The Physiology of Stress

This is part 2 of the stress blog I wrote, referenced here
When a gazelle is being chased in the African safari by a cheetah, there are 3 topics that come to mind in order to save it's life.

1) The body  
2) The environment 
3) Time 

The Physiology of Stress
As humans, we can relate to these animal instincts. We obsess over the same things during times of stress. Our body (why is my hair falling out, our reflection in the mirror). Our environment (what are the people doing around me, am I going to be harmed, can I get away). And time (when do I need to leave, when will this be over, how long until the big day.)

The big difference is that as humans, we live inside the illusion of this constant stress-state. The gazelle will relax and begin grazing in the grass after he escaped death, and return to his relaxed, parasympathetic mode within fifteen minutes. As humans, we wake up to an alarm and we're out the door returning to all things unnerving, subject to everyday noises of sirens, cell phone notifications, the demands of life. As over-worked Americans, we have deadlines, job transitions, heartburn and coffee spills on our shirts. We reach a breaking point several times during the day. Then we disconnect from life by turning on The Walking Dead and shows that invoke a stress response just from the visual assault. Even trivial, normal life experiences like not getting a close parking spot, like the wind blowing, the new coworker who's stole your thunder- they all keep us up-regulated in our stress response and getting us closer to fight or flight mode.

We are told all day long by commercials and media that we are stressed for time and need to pay for house cleaning and lawn and tax services. We freak out when there is a car accident, instead of feeling the emotions of empathy for the people involved and gratitude for the fire trucks, police and ambulance for helping. Our heads are so screwed into stress mode that radical experiences don't effect us like they should. Stress causes us to become self-centered because we are after-all, in survival mode - where our body thinks its on the brink of death. Stress is a self-serving mechanism, it shuts off long-term thoughts and it has no care for the emotions of other people. 

The Physical
Doctors confirm 70-95% of all illness and disease is caused by stress. So consider the underlying reason you are calling to schedule your doctors visit. Yes, even that seemingly obnoxious cold you caught, or the seasonal allergies you suffer from are from a burdened immune system. When your immune system is up-regulated,  from the hormones of stress running a muck in your bloodstream, your body is out of homeostasis and you get knocked onto your sick bed.

Physical processes that get out of wack under stress:

• Decreased sex hormones
• Decreased nutrient absorption due to nutrients being excreted out before they get into the cell
• Increased oxidative stress (advanced aging)
• Increased insulin resistance 
• Increased inflammation
• Decreased kidney function
• Decreased muscle mass
• Increased blood cholesterol
• Increased salt retention
• Increased cortisol
• Decreased gut flora (good bye digestion)
• Decreased oxygen supply
• Decreased thermic effeciency
• Decreased hydrochloric acid (stomach acid)
• Decreased growth hormone
• Decreased T4/T3 (thyroid hormone)
• Slowed gastric emptying
• Increased food sensitivity/allergies

How could we NOT get sick with all these human systems going haywire.

After the stress response is activated, reactions to life become unstable based on your perceived focus. When you're stressed, you stop being living in the present moment, you say things you don't mean AND you are a total space cadet.  Under stress, people have conversations with you that you aren't fully vested in and you miss most of what they say. Mental disconnect is a bi-product of the stress induced trance we live inside. You're thinking of your upset client and how someone else eff-ed up the deal and you have to fix it. You're thinking about the ding on your credit and wondering if it means you won't get approved for a loan. You're thinking about this big stuff and your kids are asking for hugs and play time. The whole while, you miss the point completely- you're disconnected and your kids want you. You're missing out on the joy of life, and even your kids are trying to give it to you. In the confines of stress, it seems like there' no way out, that  no one else's problem is as big as yours and there's nothing anyone can do to help. It keeps you trapped there, living joy-lessly. It hurts. It hurts your emotional self, your health and the people you come into contact with.

Chronic Stress

Stress is Automatic. We don't push a stress button to invoke it. We don't have a pill to bring on our stress. Instead, without effort, our body initiates "go-for-launch" mode as fast as you think one thought. That one thought propels you into the sprint of fight or flight mode, using just your imaginative mind. There are major things, like getting called in your boss' office during rumors of lay offs. Realizing you left the rice cooking on the stove and you're half an hour away from home. Realizing someone your husband works with is trying to sleep with your husband. Then there are thoughts of unworthiness, or thinking of how someone hurt you days ago. The perceived ideas of the mind, or the everyday stresses, both cause a chemical reaction in your body, not much different than eating toxic food, binge drinking or taking drugs. Your cells respond negatively to mental assaults, just as painfully as the physical ones.

Super Stress: Fight or Flight

Fight or Flight mode gets turned on without deliberate intent. Fight or Flight is what happens when stress is taken to the extreme, its like a black hole you can't think your way out of. But, good news here, fight or flight gets activated automatically. We don't have to put on our workout pants or draw out detailed escape plans; instead our body responds on a dime to release our super human traits. But over time and repeated activation, this response system gets worn down. You become used to the car alarm and the heavy caseload at work and you daily life becomes unknowingly-dedicated to the constant stimulus. If you stay in fight or flight mode too long, your system adapts to the high levels of cortisol, resistant to it and subservient to its damaging effects. Hello adrenal fatigue. Not only can people not lose weight in chronic stress mode, but they gain fat despite a clean diet and healthy eating because the body is not thriving, it's running the hamster wheel at super warp speed. When cortisol is in your system long term, you're bordering on insulin resistance. On top of that, high levels of stress cause some of us (guilty!) to overeat in order to get comfort, to release the stress. Never helpful for weight loss efforts. 

Stress and Body Fat

Fight or flight mode helps us survive by sending extra blood to our limbs so we can run, stopping digestion so we don't waste energy on needless places, it heightens our senses so we can see further and run faster. Yes, the fight or flight mode makes us ALL super human despite how long its been since we worked out. Women have been known to lift entire cars off their children to save their life. Survival mode helps save us and our loved ones, but modern times keep us in a hold under the drowning waters of stress. Stress pulls all available glucose (blood sugar) into the bloodstream to make sure you're ready to outrun danger. But when you're stressed out of your mind, and sitting watching The Walking Dead or stressing about a friendship you screwed up, all that sugar gets pumped into your body, inviting diabetes and blood sugar imbalances. Then gets dumped into your fat cells. And your liver is not going to be burning up fat, i.e. you're not going to be loosing weight when you're stressed out because your body is worried about keeping you alive. To your body, it's about the BIG picture.

Reacting Drunk
Think of drunk people, hyper-reactive to everything. Then the next morning, the now hung over person wakes up confused, not sure what logic they used when they said dumb things and acted out of character. Their body and mind were hijacked. Stress does the same thing - it seizes your body and makes your reactions automatic and selfish, instead of intentional. Don't let stress hijack your thoughts and behavior. When you're stressed out, you are not thinking with logic and reason, you're thinking within the  confines of survival mode. Manage your stress so you can stay inside your body and aware of everything going on. When you are aware, you are in control of your life. Lucky for you: you decide how you feel and react to any situation. Bad situations will always come your way, people will unfriend you on Facebook, traffic is inevitable, those things are unavoidable. Accept that it's not the situations that need to change, but instead YOUR REACTIONS to them.

Solution Time:
Weight loss happens in Rest and Digest Mode. Anytime you sleep, you relax, you are taking deep breaths- you're letting your body know it's OK to repair the system and release extra weight. You're letting your body know that the world is a safe place and there's nothing chasing you.  So don't feel lazy for spending 30 minutes reading a book or sleeping in. Feel confident that relaxation is you in fat burning mode. Stay tuned for my next blog on How to Reach Rest and Digest Mode.

Just know this.  YOU are unique and needed in the world. You are needed to be your best self, and your best self is present and caring toward others. Your best self is not the one worried, angry, unworthy, revengeful, or dishonest. Those are the emotions of stress and they aren't serving you. Not now, not later. They are keeping you in a holding pattern, so nip 'em in the bud.

Want more on Stress, my older post:

Are You Surviving or Thriving?

Invoking Physical Change, You Are The CEO

In one of my favorite books, Nurturing Wisdom, the author said there are two divisions of the mind. There is the thinking part and there is the proving part. One part of your brain will have a thought and the other part will seek ways to prove it's correct. It develops our belief system. It's why once we have a belief, we see it's truth everywhere. This is why religion works so well.

This morning, my dear 3-year old daughter woke me up, it was too early, and I was grumpy at the intrusion of my slumber. Meh. But this morning, in particular she said, "I love you, can I kiss you?" My whole body softened as she puckered up and kissed my cheek and hair over and over. From the moment she woke me up to the moment post kisses, what changed?  My thoughts. My thoughts changed my emotions.

Other people's reactions (her reaction) is the part of life we're not in charge of, as CEO's. Just like CEO's are not in charge of the market changes or employees or other company's, we are not in charge of the behavior of others. There will be good and there will be bad and in between from outside sources but we are in charge of being the CEO's of our actions, our thoughts and our emotions. So we're going to discuss how to control our minds, so that a bad day and a good day are not random occurances.


My prior immature belief system
Most of my teenage years all I did was take all the pain of the world, all the cruelty I felt and instead of making my thoughts about it better, I internalized it. I didn't know how to handle it and I got really depressed at a young age. I turned that depression into a drive toward a skinny body. I had this jaded belief that if I had the perfect body, then life would be peaches and cream. I thought if I was perfect, people would like me, I thought I'd get everything I wanted and I could be permanently happy. What a rude awakening it has been to be so drastically disappointed. Permanent happiness is not real. Happiness is not a trophy you get to put on your fireplace mantel. Nope, happiness is not a destination, happiness a place you find with your thoughts. There are poor people who live on barely anything but they experience more joy than you do. There are rich people who live in absolute misery. Just like there are skinny people who live in constant depression. And I guarantee there are people who would trade places with you, and all your circumstances, and they would feel extreme joy. Happiness is a mindset, it's not your genes, or your job, or your car, and it's definitely not your body.

You see, our thoughts create our physical body. Our thoughts determine our behaviors and our emotions. Our body is our subconscious mind. Ever heard that?  Our body is always listening to the commands of our thoughts, spoken words and emotions. When we decide the dessert is what's making us fat, not only is it going to do just that but it will also tell us that when we feel fat, we'll crave dessert. Why? Because in the long haul of life, we've established a mindset and a behavioral pattern associated with feeling fat. And every other emotion also has patterns associated with it.  When I feel fat, I get unmotivated, when I feel stressed I stop living in the moment, when I feel unworthy, I get really introverted.

Patterns of Behavior
The same goes for stress by the way. For me, when I feel stressed, I eat without realizing it, I snap at my kids without listening to them, I stop being present, I forget to take deep breaths, I don't look far into the future, I drive crazy bad, I become very selfish, thinking whatever is going on for others is smaller than my issue. When I feel flawlessly beautiful, I am present, I feel calm, I feel that everything is going very well. What do you do under stress? Drink too much, scream at people, stop appreciating beauty?

So by recognizing our own repeating patterns, we can stop the behaviors we don't like.

It starts with paying attention to how we feel. First we have to recognize what we're feeling. We've become numbed as a society by the distractions in life, things like Facebook, the TV, YouTube (my personal biggest addiction right now is YouTube Red) anything that keeps us from being present in the moment. Anything that pulls us away from connecting with our emotions and what's going on in life. So if we acknowledge how we feel and own it, no matter how ugly it looks, then we are creating the first step toward change. And usually the feeling is brought on by our thoughts, repeating beliefs that keep us locked into our present lifestyle.

After we own the feeling by feeling it, we can begin to see what pattern we have associated with it. What do I repeatedly do when I feel this way? How do I behave and what thoughts do I keep repeating?

Next, we MUST take time to refocus, reground ourselves toward our driving factors. What changes are you wanting to make? And here's the MAGIC question ---------> How do you WANT to feel? If you want to feel loved, what are the things you do and say to yourself when you do. So can you reverse it, and start doing those things you do when you feel that way? Such as, when I feel happy, I am very sweet to others, and I think really good thoughts of the past, future and present. When I feel happy, I am kind to myself and I don't put others down.

There's two ways to address this.  If you want to FEEL a certain way, maybe you want to feel like a skinny bitch. You just have to pretend, you set the stage and you act the part. I don't mean going out to buy size 6 jeans and trying squeezing into them. What I mean is, you wear clothes that you feel sexy in, ones that make you feel damn good looking. You seek out the feeling first. Because when you FEEL thin, you will act thin. And when you act thin, you'll feel thin. That's the blessing of the patterns. The feeling will create the behavior pattern you want. The behavior pattern will induce the physical change.

Ask yourself valuable questions for this exercise. What are you doing when you feel your best? For me, when I feel my best, I'm out of the house. When I feel my best, I am meeting new friends. When I feel my best, I am aggressive at work. When I feel my best, I am writing dynamite blogs. When I feel my best, I am the sweetest Mom you could ever ask for. Now, I have no idea - which behavior created which, but the patterns link them and they make life really easy for you to make changes. Use the patterns as your guidance, and they'll lead you to gold.


EMPOWERMENT
You're in control of everything. You are the CEO. Be a powerful CEO by being aware of your thoughts. If a bad thought comes in -you know because it makes you feel depressed or unworthy or just shitty in general. If a bad thought comes in, just do one thing for me. Soothe it away. This is a practice. Practice this with grace. Instead of thinking, "I can't believe I just ate all that candy and I was only going to have one piece." Instead think, "wow, my body was really craving some sweet stuff, it sure tasted good! I'm glad I had that available in my time of need." Soothe the pain away with better feeling thoughts. If you wanted to go for a 2-mile run but you stopped after only a block, then say "it's OK, this is just where I am today. I'm glad I made it outside, I did my best, all I can do is my best."

You are in charge of your reaction to the outside world. You are in charge of your reaction to the guy who cut you off in traffic. You aren't in control of the guy (or are you??) but you can soften getting cut off by saying something like, "well he's having a really bad day" or "I remember when I was so pissed and I cut off someone just like that." Ever been flipped off driving and sometimes the event just rolls right off you like butter off a warm knife but others that knife stabs you in the heart.  Sometimes you just ignore it with a laugh and an eye roll? You are in charge of your thoughts, and your thoughts are what's controlling your emotions and your behaviors. What is dominating within you? What are you repeatedly thinking, and is it helping or harming you?

Pain, guilt and regret will prohibit your transformation. They lock you into a circle of negative thinking that won't let you blossom. Watching TV to numb you from your emotions only leaves them unresolved. Let it hurt for a bit but then once the pain has subsided, you can decide how you want to tackle it next time. But you can't make logical, functional choices from a place of stress or fear. So soothe the pain, by thinking lightly on the subject. Saying something like, "this is just where I am in my body now, and it's OK, I am always changing." Saying "life is full of ebbs and flows." or "all in all, things are going quite well and I've learned a lot from this."


Steps for using patterns for easy changes:

1.  Decide on the goals you are working toward (a fit body)
2.  Decide what emotion you will feel when you have them. (when I am at my goal weight, I   will feel happy)
3. Find things you do that make you feel that way (when I am moving, walking or exercising, I feel joy)
4. When you don't feel joy or fit, think thoughts that will soften the heavy burden. (I'm doing my very best now, my body is changing daily, I am in control of my body)
5. Start doing the things you plan to do when you have a fit body. 

Lasting change is evoked when you are in a peaceful frame of mind. When you are calm of mind, your breathing changes and then your whole physical and emotional body are in control. As your breathing changes, your body begins to function optimally. When your body functions optimally, your glands and organs know just what to do. Find peace in everything. Find lightheartedness in where you are and seek out where you want to be.

Take care my sweet friends! Much love to your on your journey as CEO's.

Joy Is The New Skinny

All these years, staring at ourselves in the mirror, looking in dismay and assuming happiness is just on the other side of ten pounds, or the 100 pounds. It becomes this asshole belief, that the scale grants you permission to be happy. And we've taught our self,  this disillusion message of " I Can Be Happy When"... I look a certain way, when I lose the weight, when I have a mate, when I drive this car, when I have enough ones and zeros in my checking account. 

Beauty Could Be in the Eye of the Marketing Campaigns

What?! Your lashes don't look like this?

We're quietly taught by American culture that if we lose weight and get sexy, that then, finally, we get the key to enjoy happiness. But that's just what Nike, Revlon and Macy's want you to think. Big corporations bank millions on the concept of conditional self love. All the big names that market to people use the Army tactic - tear us down then give hope BUT only if we use their product. Stretch marks? Oh dear, better use this cream to make them less visible, as though a scar is so terrible. **TANGENT WARNING**As though our skin should not tell a story. Flawless skin BORES the sh*t out of me. Grow some stories and wear them on your body like your beautifully messy autobiography. **TANGENT OVER**

Conditional happiness is the name of the game.  What condition do you place on your happiness? Now, my lovelies, I want to introduce a new game. 

Most of us want things (cars, people, houses, lifestyles) which we assume will make us TWO things in life: Happy and Healthy. However, I remember in my adult life some of my most dark and depressing times, they were when I had the perfect body, a spouse, kids and almost a white picket fence - a seemingly perfect looking life. But inside, I was a wreck. I was often depressed and talked smack to my body daily. My internal dialog was so negative that I repeatedly needed to workout, to disengage from a painful reality that I was living. Sometimes I worked out three times a day to keep my mood up, if I didn't get to do that, I had to face myself.

That misery led me to understand that we are all suckers to the lies of our first world culture. Happiness is not some forever-medal you are rewarded once you have all your ducks in a row. All that hype we listen to from big-money-driven-companies telling us if we lose weight we'll be thin enough to deserve to be happy, if we drive this car, we'll look like a celebrity, if we take this magic pill we'll be skinny which will make us happy. Guess what- I'm on to you, American capitalism. Happiness comes from a place inside that does not falter to gimmicks and click-here promotions. We're better than that. Of course we are.

There's no amount of money to be paid to procure unconditional self love. That's the best part. Self love is free and feels so darn good. And we all want to feel good. Feeling good is innate - it's the way we were born! You don't see a 2 year old running to hide their naked body in shame, you instead see how loving they are to it, how they carelessly shed their clothes and run naked. Self love and shameless living are built within us, but as we grow up, we screw it up for ourselves - letting marketing companies have their way with our emotions. What if you could have the best of both worlds. What if you could be happy and then you could get the body you wanted. 

If your weight is "keeping" you from being happy:

Your challenge is to set aside worry and stress over food and exercise. That will come organically later, after you feel joy. By practicing kindness to yourself, avoiding mirrors and scales and judgement, then you can move toward what you desire; JOY. Enjoy the food you enjoy. So your goal is to set aside the rules, the harsh judgment and the self hatrid. Your goal is to be happy. In your perfect-for-now body. And how cool is that. How good does that feel? I give you permission to just enjoy being you. 

We've tried the other way. We've tried to listen to nutritionists lamely explain that a size of a meat portion should be a deck of cards. (l-a-m-e) We've tried to force ourselves into a type of exercise that doesn't feel good but we think we need. (Zumba & pilates for me) We've tried to read every new diet book and we've followed it like a bible, but then it all collapses again. We have to be either on or off a diet. That's because we've been going about it backwards. Thinking we have to earn the right to feel joyous in our bodies. Thinking we have to create a rich, skinny, socially acceptable person that is lovable before we can love ourselves. Thinking we have to suffer in order to get what we want. Then we can be happy. Thinking happiness has a cost. Well, it doesn't. It's yours for the taking and you deserve to experience it. Work it backwards.

Maybe work on a 3-month experiment to find our happy and then allow our body to realign with our right appetites, like when we were kids. I am always amazed to watch my 5 year old and 3 year old who turn their noses up at the extra ice cream or the dessert or even dinner - even if they love it. To them, there's no emotional aspect to food. They eat when they're hungry and they don't have a problem leaving half their plate of food or avoiding a meal altogether. Sometimes they are having so much play time I wonder if that is all the nourishment they need, that food is just a bonus. If we could nourish ourselves with so much love, could we then stop abusing food to supplement us with pretend love.

There's an article I wrote on not eating a tub of ice cream in a fancy dress. My point there is, when you are so thrilled about something - a new hobby or a new relationship or a new business venture- your natural appetite goes down. Your happiness level goes up and no longer do you need to self soothe. It's a beautiful, natural system. With joy, your body restores itself. 

A study that proves my point perfectly. In fact, there are lots of these studies, but this one stands out in my mind. There were two groups of people. Both groups were separated from each other. One group was watching a boring 2 hour lecture, the other was watching a 2 hour comedy show. Both groups were given chocolate cake. What do you think happened when they tested their blood sugar levels? They both had the same cake. But their physiological response was massively different. The group that was laughing during the comedy show had normal blood sugar levels while the group listening to the lecture had a large rise in their blood glucose level.

My next post will have more specific details on finding joy, how to seek it out no matter what your dominant mood is. Trust me, this stuff works. The universe knows you want to be skinny, and it wants to bring you happiness - all you have to do is live happy and more happiness will come your way. If you want specific tasks in the mean time - I suggest my above post link for eating ice cream in a fancy dress.

When You Are Feeling Fat...Shifting Gears in a Flash

Fat Shaming 101, here goes. 

I have a secret. When I used to go to the gym, if I worked out with a mirror in front of me, my motivation would pop like a balloon struck by a steak knife. I couldn't stand there and workout, because my negative mind was cruel and relentless. I decided that either I'd gained weight or my family played a mean trick on me and changed out all my clothes for smaller ones.  I judged my body with harsh, resentful eyes. It felt awful inside my head to have those thoughts; so I gave them way. Here's how you can, too.

It's near impossible to feel motivated for the gym when you feel yucky. It feels heavy in your heart and that heaviness contributes to additional heaviness of the body. That level of shame only brings you deeper into a state of despair that spreads into your whole life. Suddenly, social engagements are not exciting when you don't feel that you can hide your weight gain or that you don't have clothes that fit you like they should. Yes, it's a sad world where our appearances bear so much weight. (pun intended!) What's even more sad is hearing the overly-negative internal dialog of the mind and fall for it.

So I recommend you stay away from the gym if it doesn't sound good, don't force it!. If there's just a little piece of you that thinks it would be fun, then maybe, go. But if you have dread and anxiety towards the notion, then skip it. Listen to your inner voice. Take a couple months off without feeling guilt about it.

And definitely don't go somewhere that you leave, feeling worse about yourself. Instead, build yourself up internally. Find a trail to walk on instead, go for an hour long walk. Or don't worry about exercise for a while, just focus on eating nutrient dense foods, like a baked sweet potato with coconut oil and salt.

If going to the gym stresses you out, believe me when I say it will do more harm than good to go. Stress is the number one killer to all things healthy and vibrant. After you feel energetic to workout, find something to do that gets your body moving. If you're really eager, start a 100 day burpee challenge or do wall sits while watching TV or jump on a mini trampoline for 20 minutes. Just move your body in a way that's pleasurable and non-stressful. Plenty of people stay in shape without a gym membership.

When I lost weight in the past, it wasn't while shaming my body. It's always been the opposite. It's been a decision I made and following it out came easy sometimes and tougher other times. Your body reflects your thoughts and your eating habits perfectly, so make them beautiful.

 I also didn't sit there and feel fat, instead I was doing something about it. I also know through the universe that if you want to lose weight you have to operate at a trans-formative vibration. You have to stop looking backwards or forwards and instead focus one step ahead. Focus on what you are doing right now for change. Eating a healthy breakfast with no sugar and enough protein to fuel you. Good. Baby steps. Stay in the vibration. Be elated at that step even if that's your last step of the day. Don't look for results long term, just focus on feeling good. When you slip up, just look for what you can do in your next step. 

How Will I Feel After This...
I realized that I get off track easily when I don't listen to my inner guidance system. But lately I've realized that the further from my guidance I go, the worse I feel. If I want to feel good, then I need to reflect on how my activities make me feel. Does sitting down all day feel good? No. Does it make you feel good after you overeat? Maybe you get a temporary high but then the guilt comes in. The guilt isn't to just make you feel bad, no! The guilt is to inspire you toward change. Use your emotions as your navigation system, and they will lead you to anything you desire. Understand that dissatisfaction is what leads you to change. There is a reason you are feeling this way, it's to use it as your arsenal to get you where you want to go.

Asking Different Questions:

Self-Sabotage Questions:
How did I get to this weight
How did I do this again?
Why do I keep eating so much?

The Questions that lead to Transformation:
What am I doing that's working?
What can I do RIGHT NOW to feel really good?
What have I done in the last hour that has helped me in my journey?
What can I do tonight that will make me feel good tomorrow?

A Miracle Book for sure

My favorite transformative book. I highly recommend. I listened to it on audio CD's and it began my weight loss journey.





Things that you want to grow bigger, focus on. If it feels good, focus on it.  The more you think about something, the bigger it will get. If it makes you feel yuck and negative, send it away, let it go. Talking it out doesn't help for this. Instead, find your happy place. I find mine when I work out, partially because it feels good just to move my body and partially because sometimes it is so hard to do the workouts that I don't have any room inside my head for chatter. My problems can disappear during my workouts.

Get outside. It's a magical place out there and it offers the nurturing, giving, forever abundant energy of mother nature. Unless you are living in Antarctica, there is gear that will protect you from the elements, so get outside for a walk or sit out there and eat dinner. Take in some fresh breaths of air and send out your desires to the world.

Speed thinking/speed eating and speed in general causes all your body to work under stress. It's like having a drill sergeant scream at you to go relax, it won't work.  Slow your roll! When you eat, slow down and enjoy your food with pleasure. Eating quickly teaches your body to store food because your body thinks you are in danger. When you feel your thoughts moving too fast, stop whatever you are doing and sit down or lay down or hell, get upside down in a headstand. It only takes 2 minutes to reset your nervous system. Sit down, take deep internal breaths through your nose and begin again. Your parasympathetic system wants to aid you in weight loss but it can not be turned on when you are stressed out. Weight loss does not happen when you are amped up on caffeine, sweating in the racquetball court or eating like the world is ending. Weight loss happens when your body is at ease, when it's sleeping, when you're recovering from your work out, when it knows that it doesn't need to store energy.

Weight loss through grounding


Weight loss is a multi-faceted issue. It's like having 300 rivers converge into one. You have energetic reasons for your weight to be where it is, you have many physical needs and you have a spiritual pieces. Discover parts of you where your weight is speaking the strongest to and nurture it back to health. We're all here to learn. If we were all perfect, with perfect bodies and perfect thoughts, the world would be a boring place. Instead relish in the idea that you are in control of what your body does and feels like. If you don't like how it feels in this moment, you are one thought away from changing it. Another recent trick I learned, if I feel uncomfortable in my own skin, feeling panicked because I have gained weight, all I have to do is start moving. Any movement will do. I dance, I walk, I stretch, I stand up - movement is king. Movement will set your mind free.

THE ANTAGONISTS TO FEELING FAT:

1. Movement ** My favorite!
2. Lightheartedly accepting you are transitioning without adding negative judgement to your current situation
3. Slow down when your mind tries to race too fast
4. Get outside - get grounded!

REMEMBER THIS: No one ever got fat from having a cheat day, and no one ever dropped all their extra weight from doing one workout. It's about consistency. What are you consistently doing? Make it count.

My fav video

What Your Cravings Mean + Cravings Chart

Sometimes after a big event like the Tough Mudder, I will crave nothing else but a cigarette. It's like I wish instead of handing out bottles of water, they were giving me a Camel Light. It's SOOO strange. I have always been a little ashamed of it but now I understand more. Apparently craving cigarettes/tobacco means your body needs Silicon or Tyrosine. I'm assuming after a race my body wanted Tyrosine because it's involved in adrenaline production which I'm sure I was low on.

Cake + Ice cream, Nope.

Sometimes, if I don't obey my food cravings they eventually nip me in the butt later. So if I'm at a birthday party and they have cake and ice cream (this never happens, right?) And I really  want some, but instead I practice self-control, pout on the inside, and say no thank you. Then, the story is not over. Later that night I might go home and scarf down cookies in private. There's a balance one must find, between indulging and hearing your inner wisdom. I don't always find peace through hard core deprivation. Nor do I find it though a lack of self control. Balance, I swear.

Instead, try to soften your harsh thoughts towards yourself. Figure out what's causing the craving. Cravings mean something. Don't judge them. Instead, let them guide you and then analyze what they mean. Sometimes your cravings will lead you to have a big ass bowl of ice cream. Sometimes boredom or loneliness will lead you there. Well, if you think it will help something, eat the damn thing, be excited about it, relish in it and then examine why you wanted it. Remember that if you feel bad about it later, then use it as a guide to help you the next time you feel that way. Don't over analyze it, just learn and move on.

EMOTIONAL CRAVINGS:

I know about these all too well. If you aren't hungry but you find yourself feeding a bucket (your face) with a huge hole in the bottom. Remember there is not enough food in the world to make it feel better when you feel this way. You do need to feel better, but the food is not the answer, try another answer. Step #1: Trace back where in your day or in your week you needed some nurturing. Maybe because you kinda felt crummy all day and needed to be taken care of. Maybe you just used food to work through some emotion you were avoiding. Maybe you have just started a lousy habit of flipping on the boob tube and eating because it helps you disconnect from reality. If it's for these reasons, then you just need to figure out what else you want to do to cope instead. I like to meditate. I used to do burpees or sit outside. Or hug a tree or set up a massage.

Ginger Tea Recipe here

Food/Item	Deficency	Foods	Energy Meaning
Bread	B Vitamins	High protein	Feeling insecure
	Nitrogen	fish, nuts, beans	Needing comfort
Sweets and carbs	Magnesium	Fresh Squeezed juices	Do 3 protein meals with no snacks between
	B Vitamins	Green fruit smoothie
	Chromium	Broccoli, grapes, cheese, beans
	Phosphorus	Poultry, dairy, eggs, nuts, grains	Feeling unsupported Maybe feeling unhappy
	Sulfur	Cranberries/kale/cabbage
		/crucifer veggies
	Tryptophan	3 protein meals + sweet potato at night before bed
Cheese, fries or pizza	Vitamins E, A, D calcium CoQ10	Homemade French fries or roasted carrots, nut butters or hummus, walnuts, salmon, add fatty acids like fish oil to diet for long-term cravings	Exhaustion, need comfort or sadness about not reaching your goals yet
Coffee/Tea			Burnout, No energy for things you do not love. Resentment toward job or disappointment
	Vitamin C	Chai tea with no sugar Apple Cider Vinegar
	Iron	Black cherries/Meat
	Sulfur	Egg yolks, onion, garlic, crucifer veggies
Chocolate	Magnesium	Carob, Epsom salt bath or magnesium oil spray	Angry that life feels unsatisfactory
Soda pop	Calcium	Sparkling mineral water	Looking to stay   motivated &      energized
	B Vitamins and Vit. C	DIY ginger tea with lemon
PMS Cravings	Zinc	Red meats, cucumber skin, seafood	Feeling   disconnected from thoughts/behaviors
		leafy veggies

Lots more info & help here:

Supplements to Control Carb Cravings

How to Dog Whisper Your Cravings:

Nutrition for Intuition

Craving Chart



References: Nutrition for Intuition Book plus the above web sites

http://www.hayhouse.com/nutrition-for-intuition-paperback

Ass Moves Mass. Bulky Vs Fit.

So the title, "ass moves mass" was not made up by me. The term applies to powerlifters. Likely the only females who are encouraged to eat lots because a bigger size will increase their performance. Maybe Strongwomen get that too? Did you know I'm doing my first Strongman competition this weekend? Oh dear lord, what have I gotten myself into. More on this later. Let's talk adaptation of the female figure.



My Story

Dream Body Alert

A couple years ago, when I was dropping weight dramatically, every week I got noticeably thinner, I was very in tune to the words people used to describe me. I heard words like fit and lean as I walked by. I was approached by strangers who would ask if I was training for a competition. You mean like the Tough Mudder? (I had no clue they meant the standing on stage variety). And I felt that way, I felt thin and fit. I felt light on my feet and absolutely stunning. My clothes were getting bigger and I felt VERY comfortable in my own skin.

The Problems
The problem was my primary focus was weight loss, leaning out - getting smaller. I wanted to be small enough that my hubby could lift me up. I wanted to be the tiny, short girl.  I wanted to be the blonde model from Athleta. I knew heavy lifting, running and high intensity could make me drop fat, so I did that, consistently 3 days a week I pounded the gym pavement like it was my job.

Athleta Dream body

And I was willing (finally) to stop eating crap, start eating more veggies (mostly JUST veggies) and earn the body I wanted. I was willing to do anything. So I ate small meals, only 2 or 3 a day, I did lots of fasts, I sometimes just had a big plate of steamed broccoli for dinner. I skipped meals to make sure I was working out in a fasted state. And in the gym I lifted  and did high intensity for 2 straight hours and came home and wanted to collapse onto my bed. And it all worked. I got down to 17.9% body fat and I felt like my true self emerged from hiding. I had the body I wanted. But I had other obstacles to face.

A Love Affair...
I became entranced with the barbell. I realized that the barbell could change me from feeling timid and shy to feeling superhuman. I could walk into the gym and feel isolated or blah, but after I lifted I felt like a lean, mean, strong-ass machine. So I wanted more, I wanted to lift heavier. I was not longer interested in how many deadlifts I could do at 150#, I wanted to know how much I could lift as a one rep max. Of all the lifts I knew, I kept adding on more weight plates. So my barbell got heavier and heavier and so did my appetite.

me, April 2014

me, June 2015

The Kitchen, Open for Business

Besides being an animal in the gym, I morphed into an animal in the kitchen. I became soooo hungry.  When you have a ferocious appetite, it's impossible to eat like a rabbit. I also increased my workouts, I was often doing two workouts a day. Thus, when you are working out for 2-3 hours a day, your body WILL find a way to fuel your workouts. And considering I was unwilling to lower my workout intensity, I was putting myself into a predicament. I said a subconscious adios to my original goal of wanting to lose weight.

Want to eat 20,000 calories a day? Be this guy, be this guy

My body fat test showed I required an average of 2800 calories a day on active days. It didn't take long to begin the monster eating. More eating meant my body began changing and it was saying, "you're welcome" as it adapted to help me be a badass, I was resenting my body for the growth. I noticed first my legs, and watched as my skinny clothes grew less and less comfortable. I worked out harder, and resisted again. But eventually it doesn't work. Not just because my appetite, but also my cortisol levels went wacky because I wasn't eating before or after my workouts. I considered giving up lifting heavy but that seemed like I was quitting. Plus I like it too much! And once I realized I couldn't   be losing weight and gaining strength, at the same time- I declared a truce,  to stop the fight against my body. Very easy to say. Very hard to do.

Anatomy and Physiology 101...
You can be strong and fit and also have fat over your muscles.This is why you might have a six pack just dying to come out and play if you would tweek your diet. There are plenty of strong people out there but they have a high body fat percentage so you can't see their superhero muscles. Also, bulky is a subjective term. What I used to think was "too much muscle" on a female has changed over the years. Not everyone agrees that strong is the new skinny. Also, girls are more prone to fat storage because we are created to reproduce. It's an honor but can be a little bit of a curse to our figure.

My Diet has also been through leaps and bounds since this all began. Where once I was a simple PURIST, restricting my diet by ingredients, these ingredients have slowly slipped back into my life.

The LEAN diet I followed 100% of the time when I was my most fit:
- No dairy
- No alcohol
- No SUGAR!! HUGE factor right here!
- No gluten
- No exceptions

NOW...Instead of passing on the desserts, I have a little.OK, OK, sometimes I have a lot. And I know the sugar is bad news for my body comp. I know sugar decreases my human growth hormone and increases insulin. These are two major hormonal players involved in determining what your body looks like. Do you want to look fit? Nix the sugar. I guarantee nothing FIT will ever come of sugar.  Wanna more sugar hatin? Here. Now what words do I hear to describe me? Bulky, Jacked, big, "all muscle", a beast. It's been a lesson in self acceptance. An introduction to unconditional love for myself. Admiring myself for what I can do and disregarding thoughts of what I feel I "should" look like.

In conclusion...
Your body composition is decided in the kitchen/restaurant/fast food line. It's based on what you do or do not eat.  Eating sweet desserts, downing soda and eating nutrient poor food will cause unfavorable results. But eating your veggies and supplying your body with vitamins might just change your life! As for lifting heavy, yes I think it can cause large muscle growth, and I think its beautiful. But it won't happen overnight, and it won't necessarily be unfavorable. And it will encourage a big appetite which I think is the main factor in getting big.

The Elite Crossfit body. These Girls: Not a Starvation Diet

The adaptation of the Female Crossfitter's Body. This is Camille Leblanc-bazinet. This is how much a body can change and adapt over the years based on what physical activities you demand of your body. This is the body in motion, improving and progressing.  Too often we watch weakness enter the body with a poor diet and watch people grow in fat. It's beautiful to watch the human body grow in strength. 

2010



2012

2013

2015

Pressing Topic: What You Don't Know About Fat Loss

POP QUIZ...Where does fat escape the body when you lose weight? Fat, or adipose tissue has mass, right? You can visually see it or feel it when you put on clothes.If you guessed into the toilet you are wrong!  So when you lose weight, where is that mass going? How does it leave?

A Breathetarian Barbie. Either that or all her food get stored in her chest

The answer surprised me. You breathe fat out. Fat becomes carbon dioxide and you breath it out. Did you just take a deep breath as you read that? 84% of your fat is breathed out through you lungs in the form of carbon dioxide and the rest of it becomes water.

This is fab news for us exercising fitness fanatics. We're burning calories, and breathing out fat while we do it. No wonder I have a hard time leaving the gym!



Want another mind blowing tid bit to add to your RAnDom arsenal for amusing small talk? There are people called breatharians. Ever heard of them? Breatharians are real people who think they can live on breath and the sun alone with no food or water. This is real folks.  You can only hope they become a breatharian when they are in their late 90's. Can't imagine they live too long.

Anywho, more news on breathing. This weekend I did my first yoga-hike with a fabulous yoga instructor. She taught us the proper way to breath for maximal effect. Maybe even for quicker weight loss? Who knows. You decide.

Breathing Like You Mean It

1. Breathe in through you nose (let your nose filter all the yuck stuff out)
2. Count the amount of time it takes to breath in (4-5 seconds is average)
3. Count to double that number on the way out (breath out through your mouth or nose) and use your tummy to push with force

My way of doing it is to breath in for 5 seconds and out for 10 seconds. On the exhale, you should feel it in your gut. I love finding out ways to do things better.

Shallow Breathing, the Chunky Truth

So, here's a shocker! I found shallow breathing can cause: BLOATING. It causes you to inhale too many small sips of air. Who would have guessed? That's reason enough to do your deep breathing. Then there's digestive issues, heartburn, fatigue, chest pain, heart palpitations which result from shallow breathing. This is because the body uses the lungs to expel toxins from the body and without completely removing them, your body holds onto them instead. That's not nice.

Breath deep and exhale deep my friends. Your lungs will thank you.

Question #2 of your Pop Quiz, What does one pound of fat look like? Oh Lord. It looks like this inside the body. Or has the mass the size of a baseball. Neither is pretty. No wonder I feel so good when I lose a few pounds.

Fat Loss Tip #2

Leptin is a hormone responsible for letting you know you ate and you can stop. This is how your body can signal you to put the fork down and to pick it up when you need energy. When this hormone is not regulated properly, you will continue to be hungry after a meal and want to eat late at night. It's an ugly thing to do to someone especially if that person is trying to drop a dress size. It also interferes with insulin and we all know if you have too much insulin you will not be getting off the scale with a smile anytime soon! Here's some more info from Wellness Mama:

Lifestyle Factors to Improve Leptin Response:

• Avoiding grains, sugar and fruits (OK maybe one fruit a day)
• Eat (or take) more Omega-3s (fish, grassfed meats, chia seeds) 
• For breakfast, consuming veggies (a green smoothie?) followed by a small amount of protein and healthy fats within an hour of waking 
• Hit the sack early, between 9-10pm - Early to bed, early to rise - makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise!
• No snacking - when you are constantly eating, it overworks your liver & can destroy your hormones. Eat regularly, every 3-4 hours, while sitting down
• When you do exercise, do it for a short time with high intensity, drop the long and slow sessions of cardio 
• Remove toxins from your life as these are a stress on your body. Get rid of processed foods, nasty cleaning products and personal care products filled with toxins

References:
http://www.examiner.com/article/human-barbie-s-breatharian-diet-consists-of-cosmic-micro-food
http://liveboldandbloom.com/10/health/breathe-deeply-live-longer
http://wellnessmama.com/5356/fix-your-leptin/

Personal Weight Loss Story With Pics, A 3-Step Process

This is a quick post about the other way to lose weight/get skinny. I thought it would be important to detail my changes on a more personal level.
Here are some weight loss before/after pics. 

My Weight Loss: 3 Parts

Part #1, Emotional Part: I got entirely FED UP with obsessing over my body and not taking proactive steps to correct it. I had always wanted to be fit and thin but I didn't ever take the reigns to make it happen. The part I didn't realize until my weight came off was the own mental limitation. Turns out, I was hiding myself in a box. I wasn't playing life big, because I was afraid. In order to lose weight it meant I had to do things that scared me and forced me out of my fear box. But for others, it is the other way around, where the weight loss comes after the mental change. Either way, they both work together to propel each other.

BEFORE. Wearing scarf on the left side. 2009

AFTER. My 2nd Tough Mudder in Dallas.  Fall 2014

After. Feeling confident! Summer 2014

The second part, the workout part of my weight loss was fear based. I was scared to go to the gym and look chubby, terrified to try a pull up while people were watching. I was scared to bare my legs. I was scared to look stupid. I was afraid to walk into a gym. I was scared to try to lift heavy weight; and then I decided being fit was more important than my lousy fears and said to myself, "I'm just going to try these new things. I'm just going to try to do a pull up, I'm just going to try to do this really hard workout, I'm willing to be uncomfortable to get my dream body." My IPOD became my crutch, I cranked it up at the gym and I just went for it. The fitness aspect was my most propelling factor in weight loss.

#3, Nutrition portion. My weight loss switch flipped into turbo mode when I altered my diet. I allowed myself to feel massive guilt after I ate things that were working against myself. The guilt became impressionable enough that the next time I was in that situation, I didn't want to feel it again. The decision to change your eating for the better is SOOOOO difficult the first few times you make good choices. My choice to eat a light meal and walk away without feeling full, was incredibly hard. That first meal might make you feel deprived initially, but each powerful decision like that makes the next easier. And pretty soon you are feeling in control and you realize you had been giving all your control to the food before. It's like cleaning your sunglasses off, suddenly you can see clearly. Your body is feeling light and you feel  full of energy instead of sluggish. Then that drives you to keep reaching for more. It's an awesome process and I am lucky to have gone through it because it toughened me up. Some people never struggle with food and eating, but that was never me.

My body changed overnight, and I'm not kidding. It happened so fast that clothes stopped fitting within a week of having #1,2, and 3 all working together like a rowing team. But everyday was me pushing for it. Everyday I grew out of my box by doing things that scared me, I left my comfort zone and blew up that box I had created for myself. Every workout was difficult for myself and I established a structured eating schedule. And the part of my personality that I dropped is the part that was playing small and hiding from the world. The workouts pushed me outside my box so I couldn't hide anymore. The me who thought I needed to hide inside a shell realized the sun was still shining, the birds still chirping and life still went on outside my box. Yea!