Do you eat before your body is ready?

Most of us experienced a few days last week where food was extra-abundant. Last week it wasn’t as easy to try this practice, now after the feast your body may be ready for you to play with some healthy boundaries.

Do you fear being hungry? Or if you wait too long to eat, are you scared that once you start eating you will not be able to stop? I have and had these fears. What would it feel like to overcome these fears? Would you have more freedom of choice and feel more empowered during your day?

The last Jump Start of the year was amazing. The group came up with a word that described their experience, here was our tag line: “fearless, full-filled with energy and clarity”.  My word was fearless. I broke some of those old beliefs about how I wouldn’t be able to have self-control or energy if I waited too long to eat, it didn’t happen once. I kept playing with the feelings of hunger to relate to my fears and beliefs that were not supporting me. One day I swear I was going to come home and eat leftover sourdough bread and once I started with dinner and ate my first bite of salmon, I forgot all about that bread. Was it my mind or body that forgot? When your stress hormones and organs are balanced they only want true nourishment to function properly.

This mind-body connection everyone is talking about is making more and more sense to me everyday in my personal life and by coaching others. The definition of mind-body connection is: Involving, or resulting from the interrelationship between one’s physical health and the state of one’s mind or spirit.

The goal is to have freedom of choice. Not to be a victim to your stress hormones, blood sugar slumps, negative mind chatter, and feelings of deprivation. Instead to choose how to nourish your body in the moment with self-compassion, awareness, and quality support.

So, when you are trying to decide if you are hungry, double check if it is your mind telling you to believe it or if your body and stomach are ready for the nutrients. Recall this blog on how your body utilizes fat for energy, How your body releases fat –When you are not eating, or you are exercising, your body must draw on its internal energy stores. Your body’s prime source of energy is glucose. In fact, some cells in your body, such as brain cells, can get energy only from glucose. So before you go grab a latte between meals, try to really feel your body and allow these metabolic processes to do their duties.–

This week’s goals are to observe how your mind and body communicate during meal times.

1. Observe your thoughts. Are you in your head at meal times or actually listening to your body’s hunger signals. And are those thoughts coming from old less supportive habits, fear or control? Make sure your mind and body are on the same page. You may have to wait 20 minutes to eat so you can connect these two, I highly recommend that.

2. Feel your stomach either with your hands or through breath. Check in to see if your stomach is growling and ready to receive food. You may notice when you begin eating in this manner you are satiated quicker.

3. Try to go for a walk or meditate in the mid day or evening when you are not quite hungry yet. This will help the cortisol and other stress hormones rebalance and assist with the way your body releases fat, through carbon dioxide.

To help you enhance your mind-body connection we will be having the first Jump Start of 2016 on January 4th. Please do not “go crazy” prior to this date and then start then, because look out you can have more detox effects. However, we are here for you no matter what.

Stay fearless,

Heather Fleming, C.C.N