Category: Wellness – Self Care

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Create, Don’t Perpetuate

“There is a wide difference between the will to resist an activity and the decision to change it. He who changes an activity acts; whereas he who resists an activity, reacts. One creates, the other perpetuates.”

Neville Goddard

Believing the calorie in-calorie out myth isn’t easy to shake. Because I’m stubborn and like the crap I’ve been eating the past 50 years. Sugary foods, soda and breads comfort and satisfy more than hunger. Retraining my brain, my palate and behavior is a long and winding road.

What do I want more? A cookie or a hike in the woods? The answer is different depending on the day.

In his book The Obesity Code, Jason Fung, MD says “We obsess about caloric input into the system, but output is far more important.”

Calories do lots of things for our bodies, like:

  • Heat production
  • New protein production
  • New bone production
  • New muscle production
  • Cognition (brain)
  • Increased heart rate
  • Increased stroke volume (heart)
  • Exercise/physical exertion
  • Detoxification (liver)
  • Detoxification (kidney)
  • Digestion (pancreas and bowels)
  • Breathing (lungs)
  • Excretion (intestines and colon), and
  • Fat production

Whew! Apparently, restricting calories slows everything down. I might feel like I’m always cold – because my internal furnace has no juice. Or I’m not thinking straight – because my brain isn’t being fed. Maybe my heart rate slows down – to save energy. Fung says studies find “a 30 percent reduction in caloric intake resulted in a nearly identical 30 percent reduction in caloric expenditure.”

As I move into Dr. Fung’s chapters on the “Solution,” I’m mulling over some new information. What changes do I want to make? First, retrain my brain – and definitely goose my willingness to change.

Some key observations influencing me personally:

  • It’s okay to skip breakfast if you want – (yay! Never cared for it).
  • Do what grandma said: 1) cut down on sugar and starches; 2) stop snacking – (sob)
  • Ditch fructose “.. fructose seems particularly malevolent to human health” – (fruit in moderation)
  • Artificial sweeteners (incl: Stevia) raise insulin levels; they are bad – (noooo!)

Yeah; I know most of this stuff. Doing it – really changing my behavior is the booger bear; and the difference between creating a healthy future or perpetuating unnecessary struggle.

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.”

Alan Watts
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The Big Fat Lie

Why is it so hard to lose weight?

I believed I could make it happen eating fewer calories and increasing my exercise. The Calories In – Calories Out dance.

WRONG. WRONG. And WRONG

“Reducing Calories In works only if Calories Out remains stable. What we find instead is that a sudden reduction of Calories In causes a similar reduction in Calories Out, and no weight is lost as the body balances its energy budget.”

Jason Fung, MD The Obesity Code

After decades of behaviors based on my calorie reduction belief, I’m being re-educated. I had a nagging discontent with my approach – as I always seemed to hit a wall eventually. Documenting my food helped me be aware of my choices; and regular exercise benefits me in many ways. But at some point I stop trying. Probably because I hit a plateau that won’t budge. That stretch when even robust runs don’t make a difference.

In his book The Obesity Code; Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss, Jason Fung, MD explains many of the barriers and obstacles to what I believed and acted upon. And I’m not the only one.

We were all born into an era that pushed the calories in – calories out propaganda. We’ve been hoodwinked by society, the government and media to believe this hooey. There’s a grain of truth to most good cons. Yes, I can lose weight when I eat less and exercise more. But the story is only partly true; they leave off the part that it’s often a futile effort. If I don’t make the changes permanent, they don’t stick and I gain it all back, and then some!

It’s not the calories; how much we weigh is related to our insulin production and our body set-point.

Now let me get back to his revelations – and see what I can do to believe differently!

“Everything you see I owe to spaghetti.”

Sophia Loren
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No Poop Fairy

Nope.  No Poop Fairies – not for our pups, not for us.

That this has to be broadcast is unfortunate; but apparently necessary.

My neighborhood is gifted with grubby old fast food sacks, useless car tires, decaying banana peels – bestowed by some generous soul passing through.

Big Corporations and their minions think it’s okay to spew toxic waste – if it improves their bottom line.

Emotional vampires will drain my joy and purpose if allowed.

We belong to a collective.  Who cleans up our messes if we don’t?  No one.

No – the Poop Fairy does not exist.  We ALL must look in the mirror and see our responsibility – own our wings and pick up after ourselves.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible” ― Voltaire

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Toned Triceps vs Granny Wings

PT Goddess’s prescription to ward off granny wings …

… this after I read that HIIT will help flatten an apple belly.   

Do it – and see the results.  Or keep telling myself that same old story and see those results.

As with all things; it’s a choice.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

“We first make our habits, then our habits make us.” ― John Dryden

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Sitting With My Inner Grizzly

As I walked into the living room from an extended and very intense workout – my husband said “you’ve been at it a long time today” … my response: “yeah; helps me not want to pinch people’s heads off!”

Strong emotions … and the many ways to deal with them.  With everything going on this week I employed more than one.  Upping my endorphins with serious cardio absolutely morphed my mood.  As did attending my favorite Gentle Yoga & Meditation class . . . and my extreme hip-hop dance class.

Reaching out to my mates, my community for support also provided relief to my fury.  Exercise, deep breathing & meditation; community, all help level my emotions when I’m disturbed.

 

Several years ago while studying the works of Pema Chodron, I was introduced to a different way to cope with intense feelings; the practices of the Warrior Bodhisattva and applying tonglen (May 31, 2015 Blog Post).  Wikipedia says that with tonglen:

“… one visualizes taking in the suffering of oneself and of others on the in-breath, and on the out-breath giving recognition, compassion, and succor to all sentient beings.  As such it is a training in altruism.”

When I read this back in 2015, the whole concept was overwhelming.  Starting small and with time I’ve allowed myself to be curious about what drives my strongest emotions.  In her teaching on The Wisdom of No Escape, Pema says:

“When the flag goes up, we have an opportunity: we can stay with our painful emotion instead of spinning out. Staying is how we get the hang of gently catching ourselves when we’re about to let resentment harden into blame, righteousness, or alienation.”

Coming to know myself, accepting all my good, bad and ugly – embracing it, sitting with it; loving it . . . remains a work in progress.

“Sticking with uncertainty is how we learn to relax in the midst of chaos, how we learn to be cool when the ground beneath us suddenly disappears. We can bring ourselves back to the spiritual path countless times every day simply by exercising our willingness to rest in the uncertainly of the present moment—over and over again.”

Yes – Relaxing “..in the midst of chaos..”  Learning “to be cool when the ground beneath us suddenly disappears.” . . . This is an intention I can embrace; a practice worth cultivating.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

From her book Comfortable with Uncertainty; Pema Chodron’s #4 of “108 Teachings on Cultivating Fearlessness and Compassion”

The Wisdom of No Escape

The central question of a warrior’s training is not how we avoid uncertainty and fear but how we relate to discomfort. How do we practice with difficulty, with our emotions, with the unpredictable encounters of an ordinary day? For those of us with a hunger to know the truth, painful emotions are like flags going up to say, “You’re stuck!” We regard disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, jealousy, and fear as moments that show us where we’re holding back, how we’re shutting down. Such uncomfortable feelings are messages that tell us to perk up and lean into a situation when we’d rather cave in and back away.

When the flag goes up, we have an opportunity: we can stay with our painful emotion instead of spinning out. Staying is how we get the hang of gently catching ourselves when we’re about to let resentment harden into blame, righteousness, or alienation. It’s also how we keep from smoothing things over by talking ourselves into a sense of relief or inspiration. This is easier said than done.

Ordinarily we are swept away by habitual momentum. We don’t interrupt our patterns even slightly. With practice, however, we learn to stay with a broken heart, with a nameless fear, with the desire for revenge. Sticking with uncertainty is how we learn to relax in the midst of chaos, how we learn to be cool when the ground beneath us suddenly disappears. We can bring ourselves back to the spiritual path countless times every day simply by exercising our willingness to rest in the uncertainly of the present moment—over and over again.

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