Naturally Simple Ways to Weigh LESS...

Naturally Simple Ways to Weigh Less

and Live More Every Day of your life!

This is all about re-balancing your body, mind, and spirit to create a vibrantly healthy you... inside and out. So much more than the number on the "scales!"

 

  1. Feed your soul with primary food.  Friends and family, physical activity, spirituality and a satisfying career feed us. Lack of primary food creates over-reliance on secondary, edible food.
  2. Drink water. Most people are chronically dehydrated. We often mistake thirst for hunger. If you feel hungry between meals, drink a glass of water before giving into cravings. Limit liquid calories from soda, juice, sports drinks and “enhanced” waters.  Stick with nature made!
  3. Eat a plant-rich diet. Plant foods are typically lower in calories and higher in fiber than meat, dairy and processed foods, while providing loads of essential nutrients.  Purchase your animal products from farmers who raise the food in a natural manner; healthy and naturally balanced foods make for a healthy, naturally balanced human. Make certain you do get enough fat and protein in your daily diet to satisfy hunger, appetite, and nutritional needs for YOU.  Each of our needs is different!
  4. Chew your food well. Digestion begins in the mouth. By thoroughly chewing your food, your body will better assimilate nutrients; you will also slow down your eating. It takes about 20 minutes for your brain to register that it is full. By slowing your eating, you’ll feel full, satisfied, and better nourished on less food.  More nutrients in each cell mean a healthier body!
  5. Eat real food; avoid processed, packaged foods. Avoid products with high-fructose corn syrup or a long list of unpronounceable ingredients. (Reduce or eliminate refined sugars from your diet; glucose, fructose, any “oses”.) Packaged and convenience foods tend to be highly processed, lacking the nutrients your body needs, and are often loaded with empty calories. Avoid artificial sweeteners.  Avoid refined sweeteners, even stevia products.

If you have attended my workshops or been supported by me as a client:  Remember the cellular health information from the Whole Food slide show?  Feed your cells well!  Need to experience this workshop? Join me and the Local Living Venture on Thursday, September 25th for the start of the Whole Health and Healing Academy!  

A few more tips for balancing mind, body, and soul weight.

  1. Eat raw foods:  raw fruits & veggies, raw nuts and seeds, raw nut & seed butters.  Raw foods are rich in nutrients that are not altered by the heat of cooking and provide natural enzymes needed in the body for many processes including digestion.
  2. Eating enough healthy fats and protein to satisfy your appetite and your body’s nutritional needs:  choose naturally raised animal products for protein and fat and the omega 3's found in naturally raised meat, eggs and dairy products, wild salmon, avocados, walnuts, raw nuts and seeds.
  3. Eat breakfast. Skipping meals causes your blood sugar levels to peak and dip, affecting your energy and moods. It can also cause overeating later on because you’re so hungry.  With this said, listen to your own body and what you know works for you.  Some people do much better without breakfast and have no problems with the rebound overeating later in the day.  Be conscious of you and your needs. I can personally admit I am not a breakfast eater.  I get hungry by 11 AM or so. I listen and follow my body's requests for food.
  4. Eat mindfully. Turn off the TV. Get away from the computer. Sit down and savor the food you are eating with no distractions.  Eat from a space of unconditional self-love!
  5. Get moving. Do any type of physical activity every day. Find movement or exercise you enjoy.
  6. Get outside.  Your body needs fresh air and natural light.  You will create life long health benefits!
  7. Sleep, rest and relax. Breath work creates relaxation, slow down & breathe deeply.  Ask me for my educational handout on breath work.  When you are sleep-deprived or stressed, your body will crave energy, causing cravings for sugary snacks and caffeine as an energy boost.
  8. Schedule fun time. Boredom and stress can lead to overeating. Make sure to take time to laugh, play and participate in activities that bring you joy.
  9. Find a mindfulness practice and use it every day. (Yoga, Tai Chi, Tae Kwon Do, Meditation, Prayer...)

 

PS  Just a reminder about the Whole Health & Healing Academy that starts Thursday, September 25th. Join us to create vibrant health in your life!

Whole Heart Forgiveness

Whole heart Forgiveness

violet

“Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the  heel that has crushed it.”  Mark Twain

Learning to forgive yourself and others opens the doors to healing.  Who do you need to forgive?  What do you need to forgive yourself for?

In order to heal the physical body, we must first heal the emotional and spiritual bodies.  Forgiveness is a great space to be in to start this healing energy.  Forgiveness heals the heart.

I invite you to watch this video about an amazing self healing tool and Wayne Dyer's thoughts on forgiveness and healing:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDjuBXZy29s

Happy heart Valentine's Day

February is a great month to think about heart health.  Good foods for healing the heart are onions, garlic, cayenne, hawthorn berries, motherwort, rosemary, passion flower (the heart IS a center of passion!), and my favorite herb for everything nourishing and healing, stinging nettles.   A whole food diet supplies the heart cells with the nutrients needed to continue beating long into old age.

To read my full article on whole foods and herbs for your beating heart's health, published in the current issue of the  Canadian magazine Herbal Collective.   Go to this link and click forward to page 9:

http://issuu.com/herbalcollective/docs/hc_febmarch_14

Be well, forgive fiercely, and love intensely, Paula

Wellness Vs. Weight Loss... The Real Deal

Healthy Habits Create a Healthy Body... a Healthy Life!

beets

My beloved beets; nourishing food for the blood, liver... all of your body cells!

We live in a culture that constantly markets physical weight loss.  This makes sense as keeping an your weight at your best level supports healthier and more natural physiological functions. You are as healthy as the cells you reproduce every day. Think of my writings and workshops on whole foods and cellular health.

Yes, there is much more to the equation than being a healthy weight for your body type, as we know... "skinny bitches" (men as well) have heart attacks, other health challenges, and also die young.

So we are told to eat less, exercise more, ditch the desserts, bag beverages with calories, eat superfoods that are transported from all over the earth... but what is being left out of this physical equation?

Weight loss is a body, mind, and soul experience.  When we humans realize we are far more than a physical being, healing (i.e. weight loss as just one example of a healing challenge) becomes accessible and easier.  We are divine beings living in our physical bodies. When we embrace our heart-mind (emotions) and heart-soul (spiritual aspect), physical healing opens up and a whole new dimension is available to us.

How to?

To step into this space, I recommend to the divine souls I work with in healing relationships, to simply start making their lifestyle choices based upon wellness. When you are contemplating what you are thinking about eating next or what you are about to put into your mouth right now, ask yourself this question:  "Is this what is best for my wellness; best for every cell in my body?"

Use this question with all wellness choices:

  • exercise,

  • nurturing earlier sleep times,

  • one more beer or not?,

  • choosing a relaxation activity for self,

  • volunteering to help someone or help a local cause...

Truly, most people think and work from a space of: "Will this food make me gain weight; will this go right to my belly, hips, and ass?"

The belly, hips, and ass mindset only creates a deprivation and guilt cycle in our hearts, minds, and soul.  If I eat it (or do not get out and exercise), I feel guilty.  

I am so bad. I have no self-control, no will power, discipline.  These self incriminating thoughts are pure BS.

But then... If I do not eat it, I feel I am depriving myself of something.  That something then takes on more and more power in our lives because if we are depriving ourselves of it, it must be something wonderful.  Generally speaking, when we evaluate this thought process honestly and from a space of wellness AND self-awareness, we can acknowledge that the "something" being deprived of truly is not a wellness, life giving, cell enhancing choice.

Life giving, nurturing choices are easier to make when our wellness is the space we live in and create from.

Positive energy begets positive energy!

Bodies come in all sizes and shapes.Bone structure is different is all of us.Look at your body as the gift that it is, the home for your soul to live in.Treat it well. Honor it just as it is:slender,small frame,juicy and voluptuous,bones of substanc…

Bodies come in all sizes and shapes.

Bone structure is different is all of us.

Look at your body as the gift that it is, the home for your soul to live & thrive in.

Treat it well. Honor it just as it is:

slender, small frame, juicy and voluptuous, beautiful bones of substance, etc.



Make wellness choices that nourish the Divine IN You.

Why I Love Yoga and Other Thoughts on Whole Food, Whole Health Healing

Why I Love Yoga…and other thoughts on local, whole foods!

And you are now thinking, what does yoga have to do with the food? My answer is quite simple. When we create mindfulness through a regular yoga practice (or any other form of body awareness exercises: Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Tae Kwon Do), we consciously make healthier choices in all areas of our lives. This means healthier food choices.

Back to yoga. Why I love yoga… because it works! It works on many levels, see my above comment around food choices. The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit word yuj and means to yoke or bind. Yoga is often interpreted as a method of discipline that brings union (yoking or binding) to body, mind, and spirit. Yoga is the study of the Self. Yoga gives us tools to improve our lives by stripping away the illusions that block us from connecting with our true self, with others, and with life itself.

Yoga is a whole food that nourishes body, mind, and soul. Food is sacred to the body; it nourishes and sustains us. Love is sacred to the mind and heart; nourishing the very part of us, our spirits, that gives to others and back to ourselves. Yoga is the breath of the soul; keeping our life force strong and our 3 parts (body, mind, soul) in harmony and union.

Getting down to the brass tack: I am an exercise enthusiast. Those who know me, know this well. As long as I am not sitting still, I am happy. The list of activities I have engaged in goes on and on and blurs together over the years and decades of my life. I love and have loved them all.

Read more