moving out of your comfort zone

as strange it that sounds, once we start to change the way we live, get healthy and lose weight we will begin to move out of our comfort zone. we will no longer be the ordinary person on the street, eating at a fast burger place and watching tv. we will be the extra-ordinary person who eats an enlightened diet, is conscious of who she is and where he's going and active pursuing dreams and passions not watching them on tv. prepare yourself for this. prepare yourself for how great you are becoming every day. breathe into the moment, like a broadway star about to go on stage. this is your moment.

failure is an option.

i don't know who said that "failure's not an option", but it is. some folks say repitition of failure leads to success. if so, that's great!  but for today, failing is good enough for me. for today, trying harder isn't and option. re-thinking it isn't an option. i am just going to fall all the way down too the bottom of the steps, and tomorrow? well, as miss o'hara says in gone with the wind, "tomorrow is another day."

mindfulness

Being mindful in the moment is the greatest gift we can give ourselves. Being mindful of the gifts we have been given and the love that surrounds us, is the first step in knowing that we are enough and we have enough.

Mindful eating has the powerful potential to transform people’s relationship to food and eating, to improve overall health, body image, relationships and self-esteem. Mindful eating involves many components such as:

• learning to make choices in beginning or ending a meal based on awareness of hunger and satiety cues;
• learning to identify personal triggers for mindless eating, such as emotions, social pressures, or certain foods;
• valuing quality over quantity of what you’re eating;
• appreciating the sensual, as well as the nourishing, capacity of food;
• feeling deep gratitude that may come from appreciating and experiencing food

Mindful eating draws substantially on the use of mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness helps focus our attention and awareness on the present moment, which in turn, helps us disengage from habitual, unsatisfying and unskillful habits and behaviors. Engaging in mindful eating meditation practices on a regular basis can help us discover a far more satisfying relationship to food and eating than we ever imagined or experienced before. A different kind of nourishment often emerges, the kind that offers satisfaction on a very deep emotional level.

For more info on this topic go to: 

love.

keep learning. embrace new experiences.

• Visit libraries and other community facilities – learn something new about cooking raw food, sprouting, walking, breathing or how to meditate.
• Try something you have always wanted to do but never actually done.
• Rediscover an old interest.
• Fix a bike, then ride it around the block a few times.
• learn an instrument, join a jam session, record song then post it online.
• Find and practice a new recipe for a food you know is good for you.
• Enhance your creativity - check out when art groups meet in your area.
• Join a book club or start one.
• Start learning another language then book a flight and speak it.
• Commit to learning to identify a new plant every day for a month.
• Learn to identify the various birds and bird calls in your garden.
• Join a zumba class or tai chi class – learn and be active at the same time!

5 ways to well-being

today i prepared a fresh mung bean and carrot salad for a friend for lunch, we then took a five mile walk and talked along the way about our goals for the future. we took turns being accountable to each other. we coached each other.
together we are resolved that the world can be a better place. and we know that we are the change that can make that happen. making change is difficult. i can be a struggle. it requires constant focus and readjustment. it is an uphill battle, but a worthy one. then one day you reach the top of the hill and you can begin to enjoy the process, it gets easier, more natural. one of the things i like about the journey i am on now is that i am learning so much. and what i am learning is important, not only to my survival and well-being, but can also be helpful to others and their survival and well-being. i found this video on well-being at new zealand mental health site. find out more here: http://www.mentalhealth.org.nz/page/1180-5-ways-to-wellbeing.
 

full stop. full start.

well. here i am again. not feeling so alone now, knowing that i have at least one faithful follower named calamity jane. thanks for the note CJ!

after so many weeks of working so hard to eat right, exercise and lose weight i took a 24 hour break for it all and gained 5 pounds back. that's 8 weeks to lose 10 pounds and one day to gain half of it back again. i was dismayed.
disillusioned. i gave up.

then the next morning, i went for my walk and made some fresh lentil soup with red peppers and turmeric and started a new batch of sprouts. today i weighed myself and that 5 pounds is gone again. i'm back on track.

but things are different now. now that i have some new healthy habits in place like walking and sprouting and eating mostly stuff without labels, i am going to focus less on food and start working on my mind and spirit too. the idea from the start has always been about balance, not just weight loss. i have to remind myself of these things. so less focus on loss and more focus on the now.

happiness

i have spent a great deal of time focusing on food and nutrition on this blog so far, and that is a good start. but as the intention of 50 POUNDS TO PASSION is to release the stuff of weight that holds us back to embrace the stuff which is the now. by eating right and staying in motion i will lose unwanted pounds, and that is good and natural. and as this process unfolds i need to also focus on my mind + spirit. keeping in balance is the way i choose to be.

motivation follows action

Motivation follows action. When you're sitting on the couch feeling completely unmotivated, force yourself to get up, get into your workout clothes and out the door. Once you start moving the motivation will kick in!  dont give up.

gratitude

50 POUNDS TO PASSION is a process of becoming more true to who we are. it is a journey that unfolds daily. i am discovering that one of the secrets to success in this journey is an "attitude of gratitude". maybe it is because this process requires so much giving-up, that there is solace in being grateful for what we have. or maybe it is the other way around, knowing we have so much makes us less greedy for the things we don't really need.
be grateful for your home even if it is not perfect. be grateful for your mind, you can read can't you?. be grateful for the ability to walk each morning. (get up and go! some folks no longer have this option!) be grateful for all the wonderful food choices in the grocery store. not everybody has so many options.
getting rid of extra weight (body-mind-spirit weight) means making right choices every day, every minute. being grateful every day, every minute helps us to make those right choices. it's a kind of preparation. being grateful isn't a church thing. it's a life thing. start your process of change in the new year with a new attitude, an attitude of gratitude.

for more on gratitude you can watch this video. 

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more.”

the beginning is near

after 20 days of the new diet, one might hope for some amazing results. and after all the new adjustments and the hard work of establishing new habits anything less than WOW! may seem like a let down, and grounds for abandonment. it's important to manage expectations for stepping on the scale at this point. try to be realistic about what to expect, before stepping on the scale. know that every pound lost is a real achievement. remember that these are still the first steps of a long and glorious walk towards good health. also, remember that we have to get "here" before we can get "there". in 20 more days of being smart about what we eat and do we'll have even more to be proud of and be a little closer to where we envision to be. (and in some ways we are already there) 
the good news: the beginning is near! the beginning of really seeing and feeling the difference. 

emo-eating

there has been lots of talk about emotional eating. and the ins and outs of what that means is probably very complicated. clearly the sub-conscious mind is at work here, and the ego, and probably self-loathing of one kind or another for one reason or another. i have never heard of anyone who has lost weight as a direct result of psycho-analysis. but recognizing the warning signs of when this type of eating is occurring may help to putting an end to it. 

what are the telltale signs of emotional eating? what foods are the most likely culprits when it comes to emotional eating? and how it can be overcome? 

How to Tell the Difference

There are several differences between emotional hunger and physical hunger, according to the University of Texas Counseling and Mental Health Center web site:

1. Emotional hunger comes on suddenly; physical hunger occurs gradually.
2. When you are eating to fill a void that isn't related to an empty stomach, you crave a specific food, such as pizza or ice cream, and only that food will meet your need. When you eat because you are actually hungry, you're open to options.
3. Emotional hunger feels like it needs to be satisfied instantly with the food you crave; physical hunger can wait.
4. Even when you are full, if you're eating to satisfy an emotional need, you're more likely to keep eating. When you're eating because you're hungry, you're more likely to stop when you're full.
5. Emotional eating can leave behind feelings of guilt; eating when you are physically hungry does not.