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Sep 09 2015

Brain Exercise

How Exercise Is Also Brain Exercise

How to enlarge the size of your brain.

The deepest canyon in the world is in Peru.

It’s called the Cotahuasi Canyon and it’s near the city of Arequipa.

The canyon was formed by the mighty Cotahuasi River.

It was during a river-rafting trip down this river that a woman in her late thirties had a revelation.

You see there was a variety of people on the trip. The youngest was 16 years old. The oldest was over 60.

What she realized was that of all the people on her rafting adventure, even though she considered herself healthy, she was the weakest person physically.

She admits that she had been living an unbalanced life. And it had taken its toll.

Classic story of “Too much work, not enough play.”

Her reliance on junk food had found her 25 lbs overweight.

The rafting trip was her attempt to broaden her horizons.

The first thing she did when she got home was to hire a personal trainer. She says it was “the best decision in my life.”

As time went by and her body started to get stronger, she started to notice something about herself.

Not only did she feel better physically, her mood improved. Plus she noticed her memory was sharper and her attention span was longer.

It made her curious about how exactly exercise affects the brain.

Fortunately for Wendy Suzuki, as a Professor of Neural Science and Psychology at New York University (NYU)’s Center for Neural Science, she was uniquely qualified to answer that question.

One of the studies she looked at was done in the late 1950’s by a woman by the name of Marian Diamond. Diamond is a professor of anatomy at the University of California, Berkeley. (Diamond, 88, is the subject of a multipart web series called My Love Affair with the Brain: The Life and Science of Dr. Marian Diamond.)

The study involved rats.

Why do so many scientific experiments involve rats? The genetic, biological and behavior characteristics of rats closely resemble those of humans. Therefore many symptoms of human conditions can be replicated in mice and rats.

Diamond’s rat experiment involved placing rats in two distinctly different environments. One was the “Disneyland of rat cages.” It was an “enriched environment” that had lots of open space and lots of toys (and other rats) for the rats to play with.

The second environment was an impoverished environment: no toys, limited space and only a couple of rats in the cage.

She then compared the brains of the rats from each environment.

The rats from the enriched environment had a thicker outer covering (cortex of their brain). Plus their brain experienced greater angiogenesis (the physiological process through which new blood vessels form from pre-existing vessels.) Or in other words, their brains got bigger.

At the time Diamond didn’t come to any definitive conclusion as to why the enriched environment rats experienced an expansion in the brain size. It was only years later in the 1990’s when scientists examining her work concluded that the brains were enlarged because the rats in the enriched environment were able to get more exercise.

Suzuki uncovered more research and became so fascinated with it that she shifted the entire focus of her research from the study of memory in the hippocampus to the effects of exercise on brain functions in people. In March of this year her book Healthy Brain, Happy Life was published.

Another thing she noticed about herself beside the improvements in her mood, attention and memory was that she seemed to have a newfound spark of creativity.

She says she found it easier to come up with new “out of the box” neuroscience courses to teach. She started exploring new hobbies like writing and singing. She even started seeking out collaborations with artists, musicians and dancers.

Because of the burst of creativity that she was experiencing, she wanted to see if there was any research available that linked exercise with enhanced creativity. It turns out there is a definite connection.

A 2013 study published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience showed that people who exercised on a regular basis did better on tests of creativity than their more sedentary peers.

Regular exercisers were found to have improved divergent and convergent thinking, two key components of creative thinking.

“Exercising on a regular basis may thus act as a cognitive enhancer promoting creativity in inexpensive and healthy ways,” says study researcher Lorenza Colzato, a cognitive psychologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

Dr. John Ratey notes in his influential book Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain (2008), that exercise isn’t just about physical health and appearance. Ratey writes that it also has a profound effect on your brain chemistry, physiology, and neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to literally rewire itself). Meaning that your ability to think, create and solve are all enhanced by exercise.

For artists, writers, musicians or anyone in a field that requires a high level of imagination, regular exercise might just be the edge they need to take things to the next level of their career creatively.

And while exercise, of course, makes sense for everyone it’s nice to be reminded that you’re not just improving your physical body you’re enhancing the most important organ in your body, your brain.

Suzuki sums it up nicely when she says…

“Exercise can keep your brain healthy longer.”
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Aug 24 2015

Think Better! A Guide To Setting Goals And Planning For Fitness Success

How To Guarantee Fitness Success.

When starting out with a health and fitness goal, a lot of people want to lose weight/fat gain muscle and jump right into the “lets jump around and push ourselves” part of working on their program

They’re attracted to flashy marketing campaigns and popular trends all in the name of getting results quickly and easily.

After all, that seems like the primary aim for investing time in working out… to look good… right.

The problem is that most fail to get results with random acts of fitness, or have some initial success then hit a wall , go backwards and get injured, because they haven’t gotten clear on exactly what needs to be done, when it should be done, who will be responsible for it, and how things will evolve over time.

They don’t have a clear plan. But plans must first be led by setting well-defined goals. Not vague, weak goals like “I just want to get better” or “I just want to get fit.”

I mean a ROCKING goal that includes all the elements needed to give it real power like “I’m committed to

Drinking more water
Going to bed by 10 and getting 7-8 hours of sleep
And doing my 15 min of exercise “homework”

in order to make sure my body gets and stays prepared to workout so that I can lose a dress size by November 2015.”

See the difference?

But we’re not done yet.

Before you set a rocking goal, you’ve got to be inspired by a dream. If a goal doesn’t inspire you, then it won’t serve you.

Dreams provide the emotional fuel required to drive intensity and persistence needed in pursuit of a goal.

So, in order to truly have sucCess sustainably over time… you’ve got to have each of the parts and pieces working together.

The formula for success looks like this:

Dream→ Goals → Plan → Action → Review

That may sound like a simple and straightforward formula to follow, but I assure you it is not.

There are many places along the way where things can (and do) go wrong… all the time.

In fact, it’s only a VERY small percentage of people that get everything aligned and successfully working together to grow.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Everyone is capable of achievement, you simply must be committed to get in the mental gym and build up your mental muscles.

The more you push yourself out of your comfort zone, the more you grow and gain strength over time. Physically most people realize this when they workout, but very few really embrace the mental challenge.

In this guide, we’re going to take you through the process from start to finish.

And our learning objectives are for you to:

1. Understand the Dream → Goal → Plan → Action → Track & Review cycle

2. Identify areas where your thinking and behavior are flawed right now, and how you can make adjustments to improve

3. Walk you through a cycle of this process from start to finish that you can use to move yourself (and your business) forward in a powerful way to grow

Without further ado, let’s begin…

STEP 1: DREAM For Fitness Success

“That beautiful island is waiting for me.”

Dreams are the rocket-fuel that drives all major accomplishments in and life.

Dreams are powerful stuff!

And dreaming is a time where we visualize, create, and imagine a future that we can’t yet see.

A future that doesn’t exist in the physical sense yet, because it must first exist in your mind.

And this applies to all areas of your life.

Your physical health, relationships with family and friends, finances, learning and education that inspire you, and even spiritual fulfillment (whatever that means for you).

A dream must also be taken a step further and molded down into a vision.

Dreams are generally very broad.

Turning your dreams into a vision is where they get refined.

Your dream and vision must inspire you to get up and go to work everyday, and it should liven up your spirit in ways that you only experience when you’re living life to the fullest.

Think about a short-term vision (less than 1 year) that inspires you, as well as a long-term vision (3-5+ years) that gets you excited too.

Some people do best starting with their long-term and working backwards to define the short-term (this is also called reverse engineering).

Others find it easier to start with the short-term then stretch their thinking out further from that point.

There is no right or wrong way to dream or mold your vision.

Find a place to start, and keep working on it until you get there.

And go through this process for both your business and your personal life.

If your business doesn’t support your personal vision, then keep adjusting until you’ve got these working together in harmony.

Harmony doesn’t mean that you won’t be required to make sacrifices in your personal life in order to pursue your fitness vision at times. You will. But it simply means that you keep your eyes on both sides of the coin and continue adjusting as necessary to have them working together in support of one another.

Once you’ve gotten clarity on your dream and vision, you’ve got magic in a bottle.

Hold onto it tight!

It’s the rocket fuel needed to get you to the moon.

Step 2: Set Goals For Fitness Success

Many people set goals that are weak.

Weak in the sense that they don’t include “measures of success,” deadlines, or owners to assign accountability.

In order to make a goal powerful, it must be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound (S.M.A.R.T.).

Now, I know you’ve likely heard of this before.

And therefore you’ll want to gloss over the rest of this section.

You might even be telling yourself, “I understand this already, I’m good, I’ll continue on to see if I can learn anything new here.”

Don’t make that mistake.

Intellectually knowing something is one thing.

But actually DOING IT is a whole different animal.

Think you already have a well-defined goal?

Great.

Show me.

Run it through the checklist.

If you’ve missed one detail, go back and make it stronger.

And even if you haven’t, I’d wager you can still make it stronger again.

Let’s review what having a S.M.A.R.T. goal really means and how you can apply it to setting more powerful goals.

Specific: Don’t say, “I want to get fit.” That’s vague. There are lots of ways that “being fit” can be defined. Instead say, “I will drop 3 sizes in 90 days.”

Measurable: Punch up the “drop 3 sizes” statement by getting a defined target in there. And rather than simply focusing on losing weight (a mistake most people make), give it more power by focusing on total weight lost and kept off. Here’s an example, “I will drop 3 sizes in 90 days which will put me a sizer smaller than I have been in 5 years.” This is much better.

Attainable: I’m all for big goals that both challenge and scare the heck out of you. But make sure you’re not setting yourself up for failure. If you’re just starting out, let’s not go for looking and feeling like you did in your 20’s in a month. Let’s focus on simply losing 3 sizes in a reasonable time frame.

Relevant: Does losing 3 size move you toward your dream today? If so, great, let’s continue. If you’ve set a goal that’s not as relevant to your dream, go back and tweak it. You must stay focused on goals that move you toward your dream, not random goals that just sound like a good idea but don’t align with your long-term vision.

Time bound: A goal without a deadline is still just a dream. And while dreams are the source and power of where all great things begin, it’s time to put some teeth around your dream by transforming it into a powerful goal with a deadline that will create pressure for you to take action.

It’s powerful to set goals in multiple areas of your life.

It’s also important that you define time frames for accomplishment of your goal.

And in fitness we talk about goals in context of yearly, monthly, weekly, and even daily.

One of the most common mistakes is to set goals that are super aggressive and don’t have a realistic time frame associated with their accomplishment.

In general, you can pretty much do anything you want in your life given enough time and money to make it happen.

Just be willing to have some patience with the process.

And remember, whatever you plan for… count on it taking more time, effort, energy, money, and everything else to accomplish than you originally anticipated.

Working through that process is called learning.

Step 3: Plan For Fitness Success

Planning involves thinking through each of the steps required to accomplish your goal.

List out each of the tasks required.

Assign an owner to each task.

Give each task a deadline.

Ensure that your plan is well thought through so that deadlines are built appropriately given the time and resources you have available to commit to working on your goal.

A plan that is unrealistic creates frustration and disappointment.

Your plan should give you exciting momentum towards your goal.

That being said, great fitness successes grow from people who set unreasonable and unrealistic goals and plans for themselves and others.

Don’t be afraid to push yourself beyond your comfort zone to accomplish things you never before thought possible.

In fact, expect to be working outside your comfort zone. That’s what growth is all about!

Where lies the appropriate balance between the two?

That’s the art and science of goal setting and planning.

Sometimes it’s helpful to break your program or plan into “phases” or buckets for different sections. This makes it easier to clarify your thinking in each area.

For instance, in launching a new fitness program, you might create sections for:

– Exercises and how much per week

– Nutrition

– Lifestyle habits

– Cardio

– Down Time

And then create tasks for each of the items required in the various areas of a new fitness program.

By having sections, you can think better about each individual area… rather than trying to think about all of it at once and missing something.

The mind, and planning, works best in “chunks.”

Step 4: Take Action For Fitness Success

“A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” – George S. Patton

The best-laid plans are meaningless without action.

On the flip side, lots of action without good planning beforehand leads to needlessly wasted energy and effort.

That’s ok when you’re a kid.

Movement is good is good. But just moving around is not a fitness program.

But good planning first, followed by action, is a whole lot better.

A lot of people describe their problem with lack of action as a “time management” problem.

But the truth is you don’t manage time, time just ticks along the same each day for all of us.

You only have the ability to manage your focus and activities.

Which also requires planning, and then much discipline to maintain.

Focus, like time, is also a finite resource.

There is only so much you can focus on accomplishing at once!

I know, I know.

You want to do it all now.

But the facts are you can’t focus on everything all at the same time. Multitasking is a myth!

You must prioritize your focus.

One of the most powerful questions you should be asking in your life is,

“What’s the most important area for me to focus on right now?”

And that question must be answered in the context of yearly, monthly, weekly, and even daily priorities.

And your priorities in each of those time frames must all be aligned with one another.

For instance, what I’m prioritizing to to today… needs to be aligned with my priorities for this week and month… and so on.

So plans and actions must be tightly tied and aligned for success.

And actions must be tied to your journal.

Too many people make a great plan, but haven’t thought through where they can block time to commit to making it happen on their life.

So, what’s the best way to approach this?

Ensure you’ve got the right priorities, a well thought out plan of action, and the resources (time and money) available to make it happen.

Then go do it!

And keep going until you finish your plan.

Step 5: Review for Fitness Success

Review is your powerful ally.

No plans ever work out perfectly.

And success is never achieved in a straight line.

You must consistently measure progress toward your goal, adjust as necessary, and continue working until you hit the mark.

It’s said that when performance is measured, it improves.

When it’s measured and reported, it improves dramatically.

But when it’s measured and reported publicly, it improves exponentially.

When you make your goals public, then track and report progress… you’re on the hook for all to see.

There’s no “whinging out” as the Brits say.

You’ve got to show up and deliver results!

And that pressure to perform inspires action and course correction as needed.

Another important component of the review process is to celebrate success along the way.

Don’t be focused on “just winning” your fitness goal.

While that may be one strategy (not necessarily the best one) for most people, it’s generally not the best for building on your success.

You’ve got to build your confidence and motivation to continue.

So take time to recognize the wins.

Celebrate success and find a positive focus each time you meet and review.

That doesn’t mean you don’t need to hold yourself and others accountable to getting things done. You do.

But have some fun, remember to laugh once in a while, and enjoy the ride.

Attitude and perspective are great tools we all have at our disposal in each moment of every day. If you’re not having fun, try using those tools to adjust yourself and remember to be grateful for the journey!

Summary

Thinking is a sport..

And the better you can think, the better you are playing the game.

Each step of the dream, goals, plan, action, and review process is critical to ensure your success and accelerate your progress to grow faster with less effort.

And remember that life is short.

While hitting goals is awesome, remember to have fun and celebrate success along the way.

When you’re not enjoying the journey, try adjusting your attitude and perspective. You alone control those each moment of every day.

If something in this struck a cord for you and you know this is how you want to approach your Health and Fitness Program then I highly recommend that you request a consult. Not only will you map out a plan for your success, but you will have the support and expertise of professionals to coach you through the process. The consult is fee, but you have got to want it.

“I wish I could say that I wrote this article. I have in fact written these type of articles in the past. But I loved this article so much that I wanted to share it with you in regards to a fitness success outline. You see this was written for business, but achieving business success is no different than having fitness success. I asked the company that sent it to me if I could use it with modifications and they agreed as long as I linked back to it. Gladly! Click HERE to read the original article and see how achieving any success in life follows the same path.
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Jul 23 2015

Personal Training Success Story

Personal Training Success Story – Amy Weyhrauch

“Life is what you make of it. You can be happy or sad. It’s up to you.” Amy Weyhrauch’s dad. No one person epitomizes this phrase more then Amy. She is one of kindest most positive people you will ever meet. She is a mom to 4 kids and, it is this attitude that has propelled her to great accomplishments and the July member of the month.

When I first talked to Amy I found out that she had Ankylosing spondylitis. From the website of Spondylitis Association of America -“Ankylosing spondylitis (pronounced ank-kih-low-sing spon-dill-eye-tiss), or AS, is a form of arthritis that primarily affects the spine, although other joints can become involved. It causes inflammation of the spinal joints (vertebrae) that can lead to severe, chronic pain and discomfort. In the most advanced cases (but not in all cases), this inflammation can lead to new bone formation on the spine, causing the spine to fuse in a fixed, immobile position, sometimes creating a forward-stooped posture.” Amy, has the advanced kind, and she needed to get the right treatment and training otherwise she was in danger of her spine fusing. So I wasn’t too surprised when Amy first came to me moving like Frankenstein with a limp. She had a really hard time turning her neck and she was walking very gingerly. It didn’t take an Osteopath to see that she was in pain. Her number one goal was obvious…get out of pain! She was cautious for good a reason; she didn’t want to further hurt her body. You see this all started when Amy was playing tennis and she fell and hurt her right clavicle. No biggie, except that it wasn’t getting better and she was starting to feel worse all over. So she started the rounds with different doctors and they kept coming up with different diagnoses. There was even a significant amount of time where they thought she had Leukemia. Can you imagine the stress of that! Well it wasn’t that, thank goodness.

To describe in practical terms how the AS affects her I’ll tell you what I tell her. “Everything that you do is magnified. When somebody else doesn’t stretch for a day or so they get a little tight and hinder their healing. When you don’t stretch for a day or two your body starts to lock up. Literally!” And when she didn’t stretch as much as she wanted to she felt it-to the point where if she had just thrown up her arms and succumbed to fait you could have understood, but she didn’t. Amy has epitomized our 3^rd Core Principle “Consistent Steady Improvement.” She has been in private training with us 3-4 days a week for a little over a year and she has made amazing progress. You will hear about it later on in her words, but I am so proud of her for:

Being open to change
Trying her best
And maintaining that amazing attitude throughout the ups and down of her journey.

How Amy Got Personal Training Success

1) What made you decide you wanted/needed to start a program? My Ankylosing was the main reason to seek out help. It just made me feel so bad, and it is really hard to motivate yourself when you don’t feel good. I just kept giving myself excuses as to why I shouldn’t and couldn’t do it. Well I finally got to the point where I felt so bad that I reached out to a friend of mine, Liz Karp, and she recommended you to me.

2) What did you do before? Yoga Tapes, exercise tapes, tennis, hiking, sometimes skiing. I also had this chart that was given to me on stretches I should do for Ankylosing. But I knew I needed somebody to teach me the right way.

3) What results have you achieved since starting your program that you are proud of? Well I have lost 7-8% body fat and around 10 pounds, but what I am most proud of is the fact that I am a happier better person because I don’t hurt all the time. It got to the point where I didn’t want to go out and be social. The weight of that pain on me all day took all my effort and to think about spending more effort on going out was too much. I also LOVE that I now have tools to keep myself moving and feeling great. Not only the stretches and exercises but also the fitness journal you gave me was a big help especially at the start. It is eye opening to look back and see how you really did, not just how you thought you did!

4) Do you have a favorite exercise? Least? What do you like or don’t like about them? I do not like the Mountain Climbers! I love the wall stretch L5-S1, love the hip stretch (Glute Med). Actually I love all the hip stretches and all the spine stretches.

5) What are some challenges or goals you are currently working on? Weight loss is my next big goal along with staying out of pain and keeping my body mobile. I also want to keep changing my habits and keep getting better with the advanced workouts you guys have been giving me.

6) What do you like best about our program/ having a trainer? The knowledge that you guys have is invaluable. I also love that you are flexible. You guys always have a program ready, but if I come in and say I am feeling a certain way, you are able to change the program on the fly to meet my needs. I also really appreciate that you guys push me to levels that I didn’t think I could do before, but you never push me too far.

7) What advice would you give to the other SolCore Fitness members? KEEP IT UP! Keep coming to class. Keep doing your homework. Keep making those small improvements each day.

8) What would you say to someone on the fence about joining our program? I wish I had had somebody who I trusted to push me to start this sooner. Think about how many times you have procrastinated. I waited almost a year from knowing about SolCore Fitness to starting with them. To get better you have to start. So start now!
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Jul 06 2015

How Gut Health Equals A Happy Gut Mind

To Have A Happy Gut You Have To Understand The Gut Brain Connection

By Maya Cordova

Have you ever felt “butterflies” in your stomach? Do you recall ever having a “gut wrenching” experience or a “gut feeling”? These terms are often used to describe sensations that are paired with emotional responses. They are created by the interaction between the gut and the brain! In the following I will define the gut, describe the gut brain connection, and finally, explore the influences of food, how to manage cravings, and how to make healthy nutritional choices.

The gastrointestinal tract, also known as the gut, begins at the mouth, draws down into the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, and ends at the colon. Within the intestinal sheaths of our digestive tract we each have over 100 million neurons that are in constant communication with our brain. This means there are more neurons in our belly than in our in our spinal chord and our peripheral nervous system! These digestive neurons make up the Enteric Nervous System, and are directly affected by the emotions we experience moment by moment. Some common emotions that influence the gut are Exhilaration, Happiness, Sadness, Anger, and Anxiety. The particular experience of Stress and Anxiety impacts the function of the GI tract by causing an inflammatory response and increased acidity. This causes poor nutrient absorption and higher risk for disease. According to a study done by Harvard Medical School, “a person’s stomach or intestinal distress can be the cause or the product of anxiety, stress, or depression.” This is why it is extremely important to become aware of certain stressors in our lives, and learn how to manage them in healthy ways.

Great strategies for relieving stress are: Exercise, Listening to Music, Engaging in Creative Expression (Art, Writing, Dancing, Music etc.), Going for a Walk in Nature, Meditation, Deep Breathing, Yoga, and Counseling.

Nutrition For Gut Health!

Peer-reviewed science is also making clear to us that the foods we choose to put into our body actually cause specific emotional responses. What we eat determines our mood and plays a huge role in determining the health of our brain. According to Dr. David Perlmutter (a leading global speaker and author on nutritional health), eating a high carbohydrate and low fat diet is actually one of the leading causes of brain disease! In order to prevent diseases such as Parkinson’s, Dementia, Alzheimer’s, M.S., Autism, Schizophrenia, ADHD, Coronary Artery Disease, and Diabetes, it is important to eat a diet that is low in carbohydrates (gluten, processed sugar, and alcohol), and high in organic healthy fats and proteins, vegetables, and fermented foods. More than half of our brain is made of fat! Therefore, it is essential to consume healthy fats that will continue to nourish the brain.

Just like the emotional experience of Stress and Anxiety, having a high-carb diet causes increased acidity and inflammation in the body…not to mention making it incredibly challenging to lose weight. The physiological response of inflammation actually changes the bacteria that line the walls of the GI tract. This gut flora, also known as our good “helper” bacteria, aids in the digestion of our food and helps boost the immune system. It is possible to balance the acidity in the gut by eating fermented foods, and incorporating live pro-biotic supplements into your daily dietary routine. This not only allows the body to become more alkaline, making it challenging for microorganisms causing illness and disease to survive, but also soothes the inflammatory response, and replenishes the gut flora that is essential for our overall health.

Foods to avoid: Sugar, artificial sweeteners, gluten, alcohol

Foods to savor: Nutrient dense and organic fiber rich veggies and fermented foods with probiotics such as Kimchi, Tempe, Adzuki Bean Miso, Sauerkraut, Kefir, and Kombucha. Live probiotic supplements, grass fed beef, wild caught fish, free range eggs, olive oil, coconut oil, nuts, seeds, and avocado.

Mind Set For Gut Health.

Retrain Your Brain!! You Can Do It!!

Now that you know what is good for your body, it is time to change those unhealthy eating habits and make your brain and body happy and healthy. This means connecting to your true emotional and nutritional needs, making healthier choices, and managing your cravings. When you begin to feel a strong craving towards food, important questions to ask yourself are:

Am I stressed out right now?

During a stressful situation, your brain releases a hormone called Cortisol. According to Dina Aronson (a registered dietitian and nutritional author), excess levels of Cortisol can cause weight gain, high blood pressure, high blood glucose levels & suppressed insulin (aka. Diabetes!), inflammation and acidic blood, insomnia, poor memory, constipation, osteoporosis, diminished sex drive, muscle weakness, depression, anxiety, and irritability. High levels of Cortisol can also cause pre-mature aging and suppresses DHEA, aka “youth” hormone. Cortisol prepares the body for the fight-or-flight response, making it very challenging to make rational decisions.

Since glucose becomes high in the blood after the release of Cortisol, but is not absorbed into the cells, the body thinks that the cells need more glucose…more sugar…more carbs!! The body thinks that it is hungry, and the appetite is stimulated.

Comfort foods that are high in sugar actually blunt the release of cortisol. This provides temporary relief in symptoms of stress. Meanwhile, the brain is becoming conditioned into believing that it needs sugar to feel good and that carbs are the solution to unpleasant emotions and experiences! When you reach for that cupcake, your leftover pasta, that bag of chips, or those brownie bites, ask yourself “Am I stressed out?” Then stimulate your own happiness by putting on your favorite CD, exercising, taking a deep breath or meditating, calling a supportive friend, or going for a walk outside. You can even distract your brain by writing someone an email or engage in reading an interesting book. Retrain yourself to partake in activities that make you feel good, but don’t cause the gut and brain to suffer. Then you can begin to address the causes of the present stressors, make necessary changes, and empower yourself to keep living the healthy life you want to live.

Am I getting enough sleep?

Diminished sleep actually causes an increase in the hormone Ghrelin, an appetite stimulator, and decreases the hormone called Leptin which tells the brain when you are full! Allow at least 7-10 hours of sleep per night. A great strategy to overcoming your cravings is to take a quick 10-minute nap.

Am I drinking enough water?

Remember it is important to drink half your body weight in ounces of water per day! If you do not consume enough water then the body may confuse the thirst response with the hunger response. When a food craving occurs, it is beneficial to drink at least one full glass of room temperature water before consuming any food. This may diminish the craving completely.

Another technique that will assist with overcoming food cravings is the practice of affirmation and visualization. In the moment of a food craving immediately tell yourself “Stop!” Then visualize yourself healthy, fit, and happy. Feel the sensations of that vision with all of your senses. Repeat a supportive affirmation such as “I am healthy…I eat healthy and I am fit…I love veggies” etc. Eventually, you will be able to manifest your vision and will no longer crave the foods that do not serve your highest good!

All human beings are capable of breaking patterns and cravings, and you can do it too!! May your gut and brain be forever happy and healthy! Happy gut health!
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