THE EVIL CHAIN OF ASSUMPTIONS

“Happiness does not depend on what happens on the outside of you, but what happens on the inside of you.” -Herald B. Lee. 
I’ve been thinking a lot about “the evil chain of assumptions” we learned in class today! How sad that this is how we “assume.” Your appearance doesn’t determine your happiness! Happiness is an inside job.
 Ever come across “before and after” pictures? Ever ASSUME – “they’re probably so much more happier now” in the “after” picture? Ever think, “I want a before and after picture.” Hey. Stop. I know it’s almost summer. But don’t do this. 
You’re not an object. You’re not an after. You never know what INNER battles others might have had to over come to get themselves to that after picture! They could be happier in the after picture- but don’t assume it’s solely due to them losing weight!
 Why do we associate “The smaller the happier.” It’s just a picture. Don’t “assume” that just because they lost weight, and they’re skinnier- that they’re happier. I have lots of “before and after” pictures. 
However- it’s just my “appearance.” My inner struggles were worse in some of my after pictures. Anywho, some great advice I heard, to avoid thinking happiness is found in your appearance: Look at yourself as a “during.” 
Not as a before and after. There’s no final after. You are not a before and after. Like I wrote in my blog- a healthy life is never ending! Because you are not a before and after and you will never BE a before and after. We are spirits that are never ending and never done growing. 
There is no “after.” There is no “I made it.” We are eternal beings. A healthy life is daily, progressing, ongoing, goals to reach right now. NOW is your “during”. Your future is now. Your future was yesterday. Your future is built off of your during! 
Shift your focus to progression. Not a “final product”. My husband told me of a comment he heard in the gym, “the day you start working out, is the day you are forever small” This erks me. This is pretty much saying, you’ll never be “big” enough. You’ll never “look good” enough.” You’ll be forever chasing an after, to only end up with a feeling of disappointment of never being there. 
So don’t eat carrots and veggies everyday so you can wear a bikini in the summer. Don’t run away from your favorite desert because you want an after picture. 
Add more veggies because they’re good for you! Enjoy your favorite desert because you’re celebrating and making a memory. Be in the moment. 
Don’t make yourself miserable for the sake of an after picture. Because your happiness is not found objectifying yourself to look a certain way. Happiness IS found In discovering. In your new experiences. In your trying. In your during. 

Start your “during” journey now. 

Look at yourself as the eternal being that you are. With the potential you have to become. Discovering THIS is your happiness. Realize what you’re capable of! THIS is happiness. 

Stay away from the “evil chain of assumptions” Your appearance doesn’t determine your happiness!

How To Deal With Sugar Cravings

Hey y’all! I’ve gotten a few questions on Sugar Cravings!! I thought I’d give it a try to answer the best I can!

Real Quick: Notice the title is not, “How To KICK Your Sugar Cravings” or “How To Get Rid of Your Sugar Cravings.” Sugar cravings don’t need to be ‘kicked’ or ‘ignored.’ Learn how to deal with them, and enjoy your favorite desert!

1.Listen to your cravings!

Don’t ignore your cravings because they aren’t going to go away. When it’s my “lady time” of the month, I get these killer cravings for CHOCOLATE. Anybody with me? I used to try and ignore these sugar cravings because I thought I needed to be “good” by not indulging.

Before: I distract myself by having some vegetables instead of chocolate. I’m munching on almonds, having a bite of ice-cream, then another bite, and next thing you know I’m eating the tub of ice cream and NOW having 2 1/2 candy bars!

After: When I get cravings, I make sure to not ignore them so my brain doesn’t signal to my  body that it’s deprived of sugar.

I’ll never forget the first time I tried this. The chocolate craving was lasting ALL DAY long, and nothing was satisfying my sweet tooth. I was chewing gum, drinking water, had Taco Bell ect. Next thing I know, I am in the Walmart check out line. I said to myself, “Ok. I’m giving this a try.” I listened to my cravings, and I grabbed a Mint Chocolate Hershey’s candy bar. I got in my car, and I savored every bite. I enjoyed that candy bar!

Listen to your body. Ask yourself, will it be satisfied with a bite? Half the bar? Or the whole candy bar? Whatever it is, LISTEN.  Don’t restrict yourself. Your craving for chocolate will finally be cured, as mine was. Trust me. I was totally satisfied, and didn’t have to binge that night on other foods to ignore my chocolate craving. Listen to your cravings. 

2. “It’s Ok!”

Don’t ever feel guilty! Eat your favorite desert if you want to! However like I said,  make sure that you enjoy it. Don’t ever call yourself “bad” for eating your favorite sweet! You’ll only be eating more sweets out of guilt if you keep calling yourself “bad.” Enjoy every bite. Remind yourself, “It’s OK!”

It takes a toll on those around you when they hear you stress over what you’re  eating. Then they get stressed, then someone else gets stressed, then someone is pretending like they’re stressed too, just to fit in, and next thing you know everyone is stressing over something that should just be enjoyed. Ha ha can you tell I’m speaking from plenty of (guilty) experience ? 🙂 

There is no reason to make yourself feel bad about eating something you love! It is OK to have your favorite desert. Tell yourself this now!

3. Find a healthy alternative!

I’m all about listening to our bodies, but what if you are getting these sugar cravings more often than you would like? Is all the sugar starting to make you feel sluggish? Find a healthy alternative sweet that you love! For me, it was all about texture. I loved the soft, chewy feel of brownies, and cookies! My favorite healthy alternatives right now are Quest Bars! They seriously do just the trick when its 10 o’ clock at night and I’m not feeling up to baking myself a batch of cookies. Literally I’m eating ‘Chocolate Chip Cookie’ flavor Quest bar right now.

4. Sweat it out!

I think many of us can recall times when we have done a hard workout, and we just feel good! Yes?! Several studies have shown that exercise is the best way to improve your overall mental health. Exercise gets rids of depression, anxiety, stress, and ADHD, which are all emotional reasons why tend to turn to sweets. Sweets numbs those feelings. So get your sweat on girl! Even if it’s just 10 minutes. The benefits are numerous!

5. Feel it!

Don’t be afraid to feel those feelings!

Scenario: Your roommate just made a pan of brownies. You love brownies, so you take a one. It was amazing, so you have another. Next thing you know, the entire pan of brownies are gone but one, because you don’t want it to seem like you ate the WHOLE thing! 😉

What to do: First, remind yourself that “It’s OK.” It is not the end of the world, and you are not a horrible person who needs to go on a one-week-long-sugar-free-streak! This will only make you binge again. Stop seeing things as black and white. Rather understand what you’re feeling, and feel it!

How: Have patience and don’t be afraid to feel your feelings. You may be bored, stressed, sad, upset, or angry. That’s all fine, just feel it out. Think it out. Write it out, or just sit there and feel it out. You do what you need in order to feel those emotions. If you recognize what your trying NOT to feel, and FEEL IT your cravings for the pan of brownies will go away! Trust me! I promise! I don’t ever write about anything that I haven’t tried guys!

Personal experience: This works. I just had to do it a few days ago. I was feeling anxious with all my homework I needed to do. The deadlines were giving me anxiety. I wanted to get up and go eat a cookie every time I sat down to do homework or even just thought about my homework. So I sat there. I just sat on the couch. Breathed. And let myself feel the stress. I self-talked myself through it, organized my backpack and then I was fine. I promise this works. I didn’t need the cookies after all. 🙂

God sent us to earth knowing it was going to be difficult. Life is full of its ups and downs. I don’t think the last thing He told us before came to Earth was, “When things get tough, and you’re feeling sad, just turn to sugar. It’s not ok to be sad. It will numb your pain, and go away.” Nooooo No No! He probably told us something more along the lines of turning to Him when times get tough. He gave us so many other tools in life to help us cope with our emotions rather than just food and sweets!

There’s always someone you can turn to, to help you feel your feelings, and deal with them as well. This is so important to learn how to do, and will help you grow in many ways. It was new for me, and might me new for you as well. Don’t be afraid to give it a try!

These 5 tips are just a few ways that have helped me deal with my sugar cravings! Coming from the girl who used to ‘Binge Eat, Yo-Yo diet, and restrict her calories’ I am so happy that I can confidently say, I am now able to FULLY enjoy my sweets and stop feeling like I need to run away from them.

Cookies are not bad. A donut won’t make you fat. Cake is not something to run away from, and ice cream is not something to burn off the next day. These 5 tips will keep your Diet in balance, and bring you a more peace of  mind and Healthy Life!

Deal with your sugar cravings, don’t kick ’em & ignore ’em.

Thanks for reading! Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other Questions!

Love y’all!

c.olsen9@yahoo.com

CHALLENGE: Deal with your sugar cravings using 1 of these 5 tips!

P.S.- I mentioned healthy alternatives. Yes, I’m all about enjoying your favorite sweet. However, when you’re like me, and you get those every day it takes a toll on you! I feel sluggish and tired when I am constantly curing my sweet tooth through baked goods, and candy bars.

I have found that healthy swaps/alternatives to help are sometimes the following…

• Drinking Coconut Water
• Gatorade
• Quest Bars or any new protein bar
• Protein Greek Yogurt w/ PB, banana, almond milk.
• Protein Bread
• Protein Banana Bread muffins
• Apple Sauce Brownies
• Homemade Protein Cereal
• Washing my hands

Someone feel free to explain the Psychology behind that last one!

Nothing is wrong with trying out a Healthy alternative!

Cut the Diet Not the Food

Ok Cara- What is this Intuitive Eating?

Hey guys! Hope you learned something about the harmful effects of Dieting, as well as discovering your Eating Style! I wanted to touch more on Eating Style #9, Intuitive Eating. This is very simple. The simplicity of it is actually is what can make it somewhat hard.

Just like the Chinese finger puzzle, you naturally THINK “in order to get my fingers back, I must pull?”  Yet, the harder you pull the more you get stuck. When you discover that you are actually supposed to release pressure in your fingers to get your fingers back, you think, “Huh? Weird. How? Why?” It’s seems too simple for our brain to comprehend at the moment.

This is why 95% of Diets fail, yet the Dieting Industry is $60 billion dollar (growing) industry. We try a Diet, we try so hard be be perfect, we fail, so we try again with the hopes of succeeding the next time.

Intuitive Eating is getting rid of that Dieting mentality. It’s loosening the pressure in your fingers, and accomplishing what you’ve been trying to accomplish from the beginning.

Intuitive Eating: eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full.

Easy enough right? Sounds maybe too easy? “Huh? Weird. How? Why?” Here’s the thing, our bodies are so much smarter than we give them credit for. Intuitive Eating is gaining trust back with ourselves, that may have gotten lost somewhere in our years of being exposed to the Dieting world.

So what is an Intuitive Eater like? Here’s 3 perfect examples.

I’m sitting in class, and I am learning for the first time about Intuitive Eating.

All of a sudden I instantly and VIVIDLY remember a moment at my Grandmas house. It had to have been at least 10 years ago, and lasted 10 seconds. However I know there is a reason Heavenly Father kept this stored up in my memories!

All the kids were getting their Thanksgiving meal. My dear Grandma overheard my cousin wanting to lose weight. My Grandma, very sternly said to my cousin as she walked into the other room,

“Now you know that the only thing you need to do to not gain any weight Jennifer, is to stop eating when you’re full, and that’s it. As soon as you’re full. Drop that spoon. No more. That’s all you need.”

Out of all the times I’ve eavesdropped in my life- THIS. I realize, it’s balance, it’s mindful, it’s intuitive, it’s healthy! I’m so grateful that this conversation came back to me! My Grandma could not have been more dead on! Little did I know, she was an Intuitive Eater! It makes sense why she was so healthy. I wish she were here so I could maybe talk to her more about it.

INTUITIVE EATING: Eating when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re full. This is it!

“Listen to your inner hunger signals, and eat whatever you choose without experiencing guilt or an ethical dilemma.”

Without an ethical dilemma means, if you are hungry and you want pasta, you should be able to go out with your friends and eat a plate of pasta, WITHOUT questioning whether it be “good” or “bad.” However, of course it is still OK to weigh your options. We’ll get more on this later.

Like I said, Intuitive Eating is so much easier said than done. I was just on Social Media today, and there was a story that someone posted about how she cheated on her Diet, and ate a handful of chips.

She was so upset with herself. Of course I’m over here thinking, “Well shoot. I just had a whole bag of chips the other day. Maybe I should feel guilty too now….?” Thankfully Intuitive Eating comes into my head and reminds me, “YOU’RE FINE.”

Another example of an Intuitive Eater, my Mom! After taking my classes on Intuitive Eating, I went to her and said, “Mom! We are learning all about you!!” Little did she know that she was an Intuitive Eater.

My mom has recently lost over 35 pounds. (Probably more, I haven’t asked lately)

She has lost all her weight WITHOUT changing her Diet. She has done it all through simply changing her lifestyle and adding 45 minutes of exercise, 3-5x’s a week.

As a teenager who had all the curiosity in the world about Dieting, I used to wonder why she was never on a Diet. Looking back, I don’t remember her ever referring to any foods as “bad.” I’ve never heard her say, “I really shouldn’t have eaten that, dang it- better hit the gym extra hard tomorrow.” She’s always allowed treats, candy, fresh baked goods in the home. She sees food as Neutral.

Most importantly, my mom doesn’t let food make her feel guilty. She is a happy, confident, a beautiful women. As I’m sure all of us would say the same about our mothers:)

Listen to your body, it is the house of your spirit! Be the master of your house, by listening to what you’re body is telling you. 

My husband Jake is healthy and active, and he is an Intuitive Eater. He makes me laugh!! He will go through this phase, where he just CRAVES salads, every-day for every meal!

WHY? Why is he craving salad, and I’m over here having to force myself to eat a salad? Not fair.

This is because his body is telling him that he needs those nutrients. He knows how to listen to his body. He still eats McDonald’s every once in a while, and enjoys a yummy “treat” every now and then. Again, I hear no guilt after anything he eats. He eats what his body wants when he is hungry, and stops when he is full.

Whether it be salads, or burgers.

You might think, “But it’s not healthy to eat burgers all the time! Those aren’t good for you!” Intuitive Eating is not binging on burgers- it’s listening to your body. Yes, if you are listening, you will know when your body is telling you it needs a burger.One burger, when your body needs it, will not make you fat- and should not be something to worry about.

Before Intuitive Eating, when in a social setting,  I would make comments after every cookie, or treat I ate. It’s just what me and all my friends did! Not only because we thought they were “bad” and going to make us gain weight, but because it was kind of the thing to do. Like some sort of hidden disclaimer we felt we needed to voice.

Eating cookies was more of a thrill for me than it was for Jake because of my thinking, “this is my last one! No more! Tomorrow I will die in the gym due to this binge!”

Therefore, I would end up eating 7 cookies, and he would be fine with maybe 2. This thrill of sweets that I got came from that DIETING MENTALITY I had.

Fact:

“When one deprives themselves of food, in an attempt to be thin, one becomes preoccupied with food, afraid they won’t get enough to eat and often results in overeating when they get a chance.”

I’d like to add- Also results in binging. This is part of the dieting trap. To stop the restricting. Stop the starving. Stop limiting yourself to an unhealthy, low amount of calories. If you want to binge less, you have to eat more!

The important thing is: We can all become Intuitive Eaters.

I am BECOMING an Intuitive Eater, and it is working wonders for me in all areas of my life. We can all start now to listen, and honor our bodies.

Honor your hunger. Give your body what it needs. Love yourself. Love the house that God gave you to store your Spirit here on Earth. He only gave you one, and it’s so precious. Respect and take care of it!

CHALLENGE: Listen to your body. Eat what you want without guilt when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full.

Love y’all so much!

Email me any QUESTION or COMMENTS!!

c.olsen9@yahoo.com

#thehealthylifeisgood