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Comfort Eating Vs Comfort Food

November 28, 2012 by 5 Comments

Q:  Hey Em — can you please write a blog about healthy comfort food? Or foods that have a calming effect?

My friend wrote that to me last week while rockets were falling and things were exploding.  I understand she is asking about healthy comfort food, but first want to make a careful distinction:

There is “Comfort Eating” and there are “Comfort Foods” and they are not quite the same.  Lest you mistake one for the other, allow me to explain:

Comfort Eating

If there was one commonality I noticed on Facebook in the past month, first with Hurricane Sandy, then the US elections, and finally war here in Israel, it was admission after admission by people seeking comfort through food.  Some people photographed pizza and ice cream binges as part of Hurricane preparedness efforts.  Others wrote things like “This election is driving me to donuts!” and among the Israelis, post after post of “Engaging in Baking Therapy!” with drool-inducing photographic proof of the buttery, sugary delicacies prepared.

I had a mentor who called comfort eating  ”Searching for salvation in the bright white refrigerator light.” 

Truthfully, there were a few moments last week when I too found myself opening and closing the fridge and cupboards, looking, looking, looking…  Thankfully I was able to remind myself that what I was seeking – comfort, distraction, solace – was not anything I could find within the 4 walls of my kitchen.

And that my friends, is my official answer on Comfort Eating:  Don’t Do It!  Don’t seek to bury feelings in food!  Food is for Hunger, not psychological support.  

Wine is for psychological support.  

Kidding!  (Kind of)

 

On the other hand…

Comfort Food

It would be foolish to deny that food has some sort of psychological effect on us.  It is not ALL about the physical satiation of hunger, is it?  Are there foods that actually have effects on our emotions?  Yes!  This topic has been studied extensively and I can strongly recommend the book The End of Overeating by Dr David Kessler if you want a thorough explanation of why we crave the sorts of things we crave – primarily sweet, fatty and salty.  But can we get the same comforting results from healthy foods?  Can we meet the desire for sweet, fatty and salty without ruining our health?  

Behold:

  • Brazil Nuts for selenium, which is a natural mood booster.  Go easy, 1-2 raw nuts is all you need.  
  • As everyone here in the Middle East knows, chickpeas and tahina, the main ingredients in hummus, have both anti-anxiety and anti-depressive properties due in large part to tryptophan and omega 3′s.  (Which begs the question, why so much fighting in the Middle East?  Me thinks, too many kebabs, not enough hummus!)  Ranch-flavored hummus anyone?
  • What about chocolate and it’s legendary broken-heart healing properties?  Yes, chocolate contains magnesium, which can make you feel better, but so do raw cashews and almonds, bananas, avocados, apples, whole grains and leafy greens which don’t contain the health damaging hitchhikers, sugar and caffeine that come with chocolate.

So remember, healthy food, prepared and served with love in a calm and cozy environment  CAN soothe life’s rough edges.

But using donuts, ice cream, and pizza as a stress reducing method ultimately causes you MORE stress from digestive pain to poor health.  It is easy to see this when we are talking about drug addiction, but many people use food as the same “soft addiction” with equally deadly results!  See my post The Frightening New Normal, for more on the destructive behaviors we as a society have unfortunately normalized.

An important part of stress control and happiness is the ability to employ non-food alternatives to improve our mental state.  For example:

  • Exercise
  • Love
  • Talking
  • Writing
  • Painting
  • Prayer
  • Meditation
  • Reading
  • Physical touch (giving and receiving)
  • and of course, my personal favorite coping technique:

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Filed Under: coaching exercises, health coach, Primary Food, Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Inhabiting the Body

February 20, 2012 by 1 Comment

source

This post is NOT just about running, so read to the end even if you don’t give a hoot about my stinky sneakers.

In a panicked effort to prepare myself for my first full marathon, I carefully hit every single workout.  I feared that missing even one would spell certain disaster come race day.  This caused me to sometimes run when injured, tired, and in bad, bad weather.

The sneaker hit the fan the Friday before last, when I set out for a 27km run on what appeared to be a sunny morning wearing only shorts and a t-shirt.  Within 1 hour, a cold front had swooped in, dropping the temperature dramatically, lashing me with wind and rain and then pelting me with hail.  Despite being frozen, wet and capital-M-Miserable, I finished the remaining 2 hours and 45 minutes of this run.  There was nothing fun about any moment of it.

As I headed into that weekend, I knew I was in trouble.  Everything ached, including, and most importantly, my soul.  I sat with my training schedule on my lap and had the very first thoughts of  ”I can’t make it.”  When I entered the words “over training syndrome” into Google, I learned that everything I was experiencing from irritability, insomnia, lack of joy during workouts, old injuries flaring up, and a sense of heart-wracking despair, could be attributed to doing too much running and too little of anything else.  The treatment: Take a few days off from running and cross train instead.

As scary as this was for me, it felt like the correct solution.  This did not feel like a Wall I needed to push through.  Rather, it felt like treading water in the Atlantic Ocean without a flotation device.  I was sinking and I knew it.

So the next Friday, when my schedule said “19km” and I woke up to rain, I packed my gym bag and headed off in search of my lost endorphins.  First, I laid my mat down in a packed, early morning yoga class.  As I slowly stretched muscles and rotated ligaments, I realized with a thud, what had gone wrong with my training.  Then, in the following hour on the spin bike, dripping with sweat and laughing with joy, my suspicious were confirmed:

I had vacated my body.

How could it be possible to lose touch with my physical vessel when training for a marathon?  Well, several things happened.  Firstly, those training runs are LONG.  In some cases, 3-4 hours long.  To stay present in your body for that long, well, it never even occurred to me!  I had been thinking the goal of passing that time was to get lost up in my head, in the beat of the music and the matching cadence of footfall.  I would make periodic scans of my body: how’s my head, my mental state, my temperature, my hips, my knees, my feet, my toes…  but those were just quick visits and back into my head I quickly retreated.

The second culprit was how far away my mind was taking me.  While running I was not entirely conscious of my whereabouts, as evidenced by the number of times I accidentally crossed on red lights and barely dodged angry drivers cursing and honking at me.  I was always surprised, “But surely the light was green!  Or was it…?”  I was always thinking about the next section of the run, the terrain, how much time was left on my watch, what race day in Tel Aviv would be like, how I would feel on THAT day.

Last Friday, first in Yoga and then in Spinning, I was fully present in this, the earthly home of my soul, for the first time in a long time.  

It felt like a Homecoming.  ”Hey girl, welcome back!”

There is greater significance to this story than just marathon training.  People who do not exercise regularly, or engage in any sort of mindfulness practice like meditation, yoga, tai chi etc, often spend entire lives cut off from the body.  Driving around all day, sitting at a desk at work, always thinking of what needs to get done next and how much time we have to do it, we stay all up in the cerebral and far away from the Now, the present moment and the bodies we inhabit.  When a diagnosis comes of disease or injury, or we find ourselves having gained weight or gotten out-of-shape, we often look down at our bodies in surprise for the first time “What?  You needed tending?  But you seemed fine without me.  How can you betray me like this?”

We eat when we are not hungry and we overeat when already full.  We ignore hunger and try to live on meager calories.  We stay up when tired.  We sleep when depressed.  We eat meals while reading, while driving, while doing the crossword puzzle.  We watch tv while having sex and think about what we will make for dinner while we are meditating.

Not surprisingly, I checked out during race training and traded my mojo for a tempo count.

Today, my first day back after my little running break, I shut off my music and listened again to my breath.  I went down into my legs and watched the muscles stretch and contract, stretch and contract.  I observed my feet and ankles instinctively making minor adjustments to keep my balance over rough terrain.  I felt my heart pumping hard and my lungs filling and emptying.  I sensed my skin reacting to the warm sun striking it.  All of this had been happening and I had been completely oblivious to the grandeur of it! 

I found my bliss again.  It was right here, just below my neck, the whole time.

source

Filed Under: coaching exercises, Exercise, Growth, Inspiration, Positive Thinking, Primary Food, Running, Tel Aviv Marathon, Triumph Race Club Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

It’s My Life

January 11, 2012 by 14 Comments

I made you sing Bon Jovi, didn’t I?

OK, so back when I asked for feedback about what you want to read about here, several people said they want to know more about ME, how things roll in my life and how I get stuff done.  I thought to myself  ”Huh?? Why does anyone want to know about my boring life for?!” Then I realized that I like reading posts about people’s boring lives and maybe it can even be helpful to pull back the curtain a little.

So…  today.  It’s mid January and “winter” has finally come to Israel.  The temp is 13C (55F) and where I live on the coastal plain, that’s about as cold as it ever gets.  It is also raining which only happens about 10 days a year, so it’s a pretty darn special day.  I am wrapped in blankets and wearing a scarf indoors because, although I swore I would never lose my New Yorker hardiness, I did in fact lose it.  I adapted down and my body thinks this is freezing.

Ridiculous, I know, please don’t hate me.

Anyway, I woke up this morning, as always at 5:45am to write my 3 Morning Pages.  (This is a practice from Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way that  I began back in August and have been doing every morning since).  Yes, it is dark at that hour and I have to sneak out of bed so as not to wake anyone.  I drink steaming hot tea while I write.  This is my favorite time of the entire day. After my writing is done, I reward myself by playing on facebook a bit so I can interact with the North Americans who are still enjoying yesterday.

The kids get up and I make breakfast which is either cereal, oatmeal, smoothies, muffins, toast and eggs (they are not vegans), toast and peanut butter…  Then I pack their lunches – as well as my husband’s – which are sandwiches or leftovers from dinner.  I walk the dog for the 1st time.

Once everyone has launched off into their day, it is time for my workout.  I either go running, head to the gym, or workout at home.  Every day is Training Day, just like my t-shirt says! ( except Saturday)

Before I go, I eat a little something depending on what the workout will be.  If it’s anything under an hour I just drink a glass of freshly squeezed oj with green powder stirred into it, or I eat 3 dates.  A long workout is usually fueled by a bowl of rice with soy sauce.  Strange, but it is the best breakkie I have found to fuel me far without stomach upset.

Upon returning home I’m a starvin’ Marvin and breakfast needs to happen ASAP.  I normally drink a green smoothie with some Sun Warrior protein powder in it.  Other times I have oatmeal or pb&j+fruit.

TaDa!  is it bedtime yet?  Are you totally bored of this?

Now it is time to settle down and work.  I see clients – yay!  I write articles.  I work on my own website.  I do some marketing woo-woo and call my people in to me.  I work all the way to lunchtime.

Happy Herbivore Meatless Balls

These are Happy Herbivore’s Meatless Balls which are leftover from my dinner last night.  More lunch will follow (veggies, and a grain, if I didn’t have oats for breakfast) but these are super filling!

Then it’s back to work until the off-spring return home from school.  They both come home in need of immediate sustenance:  food, snuggles and a listening ear are all needed after a day away from the nest.  I dispense all three in large supply.  Once they are sated, I finish up any work I need to finish and by 3pm I turn to my home chores (Job #2 for the modern woman!).  We eat dinner between 5:30-6:00 and it takes me awhile to get it cooked, so I usually start somewhere around 4pm and intersperse the cooking with housekeeping, homework advising, and any errands or appointments.  Another dog walk happens in this time also.

vegan slow cooker

Today I dumped a bunch of veggies, grains and beans in the slow cooker because it’s a slow cooker kind of day.  I’ll serve it with leftover pasta from last night.

Unless I have an overseas Skype client, I try to keep evenings free of work, although much pinterest pinning and facebooking happens. The only TV show I watch is Glee, once a week.  Not a big tv person.  This frees up A LOT of time in my life!

I also spend some time each evening planning the following day and that usually includes pre-logging what I am going to eat into Sparkpeople.  I like it planned ahead because then all I need to do is eat what is on my plan and I get the right amount of calories and nutrients without any guesswork.  This has been an important part of maintaining my weight loss all these years!

I’m under the covers by 10pm and read until I fall asleep (approximately 10 seconds later).  And that’s a wrap!

There are other things about my life in Israel that differ from the US life:

1.  With just one car between us, I go everywhere by foot or bus during the day.

2.  We do one big grocery shop a week but I often have to fill in with trips to the health food store, the shuk (daily farm-fresh fruits and veggies), and the little makolet (small private corner market).  I do that all on foot with one of those granny carts my husband calls The Mitsubishi.

3.  Laundry is an every day thing for me.  I alone generate huge amounts of sweaty, stinky clothes, not to mention the kids and husband.  Like most Israelis, we don’t use a clothes dryer because the weather is usually quite lovely.  Laundry is hung on lines in a little laundry balcony.  Its eco and green, but it takes a bit more time.

No hanging laundry on a rainy day!

4.  My kids don’t do tons of classes or clubs, but they didn’t in the US either.  I personally believe childhood is for school, homework, and decompressing at home with an adult care-giver or with your best buds.  I know that makes me out-of-step with lots of parents who believe every moment should be filled with some sort of meaningful learning or hobby, but this works for us.  Not to mention it keeps my life simpler than my friends (and clients) who carpool their kids around from place to place all afternoon and evening.  We didn’t have all this time-filling stuff when we were kids and you know what?  Childhood was plenty fun.  We got bored and created things to do.  We had time to dream and to think.  We knew how to entertain ourselves. We read books and colored and used our creativity.  I want those things for my kids too.  I know I am lucky that I am working from home and I don’t mean to put down working parent’s or their lifestyles.  Just telling my truth and hoping it can be a light for those of you who feel the same but are afraid their kids will “miss out” if they are not in tons of after school activities.  They’ll be amazingly fine and happy and so will you!

I didn’t write this so you would compare your life to mine, for better or worse, but basically just to give a glimpse at the way things are for me right now.  They may change.  Your life might be totally different.  There is no right or wrong.  Just create a lifestyle that works for you and enjoy each day – even the rainy ones!

Filed Under: Inspiration, Primary Food, What Was For Dinner Tonight Tagged With: , , , , ,

An Ode to Home

December 21, 2011 by 1 Comment

NOTE:  I wrote this post back in August after a trip to the US and then decided not to publish it because I was afraid it would offend either Americans or Israelis.  Today I was doing some house-keeping on the inside of my website, read this and thought “It’s good!  Why not?”  So, I hope it doesn’t offend any of you!

In completely unrelated news, I made a Daily Nutrition Checklist yesterday as a free downloadable gift for my readers.  You can download it HERE.  In my practice, I believe a lot more in what TO eat rather that what NOT to eat.  You can actually “crowd out” the bad by increasing the good stuff.  You feel fuller, more nourished, less crave-y.  Good stuff.  Enjoy the checklist!

******************************************************************************************************

On August 28th, 2011, my family and I celebrated our 4th anniversary of aliyah (immigration to Israel).  On a hot August 27th, in the year 2007, we got on a plane at JFK, with one-way tickets to Tel Aviv, not having any idea what our new lives would be like, but hoping for the best.

For our 1st two years here, I made the conscious decision to not leave the country at all.   I somehow felt that going back too soon would be too confusing.  Turns out, I was right.  I have been back to North America a few times since then and each trip throws me for a total loop.

The first few days in the US are spent in shocked disbelief, accompanied by open-mouthed drooling and rapid expenditure of cash.  America is Abundant beyond belief.  There is so much space, so much to buy, giant stores stocked from floor to soaring ceiling with a dizzying array of products.  Every book I have desired is waiting (in English) on the shelves of Barnes and Noble.  Every hard-to-find food, supplement, shampoo, and shiny trinket is there at the tip of my fingers.  There are no subtitles.  No labels covering up the English.  Nobody really looks at anyone else, much less interferes in their lives, comments on their driving, or criticizes the amount of clothing they have dressed their baby in or where their dog is taking a leak.

I took a BATH, for Pete’s sake and I didn’t have to save the bathwater to flush the toilet or do the laundry.  And speaking of laundry: let’s just say large capacity washing machine, clothes dryer, fluffy clothes, fabric softener sheets…

We went to the public pool and my kids were dumbstruck that there was no pushing or cutting in the line for the water slides.  People stand apart, as if they are in an invisible bubble of private space.  I watched as the boys’ bodies relaxed.  For the first time in 4 years they didn’t have to compete, jockey for, or defend their position.

Life in America is Easy Street.  I know it might not feel like it to some of you who live there, but darlings, you have NO IDEA until you live somewhere else.

And then, it’s time to come back.  Still in the airport, as we approach the gate, we can spot our countrymen a mile away.  They are the one group not lining up to board the plane, but rushing upon it in a surging mass of frenetic energy.  We shake our heads, laugh, and plunge into the fray, elbows out.  Somehow I manage to feel simultaneously depressed and excited.

And yet…

I lived in the Land of American abundance, politeness, and order, for 41 years and never really felt like it was my home.  This is not something I can easily explain.  I believe it is some genetic attachment / cellular memory / tribal consciousness – that binds me to Israel in a flagrant defiance of logic.  This is the dusty air my lungs were designed to breath.  This is the sandy earth my feet long to walk.  This is the melting sun my skin seems to crave.  These are the pushy people I was meant to elbow?

Still, after 4 years here, I am very much a foreigner.  I only have enough Hebrew to get by, not enough to converse fluently or work in my profession.  I never really understand what is going on at any given time.  I can’t read the newspaper or the phone bill.  When meeting a new person, I am seized by the panic of not knowing which cheek we will lean in to kiss first, often crashing into an awkward nose collision.

And yet…

I know I am Home.  Sweaty, dusty, crowded, pushy, annoying, confusing, home.

I know that the next few weeks will be a ping-pong of roller-coastering emotions as I re-adjust to life in Israel, the kids going back to school, and the approaching Jewish holiday season.  Bear with me.

And in case you are wondering what any of this has to do with Nutrition…  your relationship to where you live is Primary Food, Baby.  Do you love your geographic location?  Do you feel truly at home there?  Does your heart long for somewhere else?  The country life?  The city life?  A foreign land?  The land your ancestors came from?  Sometimes we have to live somewhere less than ideal for a job or school or family ties.

Sometimes it is time to to have the courage move on.

Filed Under: Growth, Primary Food, Rants, Travel Tagged With:

Today I baked a cake

October 18, 2011 by 3 Comments

Due to the historic events of the day, there was no way I could write about Vegan MoFo, recipes, my back pain, marathon training, or weight loss.

Today Gilad Shalit came home.  Five years ago he was kidnapped and has been held by Hamas in unknown conditions without even a peek allowed to the Red Cross.  Today he is back in the arms of his family and his country.  The emotion we all feel is beyond words.  Yes, the deal the Israeli government had to make to win his freedom is horrible and truly disgusting.  Yes, the world continues to condem my country in ways that shock me in their ignorance and unfairness.

But today, we bring our son home alive and seemingly OK.  And today, that is all that matters.

The first photos we saw of Gilad stepping out of a car in Egypt were met with our collective gasp, every female in my twitter stream whispered “oh my goodness! he is so thin!”  We felt it like a knife in our hearts.  And sure enough, a great deal of attention on the non-stop news footage has been given to re-feeding him.  We are all thinking “soon he will be at home and his mother will feed him again.”

In my work, I treat people who are not well because, in most cases, they have too much food, too many choices, too much confusion, too many calories, too much dietary fat.  We live in a remarkable time in history where we actually have more than enough food to eat.  It turns out that we get just as sick from too much as we do from too little. Who would have thought the balance would be so delicate?

As mothers, most of us today, are in the very lucky position of being able to fill our children’s bellies each day.  We can choose to fill them with junk food, sugar and processed food.  We can choose to fill them with healthy whole foods.  Or we can choose a path somewhere in the middle.  Yet we tend to take this abundance for granted.  We grumble through that endless “whatever will I make for dinner tonight” night after night, without pausing to think how lucky we are to have such a dilemma.

For 5 years, Aviva Shalit did not have this privilege.  The mothers of the other 2 soldiers in Gilad’s tank that day will never have the chance to feed their children again.  Nor will the mothers of the terror victims, whose murderers were set free today.  Mothers of sick children and anorexics, mothers living in poverty or in places that lack our abundance, mothers who have not been able to conceive or carry a child to term, all probably dream of what it would be like to have what we have, to put spoon to mouth, to pile food on a table.  We are truly blessed.

As you face your kitchen tonight, I’d like to suggest that you stop for a moment and remember your bounty, your luck, and your privilege.  I know I will.  In fact, I made this:

welcome home gilad shalit cake

I have never been prouder of my decision to immigrate to Israel than I was today.

Today we brought one boy home.

Today I baked him a cake.

Filed Under: dessert, Love, Primary Food Tagged With: ,

Finding Your Tribe

September 11, 2011 by 3 Comments

OK, so I need to write a blog post about sports injuries but apparently it is stuck in me and causing a log jam behind it, so I decided to set it aside and just write what is trying to get out.  I’m going to just follow this thought and see where we go.

hands together

Tribes.  Humans are tribal people.  We don’t do well in isolation.  We need communities and within those communities we form tribes of like-minded people.  Belonging and being heard and understood are important for our well-being and survival.  In fact, on this 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, what most of us remember is the sudden feeling of community in NYC and across the USA.  For the first time, we were speaking to our neighbors and even though the situation was horrible, it felt good to be part of a community.

My father specializes in Community Psychology and over the vacation we were discussing how hard it is for people to make changes in their lives when their tribe does not support change.  People can literally be held back by the very people who love them the most.  One of the first things I talk about with my clients, is building a tribe of like-minded people who will support them as they make healthy changes in their lives.  Twitter and facebook have allowed people to find and form tribes of support even if none exist in their real day-to-day lives.  My Facebook stream for instance, is a constant mindbath of positivity, inspiration and healthy happiness.  People who post otherwise are not shown in the stream – not part of that tribe.

Like most people I imagine, I have several real-life Tribes as well as online.  First is my family tribe – the people I am either related to or who have been in my life for so long that I’m as good as related to.  This includes mostly humans, but also several animals who have been, or currently are, members of our pack.

Then there is my religious tribe, both the large tribe of Jews and the smaller tribes of actual belief and practice where I find the most ideas I happen to agree with.  (Just as an interesting aside, for those who don’t know this, Jews actually track their tribes from biblical times!  This tribal legacy is passed down through the patriarchy, so  when I married my husband, I became part of his tribe.)

Then there is my work tribe.  I don’t have co-workers so that can be lonely.  Most people make connections with the people at work with whom they spend their days.  I, on the other hand, am finally in the fabulous position where I can choose my clients and I only work with people I actually LIKE.  My clients are people I want to be friends with, people I like to talk to, people who are interesting and inspiring, and people who teach me as well as learn from me.

Then I have my women’s tribe.  These are my girlfriends.  Every woman has her tribe and I don’t think I need to say much about them except that I love them, they love me, we like to laugh, we always lovingly tell one another the truth, and we always have one another’s backs.

Finally, when I look at my life, I see that the other thing that is really important to me, is my feelings about animals/vegetarianism/animal rights and welfare/environmentalism/deep love and care of Mother Earth and her occupants.  But where is my tribe for this?  I did some research and I found that there is an active vegetarian society in Jerusalem, but that is too far for me to travel at night.  I also found an on-again-off-again group in Tel Aviv, but didn’t see any centralized organization of events.

So a couple of months ago, inspired by a Vegan Meet-Up group that a facebook friend organizes in Montclair, NJ, I thought “If I can’t find my Tribe, then I will just create one.”  I sent out notices everywhere I could think of about a Vegan Potluck and a friend of mine agreed to host it in her very beautiful home.  Then I sat back in wonder as a stream of amazingly kind and beautiful people began to reply.  I wondered hopefully if this realization of my tribe could really be happening.

Well, it did.  In the end, there were 20 of us who showed up for the dinner and as I have mentioned on facebook, the energy of the group was positive and glowing.  I felt that everyone was so open, so caring, so gentle and so interesting!  From all sides I felt loved and appreciated and I knew I was with a group of people who “get” me.  My Tribe.  Huuuummmmm….

We shared many ideas of how we can move forward.  Things we would like the group to be and to do.  I know that skirmishes and negativity can arise at any time and that group dynamics are often difficult to manage.  But I feel AMAZING to know that just by putting out the call “Hey, this is me.  This is what I care about.  Do you want to join me?” that I easily attracted a beautiful Tribe.

And by the way, not everyone there was vegan, or even vegetarian, but something brought them there and no one was judged in any way.  As it should be, and sadly, most often is not.

On the last episode of her long-running show, Oprah Winfrey said:

“I’ve talked to nearly 30,000 people on this show, and all 30,000 had one thing in common — they all wanted validation. … They want to know, do you hear me? Do you see me? Does what I say mean anything to you?”

This is what being a Tribe member feels like.  You still get to uniquely be yourself but other people see you and smile at you and sometimes even raise their glass to toast your existence.

Here are some photos of the event.  Check out these beautiful faces!




 


What Tribes do you belong to?  Are there more Tribes you would like to build?  I’d love to hear your thoughts below.

P.S. Yet one more Tribe – Team Triumph – has several new members.  I have added them to the group page HERE.  If I have forgotten to add you, forgive me and tell me again!

Filed Under: Events, health coach, Primary Food, vegan Tagged With: ,

The “Working Vacation” Failure

August 24, 2011 by Leave a Comment

You know, I had intended this to be a “working vacation”.  I had my blog posts lined up; I’ve been talking to clients via skype; I was planning to work on the program I wanted to launch in September.  But I gotta tell ya, my mind is not in the game!

I mean, I go for a jog and I run into this:

I go to the store, and I get some of this:

I open the mail, and find a pair of these:

The sun is shining and we end up here:

(and yes, I realized too late that he had made that fishing line out of poison ivy!)

There are many other things that feed our lives, aside from food.  We call it primary food.  A life deficient in primary food ends up relying too heavily on secondary food (the kind of food we eat to fill the void).

So, in a way, even this post is about nutrition.

Just not the kind that comes on a plate.

but even more yummy!

Filed Under: Love, Primary Food Tagged With: , ,

The Transformative Power of Compassion

March 25, 2011 by 2 Comments

I want to tell you a story today.   As you know, I am knee-deep in bar mitzvah/visiting family/Half Marathon training.  In addition to that, we’ve got rockets falling and buses exploding again.  Living in this strange country where “life just goes on” despite things that would definitely grind the US to a halt, takes its toll on us in a deep internal way.

I spent yesterday morning flitting and flailing from thing to thing, not accomplishing much of anything, with a giant lump of emotion in the pit of my stomach: sadness, fear, agitation, anxiety and depression were my companions throughout the morning.  Oh, and did I mention rainy cold weather that has interrupted my race training and exercise routine. (And we know how without exercise, I am more likely to fall prey to my negative emotions. )

When my 9-year old came home from school I barked “Take the dog out!” and off he went without me even kissing him hello-how-was-school-how-are-you.  Clearly a bad state of affairs.

A few minutes later, same child bursts through the door, panicked and crying.  Clinging to his sweatshirt is the tiniest, wettest, most pathetic looking little kitten I have ever seen.  It is mewing wildly and trying to burrow into a warm, dry spot in his arms.

“Ima, I couldn’t just leave him there!”

We toweled the little dude off and assessed the situation.  ”We have to put him back.” I said.  ”His mom is probably out there looking for him.”  Reluctantly we dragged ourselves back downstairs and set him in the yard where my son had found him, in the cold and the rain.  We left him the towel but he climbed right out of it and into the rain frantically calling for his mom and for help.  I could feel my heart literally ripping in two.  My son’s grief was beyond words.

If…

If those innocent babies in Itamar hadn’t just been murdered.  If 4 lbs of shrapnel hadn’t just been blown into the bodies of 40 people waiting for the bus in Jerusalem.  If my friends’ kids hadn’t had to miss school today in order to sit in bomb shelters.  Then maybe, maybe, I would have steeled myself with the whole “Let Nature Take It’s Course”, “Survival of the Fittest is what makes evolution work” thing and this story would have had a very different ending.

We went upstairs and listened to the kitten mewing piteously for one hour in the rain and cold.  We prayed for it’s mom to return.  I called my husband who ordered me to leave it outside.  I spoke to my neighbors who warmed me not to touch it.  I emailed my friend J in the US.  J is a vet tech and specializes in the care of rescued and abandoned animals.  J, the one voice of dissent said “Em, bring him inside.  He might die anyway, but he deserves not to suffer.”  Then I remembered my friend O, here in Kfar Saba, an animal lover like myself, who takes in strays and knows people who maybe could help.

The rest of the day was phone calls and emails back and forth, while I wrestled with my conscious and my heart.  With the kitten back in the warmth of my son’s arms, we got him cleaned up and comforted.  He was only quiet and calm when fully encased in my son’s warm hands:

kitten

One of the things that convinced me to take him back inside, was when my older son, the bar mitzvah boy came home.  We were standing outside wringing our hands over it and L said “Ima, to leave it out here is Tzar Balei Chayim (cruelty to animals) and that is forbidden in the Torah.”  I am so proud of my bar mitzvah boy who is also an amazingly compassionate young man!

We found a vet who would take care of him until a foster family could be found.  While waiting for our vet appointment, our little guy, now sporting the name Lucky, fully warmed and comforted, resorted back to his natural curious kitten state and began exploring our apartment, (much to the great dismay of our Labrador Retriever, who was definitely in the “leave him outside” camp.):

kitten walking

Shortly before we were to leave for the vet, we heard more meowing and thinking it might be the returned mother, ran outside just in time to see a second kitten fall 2 stories from a tree and splat into the soggy ground.  Miraculously, our 2nd baby (now named Nessie (miracle)), survived the fall and he too came inside to get warm and clean.  The two siblings immediately clung to one another and would not part:

kittens

At the end of the day, we handed them over to a vet who will try to nurse them to health and strength, before either adopting them out or releasing them back to their streets, spayed and neutered, so at least their lives won’t continue this legacy of suffering.

The reason I am telling this story is because those few hours changed all of our lives.  Where before I felt hopelessness for this world where people kill children because they are the wrong religion, now I feel a hope I cannot explain.  My 9-year old, the one who started the whole saga said happily as we kissed our babies good-bye, “I will remember this day forever.”

I will too.

That got me thinking.  If just a few hours of compassionate action can have this much of a positive effect, just think how a steady diet of it could affect one’s life!  What a primary food!  And how I have over-looked it.

Lucky and Nessie, your tiny little lives taught us a great lesson today.  We wish for you a life that lives up to your names.

Now the rain has stopped and 20km of road are waiting to be massaged by my feet…

To find a Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in your Israeli town, click HERE.

To get help with animal issues like this in Kfar Saba, HERE.

Filed Under: Inspiration, Love, Primary Food, Running, Tel Aviv Half Marathon Tagged With:

And I’m through!

February 24, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Yesterday I pushed REALLY hard in a strength workout and BAM I ejecto-seated right out the far side of The Wall.  Then today, I woke up sore as heck from the workout and said “Lovely morning for a run” and for the first time in about 6 weeks of training, I was excited as I laced up my sneaks and hit the highway (literally).  I did an almost 10-miler and felt awesome from the first step to the last.  I did NOT worry about my pace and just RAN, so I was slow, but that’s OK.  It’s more important that I got my Running JuJu back.

Phew!

I know I promised to write about clothing and weight loss, and I will do that.  But today I have one last technique to clear the Ick:

Anti-Ick Technique Numero Tres:

Do Everything Differently

upside down

Remember Backwards Day at school, where you wore your clothes backwards and did everything in mixed up order?  That’s the idea here, although, you know, you can put your clothes on frontways, if you want.

This week I gave my pre-printed training schedule the HEAVE-HO and just did what I felt like.  I decided to take the week off from Spinning and work more on weights and strength.  I exchanged my speed run for a Zumba class.  And I moved my long-run day from Friday to Thursday.

I switched some other things up too:  I chose to not watch tv this week and went to bed earlier.  I chose to.. ahem… not work on a project that has negative energy around it.  Yes, I will have to deal with it sooner or later, but it had no place in Ick Week.  I decluttered my closet and I drew pictures instead of writing in a journal!

Some other ways you can turn things on their head:

  • Drive a different way to work
  • Go bellydancing, folk dancing, swing dancing or clubbing or just try a different kind of yoga or exercise.  (Physically moving differently is probably the fastest way to change your energy)
  • Eat different food or in a different order.  Eat dinner for breakfast and breakfast for dinner.
  • Do something totally out of character.

Here is part of one of my favorite articles from Kundalini Yoga Teachers Ana Brett and Ravi Singh’s Newsletter.  You will see that I did quite a number of these in my process as well:

Top 10 Ways to Get Unstuck by Ana Brett and Ravi Singh

1. Work your Navel Chakra. Navel Power is indispensable when we are trying to put the brakes on a mode of living which doesn’t work in favor of one that does. It also gives us the resolve and energy we need to break through to the new! Aim high! Visualize undreamt of outcomes. Give your intention a vision to rally around.

2. Vary your routine. Get in the habit of doing at least one thing different each day.Travel if possible. Having new experiences and new input as well as temporary anonymity can provide impetus for a new you.

3. Move your body in ways you are not accustomed to. Dance! When you move your energy your life can move in new and surprising ways!

4. Travel light through life! Be ruthless and get rid of all the stuff you just don’t need anymore. This will create a “psychic vacuum” for new experiences to fill.
5. Cultivate a new persona which is the best of you magnified. Getting unstuck doesn’t mean you have to be someone else. Usually when people get stuck they are trying to be someone they’re not. Give your self permission to be fully who you are and shine!

6. Create an inventory of the steps necessary towards fulfillment. Write down what you need to do and check off each accomplishment once its done!

7. Associate with people who inspire you, or who are already doing what you want to accomplish. Also, surround yourself with people who really believe in you.

8. Raise your frequency! Do Kundalini Yoga & meditation every day. These gifts are tools we can use to determine our own outcomes. When your inside changes, your outside follows. See the Meditation of Month section for two of the most powerful meditations for change in Kundalini Yoga.

9. Practice expressing yourself via the various chakras. Invariably when we’re stuck we’ve gotten mired in the first chakra. There are rich and varied modes of being beyond the same old same old. Practice being them!

10. Don’t stress about being stuck. Its part of life. It often feels like we are stuck while a new us is gestating deep inside. Get ready for the next round of adventures!

Filed Under: coaching exercises, Exercise, Goals, Inspiration, Primary Food, Recommendations, Running, Tel Aviv Half Marathon Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Intricate Dance of Food & Love

February 14, 2011 by 1 Comment

Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.  -Rumi

heart hands
Food and Love – the two are linked from the moment we are offered our first sip of sustenance, right after our birth. We are held securely in strong, warm arms and fill our empty tummies with warm, sweet milk. Think of the way your own babies have gazed up at you with adoration as you held breast or bottle to their lips.

As we get older, delicious food is used to mark the happiest of occasions and holidays. Birthdays mean luscious cakes. Movies together mean buttered popcorn. A precious trip to the sports stadium means hot dogs, and to the circus, cotton candy. When people are sick or in mourning we bring them home-cooked food.  When we are trying to seduce, we do so over a romantic meal.

It is not surprising then, that when love is lacking, we look to food to fill the void.  When passion has petered, we take our pleasure in chocolate.  A tempestuous tryst with Ben and Jerry can help pass a lonely night.

However, it is impossible to fill a hole in your heart with food. The only thing that will fill that hole is Love. If there is no one to love in your life right now (or if your lover is currently being unlovable!), then start with yourself. Have a passionate love affair with that person who peers back at you in the mirror everyday. Adorn her in beautiful clothes and perfumes. Buy her flowers and then buy more when those begin to wilt. Seduce her over a home-made healthy dinner with candle-light and music. Dance with her!

Take the time to get to know yourself. Don’t be surprised if this leads to less binging, fewer cravings, weight-loss, improved health and happiness. Plus it puts you in a much better place to attract and accept the love of others.

Happy Valentines Day my beautiful readers!

chocolate strawberriesStrawberries dipped in vegan chocolate-hazelnut pudding!

Decadent Chocolate Pudding
1 ½ cups hazelnut milk
3 T cornstarch
¼ cup cocoa powder
¼ cup pure maple syrup
½ tsp vanilla extract

In a medium saucepan, combine all of the ingredients except the vanilla. Whisk rapidly. Once the mixture is smooth, cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until the pudding thickens. Stir in the vanilla and mix well.  Pour into individual serving bowls.  Refrigerate until chilled and serve. Serves 4. Recipe adapted from Compassion Over Killing www.TryVeg.com

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Filed Under: dessert, Love, Primary Food, Recipes, vegan Tagged With: ,
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