Living With the Lights On

The New Normal How do we decide what normal eating is? Who decides?  Is it us or is it culture? Is it my thoughts, or society's thoughts? What is the association we are creating with our thoughts about food being part of our life events? Do we really need pizza and beer to make watching football more enjoyable?  Do we need to have sugary treats to celebrate the Holidays? I personally, had to spend time questioning my involvement in spreading this confusion during family gatherings. One of the qualities I wanted to be known for was to be a good cook.  I had to decide what I thought a "good cook" meant to me.  Was it to bake foods that were loaded with mind altering substances? Or, could I decide that preparing food that was actually higher on the nutritional scale is of more value? Hmm, what an interesting question.  What is my new normal? Another question I asked myself is, "How am I going to feel after I eat those mind-altering foods?  W...

Responsibility = Response Ability Have you ever thought,"I wish I would respond  to challenges rather than react ?" Me too.  When I react I often end up with regret. This happens in conversations with loved ones, with food choices, with procrastination and buffering.   I want to get good at responding and not reacting . Just like with every other thing I want to get better at, practice is the key. When I practice taking responsibility for choosing my thoughts,  I am able to create emotions that give me the ability to take the action of responding .  It all begins with my thoughts! If I decide to think there will be no healthy options to eat at Thanksgiving, it will lead me to the feeling of frustration.  From frustration I will react by giving up on my food choices and my results will be regret.   When I take responsibility for choosing a different way of looking at Thanksgiving food choices, I have the ...

Leave Two Bites Challenge Are you in? Beginning with your next meal, I am challenging you to leave two bites on your plate, each meal for seven days. What!? Isn't that wasteful?    Wouldn't it be better to just not put as much on your plate? I would like for you to consider the message you send to your beautiful body with the three thoughts above.  The first thought, leaving two bites, sends the message :  I can stop eating whenever I decide I want to.  I can do something to serve my goals even when I don't really want to.  I can slow down enough to listen to my body's leptin, full signal.   The second thought, Isn't that wasteful, sends the message:  food is more important that my body.  Hmm, do I really think that? The third thought,  just put less on your plate, is a option, but it doesn't create the practice opportunity to show yourself that you can choose on your behalf. Intentionally stop eating ...

Fresh Perspective We can decide how we want to think about circumstances.   Wait! What!? One of the most significant learning opportunities I have had is when I saw the training of the Life Coach School and my studies of the Word of God lining up together.   I began seeing that my circumstances really are not what make me feel stressed or unhappy.  It is my thoughts that create my feelings.   But what about the hurt and pain?  What about the negatives in our world?   Am I supposed to just make up thoughts that create positive emotion all the time?  If we only experience positive emotion all of the time, would we even know it was positive?   Or, is the human experience here on earth supposed to be a balance of negative and positive emotions? Is there a purpose in the negative that we will miss if we are always wanting to be happy all the time? If we are willing to allow ourselves to feel negat...