Shift Weekly: "Do it to Me" Foods

SHIFT HYPNOTIC WEIGHT MASTERY SUNDAY CLASS –“Improve Your Eating Habits”

Sunday March 3^rd at 3:30-5:30pm
Follow Your Heart Workshop Studio (Canoga Park) next to their famous vegetarian café (come have lunch and then Shift)
Free to newcomers and Monthly Mastery Members

Sign up and details here:

http://www.shiftweightmastery.com/Sundays.html

Shift Weekly: “Do it to Me” Foods

The symbolic power of food never ceases to amaze me.  Our unconscious brain's attachment to certain foods--triggered by events or emotions can be overwhelming. When we're a master of long term permanent weight release we learn that just because our brain is signaling us for a certain food--it may not necessarily mean we need it or should have it--but often it may mean that you need something that it associates with the food--like nurturing or time out or decadence (in some non-caloric form).

 DO IT TO ME

When we are upset or need comforting and food is the only thing that we feel must comfort us is food and you want something super comforting but you don’t want to wake up the next day regretting the calories you ate or don’t want the comfort food to trigger you into eating more it is always a good idea to develop a list of DO IT TO ME FOODS.  These are foods that comfort your heart and soul and taste buds but don’t send you into a blood sugar spike and drop or that don’t have so many calories in them that they send you over your calorie budget for weight release.

Some of my DO IT TO ME foods are recipes I adapted from more caloric childhood favorites: Almond custard, pumpkin pie-less and apple pie-less, cauliflower mashed potatoes (see recipes below)

Some are foods off the shelf that I found comforting but don’t trigger me to want to eat more: Kozy Shack sugar free tapioca pudding, Progresso lite soups with add ins of veggies (this is when I want volume without the calories), TJs Tomato and Red Pepper Soup (comes in a box), and Healthy Choice Fudge Bars.

 My drive through option is always the McDonald’s ice cream cone—only 150 calories—at the right place at the right time—I am lovin’ it.

COMFORT FROM WITHIN

When I am sick, I always think of my mother and her amazing custard. My mother's custard was spellbinding--full of rich whole eggs, cream, almond flavoring and love. Whenever I got sick she would make me get into bed and bring me some warm from the oven. I don't know which was more tender--the creamy custard--or the sympathy my mother gave me while she sat with me and I ate it.

My mom has been gone 7 years this month and I miss her the most when I am sick. The last time I had a cold I thought about her yummy rich and caloric custard and I took a Shift Breath and tuned in to listen to my inner signals--did I really want custard or did I need something else?  I realized what the thought of the custard really wanted me to do was to leave the office, go home and get into bed. The thought of the custard was telling me what my mom couldn't, “You're sick honey, go to bed, you have got to take care of yourself”.   So I did. And doing so was so rich and creamy--so tender and loving that later that day, when I was feeling a bit better--I got up and made my lower calorie version of the custard and ate that too. The almond flavoring for me is the key--that smell and flavor sends me right back to cold and dreary days in Seattle circa 1972--and fills me so completely that the egg yolk, cream and sugar missing from the recipe don't even matter.

Coaching: Just because a food is coming into your brain look for what the food message is really trying to tell you.  Be curious--learn how to decode the language of your food cravings--it's another way you can further your mastery and not be a victim of your impulses but let them allow you to connect to yourself on a deeper level and discover the true mystery of what lies beneath the surface impulse or craving. 

Often you will find once you get under the craving—the need for the food wanes and you can address your true need—and BTW it usually involves needing to take a break, comforting yourself or some nurturing act of self-care.

If food is the only thing that will comfort you pull out your DO IT TO ME list and chose something.  To start a do it to me list think of any food—decadent or not—that you think of as comforting.  Then look for healthier, lower sugar lower fat versions of your comfort foods—they exist—try Google and also try www.Hungry-Girl.com or  www.spoonfulofsugarfree.com or for some great lower calorie comfort DO IT TO ME recipes.

Almond Custard Recipe:

Here is my lower calorie version of my mom's custard recipe--if you want the heavier version you'll have to ask my mom for it! PS it takes about 2 minutes to assemble—(fast food!!)-- and it's mostly protein so a good non blood sugar spiking breakfast, snack or dessert.  A great light but comforting dish for these darker, colder days!!

The Tell Tale Egg White Custard (the entire recipe is 350 calories if you use non cal sweetener)

Spray a Pyrex dish with cooking spray.

Pour the entire contents of a pint of pasteurized egg whites in to the Pyrex dish (you could use 6 eggs or 8 whites from eggs but then you would  need to mix in a bowl with other ingredients and then pour into the Pyrex dish.)

add:

1 teaspoon almond or vanilla flavor

or you could do 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and 1/2 t. grated ginger

sweetenr: I use a dash of Stevia and about 4 packets Splenda but for those of you who avoid the fake stuff
agave will do or 1/2 c sugar--just factor in the calories.

Stir in:
1 cup non fat milk or almond milk or soy milk.

Top with a sprinkle of nutmeg or cinnamon.

Bake in a 250 degree oven for about 45 minutes or until it starts to set but is still a little jiggley in the center like Jello.  Next, turn off the oven and let it continue to be cook until set--another hour.

You can cook it on a higher heat but then you would have to use a water bath for it and for most that's too big of a commitment.

Pumpkin Pie-less and Apple Pie-less
These are both simple ideas and easy to execute—I simply take the basic pumpkin pie recipe from the side of the can (the plain pumpkin not the pre-sweetened kind) but use lighter ingredients—I use splenda or stevia or nectresse for the sweetener (feel free to use whatever sweetner you use)—light milk and egg whites and I bake it without the crust.  Done this way  1/6 of the pie is about 100 calories and is super healthy because of the pumpkin and egg whites—I put a T of whipping cream or Greek yogurt on top and boy is it good!

You can also try apple pie without the crust using just apples sliced up and baked, microwaved or sautéed with the spices and top with some whipping cream or Greek yogurt.

 Hungry Girl has more detailed recipes that add some low cal crust so check her out too.

 Mashed Cauliflower Potatoes

Cut up and cook 1 head cauliflower with 1 potato cut up in chicken or veggie broth. Drain and then blenderize or pulverize in a food processor with 2 t. of butter and some milk—depends on the consistency you like.  The whole recipe is about 300 calories and is about 6-8 servings—great as a substitute for mashed potatoes and people love the extra flavor—often no one knows the differenceJ.

Enjoy.
Have a Shifted week!

oxox Rita

SHIFT HYPNOTIC WEIGHT MASTERY SUNDAY CLASS –“Improve Your Eating Habits”

Sunday March 3^rd at 3:30-5:30
Follow Your Heart Workshop Studio (Canoga Park) next to their famous vegetarian café (come have lunch and then Shift)

Sign up and details here:

http://www.shiftweightmastery.com/Sundays.html

 

 

Shift Weekly: I'm Starting with the Butt in the Mirror

I'm starting with the butt in the mirror
I'm asking me to change my ways (of thinking about it)
And no message could have been any clearer
If you want to make the world a better place
Take a look at your butt(or any other body part that you dislike)
and then make a change (in your relationship to it)

 A client of mine recently made the following observation: men think about sex about half of the day and women think about their bodies and food about half the day! If you are a man and struggling with weight, hmm, I am not sure if you have room in your head to think about anything else. 

I have dedicated February’s Shift theme to “Loving Ourselves Down the Scale” and loving and accepting all of ourselves, including our various body parts, is a huge part of that journey.  With 20,000 to 40,000 thoughts going through our mind a day, and a lot of them often negative ones about ourselves and our bodies, I thought this week would be a good one to focus on how to change your relationship with a body part that you dislike. (We had a very successful Shift Class this month using this very technique—so if you missed it read on!)

Chances are that there are a few parts of your body that you dislike and wish you could change –you are not alone. There is a 13 billion dollar per year plastic surgery industry that just kinda sorta indicates our general cultural need of wanting to change things we don’t like or don’t feel are good enough.

 For years I struggled with many parts of my body:  my thighs, which always seemed to jut out too far, my knees which were too dimply, and my butt which I always stared at, with horror, in the mirror—hoping that by staring I could make it smaller.

 When I made my SHIFT and began releasing weight for good—I realized a part of the journey would have to mean accepting me and all parts of me even BEFORE I got to my ideal weight.  You see, I never had gotten to my ideal weight before because every time I got to my goal weight I still hated my body and thought that I needed to lose even more weight.  I would restrict myself more which created the rubber band effect and I would start binging and gaining the weight back.

 Now making the SHIFT I realized that I need to embrace all of me so that when I got to my ideal weight I would truly accept everything, my weight, my body parts, and myself.

 The following is an easy cognitive exercise that I developed from various body acceptance methods.  Try it out and see if you can’t start a hot love affair with a disowned part of yourself today!  Just start with the butt in the mirror…

 Shift Body Part Acceptance Exercise

To start with, it helps to observe what the language is that you use about the body part you are going to change your relationship with.

 My old negative butt “language” to myself: my bog ol’ butt, fat, ugly, pudgy, unflattering, repugnant to others and disgusting.

 Next, begin noticing when you use that language around that body part to yourself and begin to label it as “there’s that thought...”

 Example: “There’s that thought that my butt is like Jello…”.

 What separating the thought out does is reposition the use of language in your brain so that it is now just an observation of your thinking and the old negative thought itself now is not appearing to you as real.

 Example: “My butt is like Jello” now becomes “There is that thought that my butt is like Jello”.  We now have more power over that thought as we see it for what it is worth: a warped useless interpretation of that body part and not reality.

 Next in the process is not to substitute the yucky word for a nice word.  You want to replace the painful word with a neutral word.  This is a cognitive behavioral technique.  When a painful habitual thought pattern begins to come up the idea is to break the pattern in the mind with a neutral word.

 Example:  “I am moving in the direction of accepting my butt.  My butt is (instead of fat and ugly) -- patriotic, parliamentary and official!”

 Doing this kind of word substitution may feel a bit strange, but it goes a long way to breaking up the painful, hateful energy of the old language.  It’s also a fun challenge for your mind to come up with different words for your body part.

 After breaking up the negative language with neutral language for awhile, you can now move into using some more powerful and positive words to describe your body part to yourself.  It is also nice, as part of this exercise, if you can touch that body part in a loving way when you see it or think of it with this new language.

 New “Nice” word for my butt: womanly, substantial, sassy, pioneering, primitive!

Now begin using your new “loving body part language” to yourself whenever the urge to have a thought or feeling about that body part arises.

 I am moving in the directing of loving my butt (as I say this I take a deep relaxing breath and lovingly touch my butt).  My butt is pioneering and strong and has brought me to where I am in life today—cushioning many sitting sessions along the way.  My womanly and sassy butt is loyal to me and I shall be loyal to it!”

 I used this technique every day for a few weeks and soon I was looking at my butt in a whole new way and the weight literally fell off!  Not from my butt necessarily, but from my heart, and what a gift that was. 

 I hope that you will give yourself the gift of showing up for yourself and embracing that part of you that you are disowning.  Have some patience, have some love and understanding and you will have a fabulous new body part that you can proudly call your own!

 To Review:

1-     Label the negative thought about your body part as a thought and not reality.

2-     Replace the negative word about your body part with a neutral one: Patriotic!

3-     Begin adding loving, kind words to describe that body part: Womanly and powerful! (also touch that body part in a loving and soothing way).

 Keep on Shifting that butt in the mirror!

 ox Rita Black C.Ht

323 988 4574
www.ShiftWeightMastery.com

 The next Shift Weight Mastery Process is April 27^th

Private Sessions Available

Weight Mastery: The Sugar Pining Playbook

Valentine’s Special 30% off all CDs (check out “Just One Bite or None at All—Shifting Your Relationship to Chocolates and Sweets”

TO GET THE DISCOUNT—enter the word SHIFT into the coupon code box at check out (all caps)

Shift Store

Happy Valentine’s Day! Sugar was called “Crack” when it became a rare and coveted delicacy in 16^th century France.  Even back then sugar was thought of as a drug, known for its powerful addictive potential.

How can you walk through the week of love and sugar with your power and weight mastery intact?  This week is for lovers and sugar lovers alike as the world outside becomes a big candy dish full of chocolates and sweets—so how do you keep from becoming a sugar pining fool and steer clear of the excess of sugar and not tailspin into addictive eating patterns?

CANDY SWEETHEARTS…VERY BITTER

Back in my un-Shifted days when I yo-yoed up and down the scale 40 pounds, my “crack” during Valentine’s Day was not chocolate but those sugary sweet “sweet hearts candy” that came in the little box.  I never stopped at one box though—I powered through multiple boxes in one hedonistic sitting.  Sugar then was not my sweet heat but my enemy—taking my power and leaving me feeling like a cheap, easy date.  Not only did I feel guilty but I would also want more sugar for the impact it had on both my brain and my body after the initial sugar high was to seek out more.  Therefore, Valentine’s Day was never a day time of love but a time of self defeatist loathing.

When I made my own SHIFT 20 years ago I began by creating a powerful boundary around the sweet heart candy.  Those sweet hearts,  can say “Be Mine” and “So Cute!” all they want but they do not seduce this wise and  Shifted mama into letting one pass over her lips.  I may treat myself to other VD treats—such as chocolate—which does not hook me—but I stay clear of my danger zone.  Valentine’s Day now for me is not about the candy (as it always used to be) but for being grateful for all the fabulous people I have in my life—including you!

How about you—do you worry about going down that dark alley of Valentine’s Day treats? 

Your Inner Coach can use certain strategies to keep you out of that addiction cycle. Here are some weight master’s strategies to keep you out of Sugar and Valentine’s  Candy REBAB

THE SUGAR PINING PLAYBOOK—COACHING FOR VD DAY

1- Eat More fiber, whole foods and protein: In order to physically “unhook” addictive eating it will serve you to create a food plan that is low in sugar, salt, fat and refined floury foods and high in fiber, fruits and vegetables and lean protein.

2--Know your refined food/ sugar and starchy carbohydrate “set point”:  Every “body” is different and can tolerate a certain level of starchy or refined sugars and carbohydrates before they start feeling “hooked”—it will be your mission to discover what your set point is and to make sure that you stay under that point on a daily basis. For many this is about 2-3 servings a day.

3-Tune into your body after eating refined foods and sugar—some foods have worse impact than others (think “gateway food”) and for many the rule of thumb is to avoid eating Valentine’s Candy on an empty stomach as that sets off raised blood sugar levels but also creates a bigger impact on the brain—and it starts looking around for more sugar.  It is best to eat sugar (if and when you do) with other food.

4-Think of refined starches and sugar like cocktails—only to be had after 5pm!  The earlier in the day we eat refined food the earlier we begin wanting more!!!

5-Learn trigger times and emotional triggers for compulsive eating and use your Inner Coach to come up with other ways of comforting yourself other than food.

6-Find healthier alternatives for those times that you have gotten used to reaching for the more “addictive” foods.

7—Take steps for addiction prevention.

Sugar and Valentine Candy Addiction Intervention

Remember long term permanent weight release is not about being perfect—it is about embracing imperfection and consistently finding solves and strategies that allow us to stay connected to ourselves and moving forward –“showing up for ourselves” rather than hitting the “eject” button on ourselves and our weight release when we get off course.  If you find yourself eating a “gateway food or candy” and getting “hooked” at least be prepared. 

Take action as quickly as possible and engage in the following strategies and you will become unhooked in no time:

 First take a break from all starchy and refined carbohydrates for three days (or limit to one).

 Next up your protein intake—this will stabilize your blood sugar and stunt the false hunger that is being caused by your out of whack blood sugar levels.

 And up your intake of vegetables and whole food—the more healthfully you eat the less your body craves the junk

 Drink water which flushes it all from your system

 And move your body and exercise.

Note:  Starchy Carbohydrates can range from whole grain bread to the most refined sugary candy and alcohol.  Even though starchy carbohydrates from whole foods give you more nourishment than candy and donuts and more refined carbs—some people have a low tolerance level and can overeat even these “healthier” foods. Part of your Shift Process “loving scientist” project is finding out what amount is right for you.

Have a Great Valentine's Week
oxox Rita

Valentine’s Special 30% off all CDs (check out “Just One Bite or None at All—Shifting Your Relationship to Chocolates and Sweets”

TO GET THE DISCOUNT—enter the word SHIFT into the coupon code box at check out (all caps)

Shift Store

Weight Mastery:Love Means Never Having to "Weigh" You're Sorry!

COMING UP!!! SHIFT SUNDAY Weight Mastery EVENT:

February 10^th at Creative Chakra Spa @10:30am “Intro to Hypnosis for Weight Release” Class
and Follow up Class at 11am ”Love Yourself Down the Scale” Class
CHECK IT OUT ON: www.ShiftWeightMastery.com and tell your friends and family newcomers get in free—
So do Monthly Mastery Members (what the heck is this?!)
http://www.shiftweightmastery.com/monthlymembership.html

sign up now for the 10th and get specifics on… http://www.shiftweightmastery.com/Sundays.html
Or just hit reply and say “IM IN!” and info will be sent to you regarding the venue address and details.

__________________________________________________

Weight Mastery: Valentine Edition:  Love Means Never Having to “Weigh” You’re Sorry
Happy Valentine’s Month!

This month of February’s theme is “Love Yourself Down the Scale”.  After all, most people who have taken weight off and kept it off have learned that the journey down the scale is a love story and not a hate story.  The love theme today brings me to our all important relationship to THE SCALE and how to love ourselves when standing on top of it.

Now I know our relationship to that cold slab of metal can be fraught with emotions both high and low when we are stuck in “fat thinking”.  During the Shift Weight Mastery Process we learn that our Inner Coach removes us from the emotional rollercoaster and keeps us focused on facts and data collecting when it comes to the scale. To achieve long-term weight release and maintenance you will have to weight yourself consistently.  Why?  Because, as you learn in the Shift, weighing yourself helps to keep you out of cognitive error and actually relieves you from the low level anxiety of wondering what your weight really is.  I know when I used to not weight myself and “go by how my clothes fit” that I had one pair of pants that I could gain 20 pounds in before they felt snug! 

The truth of the matter is that most masters of long term permanent weight release weigh themselves consistently. Sorry it’s a brutal fact, I know, but as a Shifter you learn that these brutal facts of weight mastery can set you free from the weight not only of your body but your negative chaotic thinking. See, for years you have been weighing yourself as I dieter and now I want to show you how to weigh yourself powerfully like a Shifter—and the difference is not on the scale—it’s in your head.

I am going to use an example with “Mary the dieter” to show the difference between a dieter fat thinking head getting on the scale and then a more Shifted/ Thin Thinking head.

Okay now let’s say that Mary the dieter has been dieting and she has burned 3500 in excess calories( the equivalent to a pound of fat)—this is what her record keeping shows--in line for a goal of 1releaseing 1 pound of fat that week.  However she gets on the scale and the scale says she is down 4 pounds.  Mary of course is ecstatic—all of that hard work of dieting has paid off she feels great and loves her new diet—life is good.  She gets off the scale and has a good scale day not realizing that she is really only down a pound—because all she has burned is a pound of fat—she has not accounted for the water weight that initially comes.  Mary actually owes the scale 3 pounds—because we know that Mary has only burned 3500 calories--enough energy for a pound release of fat.

Okay now—on to week 2 another week another 3500 burned and another 4 pound drop on the scale for Mary.  Wow Mary thinks –this diet is amazing—I am amazing-- I have lost 8 pounds in 2 weeks –another party on the scale—life is good for our friend Mary—or is it? Hasn’t she really released just another pound and now owes the scale 6 pounds?  Hey I am not trying to be a kill joy here—just a realist—right—a loving scientist—I just see it coming—don’t you?? It’s kind of like watching a horror movie and you know before the victim that the killer is about to strike—the victim is just merrily minding their business but you know the killer is lurking and you want to shout at the scream sttoopppp, --run--- get out of there!!! But it’s too late.  The victim in this instance is Mary but the killer isn’t the scale—it’s Mary’s diet minded expectations of how much weight she has released that is ultimately going to take her down.

There is Mary,  it’s week three—she’s walking towards her bathroom, she takes off her robe—there is the scale—it’s the moment of truth—Mary steps on the scale—the digital numbers do their dance and delver—the fatal blow!

Screaaaaaaammm.

No weight!! I have lost no weight this week!?  What how can this be so I have done the exact thing I did the first 2 weeks-- I have deprived myself and this is what I get?  Now her Inner Critic comes into action with the limiting beliefs—“What is wrong with me?”  “What did I do wrong?” “My body is broken”.  “I was meant to be fat.”  …now Mary’s Inner Rebel steps in— “Dieting is so hard”, “this diet sucks—lets go eat a bagel and take it easy for a few days”—“I am sure there is the perfect diet out there for you and this one honey—it ain’t it—did I say bagel—maybe waffles..”
Yup that’s right my dear Shifter—it’s a gory bloody scene of limiting beliefs and overwhelmingly dashed expectations. The DNA of the Inner Critic and Inner Rebel are all over that crime scene.

So what really happened on the scale was not bad or horrible—what happened in Mary’s head was. In reality—Mary has now released 3 pounds of fat having burned 3500 calories a week.  Her body is in essence now paying back the scale—but Mary doesn’t know this because Mary looks only to the scale for results and not her record keeping.  If she understood with a Shifted Inner Coach/loving scientist perspective —that what you burn you earn and what your don’t you owe—Mary would have gotten on the scale and maybe not been thrilled by not losing any weight but would have been able to coach herself by saying—well this makes sense—I was down 8 pounds but in reality have only lost 3—it makes sense the scale didn’t move this week—she would then have been able to get off the scale and on with her week knowing she was still progressing forward on her plan to deficit 3500 and release one pound a week.
 
Has this ever happened to you?  Have you ever dieted and gotten great release the first few weeks and then everything seems to stop—you get mad at the diet the scale and your body—but never got mad at or questioned the thought processes that took you there—the facts will set you free from the horrible thinking—the bad scale days.  The scale always eventually will catch up with the truth—but in its own time—that is why record keeping is so essential—it calms you down, it gives you the facts, it keeps you out of cognitive error.
So just to clear about the scale I am going to be very clear about what the scale is and is not.
What the scale is:

A device for measuring your weight and only your weight—it does not measure your worth, or if you are good or bad—it does not measure success or failure—it measures what your body weight—period. Now take a deep shift breath--

A tool for seeing if your food records are correct  --that’s right—if your food record show a deficit every week the scale will go down—consistently but perhaps not in the way we would like—but over time if your records are correct the scale will reflect this—otherwise if the scale has plateaued or is going up over a few weeks period look to your record keeping—that is usually where the error is not you or not your body.

A place to track results of your behaviors—again the scale will reflect if your behaviors and Inner Coach are leading you in the direction you want to go.  If not—you can adjust.
Another deep shift breath—good—loving that scale—okay don’t love it—just use it.
 
What the scale is not:

A device that allows you to have a good or bad day—that’s right the number is not you—when it’s good or when it’s not good.  The number on the scale is the number on the scale—all the rest is your interpretation and if your interpretation is making you feel bad in any way—you have got some limiting beliefs that need to be adjusted—not the reading on the scale.

The scale is not a place to beat yourself up or prove your body is broken—again look to your records and look to your thoughts—your portion eyeballing or calorie counting thinking may need to be fixed—not your body.

A place to hope to hope or pray—if you are hoping or praying that means you are not in scientist mode—in neutral mode—hoping implies you wish that a miracle will occur or that you got away with something and I assure you these 2 things never happen on the scale.  The scale is there to reflect the laws of physics dreams and wishes.

Okay so how do you step on the scale and stay sane??—you put on your imaginary lab coat and begin as a loving scientist.

1) Take a breath before you get on the scale—remind yourself you are going to still love yourself no matter what the number is

2) Step on the scale, get the number

3) Record the number in your book and (if you wish) on your chart (in the Shift Journal).

4) Assess as a scientist if the number on the scale is in line with your record keeping.  If not take a moment to figure out:

-Is your record keeping 100% accurate (usually this is the place there is error)?

-A weight gain could be due to other things beyond your control that usually have to do with water retention and not fat gain

Those things could be:

-Estrogen fluctuations (PMS, ovulation, menopause)

-Excess sodium intake

-Humidity

-Dehydration

-Altitude

-Post travel water retention—airplane travel causes water retention

-Illness or infection—the body holds onto water to help the body heal the infected area

-Does the scale owe you a loss or could you owe the scale some weight from water loss? Remember the Mary Story??

5) After you get the number Make adjustments and get on with your day staying focused on the skills.

Sanity Tip!!! If the scale is up a pound and you did not eat in excess of your caloric needs by 3500 calories the day before, rest assured you did not gain a pound of fat.

So love yourself on the scale today and know the true freedom of Love never means having to WEIGH you’re sorry!!!

Happy Valentine’s Month

Ox ox Rita