Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Eating with intention and awareness

I just had my first Eating with intention and awareness call. It began with a bit of chaos because a few people were given a non working dial in number but after a rough start it smoothed out. There were 150 people on the call and I was supported by Lindsay Davis, an intensati leader who has a passion for supporting people in eating with intention and awareness as well and who will be supporting the calls.

Just a few notes for those who were on the call and for anyone else who wants to participate in the monthly assignment.

The topic of the conversation tonight was looking at how we see and deal with our body as a spiritual journey. That each and every one of us has to figure out how to take care of our own body and when we learn to deal with it powerfully and lovingly our whole life is positively impacted.

Write a power statement for yourself.
I went over in detail on the call how to get your your own power statement but basically it is if you were on your death bed and I asked you " was you life a success in the area of your body?" You would answer no and give the reason. No because I never mastered my relationship to myself. I never learned to love and respect myself and that impacted my whole life" Then you make that into a power statement or a goal.
Here is an example of one.
"my life is a total success because I mastered by relationship to myself. I really learned what it means to love and respect myself"

"my life was a total success because I learned how to make being happy a priority and I really learned to rid myself of my negative eating habits!"

"my life was a success because I really was able to end my addiction to sugar which led to me losing ___lbs and finally believing in love!"

(if you want to hear the full details download the call from my website. Go to saitlife.com then click on the store, then events and you will see where you can download it)

Your emotions
Notice that feelings of guilt and shame keep us disconnected from our power. The goal is to stay away from the foods that trigger those feelings or learn to stop, enjoy the food you choose to eat and be able to drop the guilt, shame or disappointment you allow yourself to dwell in afterwards. The point is that we cannot make powerful lifestyle changes from a disempowered state. Our goal is to fuel feelings of love, appreciation, courage, gratitude and self respect.

Secondly is to develop a stronger relationship to your word. Practice this month making a food promise to yourself and keeping it. The only way to get yourself from a feeling of being out of control to a feeling of empowerment is to develop trust in yourself. The way you are going to make lifestyle changes and not just quick fixes is to be able to say you are going to do something or not do something and you actually do it. There is no other way! It is between you and you. Without the ability to trust yourself to keep your word to yourself you will feel like there is nothing you can do to improve your life. If you keep thinking it is because you haven't found the right diet, diet pill or you don't know the perfect carb to fat to protein ratio for you will never find the answer you need. It is not the diet, it is the ability to get yourself to follow through, to do what you want to do, to do what you know will make you proud and feel good!


The assignment for the month
1. Make a list of foods that trigger your feelings of guilt, shame, disappointment in yourself or feel of lack of self control. Usually sugar, junk food and refined carbs.

2. Notice when you eat foods that are on this list how it makes you feel. If you do choose to eat these foods, ENJOY it! Don't waste it by feeling guilty about every bite or beating yourself up about it afterwards. That is what opens the door to overeating more. Guilt, shame and disappointment do not burn calories or fix the past. Drop it!

3. Every day make one personal promise to yourself. Make it easy! It is not about cutting calories as much as it is a practice on saying you are going to do something and doing it. If you say that tomorrow you are going to drink 8 glasses of water then tomorrow, no matter what, drink 8 glasses of water. Even if it gets to 6pm at night and you only drank 2 glasses then you better gulp down the other 6. This way you will prove to yourself you are serious and next time you won't forget to keep your word! Keep your word no matter what!

4. Acknowledge yourself or have someone acknowledge you. Have someone ask you, or you ask yourself, "what would you like to be acknowledged for?" Then you say something like, I want to be acknowledged for drinking my 8 glasses of water and for getting to the gym tonight even though I didn't want to. Then you say, or your friend, lover, husband, boyfriend etc.. acknowledges you. "I want to acknowledge you for drinking those 8 glasses of water. I know it was a challenge since you had to fit them all in at the end of the day. Great job! And also for getting yourself to the gym even though you didn't want to!" This is so important because the emotion you go to sleep with will be the emotion you wake up and start your next day with.

I hope this was helpful in developing your strength in eating with intention and awareness. For more information about me or Sati life go to satilife.com or patriciamoreno.com

You can download the mp3 file of this call for 10$ at satilife.com. Please excuse settling in at the beginning.

Please send me your comments, ideas, sugestions for other topics, or how often you would like to participate in an eating with intention and awareness call. It will help me develop exactly what will best support you in living a life you love in a body you love!

good night,
Patricia