common sense for maintaining a your healthy weight, download: Am I Really Hungry? 6th Sense Diet : Intuitive Eating

and overcome eating challenges.

"If you can't solve a problem, it's because you're playing by the rules." P. Arden

What's Love Got to Do With It?

Food as Love:  warning - sexy.

Are we addicted to eating? What do we need? They say "all we need is Love".  So, do we know what Love is?  If food is love, then what is enough? What are the flavors of love? What does it smell like? How does it taste? Will I like it? Will it be good for me?

Definitely, intuitive eaters relate to food as love. They get intimate with the way it looks and the way it makes them feel about themselves. They get physically turned on and off by smell, and what goes in their mouths, inside their bodies. Eating gets under their skin. It looks good. They have affairs - wild cravings they keep to themselves.

People get bored or are notoriously loyal and then, tastes change. Too much of a good thing can leave us with a belly ache that feels like betrayal, bloating, mistake, discontent.  How do you know when it's time to put a love affair with chocolate on hold?

The answer is: when you feel really satisfied and the fresh memory tells you you'll be wanting more. We're supposed to savor the love, to luxuriate with the taste of it. Sometimes it's time to move on, but that doesn't mean you can't have another meal with your old love, to see if the thrill is still there? or if it's gone.

Appetites change. Things end; things begin. Stuff happens and nothing is ever the same. Every meal is the opportunity for another taste, enhanced pleasure, a different experience - satisfying or not. Love changes us; so does what we eat. Use your senses; get intimate and demanding with your food. Be turned on by what you're eating or find another meal. Might as well face it, we're addicted to love.

 

Intuitive eating .. What's love got to do with it? Everything!

For practical intuitive solutions that are common sense for maintaining a your healthy weight, download: Am I Really Hungry? 6th Sense Diet : Intuitive Eating

and overcome eating challenges.

"If you can't solve a problem, it's because you're playing by the rules." P. Arden

4 Kinds of Hunger

--> There are four kinds of hunger we need to feed. These are physical, mental, social and emotional. All are easily confused with the need for food. Knowing why you feel hungry and what you feel hungry for can help you lose weight.

1. Physical hunger: is your genuine bodily need. It is satisfied by eating nourishing food, not by junk food or the ‘wrong’ food. Although foods with no nutritional value may have bulk, they do not satisfy physical hunger. Your body wants and needs more.      

• Physical hunger signs include: growls, pangs, hollow feelings in your stomach 

• Mental signs of physical hunger include: fogginess, lack of concentration, headache, short temper, fatigue

2. Emotional hunger: Emotions can trigger abusive eating. Emotional eating can be a response, a defense or even habit, with no connection to your nutritional needs. It's often a reaction to loneliness, anger, emptiness, happiness, guilt, fear or stress. Emotional hunger can be satisfied by play, touch, nature, romance, music, art, love and excitement. When satisfied emotionally, people often forget about food and are instead 'high on life'. 

3. Mental hunger:  includes psychological, intellectual, social or habitual hunger.  It is satisfied by conversation, hobbies, entertainment, reading, playing games for fun. Sharing the passion of play can consume your attention to the point of forgetting to eat. Even casual encounters have an impact on satisfying this appetite. When not satisfied, mental hunger can trigger emotional eating.

4. Intuitive hunger:  is the desire for clarity, balance and protection because these are the source of success, excitement, comfort and inner peace.“Just as food is needed for the body, love is needed for the soul.” Osho

            It's natural to enjoy food. What makes food enjoyable, besides taste, is understanding what it does for your life. The food you eat is an investment in your future. Sometimes eating is like taking medicine because your body needs a nutriment to be healthy. Sometimes a food will give your skin a glow or give you a good night's sleep. Using curiosity keeps you aware of food that feels good, and food that doesn't. “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.” Hippocrates 
         Intuitive tools, working with the 5 senses, keep clear where hunger is coming from. You can recognize if hunger is caused by stress, frustration or physical need. When you know why you're hungry, you know what to eat to feel satisfied.

         Without intuitive connections to understand the source of hunger, internal traffic jams, that feel like confusion, occur. Confusion leads to unhealthy habits and vicious cycles of frustration. Tune-in to yourself. 
         This is a excerpt from - Am I Really Hungry, 6th Sense Diet Intuitive Eating 
If you want to understand why you're eating, to stop being a victim of the diet mentality or to maintain your healthy weight intuitively, buy this book.  

“If you don’t know when you’re hungry, you don’t know when you’re full, so you won’t know when to stop eating.” Elisabetta Politi, RD, Duke University Diet &Fitness Center

For practical intuitive solutions that are common sense for maintaining a your healthy weight, download: Am I Really Hungry? 6th Sense Diet : Intuitive Eating

and overcome eating challenges.

"If you can't solve a problem, it's because you're playing by the rules." P. Arden

Eating Appetites

Have you ever felt like you were hungry when you knew you were not? Have you ever craved ice cream after finishing off a big dinner with dessert? Hunger is compelling. It drives us because we  intuitively associate it with survival. But, hunger is not always about food.

Your appetites are sometimes driven by unpleasant sensations like boredom, anger, frustration or loneliness. These kinds of appetites are your mind or soul needing some 'food'.

But, conversation is not something you buy at the store, and friendship is not something you keep in the pantry. It's not as easy to feed your head or heart as it is to feed your body, because you're not used to recognizing this kind of appetite. However, it's real. Your appetites for stimulation, for comfort, for understanding and for affection are an important part of what makes you unique and wonderful.

These kinds of appetites are satisfied by:

• self-respect: You acknowledge that boredom, loneliness, frustration or anger is driving you to eat.
• determination: You decide to protect your body from self-abusive eating.
• prudence: You weigh alternative ways of stopping the physical urge.
• I had a client who kept a rubber band on her wrist because she realized boredom would compel her to stare into the refrigerator. Now, as soon as she starts to feel that urge, she snaps the rubber band and reminds herself, she's not really hungry.
• Another client kept a sign on her refrigerator that said "Why?", which stopped her mindless eating. 
• honesty: Being deeply honest with yourself means not using food to avoid what is unpleasant. It doesn't work. The fact is, it's like covering a mess on the floor with newspaper. The mess is still there.

The odd thing about this kind of appetite is that your body thinks you're hungry, but your intellect knows you are not. Our bodies are the result of our habits. If, over time, you have programmed your body to expect food when you are bored, lonely, frustrated or angry, then you will feel driven to overeat. That's why the simple rubber band works. It's a physical signal that you're okay. You can reprogram your body.

Tune-in to yourself and trust your intuition. Intuition is always self-protective. You can sense if you're making the dignified choice. Be honest and review the facts in your head. You're in charge of and responsible for you, your body and soul.  Self-respect, determination, prudence and dignity are all intuitive tools. Use them and take control.

Learn more. Download Am I Really Hungry? 6th sense diet : intuitive eating and get more insights into what makes you eat and how to take control of your appetites.

Summer Eating Challenge, 3 Intuitive Tips

Summertime - especially at outdoor social gatherings - it's a challenge to keep your weight down. Here are 3 intuitive tips for beating the summer eating challenge.

1. Drink more water. You need it to stay hydrated, plus water will dull your hunger.  Drink between meals and between bites. If you prefer flavor, try putting cucumber slices, fruit slices or mint leaves in your water, or drink cool, naturally sweet fruit/herbal teas (with no additional sweetener).

• How it works: 
• Water fills you up by taking up room in your stomach so that you don't feel starved to eat. 
• Because you sweat more in the summer, you physically need more water. You won't be running to the bathroom too often because your body will absorb the water to replace perspiration.
• It's easy to confuse thirst with hunger. In fact, when it's really hot outside, your body may be more satisfied with water than a second helping of apple pie. If you emotionally want that 2nd piece of pie, go look at yourself in the mirror, right into your eyes, and think it over. Then do what feels right.

2. Eat smaller portions. Digesting food raises your body temperature slightly. That means, the more you eat, the more likely you are to suffer from hot weather indigestion. Eat less, socialize more.

• How it works:
• Eating less means you consume less calories. You feel lighter and your body isn't burdened by the task of digestion for so long. You will feel more energetic.
• This gives you time to enjoy other physical pleasures like swimming, kissing or just relaxing. This is important because it feeds other types of hunger you have - for activity, for intimacy, for relaxation.

3.  Be kind to yourself. You work hard, you're stressed and you barely take time to reflect on what really makes you happy. Stress makes you look and feel old. Before you eat, take 5 minutes to reconnect with peace of mind. Do this by breathing slowly and deeply in and out a few times, so that you really feel your body - not just your hunger - but also your heart. You matter to a lot of people.

•  How it works:
• When you are kind to yourself, people relate to you differently. As a result, for many reasons, you experience less stress at mealtime. Less stress means less emotional eating, less binging.
• When you're kind to yourself, your body relaxes. When your body relaxes, it's easier to lose weight. When you're stressed, your body 'thinks' you're in danger and it will hold on to, or produce fat, to protect you from famine. 

Use your intuitive tools of determination, tenacity and self-respect to beat the summer eating challenge. Imagine how good you'll look and how good you'll feel emotionally and physically. You  won't have to depend on anyone but yourself to do it!

Power Skills for Intuitive Eating

You feel in control when you balance what you eat, with what you need and how you feel. Balance is a power skill. Another name for intuitive eating is eating with an open mind. An open mind looks at the big picture, weighs the facts and sees what matters to achieve balance. The big picture is more important than calories. It's about you. Breathing drives power skills for intuitive self-control.

Here are 3 Breaths to Intuitive Eating:

1. Take a bite.

• Breathe slowly to recognize if you are very hungry or not. Listen to your body. Notice how you feel physically. Have you ever been too tired to eat?

• How it works: Breathing slower is the way to connect with your body to be clear about hunger.  Hunger is physical. Decide to listen to what you feel physically. Respond to your body.

•  Power skill: Tenacity. Tenacity is being true to yourself - mind, body and spirit.

2. Taste your food.

• Breathe naturally to connect with your normal rhythm. Notice how you feel in your head: Happy? Bored? Stressed?  Notice your food. If you're not tasting what you eat, stop.

• How it works: Natural breathing connects with your emotions and state of mind. Taste connects with what matters. When emotions drive eating, it offends you in your core by ignoring or abusing your body. Give yourself a break. Binging, no matter what the reason, hurts- because it's unbalanced.

• Power skill: Dignity. It's not what you do, but how you do it. Dignity is self-respect. You can feel it.

3. Put both of your hands in your lap.

• Take 1 quick deeper breath in and out to refresh the way you look at things, wipe your head clean and connect with the big picture. What is your overall state of mind? 

•  How it works: A quick breath is your reset button. Putting your hands in your lap gives your lungs more space to expand. A quick deep breath resets your rhythm. It thrusts you into the moment to uncover new options. When you take a full view of how you feel, what you feel & what you need, it creates a balance. The result is: your options change.
• Power skill: Prudence. It's like comparison shopping. Prudence is comparing options. You can always choose to get what you need from what you eat.

This is so easy that you may find yourself a little giddy. That's okay. Intuition connects with your 'funny bone.' Like your sense of humor, how you eat is personal. That's why the best way to know what to eat, is to check in with yourself. You have the power.

Get practical intuitive solutions that are common sense for maintaining a your healthy weight, download: Am I Really Hungry? 6th Sense Diet : Intuitive Eating

and overcome eating challenges.

"If you can't solve a problem, it's because you're playing by the rules." P. Arden

4 Intuitive Steps to Slim

Because intuitive eating includes self-respect, being slim is a personal pact with yourself. Intuition is something you feel, not something you think. Sometimes it feels like curiosity. Sometimes it feels protective. Be curious about how your body feels before you put food in your mouth. This is how to protect yourself from mindless overeating. 

4 Intuitive Steps To Be & Stay Slim

1. Recognize when you feel curious or self-protective around food. Pay attention to yourself! These are physical signals from your intuition. The more you notice the signals, the clearer they become. 

• Why it works: Your body is always talking to you - especially before and while you are eating. Tune in to how you feel.

This is how you learn to eat when you're hungry and stop when you're not.

2.  Sincerely decide that losing weight long-term or staying slimmer matters to you. Your 'little voice' will remind you when you go off track. Listen to it.

• .Why it works: When you are sincere in a private way, you make a pact with your heart that is registered by your brain.

When you eat with this mindset, you eat less.

3.  Don't starve yourself and don't eat until you're stuffed. Survival is intuitive. Starving your body is not. Physically doing this sends signals to your body to store fat! Eating with curiosity and being protective of your body reduces stress.

• Why it works:  Our body is  a machine that works for best health when it is not starved or overloaded. You will notice that you have more energy when you keep your body feeling comfortable but not stuffed. 

When you stress less, you eat less.

4.  Smile more when you eat. It's a fact that digestion works more efficiently when our body is relaxed. That means your body burns more calories and gets more energy from food when you're relaxed while eating. If you inhale food like a 'vacuum', you are not relaxed. You know you're relaxed when you enjoy and remember the taste of what you are eating. 

• Why it works: You cannot chew food and smile at the same time. Smiling slows down your eating and gives you time to notice the way your food tastes. This helps you relax. If you're eating with others, your smile will send them signals to relax. Smiling helps to satisfy social needs at mealtime.

Enjoying social and physical pleasures of eating is healthy. Good health feels sexy.

Your body is your personal priority. Make a pact with yourself and let the good times roll.

Get practical intuitive solutions that are common sense for maintaining a your healthy weight, download: Am I Really Hungry? 6th Sense Diet : Intuitive Eating

and overcome eating challenges.

"If you can't solve a problem, it's because you're playing by the rules." P. Arden

6th Sense Eating - easy answers

6th Sense eating is automatically relaxing and refreshing. It feels like common sense. Common sense is a shortcut to the 'right answer.' The point is that by using your senses, it's easy to control your decisions. Everything you sense is clear because you can feel if choices are right. You can literally think and feel with your senses. 

Intuition, like what you see or smell, is personal. That's why we all don't 'like' the same tastes or smells.  Unlike taste, touch or smell, your 6th sense comes with universal intuitive tools that are guides. 

The first tool of your 6th sense is curiosity. Curiosity is the intuitive search for satisfaction.

• Curiosity gives you x-ray vision and super hearing because it means looking closer and hearing more. 
• When you eat, use this advantage to question how your body feels and notice what really matters to you.
• Questioning your choices is the 6th sense way to maintain self-control.

The point of meals is to nourish your body and enjoy social interactions. Take time to be curious about where you are, who you're with and what's on your plate. We eat to satisfy physical hunger. It's smart to put down a sandwich or fork between bites. This gives you space to notice if you're still physically hungry. Eat what feels right to your senses.

Another universal intuitive tool to stay in control of eating choices is patience.
Patience is the intuitive source of confidence. It keeps boundaries and priorities clear.

• Patience provides breathing room that refreshes your perspective with common sense_.
• Patience is an intuitive 20-second pause that connects with natural self-protection. 
• For the expected and the unexpected, you can depend on patience to stay emotionally clear.

During mealtime, take an 'intuitive' pause to share a thought, joke, gossip or just vent. That's how you feed yourself socially. You will eat less and learn more about people who share your life. Meals are not just about food.

Tips on using the 10 universal intuitive tools as guides to make smart eating decisions are explained in every chapter in Am I Really Hungry, 6th Sense Diet : Intuitive Eating. If you are tired of frustration and ready to have satisfaction, this book is the resource that will keep you company when the going gets tough.

Party Protection

Spring is suddenly here with all of its cravings!  Appetites are for more than just chocolate eggs or ice cream. Emotionally, Spring can wreck havoc with eating.  An eating plan is a strategy for success. 
Here's the plan:

Remember these 2 facts:

Your Body is your source for pleasure, stamina and Health. 

Social gatherings and parties are for celebrating Life.  

 Tips:

·       Take control of your physical appetite.

o   Before you go out, eat a handful of almonds or walnuts or have a hard-boiled egg. This takes the edge off your hunger. It  frees you from the stress of ‘needing’ to eat the first thing you see at the party. Instead, you will be able to satisfy social hunger, which means having a good time. 

o    Drink a glass of water before you go out. To enhance flavor,  squeeze a slice of lemon  into a glass of water or add a short splash of your favorite fruit drink to flavor it, or enjoy fruity herbal tea – unsweetened.  If you don’t like the way water tastes, ask yourself if you like the way your body looks. Lots of food you eat bulks up when saturated with water.  If you drink a glass of water before or during a meal, you will enhance the digestive process and you will eat less. 

·       Satisfy your social appetite.

o   Only talk about what pleases you. The fact that winter is past is a good place to start a conversation - everyone is happy to welcome Spring.  Talk about what turns you on. Talking more means you will eat less. 

o   Say something nice every time you start a conversation. For example, be thankful for the warm weather, the party or to share a joke. Being kind to others is a way to reinforce being kind to yourself. Emotional eating comes from a place of frustration or anger. Kindness is the opposite of that.

o   Don't talk about eating, diets or your body. It’s not fun for anyone. Spring isn't the season for a pity party. Talking about what makes you feel badly about yourself leads to binging. It’s a kind of self-betrayal. Remember, what you focus on is what you attract, so focus on what feels dignified and liberating.

·       Feed your intuitive appetite. 

o   Check in with your whole self - heart and belly. Before you eat anything, ask yourself, “Am I really hungry for this?” This question is a way of focusing you to be aware of your best interests. Focus is the magnifying glass in the intuitive tool chest that keeps personal priorities and boundaries clear.

o   Be sensual. Eating isn't about what you think; it's about connecting with your body. The more you connect with what you see, taste, touch and smell, the more control you will feel over your choices. Spring is a time for enhanced sensuality, so talk about what tastes fantastic and share the pleasure with someone else. This is especially cool if you share the taste experience with a child. Sensual eating means you eat slower, eat less and enjoy it more. 

o   If your Spring craving is romantic, share a taste with your intended and then:

§  Say, "Mmmmnnnnnn." This is the sensual language for pleasure. 

§  When you put food in your mouth, look right into your partner's eyes. This is so sexy, you may lose your appetite for food. LOL

§  Stop eating before you feel full. This gives you the 'space' you need to feel sensual all over.

For practical intuitive solutions that are common sense for maintaining a your healthy weight, download: Am I Really Hungry? 6th Sense Diet : Intuitive Eating

and overcome eating challenges.

"If you can't solve a problem, it's because you're playing by the rules." P. Arden