Ok- so it seems lots of people are involved inOprah’s online series with Eckhart Tolle, and there is lots of good stuff there.

 

A former client emailed me part of the transcript on overeating from the course- She wanted to know what I thought. I will enclose the part of the transcript she sent me so that you can see what I am responding to.

 

Transcript:

Oprah: For me it is always about food. When you eat it and you know it isn’t so good for you. A voice in your head says you shouldn’t be doing this.

Caller: I am 27 years old Ekhart. My question is…how do i manage things that I label; things that
are bad for me. Like eating French fries and potatoe chips. I always eat these and often, overeat
and eat way more than i should have, I know that i shouldn’t and feel bad afterwards.

Ekhart Tolle: A lot of overeating has a lot to do with the ego. Because the ego state lives in a state of ‘not enough’. The need for more that is built into the ego and it gets transferred into the body, much more than the body wants. To eat consciously, is the way out of it. I would suggest
that when you eat your French fries to make a meditation out of it. To eat them consciously.
Without having a 2ndary entity in your head that says you shouldn’t be eating them. Eat them fully and consciously, and at the same time, feel how your body feels while you are eating them and
after you have eaten them.

Then you bring some presence into it. And you may realize, in some cases, you will notice that it wasn’t your body that wanted to eat it them, it was your mind that wanted to eat. Eat consciously is the way out of it. If you eat a sandwich, if you go to the fridge, if you get up in the middle of the night, they open the door and they reach in “I have to get something” you are trying to feed something. The body doesn’t need it.

Stop resisting it. Because the French fries are not bad. It is the thought in your head that has
told you that the French fries are bad. If you sit and consciously make it a meditation, you won’t
eat 2 bags of French fries unconsciously. That you will enjoy every single french frie. You will eat
5 or 10 or 20 and it will be pleasurable. Enjoy it, feel it, sense it, allow your whole body to be with
it and when you are done with the pleasure of it, let it go. You can sense your body and your body will often tell you “no more”

ET: You don’t become overweight or even intoxicated as long as you are acting consciously. It is when you become unconscious, is when you eat too much unconscious, is when you drink too much unconscious, is when you take drugs unconscious, is when you become obsessively indulgent with things. All these addictions are unconscious.

Enjoy your French fries. Enjoy a glass of wine! Consciously.

=======================================

Ok, here are some of my thoughts. I know that every single one of my clients would sell her soul to be able to eat fries or icecream of whatever with conscious enjoyment, as a meditation. But they can’t! And although I understand what Tolle is suggesting and why, I still believe that most  people do not truly understand addictive responses and reactions.

If my clients (or I ) were to try this, we would likely end up feeling like failures. Because in all likelihood we would want to keep eating, and the eating would go from a meditation to a frenzy.

Here is the analogy that I know most will understand-would you encourage a heroin addict or an alcoholic to have just a little “hit”, and enjoy it, really consciously focus on the pleasure? Why not?

You probably would not do this because inherently you understand that there is a chemical reaction or an alchemy that occurs that takes conscious choice and moderation out of the equation- in an instant. Is that because the heroin-addict is “unconscious”? Well he is, he is high and disconnected, but his body will crave the drug regardless of his state of mind.

Many of you with issues of overeating or weight, have tried these approaches- making the table pretty, putting on quiet lovely music, preparing the dinner lovingly and making it sensually appealing. But there is something about the food interacting with your particular chemistry, memories, brain and neural network, personal belief system and more that may cause you to overeat, every time.

I still advocate total enjoyment, as much consciousness as possible, and blessing something rather than judge it if you are going to take an action. But I think for people with longstanding histories of overeating or abusing food, are going to be unable to follow Tolle’s suggestions.

And while I don’t label foods as good, or bad- a french fry is hardly a shining example of a culinary pleasure- it’s a learned taste, with many associations- we might not even be that turned on by a simple french fry if it wasn’t so forbidden.

I believe you are better off savoring the true pleasures and bounties of the Seasons- right now it’s all about greens, and fresh food coming back, and breaking away from the heavier starchier foods of the winter hibernation. I bit into a tiny gorgeous bright red grape-tomato the other day and it was incredible.

So with all due respect to Eckhart and Oprah, I think the advice was lacking.

Hope your local weather is as glorious as here in Massachusetts- we are on a run of magnificent sunny dry days- it was warm enough for me to walk at 8 am.

xox

Lisa

 

I have been thinking about this season’s winner of The Biggest Loser- for lots of reasons. On one hand, I really was rooting for Ali, who was the winner. She was so focused and determined, she believed in herself and rarely let her beliefs become negative or self-defeating- not an easy task on the road to changing a very overweight body to a thinner body. But I read somewhere that her total weight loss basically averaged out to 7 pounds per week. SEVEN POUNDS PER WEEK???!!! I find myself wondering how that is even possible, and what will happen to her body as a result of such fast and extreme weight loss. Don’t get me wrong- I wish her only the best and continued success, she worked incredibly hard and obviously kept her eye on the prize (literally) in every moment. Still- I wonder what the toll will be, either on her physical body, or her mind and emotions. Such extreme change, in such a short period of time, has to have some kind of backlash. Our bodies are wired for homeostasis- trying to keep the status quo.
She is young, and maybe her body will adjust to the extremes that she put it through- but quick weight loss always makes my inner- alarm bells go off, and so I will be curiously watching to see where she is down the road.

We love these kind of success stories- but they are extreme and who knows if they hold up in the long run. For now, try keeping small daily promises to yourself. Big swings in behaviors are uncomfortable and we don’t stick with them.

Let me know what you thought of all this, and what you are doing in your own life to lose excess weight or improve your health and well-being.

Sending love and blessings,

Lisa

Here we are again- emerging from the long(and incredibly snowy) winter. My whole body feels the relief of the extra hours of light, the green shoots emerging from partially frozen earth, the chance to be outside for more than a short time. I see people around me responding with similar relief and renewed optimism.

My 90-Day program participants are about halfway through our class and are beginning a version of a Spring Detox. from addictive eating. And they are feeling really ambivalent, understandably. Like most compulsive eaters and sugar-addicts, they believe they will suffer without their “comfort foods” and familiar ways of using food to self-soothe. They also realize that it is those foods and ways of eating that are keeping them overweight, fatigued, depressed, and hating themselves. It’s a dilemma-

 

However not for me- I have almost completed 90 Days myself from my brief relapse into addictive and compulsive eating late Fall into early January, and the changes are worth noting.

I have lost more weight

I am rarely hungry

My attention span is remarkable

I have been more productive and creative than ever

My sleep is deep and restful

I literally never crave anything

My teen sons brag to people about how much salad and vegetables I eat

My husband is really happy with my improved mood (and body)

My skin is clear and bright

People keep telling me how well I look

My fitness level improves each week- I am faster, stronger, more limber (at almost 51!)

My hair and nails appear stronger and healthier

My food and meals taste more delicious to me each day(it’s really true!)

My clients are getting more of me, more powerful coaching and focus

I can be fully present most of the time as I am never distracted by food thoughts or cravings or guilt about eating

I wake up clear and grounded- no shame, no regrets, no food hangovers! What a gift!

 

It’s all good- I promise and swear to you on my children’s sweet heads that food/sugar/whatever will never offer you these kinds of rewards, benefits, nada, nothing-

Hey, if you don’t believe me, come work with me. You can feel this way too, truly.

Check out the website info here and see what you think!

 

Love and blessings to you on this sunny spring morning-

off to walk my country hills

xox

Lisa

 

 

 

Hi-
Bet that headline got your attention, huh?
But seriously, there is starting to be some good
science backing up what some of us have known for
some time.

For example- although most women I know long ago
jumped aboard the low-fat craze ages ago, I always felt
intuitively that my body needed and liked fat. I never really gave up butter, olive oil, or other things that added flavor, satiety, and PLEASURE to meals.

Science has come around again. There was a big study done comparing groups of dieters- one group was the “low fat” group, the other “low carb”. At the end of the study the group that was monitoring their carb and glycemic index loads did the best, including maintaining their metabolism’s ability to
burn.

In other words, when you are looking to tweak your eating plan, you would do better to look at the overall “glycemic load” of the meal. Most of you have probably heard about the “glycemic index”- it is a measurement of how much our insulin/sugar levels rise after eating a particular food.

Many experts, Mark Hyman, M.D. who wrote “Ultrametabolism” recommends looking at the total glycemic load of a meal. For example, while something like rice or potatoes may have a certain g.i. when eaten alone, once you add fiber, fat, and protein from a meal, the way your insulin levels are impacted are quite different.

Experts on weight loss agree that you will do best when balancing all of your eating, by composing snacks and meals to include:protein, fiber, or fat to accompany starches or fruits or more processed foods (which nobody is recommending- certainly not me).

The closer we eat to the earth, the more whole foods and unpackaged and unprocessed choices we make, the healthier and leaner we will be.

How does your eating stack up with these guidelines? Need some ideas for healthy, balanced meals and snacks? Just ask!
Also, more free articles and info on the articles page on my site.

Love and blessings,

Lisa