Down with Demon Half & Half!

Carrie Nation

Spirited Prohibitionist

Hallelujah! I am free of the demon half & half and agave! Even though I've been on the Mayo Clinic 's 2 week jump-start diet program for over a week, I've been drinking coffee with half & half and agave every day. Enough now! I repent! An image of a desperate alcaholic in a back & white movie lurked in the shadow of my mind as I poured the demon substances down my kitchen sink drain. It was a Carrie Nation moment.

Screen Time & the Mayo Clinic Program

It may have been fortuitous that my computer died (now resurrected, hallelujah!) while I started the Mayo Clinic Weightloss program. One of the rules for the first 2 week jump start of the Mayo program is: No TV while eating and only as much TV time as time you spend exercising. Not that I consider all of my screen time on the computer "TV" but certainly downloading Justified, my favorite TV show, and watching The Rachel Maddow Show, another favorite, count as TV. All too often I have eaten at my desk while online. Exercising while watching is OK. On the program I had to dance through the whole 60 minutes of my Old Crow Medicine Show DVD plus do a 25 minute Yoga set just to watch the movie Crazy Heart. Now, I love the Dude but I'm not quite sure that movie needed to be so long. I've also become pickier about which clips of the Maddow Show I will watch if I have to pay for it with exercise. The good news is I feel more energetic already from all this exercise.

Dancing to Old Crow Medicine Show DVD

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Michael Pollan, well-known author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, has a new book called Food Rules. Says Pollan, "We know there is a deep reservoir of food wisdom out there, or else humans would not have survived to the extent we have, much of this food wisdom is worth preserving and reviving and heeding." In a New York Times interview with Tara Parker-Pope, Pollan explains that through consulting folklorists, anthropologists, doctors, nurses, nutritionists and dieticians "as well as a large number of mothers and grandmothers" he compiled the rules for his book.

Nana Lu

Eat food, not too much, mostly plants, just about says it all and the book is divided into three sections based on this rule. The rules are simple, brief and funny. Like, Don't buy cereals that change the color of the milk. Or one rule that Pollan says is common to both Jewish and Italian grandmothers, The whiter the bread, the sooner you'll be dead, which reflects the cultural wisdom that whole grains are more nutritious.

Use Your Brain!

Woman's Brain

Not only does healthy eating take money and time to shop it also takes time in the kitchen and it takes planning and forethought. This may seem obvious to people who are accustomed to sitting down to three regular planned, prepared meals every day but as a single person I tend to not think about food until I'm hungry and then I just want something good right now. My dining table is completely covered with art projects. I eat at my desk... There are innumerable ways I could bring more mindfulness into my personal food culture.

Olfactory Hypnosis

LimbaSLIM is one way I know I can enlist the use of my mind, imagination and sense of smell as aids to healthy eating. Developed by my friend Rebbecca, LimbaSLIM employs sense of smell along with guided self-hypnosis to tap into the part of the brain associated with memory and emotion. We have all experienced smells that we associate with memories and feelings even decades later. LimbaSLIM works by associating a particular sent with a 10 minute guided journey into our subconscious and our own imagined healthy food experience. Then before shopping or eating or whenever you need to, you can access that positive place by breathing in the scent associated with it.

Limbic System

I know LimbaSLIM works because I've seen the results... (at least in others). I quit using the method when I became a Vegan because I thought being a Vegan would be all I needed to do to lose weight. That was a disappointing mistake in my case. Today I'm celebrating May Day by selecting LimbaSLIM on my ipod and taking that healing deep into my brain.