Reading Food Labels

Do you think you can interpret food labels and nutrition information well enough to know what you are really eating?

You may be incredibly surprised by what you will learn about those food labels - I sure was!

Sleep!

Did you know that inadequate sleep is associated with obesity and insulin resistance?

Do you struggle with insomnia? Do you fail to allow enough hours in your day to get adequate sleep? Are there other reasons why you may not be getting enough sleep? Are you worrying about your sleep for nothing? What can you do to improve your sleep?

Why does it even matter?

If you’d like to read more, I am happy to oblige.

Food is my Pleasure Center

One thing that comes up regularly with my clients is this:

They tell me they get a lot of pleasure from food, and they express worry that their lives will be less pleasurable without it playing the same role in their lives.

Sometimes the worry is so strong that it is an expression of genuine grief over the loss of a major source of pleasure in their lives. They are feeling lost at where they might get their pleasure if they could not eat whatever they want.

But you know what? There is hope for a fulfilled life even when you say “no” to eating all the things all the time.

How, you may ask?

Well, the very first thing you do is to say “yes” to getting more pleasure from food!

Wait, what? Didn’t you just say…..

Would you like to read more on this topic?

Drinking your Nutrition

Green smoothies are a health food, right?

Not so much. You would think that your body would respond to food in the same way, not caring if you ate it whole or put it in a blender. But you’d be wrong! Your body responds to liquids far differently than it responds to solids.

Interested in reading more?

Emotional Fasting

I have been thinking about fasting lately, including our daily motives for doing so.

I had a conversation recently with a client who was talking about her urge to change-up her fasting routine, to fast longer, because she had overeaten the day before. It got me to thinking, so of course that got me to writing!

Our motives to engage in ANY activity come down to an emotion we are having. And those emotions come from thoughts and directly lead to our results. How we are thinking about fasting has an enormous impact on our health!

Interested in reading more?

What to Pack in your Emergency Kit

Wait, what? What does this have to do with insulin resistance, fasting, diabetes, weight loss and all that?

I know, right? I would think the same thing. But “bear” with me here, I spent many years teaching Outdoor Emergency Care for the National Ski Patrol. I know what I’m talking about. 😊  

Magical Thinking

I used to engage in Magical Thinking in many ways that did not support healthy living.

Now I am amazed that I could believe any of it, really, although it is a perfectly natural phenomenon. But it turned out, that way of thinking was getting in the way of making real and substantial changes in my life.

No more.

Want to learn more?

It’s so easy to be conned

Food companies know how our primitive brain is wired, and they capitalize on that desire

If we get a reward in the form of feel-good brain chemicals when we do something, our primitive brain connects that “something” with survival. The brain literally thinks we need to seek it out again to help us survive. Food companies know this, even if we do not!

It is easy to say “I need some caffeine, I’m going to stop and get a coffee.”

And do you order an Americano black? Probably not. Because what you are seeking is NOT the coffee or the caffeine, (although you may be telling yourself it is, as I used to do), it is the “hit.” You are seeking a “hit” of dopamine that makes your brain feel good. But you are getting a front-end pleasure that comes with a back-end consequence, because all that sugar is contributing to your current ill health, your future disease, your fatigue, your inflammation, and your fuzzy thinking. Not to mention your weight, your insulin resistance and your blood sugar.

Yes, even that innocent “nonfat latte” that I used to order every single day was giving me a “hit.”

In my daily latte, I was getting about 20 grams of lactose (the type of sugar in milk). Lactose is about 1/2 as sweet as sugar. I was getting the equivalent of a little over 2 teaspoons of sugar in that latte. My insulin and blood sugar responded accordingly, as did my brain.

And you know what? When I switched to black coffee, suddenly I was not so interested in going to Starbucks anymore. The appeal was gone without the hit. Aaaa yes, I was NOT seeking the caffeine. I was seeking the “hit.”

We are just right. Right now.

It’s ok to feel a little sad

It’s ok to feel ​sad at letting go of some of the behaviors you are used to engaging in.

Even if you feel a little sad, don’t let that stop you.

Make a conscious decision, in every single moment, to live intentionally with your better health. 

Believe that you are the person right now who is fully capable of living that life you want to live, no matter what is happening around you, and no matter what the primitive brain is urging you to do. Your consistent decisions are quiet, personal and subtle. If there is internal drama, you are the only one who notices that. To the rest of the world, you are just being a healthier version of you.

Creating the level of health that you intensely desire is the sum of deliberately practicing, in every single moment (including those times when the moment is challenging you), those small and deliberately intentional decisions, even if you feel a little bit of sadness at letting go of old ​and comforting ​behaviors. 

The more you practice, the more the “real you” emerges, separating from the “you” that was simply following along with the toddler brain and sometimes the rest of the world. 

Who do you really want to be?

Is food really making your life better?

When you are 90​,​ and you look back ​on​ your life, will you be glad you ate all the things and felt miserable in your own skin because of it?

You have everything you need to be that new person right now. ​

You can do this.

Is ice cream on your board of directors?

 Does it sometimes seem like food rules your life, making “decisions” on your behalf without you having much say in the matter?  

That sure used to be the case for me. I was a confirmed emotional eater until I learned what was happening inside my brain to create that behavior.

It’s totally normal! Who knew?

But is it useful? Is it helpful to our healthier lives? Is ice cream even qualified for the job?

Yes. This.

Let’s talk about Snacking!

“Snacks are necessary to keep my energy up. I need them to keep from getting too hungry. I’m ‘hangry,’ quick, get me a snack! I’m trying to lose weight - must keep my metabolism revved by eating 6 small meals a day.”

Have you ever heard these comments? Or maybe said them yourself? You know what? It’s all made up. None of it is true.

And in fact, you might be shocked at what is happening in your body when you snack between meals. And I am not just talking about your weight. Snacking influences insulin resistance. Inflammation. Leaky gut. Gut biome. Autophagy. Nervous system…

“I want to keep eating sugar. And I hate it!”

A client was doing everything “right,” but still had intense frustration with her urge to eat sugar. She and I shared an exchange about it which she found was a “game changer” for her with her relationship with sugar. I want to share that powerful message with you.

I want to stop craving dessert!

I used to crave dessert after dinner every night.

If I DIDN’T have dessert, I felt something was just not right. It felt like a loop was left open, a bow was left untied. It felt uncomfortable and I felt unsettled.

There is a simple explanation for why I felt that restless feeling: urges for dessert are simple neurological pathways in the brain. And these are powerful!

Want to learn what urges, cravings and habits are made of? And most importantly how to eliminate those that don’t serve you?

You mean I can eat whatever I want in my eating window?

Yes, you can eat whatever you want! Wait, what? Really? And still lose the extra weight?

Patience. Practice. Perseverance. I do it all, and yet there are times….

When I am reminded how far I’ve come, and yet how human I will always be.

Faced with a challenging medical problem with a potential “cure” that can kill you if you eat the wrong foods… I am given the opportunity to humbly dive into all my own tools once again to manage my mind and body.

We are too comfortable.

Our brains like the status quo and our bodies like homeostasis (stability, staying the same), and lifestyle change, by definition, disrupts both.

Many of us have come to feel that we are never supposed to feel discomfort, that “something is wrong” if we are uncomfortable or we have to work hard. We are bombarded by advertising that reinforces this idea - processed food so we don’t suffer the discomfort of chopping and preparing our food, fast food so we don’t have to wait, diet food so we don’t have to think and plan, food delivered to us so we don’t even have to leave our house!

We are told we “deserve a break today,” we need “comfort food,” we need chocolate when we are down….it goes on and on.

We are supposed to feel uncomfortable, and it matters to our health if we think we shouldn’t.

Want to read more?

Snacking! We’ve been brainwashed.

Have you been told that eating 6 small meals a day, or 3 meals and 2 or 3 snacks, is the best thing for a healthy lifestyle? Does this make any biological sense? Why would our bodies require constant feeding in order to survive? Has it worked for you? Do other animals in the animal kingdom require that kind of feeding to survive? Who exactly invented snacking? Food companies invented snacking. We don’t need to snack for biological survival or energy preservation.

Want recipe ideas that fit my program?

Head on over to my Sister Site for recipes specifically curated for the Diabetes Game Changer Program!