Stress Relief Archives - Page 3 of 3

Research Proves Theory Right: Overeating can be a Drug Addiction

September 29, 2011 by admin 6 Comments

If you struggle with your weight and have obsessional thought about food you could have what the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) is now calling an addiction. The ASAM recently changed the definition of addiction which now includes food along with other addictive substances such as drugs and alcohol. The important new thought is that addictions are now considered to be a chronic neurological disorder or disease of the brain. Addictions “high jack” the brain and create obsessive or compulsive thoughts that lead to weight and health problems. Despite the negative consequences the addicted eater seeks out and keeps using and over-using the very substances that are so harmful to them.

It is important to understand that an addiction is not a willpower problem. Research shows addictions are usually inherited. Genetics make it 50% more likely you will have an “addictive personality.” That means there is an increased tendency or predisposition for addictive substances to get you. Using addictive substances heavily before the age of 21 increases the odds especially for someone at risk. Using large quantities of it can also trigger a problem. This coupled with an inability to deal with the up’s and down’s of life or to deal with feelings makes matters worse. This disease overwhelms the pleasure reward circuitry of the brain and can over time cause a mood imbalance. Could this be a reason why so many people are now on antidepressants? Can healing our food issues begin to change our mood problem?

The most important piece of information to understand is that according to Scripps Research Institute, compulsive eating shares the same addictive biochemical mechanism as cocaine and heroin abuse. Processed sugar used in packaged foods is the prime offender. All snack food, baked goods and even processed/packaged foods are in this category of food.

Because an addiction is a chronic disease, it does not go away and can only be managed. Managing it includes increasing your coping mechanisms and learning how to express and feel your feelings. Relapse is part of the disease. By understanding the nature of the addiction, those who suffer from it can move away from the shame. Shame and guilt are low vibration emotions. They bring on more addictive behavior. Learning how to deal with our feelings, stress and whatever other purpose the addictive eating may be serving is the way out as well as “seeing the food” differently. This is what I teach. I would recommend ordering the Nirvana Diet™ program for weight loss or start with stress reduction. You can also reach out to me if you want to continue this dialogue.

Breathe and Lose Weight

August 8, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

How breathing can help you lose weight

I remember reading in Be Here Now by Ram Dass a part where he talked about a woman who began to use the powerful yogic breathing techniques for weight loss. Not only did she lose weight, she overdid it and ended up with psychic powers as well. Putting the attainment of those powers aside, I think many of you would be interested in knowing how yogic breathing can provide a holistic natural way to lose weight.

The breathing technique Ram Dass was talking about in his book was the breath of fire. Many of you might recognize this if you have studied Kundalini yoga. This is an advanced technique designed as it says to build fire in the body. This type of breathing has the effect of stoking the metabolism by oxygenating the system according the beliefs of Ayurveda, a system of traditional medicine that originated in India and complements the practice of yoga.

Pranayama is of course the fourth limb of yoga according to Patanjali who wrote Yoga Sutras and explained how yoga is a powerful system of spiritual transformation. Recently I had the pleasure of taking a unique yoga class, Yoga Heart Meditative Movement^TM with Dinndayal Morgan in Napa. He shared with me a way to incorporate the notion of using breath to fire up the metabolism, build more heat and heart I may add, which can be practiced by beginners.

Many of you may be familiar with the three part breathing which is the basic one that is taught. You inhale through the nose slowly (I can’t emphasize that enough), letting the diaphragm drop and the rib cage expand for 5 counts, you hold or pause the breath for 20 counts and exhale for 10. This should also be done with caution as the breath holding called kumbakh brings on or resembles a deeper meditative state as the body’s oxygen requirement is reduced. This technique is considered to be the royal road to deeper meditative and mystical states so it should always be practiced gently without forcing it. I recommend one build to holding the breath for 20 counts or just do a few to get started. Start with a series of 5 and build to 20 holding the breath for 20 counts.

The ideal way to use this type of breathing is to set up your meditation practice. Imagine…breath and lose weight. What I found happened from using these techniques and teaching them to my clients is my cardio vascular capacity increased exponentially. I do not get out of breath easily when I do cardio exercise.

I am happy to announce that Dinndayal will be joining me in a retreat I am creating in Napa on personal power that will include Yoga Heart Meditative Movement^TM, breathing, guided meditation, journaling and a creative process. In the meantime if you want to supercharge your metabolism, reduce stress, and practice healthy weight loss I recommend you try the breathing. These techniques are also included in the Nirvana Diet™ Home Study program if you want to learn all of them.

Obesity and Overeating; Why you have no willpower…

August 8, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

Here’s what I have learned in the ten years of working with people who struggle with diet plans and are seeking healthy ways to lose weight.

Although Kelly Brownell who wrote Food Fight is focusing on children who are certainly victims of the obesity epidemic, we are all prey to these insidious and dangerous phenomena of the addictive substances in processed food. What is going on?

I think we have all been misled into believing and thinking that diet and exercise are the answer. You have been programmed to think that if you are challenged by losing weight it is because you don’t have enough willpower. There is only one problem with that solution.

You can’t diet and exercise if you are addicted to sugar.

According to Robert Lustig MD, an endocrinologist at the University of San Francisco, you don’t have a chance because sugar is for some people as addictive as the ethanol in alcohol and should be a controlled substance.

Despite this, sugar is literally in everything. This is a biochemical problem that wreaks havoc with your brain and disenables the hormones you rely on to tell you when you are hungry and full. They no longer work when you are under the influence of this toxic addictive substance. According to the Harvard Health Letter, October 2006 issue, annual consumption of sweeteners has increased to about 100 pounds per person over the past 20 years. During this period more people especially children have become overweight and obese…added sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup may be the reason. Artificial sweeteners added to drinks are particularly troubling because people believe these drinks are healthy. People who drink two cans of diet soda a day over a decade are 70% more likely to be obese. Not only are you saturating your body with sugar, it is debilitating your energy so you can’t exercise even if you want to.

The cure for this like all addictions is to become knowledgeable and ready to make some changes. The pain of continuing to eat like this has to become in your mind greater than the reward you think you get.

This includes taking a hard look at the underlying emotional or life issues that created it. As with most addictions the cure is abstinence and or a modification of how you eat that includes the consumption of plant based foods supplement with moderate amounts of concentrated protein preferably fish. This means focusing on eating real foods such as vegetables, salad, fruit and some “truly” whole grains.

Lustig said this is such a problem for our children. It starts with the baby formula we feed. If we do not have government intervention to help protect us…we will be sorry. This of course will not happen. So you have to take charge of your health yourself. The New York Times has run several articles on the merits of taxing food such as soda and subsidizing vegetables:

We need to treat the food industry just like we did the tobacco industry.

The best diet plan is to eat real food and take up something like meditation and walking to help rebalance the brain chemistry in a This is why I put together a great home study program for stress reduction that includes a great beginner course: Doubt Free meditation.

This is why I put together a great home study program for stress reduction that includes a great beginner course.

Drop the Story ! How to Reduce your Stress with a Pause

August 5, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

I have been taking a fabulous tele-class with Neale Donald Walsch, author of Conversations with God.

Neale explained very clearly the reason we are stressed, get stuck in ruts and repeat behaviors that do not serve us is because we see things as an imagined truth as opposed to the actual truth. It is has been said that if you want to change your “life” you have to change your reality… shift out of the imagined to the real truth. This is possible, because you create your reality by virtue of what you believe to be true.

There are according to Neale three levels or layers to the truth: the imagined, the apparent and the actual truth. Most of us operate at the level of the imagined truth based on beliefs we integrated throughout our life and the “data” we collect to support it. That is why we imagine things to be true. The problem is usually this imagined truth formed when we were very young and lacked to ability to discern if we really think it is true. This is what is called “our story.” Until we become conscious of this, we create our reality based on data we have been collecting that may not be true but supports the story.

The problem or opportunity is what we think is true can also be untrue, and or spun a different way.

The goal is to live one’s life at the level of the actual truth without the filter or lens we have in place that created the imagined truth. It is like getting to a higher level of how you perceive the experience based on better data. Neale suggested this higher level is called using the mind to communicate directly with the soul which is the storehouse of the real truth. To get to that level you have to drop your story, this allows one to live in a stress free zone.

To me this is just like changing a habit.

I recommend that you try it. First you have to be open to why this is beneficial for you to “drop your story.”)

Here’s an example of what I am talking about:

A woman I once coached had a pattern of being overweight because her romantic relationships ended with her feeling dumped. In reality, she brought that outcome on by being fearful that she would end up getting hurt and abandoned. This was a childhood misconception she picked up by watching her mother relate to her dad that way. The “story” she had to dump so she would avoid getting dumped was that she was unlovable.

To do this, you start with noticing the emotion you feel in your body when a situation comes up that triggers you and feels familiar. Start paying attention to your internal dialogue. Then pause…take a few deep breaths and become the observer of the experience as you remind yourself that you are not more than your ego. It is your ego that feels hurt. By practicing meditation you gain an awareness of an expanded sense of your self that is beyond suffering.

Secondly, you come to understand that “story” is an imagined truth. It is not really true. You understand thoughts such as “I’m not loveable” were really based in a false interpretation of the past coming from a part of the brain that is stuck in the past. The part Neale added that was brilliant was to go one step further and to try to access the wisdom of the Soul.

Once you stop and, breathe you can ask the Soul for new data to come in that is informed by the Soul not the ego. This is how you shift your truth about an event and reduce your stress in a Nano second. You use your mind as a doorway to the Soul, not the past. This is what I believe transformation is all about. If you start up a daily meditation practice, it will eventually become second nature to you to reduce your stress by dropping your story naturally.