Mindfulness and Eating

Mindfulness, Presence, Awareness. Catchy words these stays, all meaning the practice of staying in the moment. It is getting increasingly more attention for its ability to boost physical and mental health. Mindful eating has been shown in research to help people stop binge eating, lose weight and reduce anxious food and body thinking.

Jan Chozen Bays, MD explains that "Mindful eating involves paying attention to the experience of eating and drinking, both inside and outside the body. We pay attention to the colors, smells, textures,flavors, temperatures and even the sounds of our food. We pay attention to the experience of the body. Where in the body do we feel hunger? Where do we feel satisfaction? What does half-full feel like, or three-quarters full?

1. Avoid distractions like phones, tv and the like. Pay attention to your thinking while you eat. 
2. Become one with your meal in the following ways:
3. Breathe a few healthy breaths and focus before your meal.
4. Sit down at the table. Not standing, not in bed, not driving.
5. Create a positive atmosphere with a nicely set table.
6. Turn off your tv or computer, book, newspaper and quit using your phone. Pay full attention to your meal and your body's signals while you eat.
7. Place a forkful of food in your mouth, put the fork down. This is a lot harder than you think. resist the urge to slurp down your meal, especially when you are hungry. Leave the fork on the table until you are ready for your next bite.Chew slowly and enjoy the texture, flavor, aroma. Be conscious of your different sensations. Eating slowly can lead to eating less during meals.
8. Take a 2-minute break in the middle of the meal. Don't beat yourself up if you did overeat. Pay attention to the physical and emotional distress and strategize how you can prevent overeating at the next meal, Sourced from Cathry Keller Fitbiecom

Start Lifting Weights Now!

Women need to be lifting weights, it's as simple as that. I know many of you out there are thinking but I don't want to get bulky. Well no need to worry, you won't! You need muscle mass and lifting weights is the fastest way to get that while burning fat and effectively losing those stubborn pounds that your body is hanging on to. Here are three great reasons to get in the gym today and pick up those weights!

Post-workout benefits: When you add weights to your workout your body recruits energy. Lucky for you most of that energy comes from stored fat, just like in a steady cardio workout. The difference though is that weight lifting requires double the energy! It will feel like you are working less but even after you leave the gym you will be burning more calories. Every time you lift weights you are challenging and "damaging" your muscles and it takes extra energy to repair them. This is called the EPOC effect. Weight lifting not only burns fat, but it maintains and builds muscle mass whereas in steady cardio training, you’re losing fat and muscle together.

Strong muscles equals strong bones: Women who lift weights have a higher bone density. Any time you add stress to your body it has to respond by adapting. Surprisingly bones are not perfectly rigid structures,  they grow and adapt to your physical activities. When you are building up skeletal muscle you are also building up bone strength which is critical for women, especially those over 50.

Power up your weight loss: We all get to that dreaded point where we hit a plateau and those pounds just won't budge. If this happens to you, or to avoid this happening, add in weight lifting once or twice a week. This will change the way your body utilizes fat and calories, it is almost like it shocks your system. An important thing to remember is that you shouldn't rely on the scale to show progress, it's smarter to break out that tape measure instead! Muscle is denser but leaner than fat. So the number on the scale may not be moving but the inches will be coming off.

Source: Skinnymom.com

Are You a Food Multi-tasker??

Do you have to be doing other things while you eat?? Maybe you are working on the computer while you have lunch, or eat your breakfast while driving in to work. Dinner in front of the TV, maybe?
The problem with this behavior is that you are not focusing on the food you eat and it is less likely that you will feel satisfied and will possible overeat because of it.

This is a habit that is harder to break because it seems so innocent. What could it possibly hurt? I am getting things done while I eat after all. (Studies show that productivity at work goes waaay down when you work at your desk!)

First move away from the distraction. Eat at the table or on the patio at this time of year and enjoy the peacefulness. Finding that moment away from the distractions of your world and enjoying a meal can be very uplifting and mind clearing.

Even if you only take 10 or 15 minutes away from your desk, or get up fifteen minutes earlier to eat. It is healthier, and safer if driving! You will realize you did eat, and it tasted great. (especially if you use recipes on this blog!)

Easy Ways to Lose Weight

1. DON'T SIT STILL!

Take the stairs, park in the far corner of the parking lot, or clean the house. This type of energy expenditure is called by the researchers at the Mayo Clinic "Non-Excercise Activity Thermogenesis", and speculate that it's more important than formal exercise when it comes to losing weight.  The average 140-pound woman expends only 32 caloiries per half-hour of watching TV. Ironing for the same amount of time more than doubles that burn to 73 calories and vacuuming nearly quadruples it to 111 calories.


2. Make Easy Food Swaps

Try lower-cal food substitutions that mimic the original's taste. Instead of a roll with mayo, use whole-wheat bread and mustard to cut at least 130 calories. Snack on baked potato chips instead of fried and you'll shave off 45 calories per ounce. Indulge in a half cup of chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla topped with hot fudge for a 140 less calories.
--Parade Magazine 

Fat Hormone # 3 Ghrelin

Ghrelin is a hormone secreted by the stomach, and like leptin, it acts on the hypothalamus, but ghrelin increases appetite rather than decreases like leptin

The levels of grehlin are regulated through the day and are closely correlated with meal time. Levels of ghrelin are highest just before a meal.

Sudies have shopwn that one of the main reasons people tend to put lost weight back on after a diet is that ghrelin levels increase dramatically after dieting. This causes uncontrollable humger and eventual over-eating.

A hormone called, Peptide YYS-36 is produced by the stomach cells and has the effect of reducing ghrelin secretion.

Lean people tend to produce more of this hormone than obese people. This adds credence to the fact that obesity is more of  a metabolic disorder than was first thought.

It may be possible to increase the body's production of Peptide YY3-36 by eating more frequent small meals.

This enables the stomach to have small amounts of food in it through the day which stimulates secretion of Peptide YY3-36 and reduces ghrelin secretion to reduce humger.

In Summary:

Eat small planned meals throught the day, 5 is a good number. Eat in moderation. Use a small bowl or plate, quit with one serving. Choose healthier food in its natural state; not processed with all the enzymes killed. Meta 21 can help you in your weight loss journey by introducing the important enzymes back into your body helping to break down the food and helping you assimilate what you need and getting rid of what you do not need.