Midlife Look? No Way.

Not too long ago, I found I had become overweight for my height.  For me, weight has been an issue during times of "change" in my life.  Now that I'm middle aged, I refuse to be labelled middle aged due to my weight and weight distribution.  I like to be my best & look my best!

And so, like other times in my life, I took matters into my own hands.  I knew what to do.  I started by managing my food intake, checking my exercise plans, and looking at any emotional eating.

Luncheon plate vs Dinner plate.

• Proportion size.  Using a luncheon plate instead of a dinner plate.  Luncheon plates are about the size of our stomachs.  By not heaping my luncheon plate, I provide myself with the proper amount of food without overeating.   No seconds either until I give my stomach ample time (10-15 minutes) to let me know if I am full.  Many restaurants in the USA serve portions that are truly meant to be like 2-3 meals.  Too much food!  So, I will portion out what looks like a luncheon plate size and the rest either stays at the restaurant or goes home for other meals the next day.







• Listening to my stomach and not to my head when I think I’m hungry.

Water is symbolic of our emotions.

When I thought I was hungry, I would ask myself, am I hungry?  I would feel my stomach.  If my stomach did not feel hungry, I knew it was probably due to an Emotional hunger instead of physical hunger.
 Thus, I would drink a glass of water, sit down, and feel what emotions I was experiencing.  I drank water due to at times, we feel hungry when we are thirsty.    To release emotions, I would just feel the emotions and surrender to them.  I would do nothing except feel them until they dissolved away.  Then, I noticed my "hunger" disappeared.
My Inner child (Inner Divine self-=Subconscious) needed "attention" to what I was feeling.  This was my way of getting my attention to my own self.
 Emotional eating (Emotional hunger) is when we feel negative emotions we do not like or fear.  We feel these subconsciously at times.  When we feel these, we try to push them away with something that makes us feel good instead.  This can be with food, drugs, alcohol, sex, etc.  When we continue to use these to feel good, we have developed what is called an addiction.  The thing we feel we need, is in power over us.  The addiction is held in power as our own Divine selves.  We listen to the Addiction instead of listening to our Divine selves.

• At times, I found myself hungry, but not due to being hungry.  I wanted to eat something due to feeling tired.  I learned this behavior when I was in college.

Like many of us, I too went to college full time, I drove 4 hours a day to get to school and back home, I worked a part time job during the week and during the weekend.  This left me little time to socialize, but I managed to do that also.  And so, who had time to nap???  So, I realized if I ate some energizing food-chocolate, sweets, carbohydrates, burgers, etc., I would gain the much-needed energy to go and do what I desired or needed to do.
Wrong choice, but at the time, it felt like my only choice. Many people rely on coffee=caffeine!

Which brings me to my experiment I did that I will share.  A few of my family members were visiting for the weekend.  This was years ago when I was still not understanding you can't push people to change.  They must want to do it on their own.

  Anyways, these family members are big coffee drinkers.  I got it in my head I would switch out the caffeinated coffee for decaffeinated coffee. Thus, proving to them, they were relying on the caffeine to feel energized and a wake.  They always had the thought, "We enjoy coffee for the taste and warmth of the drink."

 Well, it only took two days to see the startling effects on them.  They all became negative acting, and one was complaining she had no idea what was wrong with her.  She had no energy!  She was too tired to want to do much.  In fact, they all acted like they had a hang-over from binge drinking and staying up all night!
 Typically these people are positive and motivated.  When I told the family members what I did and why, they were not pleased.  In fact, they all were super angry at me. I had to promptly put back their caffeinated coffee for them.   (Note, maybe caffeine, like foods, alcohol, etc. is also a drug addiction?)

Now, if I'm tired, I will take 5 minutes and close my eyes.  If I have time, I will go and take that 30-minute nap.  Or if I don't have the time, I will make sure I drink 1-2 glasses of water and sit down to rest.  Meditation works great in this area also.

• Watching my food intake.  I am a healthy eater, but at times, too healthy.  I will eat two snacks in a day of a carbohydrate and a protein.  One of my favorite snacks is to take a small portion of nuts with some fruit.

Problem is, taking too many nuts, even though they are super healthy, will cause a weight gain or weight stagnation due to being packed full of healthy "stuff".  Little power houses but meant to be eaten in small portions.
 Eating too much fruit will also cause weight gain even if it is super healthy for you and/or weight stagnation. (natural sugars!)
Portion size is key here.  Instead of a hand full of nuts, I'll bring it down to 4 raw Walnuts, or 6 raw Almonds/snack.  Each day only eating up to 2 fruits for the whole day is good for me.






•  I have found when I am drinking enough Dairy milk, I feel better, I sleep better, and I am able to reduce weight better.

Homemade Kefir.  You can culture your own or buy it.

Instead of milk, I had been taking Calcium Citrate pills, but the pills didn't give me all the benefits Dairy milk were giving me.

 I had been drinking 2% Dairy milk, but I feel the 1% Dairy milk is better for me due to a little less saturated fat.  Skim milk, I will never drink anymore.  Why?  Two reasons.  Bad tasting and because Skim milk has no fat in it.  Due to no fat, it increases your blood sugar!  Not good due to increasing your cravings for more sweets & increasing a possibility of Diabetes.  Like any Dairy product, you really need to have some saturated fat in it to feel satisfaction with it.  If not, you'll crave more =overeating.  (Example Ice Cream.  We used to buy the Light Ice Cream that became popular back in the day, due to the thought it was "a healthier ice cream."  Well, if you ever ate this, you found out it was unsatisfying, no matter how many scoops you ate.  This caused a person to either eat more of this ice cream or go to the kitchen in search of another fatty sweet that could make you feel settled and satisfied.  Eating a Whole fat, gourmet ice cream, even if it is just a 1/2 a scoop, will give you satisfaction.  Satisfies the mouth hunger for sweets.  And so, in the long run, having a small portion of Dairy product with enough fat in it to satisfy will probably be healthier in the long run compared to eating "light" dairy products.  The 1% milk for me works. For others, it may not.

• Quality whole foods, incorporating as many colors of veggies and fruits you can every day in your meals and snacks.  But limiting fruit to two servings a day and pushing veggies for every meal.  (I aim for 5 servings a day.)  Using Whole grains, in a limited amount in your meals.

Using only healthy fats and in a limited amount.  Limiting sweets!  When you get that sweet craving right after a meal, try eating one Medjool date.  This is the sweetness you're mouth is looking for.  Here is my link to my blog post on healthier eating for further reading.  https://www.reikiintheprairiellc.com/2020/01/eating-healthy-living-healthy.html

 

• Drinking water!   I lack in my water consumption at times.  Why?  Because I get so involved with what I'm working on, I tend to forget about my body needing water and stretches.

So, to help, I try placing a 2-quart bottle of fruit infused water in my refrigerator.  This way a person can monitor how much water they're drinking and enjoy a glass of cold, slightly fruity water throughout the day.  Here is my blog post on Infused water for further reading.  https://www.reikiintheprairiellc.com/2020/01/infused-water.html

• Exercise.  I am a good exerciser.  I like to exercise 6 days a week for about 40 minutes or more each day.  I like mixing it up a bit to give myself variety to enjoy and to make my muscles work harder. (Varieties of Aerobics, varieties of dance, hiking, Nordic walking, jogging, weight training, jumping rope, varieties of Pilates, Yoga, Qi gong, Interval work, and stretching.)

  When we do the same exercise over and over each day, our muscles get accustomed to this.  And so, they do not work very hard.  (Example-like when we speak our language in our own accents in life. 

  Our brain/mouth/throat/tongue/lips muscles can pretty much speak this language with its dialect in our sleep with little or no "muscles" working.  Now when you try to speak the same language with a different accent/dialect, guess what?  We find it's hard to make our lips, mouth, tongue & throat move in a different way!  We are working our lips/mouth/throat muscles in doing this different dialect/accent.  They are learning to move in a different way.  Same as with performing different exercises and routines.)  Here is my blog post in regards to exercising for further reading.
Pandemic  exercise  https://www.reikiintheprairiellc.com/2020/01/eating-healthy-living-healthy.html

• The Thyroid is important in hormone production. 

The bow resembles the Thyroid.

Hormones are chemical messengers that regulates all organ functions in the body.  If our Thyroids are not working properly, we will gain weight and maintain being overweight feeling sluggish or we will be too thin and feeling anxious.  (Hypothyroid vs. Hyperthyroid.)
So I started to incorporate Nori Seaweed into my diet almost every day.

I have found seaweed provides me with a natural whole source of Iodine, which is necessary for proper Thyroid function.

• I am excited to mention about my Seaweed eating. 

When I realized my weight loss was slow, I decided to try something new.  I knew at middle age; adults will have a Thyroid that may function too low.  (Hypothyroid) In order to have a normal functioning Thyroid, one must take in the food that feeds the Thyroid.  This food is known as a high-quality whole Iodine.  Now I do take multivitamins with Iodine, but I feel it just wasn't enough.  A high-quality natural Iodine would be good.

And so, I bought some high quality, organic Nori Seaweed sheets.

 Yes, I could have bought some of the cheapest Nori Seaweed offered, but you get what you pay for!!!

 Low cost Seaweed may have been grown in highly polluted waters and/or harvested with little regard to keeping it's minerals viable. (All though this can happen even if the price is high.  You'll need to look around and taste.  Follow your gut on this and reviews.)

I started to eat a half of sheet per day. 

 

I would eat it plain (dry) or I would incorporate it in vegetarian style sushi rolls or used it as a seasoning/salt in my food.  (The vegetarian sushi rolls are a great snack and or a vegetable side dish.)
Soon, I found I was feeling more energetic!  I felt my exercises weren't as hard as normal.  As I was noticing this, my weight started to melt off in a healthy amount of time. (Not too fast of weight loss.  If you lose weight too fast, it's not healthy for our bodies.  And typically, the weight will come back on your body.)
***Note, if you are on medication for low Thyroid (Hypothyroid) please talk to your medical doctor first before eating.  When you eat the Seaweed, you will need to have your Thyroid medication altered and your Thyroid chemicals watched.
Eating Seaweed is a healthy, natural alternative that provides your body with healing and benefits due to the minerals & Iodine.  Taking Thyroid medication to increase production of hormones is not healing.  It is a band-aid to cover up the issue and does not heal the Thyroid.
For our Thyroids to function properly, we need high quality whole Iodine. 

P.s. My dog absolutely loves a piece of Seaweed.  I give her a small 2" x 2" piece in her food off and on.  Healthy for our dogs also.

• Reiki Healing sessions.

As a Reiki practitioner I provide myself with Reiki sessions on and off.  I do this to help myself, (body, mind, spirit) to stay balanced.  If there are imbalances in my energy, I will have problems in other areas of my being. Our minds, emotions, bodies, and spirits are all One!
 If one area is out of whack, so will the rest of us be.
I use Reiki healing to "Shadow Work" on myself.  (I'm self-evaluating my inner self, motives, behavior, thoughts, actions, reactions to challenges, etc. and if I don't see "truth" in them (my thoughts, behavior, etc.), I change them.)
 I use Reiki healing to find where there is too much energy or too little of energy throughout my energy system.  And so, I feel, Reiki healing has benefited me in a indirect way to losing weight.
I know other Reiki practitioners have used Reiki specifically for weight loss.  But I have no real experience of doing this in a direct way.  I'm a firm believer in using multiple ways to help oneself heal from the inside-out.  For more on reading on "Shadow Working" go to

https://www.reikiintheprairiellc.com/2020/03/the-importance-of-shadow-working.html

To become our healthiest, at times, it means we need to look at our own habits, evaluate what we're doing in life-"truthfully", and change ourselves.  This way, when we can stay on this path, we will find we will accomplish what we wanted to accomplish!
This would not only be for weight loss, but for walking our paths through our whole life.

 

• As of January 5, 2021, I am trying something new I heard about on the internet.

For those that have a hard time losing weight or just lose a bit and then it comes back on, you may want to try this as well as the above information.

Like in exercise, we cannot do the same exercise over and over and expect that exercise to help us in the long run.  Our bodies get used to the same old exercise routine!  Thus, after a month or so, our bodies will not be helped much with that same exercise.  Confuse your muscles with changing your exercise up every day.  One day do intervals, jump roping, fast/slow aerobics, etc.  Next day do cardio workout-dancing, aerobics, etc.

Now that your exercise routine won't get "old" and you're confusing your muscles/body with different exercises, now it's time to confuse your metabolism.

 

• Try eating healthy fats and healthy proteins always.  Eat healthy fruits and vegetables.

Now it's time to confuse our metabolisms with changing up our diet each day.

I'm trying this myself.  One day you will eat all healthy food and healthy carbohydrates.  Next day, lose most of the carbohydrates in your diet for the day.

Next day, try going back to the healthy diet with healthy carbohydrates and so forth.

You get the idea.  Each day switch up your eating habit.

If you fall off the "horse" so to speak, get back up and try again.

 

1. Note, I tried this eating habit that I described above here, and I found it to be too hard to keep up with.

• For me what helps is to take myself off of all sugar and only have about 2 fruits a day. 

 

• I also take myself off most carbohydrates.  Notice I said most and not ALL.  We need some carbohydrates.  And so, I'll choose wisely.

1. Choose the Whole Wheat slice of toast, but maybe eliminate the jam and butter.  Try using Olive oil in place of butter or try using just Almond butter on top of it.

 

• Sweet craving after your meal?   I'll either say "no" due to being too full or I'll take a Medjool Date. (ultra-sweet with minerals/vitamins, and fiber.) Or I also found out, eating one Prune provides me with the "sweet" satisfaction I look for.

• Try to stay away from Waffles, French Toast, and Pancakes for breakfast because we usually use syrups on two of these.  Our blood sugar is already at our highest when we wake up.  For me, If I take in sugar for breakfast, I feel ungrounded, not full, sluggish, and craving more sugar all day.  If you want the Pancakes, Waffles, or French Toast, limit yourself on these and use a Nut butter to eat them with.  Maybe add a bit of fresh fruit. (no sugar added.)  When you eat this, make sure you add protein!!!

 

• Every meal, I will add protein, vegetables, and water.  For me, these three groups are typically low in my diet.  And it's these three groups that help us to keep weight off!  Also making sure to have plenty of healthy fat in my diet will also keep me full feeling and healthy.  Using healthy fat in place of some of your protein is fine to do.  Example, for breakfast I will make a one egg Omelet (egg mixed with water) with cooked Spinach, Manchego cheese, and 1/4 Avocado diced up on it.  On the side, I'll have a half of Whole Wheat Pita bread with Olive oil or Nut butter (Almond butter w/ no sugar added).  Notice the egg, cheese, and nut butter are protein sources.  The cheese is also dairy.  The Avocado, Nut butter, and Olive oil are healthy fats.  The Spinach and Avocado are nice veggies & fruit. 

• One other idea.  Snacks!  

1. 1/2 Avocado
2. Manchego cheese strip wrapped up in Seaweed.
3. Fresh veggies!
4. Sweet tooth?  Try one Medjool Date with almonds. (Non-sweetened Almonds.)
5. Apple with a slice of cheese.
6. Banana with Peanut butter.  Chocolate craving?  Take your 1 teaspoon of Peanut butter and add 3 chocolate chips (at least 60% chocolate).  Place in microwave and melt.  Mix.  You have a Chocolate/Peanut butter spread to place on each bite of Banana.
7. Mix your own nuts.  Take Sea Salted Almonds + Coco-covered Almonds and anything else you'd like to add.  Mix.  Use a small hand full for snacks.
8. Roasted Garbanzo beans.  I really enjoy these.   Chickpeas (Garbanzo beans) contain 46 calories/oz., several vitamins and minerals and a good source of fiber and protein.  To make:

I use the dried Garbanzo beans.  (No salt in the dried ones.  Canned are full of salt.)  I soak them and then I cook them.  Dry them off a bit.  Place some on a cookie sheet.  Add enough Olive oil to lightly coat each bean.  Add a bit of Sea salt or table salt.  Bake in 400-degree F oven for about 40 minutes or until golden brown.  They are semi-crisp and chewy. I store mine in the refrigerator in a canning jar.

 

    9.  "The Sky is the Limit!"

 

For me, the easiest way to notice if I'm lacking in one of my food groups or water is to write it down as you eat it.  This way you can see what you ate all day, your carbohydrates (breads, starches, and fruit).  It's also a great way to make sure you're getting enough water in your diet.  Yep, many of us do not get enough water in our daily hours.  Water can make a difference in having high blood pressure and normal blood pressure!  You heard me.  It's amazing what a difference drinking enough water makes for each person.

 

• It is my belief that consuming dairy products that have a lot of fat in them and/or fatty beef-Whole milk, cream, Buttermilk, butter, ice cream, fat on a steak, fatty roast, fatty hamburger, etc. will help a person to become fat.  My reasoning is this.

Here in the USA, cattle receive hormones such as Estrogen and Androgens to help them put on weight to grow.  These also are, my opinion, to help keep the cow producing milk.  Growth promoting hormones will accumulate in the fat of the animal.

When we consume milk that has a lot of fat in it, like my list above, we take in these hormones.

So just like the cattle, we put on weight!!!  We are promoting our own weight gain, just like fattening cattle!  Wow.

My thought to help get away from this is to:

 

1. Buy lower fat milk. (No Skim milk though.  Skim raises your blood sugar immediately after consuming.  Why?  No fat to slow down the natural sugar in the milk when entering your bloodstream.)
2. Buy Organic butter, milk, cream, etc.  
3. Cut down in your butter usage.  Try replacing it with Olive oil or Un-hydrogenated Coconut oil.  If you like Olive oil, but want a thicker spread, try placing Olive oil in a small jar and placing in refrigerator.  After a few days, it typically will firm up.
4. Don't eat the fat on your meat.
5. Try replacing Prime Rib steak with T-Bone steak.  (Less fat, but tasty).
6. Eat meat from a local farmer that grass feeds the cattle and no hormones.
7. Eat meat that you harvest yourself. (No hormones, no antibiotics, nothing bad.)
8. Make your own ice cream with Organic cream and milk.
9. Use Sour milk instead of Buttermilk.  You choose the milk, just add Cider vinegar to it.

• A new thought.

I recently have been reading more on Kefir.  I have enjoyed Kefir as my probiotic/prebiotic (fruited.)

I have made my own and so I do not place sugar in it, just honey.  

 

Well, recently I've seen a couple of articles stating that Kefir, drinking continuously, can push your Insulin levels high.  Homemade Kefir has no sugar left in it due to the yeast eating up the sugar (milk sugar) and leaving behind alcohol. (The fizziness.)  And so, drinking Kefir helps you to level off high blood sugar in your body.  But it still is pushing Insulin levels up.  

 

So, what does that mean for losing weight?  When your Insulin levels are up, your weight gain around the middle will also be up. (My thoughts.)

 

And so, if you drink Kefir, make sure there is no sugar added in it and drink occasionally.

 

**Note, if you are suffering from Yeast (Candida) body infection, you may not want to drink Kefir due to the naturally occurring Yeast in it.  Try taking a pill form of Probiotics/prebiotics. (no sugar or fermentation done.)

 

• I realized, after eating, I tend to still have food taste in my mouth.  Even hours later, I still have a "sweet" flavor in my mouth.  This sweet sense tends to call to me to eat more sweets!  If I brush my teeth after breakfast or other meals, the sweet taste is cleared away.  Thus, I noticed I do not have sweet cravings anymore.  I suppose this can happen with any kind of food.  And so, if you're struggling to lose weight, try always brushing your teeth after your meals.  Good hygiene is good to have.

 

***Note, I've heard we should wait 30 minutes after your meal before brushing your teeth.  Why?  Because foods tend to make our teeth enamel soft.  If we brush too early, we may do damage to our enamel.  

• A simple sentence my neighbor, a medical doctor used to say.  "Calories in, calories out!" by A.L. So when you go to reach for that awesome looking T-Bone steak-the 16 oz., remind yourself, Calories in and calories out.  In other words, if you eat an extra 500 calories, and if you want to stay the same weight, you will need to burn off the 500 calories that day.  So every little extra, such as snacks and extra helpings, ask yourself "Are you able to burn this off today?"  If you are consuming too many calories, you will have a weight gain.  If you aren't losing weight, you are not causing a deficit in your calories.  Take in less calories.  

Dump Refined sugar! (7/2022)

In the past 2 months, I have lost most the weight I've been struggling to get rid of since my children were born.  What am I doing differently?

I dumped refined sugar.  The first week of being off of all refined sugar is the hardest due to cravings.  But after each week, I noticed it became easier and easier.

Instead of a ultra-sweet dessert, I will eat a fresh fruit.  But typically I have no room for dessert due to feeling pleasantly full.

Always listen to your stomach!  If you're starting to feel a bit of pressure in your stomach, stop eating and back away from the table for 15 minutes.  No desserts or 2nd helpings.

When my body talks to me, it is God letting me know what to do.

If I'm feeling slightly full, it's time to stop eating, including the tempting ultra-sweet dessert.  If you do not listen to your body/God's words, you may eventually have physical problems.

Since I have dumped all refined sugar, or at least 99% of it, I feel lighter and healthier.  

I have lost 14 pounds due to eating no refined sugar.

It's amazing to see how much refined sugar is added in our foods.  B.B.Q. sauce, Ketsup, salad dressings, other sauces, bread, ham and other meats, salads, crackers, etc.

Try comparing the sugar content in your food items to ice cream. 

 My Breyers Vanilla full fat ice cream has 18 grams of sugar per 2/3 cup serving size.

My ketsup has 3 grams of sugar/ 1 T.

And so, to compare evenly, I changed the ketsup serving size to 2/3 cup also.

And so, my ketsup per 2/3 cup has 32 grams of sugar!  While my ice cream (full fat) has 18 grams of sugar.

Wooo, my ketsup is sweeter than my ice cream.

In order to really understand how much sugar you have in each food item, change the serving amount to the same as your ice cream.  In this case, I'll change all my food items serving sizes to 2/3 cup, same as my ice cream.  Why use ice cream?

Because ice cream is super sweet!

Watch your food ingredients and your body will thank you.

Written by Cynthia Bergsbaken of Reiki in the Prairie LLC
June 25, 2020.  Edition added March 6, 2021.

Sources:

•  "Dr. Bob's Drugless Guide to Balancing Female Hormones" 2010 copyright.

        by Dr. Robert DeMaria

•   Cynthia Bergsbaken own experiences.
• A.L., medical doctor neighbor