DO YOU NEED A METABOLIC MAKEOVER?

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON CHOPRA.COM

Do you start off running with a brand-new diet each year only to lose steam after the first couple of weeks? Are you in a constant conversation with your bathroom scale that can either uplift or depress how you feel each day?

Your metabolism keeps you energized and moving. If it slows, you are likely to feel its effects on your sleep, in your mood, and your energy.

There is ample scientific evidence as to why diet culture is not working (nor supportive) For example, studies show that restricting and depriving what you eat leads to rebelling and in many cases binge eating. Notably, diet culture asks us to lean on high levels of willpower rather than creating long-term sustainable habits and behaviors. Furthermore, looking at our health through the lens of our metabolism has been shown to be much more successful (and more flexible too).

Maybe this year, it’s time to stop trolling for the newest diet trend or eating style that puts you into a box, put the bathroom scale away, and try something a little different—something sustainable, healthful, and results-based. Eating to match your metabolism is a true match for who you are and what your particular cells need to produce energy effectively and efficiently.

WHAT IS METABOLISM?

Introducing your metabolism: the source of your energy, vitality, body composition, and health. Studies show the underlying cause of many of the current health issues in the world today is due to a lack of the building blocks that feed your metabolism. Your metabolism is deeply embedded in your blood sugar, your biochemistry, your cellular oxiative system (how your cells make energy), your autonomic nervous system, and how you nourish yourself each day—body, mind, and soul.

Explore these five metabolic principles for more energy, deeper sleep, curbed cravings, an elevated mood, clear focus, and optimal body composition—and create long-term sustainable changes in your health.

1. METABOLIC INDIVIDUALITY

Studies on metabolic individuality show that over many thousands of years, with the evolution of people in various parts of the world, individuals have developed specific nutritional needs based on many important factors and variables, including climate, genetic lineage, environmental stressors, and daily life rhythms. Examples of metabolic individuality include differences in ideal macronutrient ratios (protein, fat, and carbohydrates).

While one person may thrive eating a diet that is high in tropical fruits and fish, another person may feel more nourished with a diet higher in heavier proteins, berries, and nuts. These telltale pieces of your individuality are needed to understand the differences for customized ingredients to feed your energy, vitality, and metabolic requirements.

Essentially, what works for you may not work for others. Instead of looking for a one-way approach to health, consider looking for your way. While this may sound more complicated than signing up for the latest diet trend, with a little time and practice you can learn to be the detective in your own body and the governor of your health.

Try this:

• Employ a mindfulness practice, such as meditation, in your life and practice being the witness in your body and in your life.

• Track how different kinds of foods in different ratios affect your mood, energy, sleep, and cravings after meals.

• Avoid the one-way approaches to weight loss that ignores your unique bio-individuality, history, and genetic lineage. In some cases, genetic and/or ancestral testing could be informative and useful.

2. BALANCE

Creating balance in your body, and specifically in your blood sugar, is a relief to your metabolism. This cannot happen if your blood sugar is on a roller coaster. Science shows that when insulin, our storing hormone, spikes too high or dips too low, it tells your body to hold onto body fat. Conversely, one study found that suppressing insulin secretion in non-diabetic obese adults was associated with weight loss and decreased body mass.

Try this:

• Eat protein, fat, and whole carbohydrates at each meal.

• Avoid high-glycemic foods, especially eaten by themselves. High-glycemic foods are foods that turn to sugar quickly in your blood, such as sugar or white flour.

• Don’t be afraid of adding good fats to each meal—such as coconut oil, nuts, seeds, olive oil, avocado, and/or pasture-fed butter—which will keep your blood sugar balanced, your body satiated longer, and your energy more even and consistent.

3. SATIETY

You will know you are on track when you are satiated—to feel satisfied without excess—after a balanced meal. Your cravings will no longer get the best of you, and your energy will be even and sustained. Even if you are known to emotionally eat, stress eat, or boredom eat, you will notice an improvement with these habits when you are aware of how to eat for your satiation at each meal.

Studies show that the quality of your carbohydrates affects your cravings (especially for sugar). When you eat more processed and refined carbohydrates, they will create more blood-sugar imbalance. One study showed that when men eat low-glycemic carbohydrates in their whole forms, such as brown rice, sweet potato, steel-cut oats, quinoa, or a tart apple, those carbs were more stabilizing to their blood sugar. This suggests that eating low-glycemic whole carbs will leave you feeling more satiated and cravings begin to melt away.

Try this:

• Choose whole carbohydrates—whole grains, low-glycemic fruit, and starchy vegetables.

• Eat regular meals and don’t let yourself get too hungry. When you wait too long between meals, you usually end up becoming “hangry” (a mix of anger and hunger) and making impulsive choices. Eating regular, balanced meals keeps your blood sugar stable and keeps your metabolism working for you.

• Track your cravings as they change. An improvement in your cravings indicates an improvement in your metabolism.

4. HEALING

When you continue to focus on the number on the scale, rather than healing your metabolism, you most often perpetuate feeling deprived, restricted, hungry, and uninspired. Even if you have the willpower to keep up with a rigorous diet, your body needs a strong metabolism to sustainably lose weight, feel energized, and be healthy and strong.

Getting healthy to lose weight works much more effectively than losing weight to get healthy.

Here are the four primary stages that your metabolic healing will go through:

1. Your starting point—your current metabolism.

2. The healing phase—replenishing your body through food, restoration, insulin balancing, and rebuilding your energy and vitality.

3. Fat-burning and the metabolic makeover phase––you begin to notice changes in your mood, energy, cravings, body composition, and sleep.

4. A healed state—you achieve balance in your hormones (starting with insulin). This may translate into weight loss, more sustained energy throughout the day, improved brain chemistry, more satiation, improved sex drive, better night's sleep, and more focus and clarity.

Try this:

• Cultivate patience as you move through the various metabolic healing phases at a slow-and-steady pace.

• Acknowledge your progress as you go. Tracking changes and celebrating your successes (big and small) will continue to inspire your health and healing.

• Share your results with others in your life. Sharing the progress you are making may lead to greater success on your journey.

5. SUSTAINABILITY

It is common to start on a health and healing journey relying on your willpower to keep you on track. What you may not realize is that your willpower is inconsistent. This variable of how you move through your day changes based on a few key ingredients: stress, sleep quality, and blood sugar.

In its report, “What You Need to Know About Willpower: The Psychological Science of Self-Control,” the American Psychological Association states, “A growing body of research shows that resisting repeated temptations takes a mental toll. Some experts liken willpower to a muscle that can get fatigued from overuse.”

To create a sustainable path to health and healing, you must turn toward something more reliable. Research shows a more reliable approach is a shift toward habit forming and automatic behaviors. While you likely don’t have trouble finding time to take a shower or brush your teeth each day, it is because these acts of self-care have become automatic.

When behavior becomes automatic, you are not relying on the irregularity of your willpower. This is true with eating, exercising, meditation, sleep routines, and even your internal dialogue.

Try this:

• Consider picking one small new health behavior to add in through habit-forming and automatic behavior.

• Start slow and build your momentum strong and steady.

• Set a reasonable timeframe to work within (such as 30 days) and anchor your new behavior with time and practice.

While this may not be your typical approach to improve your eating try these tried-and-true steps that heal your metabolism—from the inside out—for a long-lasting and sustainable transformation in your health and beyond.

*Editor’s Note: The information in this article is intended for your educational use only; it does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Chopra Center's Mind-Body Medical Group; and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition and before undertaking any diet, supplement, fitness, or other health programs.

WANT TO GO DEEPER?

Explore my Metabolic Mastery program and learn about your specific metabolic needs and how to eat food to feel good.

Got questions? Message me here and I will get right back to you!

BRING YOUR EMBODIED FEMININE TO THE TABLE

When I was a kid, I had a very robust appetite. I have always been a fast metabolizer (needing higher levels fat and protein to be satiated), and for my entire childhood and all the way through college, I was a competitive gymnast with a very intensive training schedule and energy output.

Meanwhile, I was taught that a proper woman should eat light and always orderthe salad –– after all, it was the 1970’s-80’s and the fat free movement was in full swing.

Let’s just say, my needs as a young girl were not well accepted by cultural norms.

I have been thinking about this a lot:

Our western patriarchal culture, one that’s been around for a millennia, has shaped a woman’s relationship with food and our bodies—from corsets to skinny jeans.

In speaking with many of my clients, this feeling is mutual.

How can we take the patriarchy off of our plates and out of our mirrors?

Living more embodied and in real-time with our eating, and learning how to eat and live in a way that is metabolically satiating and sound, is an important conversation to call front and center.

I know there are many layers to this. I also recognize I can only scratch the surface here, and that my area of expertise lies more on our plates than in the political and patriarchal shortcomings. 

Regardless, I took a leap and to plant the seed here for all of us to ponder. 

Most of us have dieted, tried to conform to impossible standards with how are bodies look (I know I have!), or even hidden our vulnerability from the world behind our weight.

And, worst of all, all of it has been normalized as just what women do.

Just to be sure I am clear, I see nothing wrong with wanting to lose a few pounds, feel good in our bodies, or bring more health and mindfulness to our eating.

What I am talking about is the deeper places we feel devalued and objectified, where sexism has crept onto our menus and into our minds.

Bringing your embodied feminine to the table means creating a body-centered resolution with how you eat, while being keenly aware and authentic with the full experience you have with our food –– tracking your bodily cues and sensations such as hunger and fullness, as well as your feelings, thoughts, and stories around your eating and your body.

It's here we create sovereign satiation. 👸🏽

If you want to go deeper with me, and reveal your greatest embodied feminine power and wisdom within your eating (and living), consider joining me in the new Make Peace With Your Plate Women's Circles.

These circles are here to guide you step-by-step in cultivating a soul-centered relationship with food and your body.

Check out all of the details and join us right HERE! 

If this is a YES for you, I would love to welcome you to this important and timely circle.

Be Well,
 

YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE PERFECT

As a nutritionist, many people assume I eat only salads, kale, and goji berries.

Occasionally, I run into my clients at the grocery store and am met with curious eyes peering into my grocery cart: “What does a nutritionist eat?”

While I love me a tasty, colorful, and seasonal salad for sure (pictured above), just the other night, I ate pizza 🍕.

Our eating does not have to be “perfect” for us to be healthy. 

How we think and feel about what we eat is every bit (or more) as important as the the ingredients on our plates.

And, while I love many of the trendiest health food products on the market, very few are imperative for you to be healthy.

​Your health is not about green juice or roasted celeriac.

I say this because I want you to know that wherever you are, and whatever resources, health foods, time, and money you have available to you, you can improve your health –– even if you live in a food desert.

When we focus on befriending our biochemistry — balancing our blood sugar, feeding our metabolisms all the macronutrients we need, and (if needed) learning our food allergies — we can make  informed choices that will foretell how we will feel over the coming hours, and even days.

We can eat to feel how we want to feel.

Two weeks ago, after a beautiful mountain hike, Jason and I went to a little tavern in Red Feather CO, near our cabin, and shared the most heavenly jalapeño mac and cheese.

It wasn’t gluten free, nor dairy free. I am not allergic to either, so occasionally I eat them.

When we are stressed about our eating, or consumed with eating “perfectly”, we overlook our primal love affair with pleasure and the complexity of how food plays into our physical and emotional satiation.

I love how healthy food tastes, but occasionally I make a different kind of choice.

When I decide to indulge, I have learned to pause and decide with my whole self––no shame, just pleasure.

To that end, eat well and be kind to your beautiful self!

WANT TO KEEP READING? Enjoy these other articles by Sue.

WHEN GOING AWAY IS THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS COMING HOME...TO YOURSELF

THE SOUL'S PATH IS NOT STRAIGHT AND ORDERLY; IT'S WINDY AND OFTEN BUMPY, BUT IT HAS AN INCREDIBLE VIEW.

Elisa Romeo
 

There was a time (not very long ago) where the thought of unplugging terrified me.


Single mom. Entrepreneur. (And possible control freak 🙈)


Unplugging felt almost impossible.


Not only did I always feel on call for my kids, but physically leaving them meant calling in a lot of support. Grandparents would fly in, friends would help with carpooling, and I would write endless lists of how our routine worked most successfully for those who were there to help. 


It was a logistical overload.


Taking time away not only felt like a huge project, but even worse, it also brought up so much fear and anxiety.


And, I desperately needed a break.


Over the many years of leading my annual international women's retreats, I began to learn how to manage this inner battle better and better.


The personal value and insight I received with time away is something that can still bring me to tears. 


On one early morning during a Bali retreat –– at approximately 4 am, while sipping Balinese coffee and writing in my journal –– I realized how I had been holding onto so much shame, feelings of not being enough, feelings of not being worthy, for far too long. 


I, in turn, made some big manifestos to myself that morning, promising myself I would learn how to break free from these old beliefs and patterns, that I saw were so clearly holding me back.


As you can imagine, I had some inner work to do, so that a new way of being and thinking would gain a solid foot hold in my life.


To this day, if I notice myself slipping back into those old thoughts and loops, I catch myself much quicker. I tend to the triggers. I know better how to flip my script, so to speak.


That morning changed my life forever. 🌺


I am sharing this with you because I know we all have our blocks in taking time for ourselves ––large or small, near or far. 


My women's retreats have become a perfect way support many women in transforming these blocks, and I now know in my bones that this is my calling. 


I support women (like you!) in taking a break, creating time for reflection and getting out of your day-to-day stressors –– to create some space exhale.


I want you to know that all of your efforts in preparing to get away –– from prepped meals for your family, to play-dates for your kids, to delegating your work, to simply letting go of control –– are all worth it. 


In fact, every single to-do that gets you closer to taking a break and being with yourself in an intimate way is priceless.
 

I have many upcoming retreats (see below) because I want you to have options, and I want the right retreat to speak to you. 


I am featuring our upcoming Satiate Your Soul ~ Bali retreat because, if you can join me, I know this trip will knock your knee highs off.  


It is pure magic.


Join The Satiate Your Soul ~ Bali Women’s Retreat: Experience a week of nourishment from the inside out where you can live your organic rhythm, connect with like minded adventurers, and step into an experiential and cultural immersion in the sacred land of Bali.

• Embody: Practice Women's Flow + Yin Yoga 

• Nourish: Organic food, Balinese cooking classes and inspirational workshops

• Cycle: Explore some of Bali's most culturally significant sites, rice fields, waterfalls and temples. (all levels)

• Rest: Relax, Renew, Reflect and Discover

• Immerse: Enjoy the culture through ritual + Balinese dance + food + goddess study.

Practice yoga amidst the jungle sounds, explore the most authentic aspects of yourself, enjoy an intentional group of women, participate in a traditional Balinese full moon ceremony, immerse into the Balinese culture through women, food, ritual, while basking in the wanderlust of a life changing retreat

Join us in experiencing this very special and intimate Bali retreat illuminating the devotional and cultural aspects of Bali through the feminine. 

Learn more and register here

Also (and reminder) to give you a little taster of what I teach on this retreat, I want to share with you The Soulful Superfood Series. A *FREE* online experience to satiate your soul. You can join HERE.





   

“Sue’s ability to lead is remarkable.  She gracefully and intentionally adapts to the needs of the group and is able to dig in to get to the heart of the matter in a tender and loving way.  Her wisdom and thoughtfulness is evident in everything we did.  She is a wonderful yoga teacher and remarkable workshop leader.  Her heart-centered approach allows woman the safe container to be vulnerable and open up in ways that can accelerate growth.  All of our needs are met so we can focus on our intentions and relax into the experience.  Sue’s retreats are always life-changing for me.  I am a more balanced and thoughtful person because of her.”
 

— Ani (Bali 2016)

WHAT'S YOUR FLAVOR FAV?

THE SECRET INGREDIENT IS ALWAYS LOVE

 

Sweet honey crisp apples, pungent roasted green chillies, salty farmers market cukes...


Fall flavors are a flowin'.


In traditional medicine, the 5 flavors are a representation of the geography of our palates, as well as a larger geography of our lives. Each of the five flavors have their own unique medicinal properties.
 

Flavors attune your body, mind and soul.


Subsequently, with our unique body ecologies, we can inquire into the flavors we crave on our plates and how they may reveal some deeper patterns in our lives.


Every craving has a message.


Let 's take a peek into the deeper currents of flavor:
 

• Sweet:  Sweetness is the most nourishing flavor –– all the way from breast milk to a homemade desert. Often a metaphor for love and attention, sweet is the most over eaten and out of balance flavor in our culture. When used wisely, sweetness nourishes the body and heart to the highest degree. 

• Salty:  Foods such as sea salt, seaweed and cured cheeses deliver salt to the body. Salt maintains the electrolyte balance in our cells. The salty flavor is said to increase inner courage, drive and fearlessness.

• Pungent:  Foods such as hot peppers, garlic and ginger bring the pungent flavor (also known as spicy). Pungent flavors clear the sinuses and improve circulation. Pungent foods are said to increase passion and excitement.

• Bitter:  Bitter is experienced in foods like kale, spinach and chocolate. Bitter is the flavor most lacking in the Western world’s diet, even though bitter foods often offer the most health benefits and spiritual enhancement. Bitter foods purify and cleanse the body, mind and soul.

• Sour:  Citrus, green grapes and fermented foods such as vinegars and pickles offer the sour flavor. Sour is energizing and supports a strong and healthy digestion. The sour flavor is known to soothe irritability and increase our sense of calm and peace. 

Often known as the taste of satiation, the combination and balance of all five flavors gives us the feeling of being fed, and being fed well. 

Notice the foods you crave when you are worried, stressed, irritable, bored, lonely or tired.


Which flavors you are drawn to?  Which flavors do you shy away from?  What do you need to be nourished?

Check out some of our favorite fall recipes HERE


Eat Well,


 P.S. For upcoming foodie fun and recipe demos follow us HERE