Hooked on Sugar

If processed sugar seems like a monkey on your back, a habit that has you HOOKED, or a problem that erodes your energy, and leaves you feeling powerless, I assure you:

  1. You are NOT alone. 
  2. It’s NOT a personal failing.
  3. It’s not your fault.
  4. You are not experiencing optimal health.
  5. It is possible to get OFF the hook.

You are NOT alone. 

A recent study suggests Americans eat far too much sugar. To be specific, approximately 75% of Americans eat excess amounts of sugar — many of whom could be classified as having a sugar addiction. 

~ Addiction Center

It’s NOT a personal failing.

Research on rats has found that sugar is more addictive than drugs such as cocaine, and that there can be withdrawal symptoms such as depression and behavioral problems when people try cutting out sugar completely. 

~ Ramsay Health

Sugar fuels every cell in the brain. Your brain also sees sugar as a reward, which makes you keep wanting more of it. If you often eat a lot of sugar, you’re reinforcing that reward, which can make it tough to break the habit.

~ WebMD

It’s not your fault.

You cannot crave and think clearly at the same time! Healthy decision-making is switched off when you are craving.  

~ Dr. Joan Ifland

This is NOT your fault.
Where the addiction comes from.

You are not experiencing optimal health.

Too much added sugar can be one of the greatest threats to cardiovascular health.

~ Harvard Health

Everyone knows that sugar can rot teeth, and that it’s high calorie content packs on excess weight rather quickly.

Sugar also affects physical and mental health in far more dangerous ways that may not be obvious until the damage is done.

Numerous studies link eating processed sugar to:

  • Chronic inflammation
  • High blood pressure
  • Cancer
  • Polycystic ovary syndrome
  • Heart disease
  • Dementia
  • Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
  • Insulin resistance
  • Lipid problems
  • Type 2 diabetes
  • Depression
  • Increased stress

How does too much sugar affect your body?

It is possible to get OFF the hook.

Since sugar can be addicting, and cause withdrawal symptoms when we try to quit, it may seem like an impossible task to get the sugar monkey off our back. Letting go of habits can be tricky, especially when dopamine is involved. But I’m here to tell you, releasing sugar is not only possible, it’s absolutely liberating! 

How is it possible to get relief from sugar cravings, and other unwanted symptoms caused or exacerbated by refined sugars?

By releasing the foods, thoughts, and behaviors that keep us hooked in a habitual loop of swearing off sugar, followed by bingeing on sugar, followed by self loathing, and soothing with sugar.

Relief through Release Playgroup

I specifically designed R&R Playgroup to support women who want to play with releasing sugar for the purpose of improving our health! Participants have created relief from sugar cravings, overeating, excess weight, and other unwanted symptoms.

It is possible to free oneself from processed sugar – and the toxic effects it has on the human body – by combining certain crucial requirements.

Making a plan, and preparing are crucial. During the first phase of R&R Playgroup, we spend three weeks planning what to eat and not to eat, and preparing ourselves mentally and psychologically to release sugar temporarily.

Releasing self-criticism is crucial. This is an ongoing theme throughout R&R Playgroup because I do not believe it is possible to release foods that we enjoy when we are constantly being criticized by anyone.

Temporarily abstaining from sugar is crucial. The second phase of R&R Playgroup is when we experiment with abstaining from sugar for twenty-one days.

Constant Support in community is crucial. Daily support is a consistently proven way to release habitual patterns that are not serving us. During the second phase of R&R Playgroup, we meet daily on Zoom for 21 days. 

It is invaluable to be seen and understood by a community who understands the depth of the challenge you face, and celebrates every success and triumph along your journey!

Learning to regulate our emotions is crucial. One of the number one reasons humans turn to sugar and overeating is the desire to soothe uncomfortable emotions. Learning healthy ways to regulate emotions is a major component of R&R Playgroup.

Coaching and time to integrate what’s learned is crucial. Learning something is different than integrating it. Phase three of R&R Playgroup is about integrating the data we collected during our experiment, and using it to create a road map that aligns us with our own healthy intentions as we move forward.

Freeing ourselves from lifelong habits like self-criticism, or daily sugar use is exponentially easier when we have a solid plan, constant support, educational reminders, an encouraging coach, and a community that understands the enormity of our challenge, and supports and celebrates our journey.

If you or someone you know is interested in getting unhooked from sugar, you can find all the information at THIS LINK, or sign up for the next Masterclass to learn MORE at THIS LINK.

Consider the Cost!

Hiring a coach can cost hundreds of dollars per session, and thousands for several months of sessions. Spending money to improve ourselves can feel tricky for many of us, and may even feel as though we need to justify the expense.

If you are considering hiring a coach to help change eating habits that you’ve been trying to change for awhile, it’s completely rational to question whether or not coaching will be worth your investment. We all want to get our money’s worth, and if we invest months of our time, we’d like a return on that investment as well! 

It makes total sense.

Before we can make a decision based on cost however, we need to consider the entire cost.

What is the current cost of the behavior you want to change?

I’ll use after-dinner overeating for example, because this is a struggle for MANY people.

What is the after dinner overeating costing now?

What is the emotional cost of eating patterns that feel beyond control? 

How much time have you spent thinking about overeating? Or trying to get rid of overeating in the past? How much energy have you spent beating yourself up because you missed the goal again?

What is the cost of the extra food eaten over the next six months? What is the cost of overeating in terms of health, digestion, or weight concerns? How much do you spend on antacids and anti-inflammatories? What will it cost to buy new clothes? What was the cost of the clothes that no longer fit?

I know firsthand the struggle of weighing the financial cost of coaching against my own history of not reaching my health goals. In my case, I also had an addiction to certain foods which deviously kept telling me that now was NOT the right time to try again to reach my goals.

For ME, coaching made all the difference. I’m not saying that it’s right for you, that’s something each of us can to choose for ourselves. I’m simply saying that before labeling anything “expensive” it’s wise to calculate the entire cost.

Eat Less, Lose Weight. Right?

For decades the diet industry’s messaging has been: Eat less, lose weight. But if that’s true, why do so many diets fail?

If weight release is the goal, cutting calories may not be the answer!

Not all calories are created equally. If we consume 2,000 calories of white bread, French fries, fast foods, and sugary drinks, we will not have the same experience with health and wellness as someone eating 2,000 calories of proteins, essential fats, and a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.

In cases of extreme calorie restriction, the body stops building muscle and begins storing fat. The human body is biologically wired to do this when we don’t get enough to eat. It’s a defense mechanism meant to save our life. We cannot get around our own biology! To reverse this defense, we must eat MORE calories to get the metabolism going. Then the body can begin building muscles and burning our food as fuel instead of storing it as fat.

Eating less can sometimes lead to a release of excess weight, but in my personal and professional experience, it’s rarely sustainable.

Why?

Carrying excess weight is never caused simply by “eating too much.”

If we are overeating, we have excellent fucking reasons to overeat that are rooted in the SCIENCE of either biology or psychology.

Some biological reasons for overeating:

  • Not eating breakfast
  • Skipping meals.
  • Not getting enough of one or more macronutrients:
    • water
    • healthy fats
    • protein
    • carbohydrates
  • Eating empty-calorie foods.
  • Physical addiction to processed foods.
  • Allergies or sensitivities to frequently used foods.

Some psychological reasons for overeating:

  • Stress.
  • Self-criticism.
  • Self-doubt, and low self-esteem.
  • Inability to process emotions.
  • Low or no pleasure in life.
  • Lack of spiritual connection.
  • Lack of social connection.
  • Lack of purpose.
  • Depressed energy.

If weight release is the goal, we want to play with all of these variables before we decide if we need to reduce or increase calories. The key to weight release is different for each of us. One woman may need to reduce stress, while another may need to increase nutrients. One person may need to find an outlet for her creativity, another may need to change employment, or release an unhealthy relationship in order to reach a stable, healthy weight. 

Most of us will also want to release any foods that we observe to be causing symptoms. So, maybe you keep eating the same 2,000 calorie diet, but you eliminate all the wheat (or dairy, or any food suspected of affecting you personally), and suddenly the excess weight releases without effort.

If weight release is the goal, and we are hungry all the time, frustrated due to lack of progress, and still trying to reduce calories, it’s time to LET GO of the “Eat Less, Weigh Less” propaganda to which we have been indoctrinated!

Let’s play with new ways of thinking about weight release, new ways of thinking about weight, and new ways to be kinder to ourselves and our bodies.

Grow On!

Instead of trying to eat less, try this:
Don’t skip breakfast!
Play with adding protein and fat calories to breakfast and lunch. 
Play with releasing foods that come in packages.
Play with eating more whole food.
Play with letting go of wheat, or dairy.
Play with eating salad every day.
Listen to your body when you eat. What is it telling you?

Header image: Salmon & Eggs from fifteenspatulas.com

Weight Release Requires Stress Release

A major factor in anyone’s ability to release excess weight is our ability to release stress. If we are under a lot of stress, or even chronic low-level stress, our insulin and cortisol levels rise. Increased insulin and cortisol can lead to:

  • weight gain
  • inability to lose weight
  • inability to build muscle
  • decreased calorie burning
  • increased fat deposition at midsection
  • increased inflammation – exacerbates every known disease
  • die off of good gut bacteria – leads to many types of digestive issues
  • wasting nutrients – we don’t get the nutrients from the foods we eat
  • decreased immunity – we get sick more easily
  • decreased energy
  • dysregulated appetite  – we may NOT feel hungry when we need to eat, OR we may feel hungry all the time.
  • desensitivity to pleasure – we need MORE food to feel satiated.
  • decreased Mitochondrial function – can lead to muscle weakness, and organ disease
  • decreased Thyroid function – can lead to fatigue, weight gain, joint pain, dry skin, thinning hair, irregular menses, fertility problems, slowed heart rate, or depression.
  • poor sleep quality
  • reduced sleep quantity

So it’s clear that if we want to release excess weight, we MUST find ways to RELEASE the stress we experience in our lives. 

Stress & Perception

Normal life stressors include death or illness of a family member, financial worries, work-related stress. This kind of stress can’t be avoided, but we can learn ways to diminish it, so that it has less effect on our health. We can also learn techniques to help us shift the way in which we perceive stress. Perception determines everything, and certainly colors how normal life stressors affect us. 

For example: Several employees are let go from a company.

High-stress perception of the situation says loss of income is a huge setback, we’ll fall behind on bills and maybe lose our home. Now THAT will stress you out.

Low-stress perception of the same situation says that my next income will be higher, affording more economic opportunities, and that the Universe always has my back so it was obviously time to leave that position to find something better and more fulfilling for me. What a blessing! No worries, no stress.

Self-Chosen Stress

Reducing the stress in our lives is absolutely essential if one of our goals is to release excess weight, and the stress easiest to release is the self-chosen variety. 

Are you kind to yourself like you would be to someone you love? Or do you criticize yourself for every perceived imperfection, belittle and shame yourself for not doing enough? Do you compare yourself to others and always judge yourself less than? 

When you look at your body in the mirror, do you lavish it with love and praise for supporting and sustaining you every day of your life no matter how much you abused it? Or do you heap shame on it for not looking like some swimsuit model who’s been surgically enhanced, tucked, and airbrushed?

Self-criticism and body shame create a toxic stew of stress. It’s like living in a situation where we are being attacked every day, because we are attacking ourselves daily!

Weight release requires learning to love ourselves, or at the very LEAST, learning not to treat ourselves like shit. This process takes time, patience, and constant reminders, but pays off in improved health, happiness, and more success reaching all of our goals!

Processed Foods

Perhaps one of the most treacherous self-chosen stressors in modern life is processed foods because most people choosing them don’t even know that processed foods cause stress!

The chemicals being put into manufactured foods affect our energy and our mood. According to Dr. Joan Ifland, people who eat a diet high in processed foods tend to anger more quickly, be more anxious, and irritable.

Processed foods tend to be very low in nutrition, and poor nutrition is perceived by the body as STRESS.

Poor nutrition is also a major reason that we overeat after dinner. Our body has done the calculations, found us missing essential nutrients, and sent off alarm bells that scream, “We did not get adequate nutrition. EAT MORE FOOD!”  If we reach for more processed foods, we still don’t get the nourishment our body is screaming for, but we pack on pounds from the excess empty calories. 

Here in the United States, processed foods tend to be high in many kinds of sugar, wheat flours processed with roundup, GMO corn, low quality soy, and saturated fats – ALL of which cause inflammation and have the potential to disrupt digestion.

Digesting and metabolizing even one of those inflammatory ingredients is stressful on our intestines, liver, and cardio-vascular system. Digesting many of them all at once, maybe several times a day leads to serious health issues like heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

If we eat processed foods, it’s adding stress to our life in multiple ways, and most of us aren’t even aware of it! 

Bottom line is that if we want to release any excess weight we may be carrying, we must begin to learn to release whatever stress it is within our power to release, including processed foods.

Processed Food Addiction

Now, if you are sitting there thinking that you can’t even imagine a life without processed foods, you are NOT alone. 

A recent poll done by the University of Michigan found that older adults reported intense food cravings. Twenty four percent said that at least once a week they had such a strong urge to eat a highly processed food that they couldn’t think of anything else. Nineteen percent said that at least two or three times a week they tried and failed to cut back, or stop eating, these kinds of foods.

Twelve percent said that their eating behavior caused them a lot of distress more than twice a week, so if any of this resonates for you, I hope you are starting to see that you are not the only one.

Dr Joan Ifland wrote the text book, Processed Food Addiction. You will find a wealth of interviews of Dr. Ifland on YouTube where you can learn more about processed food addiction and it’s treatment.

Elimination Diet

One of the fastest ways to get relief – from stress, inflammation, excess weight, and a long list of unwanted symptoms – is to release the thoughts, foods, and behaviors that are causing us stress, inflammation, and unwanted symptoms.

If this resonates for you, experience has shown that an elimination diet is one of the best tools for identifying foods you suspect may be causing the unwanted symptoms, and is very safe.

An elimination diet is an eating plan that omits a food, or group of foods, believed to cause unwanted symptoms. By removing foods for a few weeks and then reintroducing them during a “challenge” period, you can learn which foods are causing symptoms or making them worse.

We often think of reactions to food as happening quickly, however, many other ways our bodies react to food may not be so immediate or noticeable. 

My mission is to help people revitalize their lives and transform their lives around food and body, so I created the Relief through Release Playgroup to fully support women who want to play with releasing thoughts, foods, and behaviors that are creating unwanted symptoms, for the purpose of getting relief from those symptoms!

Relief through Release Playgroup

R&R Playgroup is an eight week online playgroup. For three weeks of those two months, we release self-criticism and sugar – two of life’s biggest stressors – with all the support it takes to make that shift.

In R&R Playgroup, we learn:

  • the science behind overeating, and create strategies to reduce overeating. 
  • to listen to our appetite instead of trying to suppress it. 
  • to tap into our body wisdom to understand what foods truly serve our health. 
  • to identify and overwrite limiting beliefs, and shift to less stressful perspectives. 
  • how to increase our energy and awareness, build confidence, and celebrate every success. 
  • to marinate our energy in thoughts and ideas that feel good and uplifting, instead of stewing in a negative vibration that diminishes everything we try to do and be! 

All of this adds up to creating the healthy energized lives that we long to lead!

The next playgroup starts in a few weeks!
Get complete details at THIS LINK.

Whether you choose to let go of self-criticism, take up yoga, learn to shift perspectives, or try an elimination diet on your own, or with a group – don’t you owe it to yourself and your health to play with some new ways to relieve stress?

Grow on!

What foods do you suspect may be causing issues for you?
What processed foods do you crave?
Which unwanted symptoms do you have that might be tied to food?
How willing are you to play with letting go of suspect foods?
What thoughts are you thinking that you would like to release?
What self-chosen stressors can you identify, and play with releasing?

Why I Coach

Suffering with unwanted symptoms, and struggling with compulsive eating SUCKS.

I know this first hand, because I’ve been through it.

I understand what it is to struggle with food, and to loathe myself for what I thought was lack of willpower. When I stopped over drinking, I ran right to sugar and picked up my addictive behaviors all over again. I felt like my appetite was out of control!

I tried fasting, starving, vegetarian, vegan, South Beach, Atkins, high fat, fat-free, high-carb, no carb, anything to try and control my appetite, and lose weight. In between diets I would binge eat sugary sweets, and live on carbs and cheese. 

I felt powerful any time I was controlling my weight, and beat the hell out of myself when I ate off plan, or any time I ate too much, which was frequently. My journal was saturated with self-loathing.

Unwanted symptoms baffled my doctors, left me exhausted and in pain. I was tired all the time and couldn’t figure out where my energy went! What I didn’t understand at the time was that inflammation was wreaking havoc with my body.  

The inflammation was caused by overeating sugary sweets, and other foods that my body did not process well, but in all the times I was seen for my mysterious symptoms, not one medical doctor ever even asked me what I was eating.

I knew I wasn’t eating healthy foods, but the fact that not one doctor looked at my food intake lead me to believe that food was NOT connected to my symptoms!

I felt like I was spinning out of control, like I was powerless over food, and would never figure it out! 

Then I found a naturopath who taught me to identify and release foods, that were depleting my energy. I also hired a coach who helped me identify and release behaviors that were depleting my energy, and guess what?!

I got RELIEF!

  • I felt better immediately.
  • My intestinal symptoms disappeared. 
  • The eczema that plagued me went away.
  • The horrible night sweats vanished. 
  • My energy increased tremendously. 
  • I started sleeping better.
  • I dropped 50 lb in 5 months without ever going to a gym, or doing a single workout! 

THAT’s when I decided that I want to help other women who are struggling with food, and unwanted symptoms the way I have!

I became a professionally Certified Core Energy Coach, and Women’s Empowerment Coach at the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching.

Then I went on to study Mind Body Nutrition, and Dynamic Eating Psychology Coaching at the Institute for the Psychology of Eating. NOW it is my pleasure, my passion, and my purpose to help other women who are struggling create RELIEF in their lives!

Knowing how awful it feels to struggle with food, and knowing how much shame is attached to constantly seeing myself as a failure with food and health is the reason I coach. I don’t ever want any woman to have to feel that shitty, if it’s possible for me to help her move from exhausted to energized!

Let me know if I can be of service!

Wishing you energized thriving!

Relief through Release Playgroup

Good Food, Bad Food, New Food, Blue Food

Which foods are good and which are bad?

Trick question! Foods are not good or bad.

When we label a food “bad” and then we choose to eat that food, we see ourselves as bad for having eaten it. For many people, the next step is to beat ourselves up for making a bad choice.

Often if we label a food “good” then we feel that we should include it in our diet. If we choose not to eat the “good” food, we interpret that as being bad, and often beat ourselves up for that choice as well.

Let’s update our labels!

Foods can nourish us, fuel our body, give us vitality and life force energy. Foods can also deplete us, draining our energy by providing few (if any) nutrients, or by producing toxins that require extra energy to move them out of the body.

If we label foods nourishing or depleting, we remind ourselves how they make us feel so we can make an informed choice. I’m allowed to choose depleting foods if I want, knowing that I will likely feel depleted after eating them. If it is my intention to choose more nourishing foods, then the labels clearly point to the choice I will enjoy.

I don’t want to give up pizza!

What if our favorite foods deplete us? Do we have to give them up forever and ever? No! The dose makes the poison. Identifying a depleting food doesn’t mean you never get to eat it again. It may mean we want to give it up for a short time as an experiment to see what happens with any symptoms we have. It probably means we don’t want to eat that food as a regular part of our daily meals. Occasionally allowing ourself the pleasure of enjoying a favorite food that we know depletes us keeps us from feeling deprived, and doesn’t deplete as much as it would if we were choosing it daily.

Replacements or alternatives?

If one of our old foods is no longer serving us, finding new foods we love can be fun! Some foods that are common allergens (think wheat and dairy) now have replacements available in the grocery store. Gluten free breads and pizza crusts are quite common, and many companies produce dairy free cheeses, sour creams, yogurts, and ice cream. I’d like to point out that many of these replacements can contain ingredients just as likely to cause reactions as the originals they imitate, and can actually make us crave the “real thing” that feels forbidden, and enticing. Like all packaged foods, it pays to use caution and read labels thoroughly.

That having been said, I am a huge fan of plant-based dairy alternatives made at home. You can read about the cream in my coffee at this link. You can make a highly credible parmesan with Brazil nuts, and I love nice-cream made with frozen bananas and oat milk!

Let’s update our tastebuds!

Rather than trying to replace old foods, finding alternative choices can be a revelation, and actually rewires our tastebuds. Taste is an intelligence. When we eat junk food, we dumb down the taste buds. When we introduce nourishing foods that are naturally delicious, our taste buds will actually start to crave something new.

My favorite texture is creamy. My tastebuds used to turn to dairy for sweet, creamy goodness. Now I crave mangoes, fresh blueberries topped with coconut milk, avocados, and cashews. I’m not focussed on what I’m missing, because I enjoy what I’m eating even more!

Grow on!

What new foods would you like to explore?
Make a list and explore them!
Keep track of the ones you love and buy them again.
Which foods are you choosing that deplete your energy?
Are you willing to do a little experiment, and let that depleting food go for a week or two?

It’s important to remember that this is NOT forever, it’s simply an experiment to see what happens.


Need help getting ready to release a particular food that depletes you? I help my clients with this sort of thing all the time! Contact me HERE for a short chat to see if I’m the right coach to help with what you’re growing through!

Sweet Release

Sugar is a pervasive, powerful substance.  

It makes us feel good when we eat it. It elevates our mood more effectively than prescription drugs. Sugar can serve as a symbolic substitute for love or intimacy.  Alcoholics getting sober frequently turn to sugar as a replacement habit, and find it gives them a lot of the same benefits as booze. Sugar can numb our feelings, fill our boredom, calm our nerves, or bliss us out. Why wouldn’t we turn to sugar for all this relief?

When we were hunter gatherers and we found sugar in nature – generally in fruits and berries – biology told us to eat ALL of it because it was ripe for a very short time. That was fine for hunter gatherers because gathering sugary foods was limited to harvest season. Sugar helped us pack on a few pounds before winter when food would become scarce, and we would need body fat for fuel. Eating ALL the sugar is driven by our biology, much like bears fattening up for hibernation. We are biologically wired to eat all the sugar!

But these days, the “food” corporations put sugar into every box and package on the shelf. Sugar is everywhere and available 24/7. It’s the first drug children get hooked on, and “food” corporations use it to increase their profits. Sugar is cheaper than both protein and produce, and it HOOKS people into coming back for more by releasing a super dose of dopamine, what we normally think of as the happiness drug.

Millions of people are habituated to the sweet benefits of sugar, without necessarily realizing the long term harmful effects. We want our sugary treats. We don’t want to see sugar as the cause of our symptoms. I get it! 

My name is Cyndi and I am a sugar addict. Sugar has been a problem for me on and off and throughout my life. I tried repeatedly to let go of sugar. I suffered for years under the harmful effects of sugar. Some of my sugar-related symptoms included SIBO, diverticulitis, headaches, night sweats, irritability, brain fog, fatigue, extreme pain from slipped discs in my lumbar spine due to inflammation in my intestines, which caused me to be off work for weeks at a time without pay.

I had to connect the dots between my fatigue and the sugar, between my constant symptoms and the constant underlying inflammation induced by sugar.

Long term sugar use can be as powerful a pattern to release as alcohol or tobacco abuse, and it takes awareness to finally let it go.

Sugar causes inflammation.

According to Harvard Health: Too much added sugar can be one of the greatest threats to cardiovascular disease. Consuming too much added sugar can raise blood pressure and increase chronic inflammation.  Research has shown that chronic inflammation is associated with heart disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, and bowel diseases like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

Gastroenterologist, Suhirdan Vivekanadarajah says excessive sugar can reduce beneficial bacteria leading to a leaky gut syndrome, and other serious health conditions. Too much sugar may also block the production of a protein associated with being lean.

According to Anthony William, refined sugar is the number one preferred food of viruses and tumors. He also has a GREAT article on how the natural sugars in fruit are different, and not to be avoided. According to Anthony, “Fruit is actually the most important food to eat when healing from disease.”

Am I saying we should not eat sugar? 

No. I am absolutely not saying that. Sugar is delicious and pleasurable, and in small amounts can be a wonderful addition to a special meal. I am saying that sugar is a powerful substance and it will benefit the health and wellbeing of many people to bring awareness to how much sugar we are truly consuming.

The dose makes the poison.

We don’t need to avoid refined sugar, but we absolutely want to avoid too much sugar.

  • Overusing sugar causes chronic inflammation associated with heart disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, and bowel diseases like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
  • Overusing sugar erodes our energy. We may feel an energy boost when the sugar hits our system, but a crash soon follows, and continuous use of sugar overall reduces the amount of energy available to us.
  • Overusing sugar can raise blood pressure.
  • Overusing sugar erodes gut health and immunity, making us more vulnerable to all sorts of disease.  
  • Overusing sugar erodes mental clarity. Brain fog is caused by high levels of inflammation.
  • Overusing sugar erodes our taste buds. Taste is an intelligence, so overusing sugar can dumb down our taste buds, so they are no longer as sensitive to healthy foods.
  • Overusing sugar can lead to poor digestion, lack of nutrient absorption, and contributes to protein deficiency.
  • Overusing sugar can lead to sugar cravings!
  • Overusing sugar leads to weight gain, and inability to release weight.
  • Overusing sugar can erode physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing, as well as our self esteem.

If you can’t imagine letting go of your daily habit of sweetness, you are not alone! Is it the taste that brings us back for more? Or is it the slight energy buzz it brings? Maybe it’s the relaxing effect we’re after, that comes post buzz.  

The reasons we reach for sugar are myriad, and unique for each of us. Those very same reasons are the key to releasing the overuse of sugar.  If we’re using sugar to cover uncomfortable feelings, it may be easier to experience those feelings and grow through them, than to endure the life long health effects of using sugar to cover them up.

Grow on!

Are you choosing sugar as a sweet treat, or as an escape plan?
How frequently are you choosing sugary foods?
How challenging would you find it to let go of sugar for a week?
Two weeks?

Create a list of all the foods you love that do NOT have added sugars.

Practicing this mantra in my power pose helps me say ‘no’ to extra helpings of sugar!

I lead a group called Relief through Release where I help other women let go of negative self-talk & self-criticism, and recreational sugar for 21 days!

Multiple levels allow you to choose to release just sugar – or many foods – depending on your needs and desires!

If you are interested in releasing sugar and self-criticism for a SHORT trial, please CLICK THIS LINK for complete information, and upcoming dates for Relief through Release Playgroup!

cyndicombs@gmail.com

WTF is a Mind Body Eating Coach?

I am super excited to be a Certified Mind Body Eating Coach trained at the Institute for the Psychology of Eating!

As I discussed in my post, Who the Fuck Needs a Life Coach, not everyone is familiar with professional coaching, so it’s sometimes necessary to explain what coaching is, how it works, and who coaching can help.  Beyond that, it may be easy to identify what a business coach, nutrition coach, or fitness coach does – and who might hire them – but what the fuck is a Mind Body Eating Coach?

I’m glad you asked!

While an eating coach might sound like someone Joey Chestnut would hire, a Certified Mind Body Eating Coach helps people who struggle with weight, body image, low-energy, digestive issues, or compulsive eating behaviors like stress eating, overeating, and binge eating.  

Mind Body Eating Coaching (MBEC) addresses the nutritional aspect of what’s going on for the client, but our sessions also focus on the personal, emotional, and psychological aspects of what may be driving unwanted eating behaviors.

MBEC training is a nine-month course of study focused on Mind Body Nutrition, and Dynamic Eating Psychology. According to the school’s founder, Marc David, “Mind Body Nutrition takes the science of nutrition to a whole new place, and Dynamic Eating Psychology is a positive, results-oriented approach to eating concerns that speaks to heart, mind and soul.”

A Certified Mind Body Eating Coach is not going to offer you a specific eating plan, nor exercise program, though she may help you create one specific to your body.  MBE Coaching helps clients get to the root of why we do the things we do, and why we do what we don’t want to do.

This unique approach offers a pathway to finally heal our relationship with food and body that is different from anything I’ve ever experienced, and I’m willing to bet most of my readers have never tried anything like this before either.

So WHO might hire a Mind Body Eating Coach?

Those who will benefit from Mind Body Eating Coaching are those who wish to:

  • Replace endless dieting with lifelong nourished eating.
  • Release unwanted, or compulsive eating behaviors.
  • Find a natural and sustainable way of eating that suits their own body.
  • Savor life instead of rushing from one moment to the next.
  • Feel confident in the skin they’re in, instead of feeling worried about what they weigh.

Here’s what my current clients are saying about Mind Body Eating Coaching:

“Even though I have had only 2 coaching sessions with Cyndi, I cannot believe what a difference it has already made with myself as a whole. The week following my first session was amazing. I was able to actually have calm peaceful moments, (which I have not had since my husband passed almost 3 years ago). I am so looking forward to where my next sessions lead me.” ~ ST in Vallejo

After only two months, my insatiable desire to snack after dinner is almost completely gone. I can’t believe it was this easy. I thought I was eating a healthy low fat diet, and it turns out THAT was why I couldn’t stop snacking! I’m eating more food, and I am starting to release excess weight!” ~ SL in San Francisco

“Cyndi is a great coach- she’s patient with her clients as they learn.  She’s funny, insightful, informative and easy to work with. I like how she celebrates the smallest “aha” moments as she guides you in your journey.” ~ PC in Vallejo

“Cyndi has been very helpful in keeping me focused and keeping me grounded and bringing me back to earth when I lose it. She has taught me a lot about enjoying what I’m eating and being mindful when it’s meal time. I derive great enjoyment from our sessions. I find them very useful and Cyndi very uplifting” ~ BK in Pinole

Please forward this blog post to anyone you know who might like to:
– Replace endless dieting with lifelong nourished eating.
– Release unwanted, or compulsive eating behaviors.
– Find a natural and sustainable way of eating that suits their own body.
– Savor life instead of rushing from one moment to the next.
– Feel confident in the skin they’re in, instead of feeling worried about what they weigh.

What do you have to lose?

Grow on!

If you’re considering hiring a coach, please use THIS LINK to schedule a chat to see if I’m the right coach for you!

Slow Food

Remember last week’s blog post when I talked about stress, the effects of stress on our body, and the difference between life stress and self-chosen stress? 

If not click this link to read all about it!


This week I want to talk about one self-chosen stressor in particular.  It’s insidious in our culture, and most of us are not even aware that it is a stressor!  

Are you a fast eater, a slow eater, or a moderately paced eater?

Ninety percent of people asked this question answered, “fast”.  And guess what?  Human biology interprets eating fast as being stressed.

Remember, we saw that constant low-level stress causes increased insulin, and increased cortisol which can lead to:

  • weight gain
  • inability to lose weight
  • inability to build muscle
  • decreased calorie burning
  • increased fat deposits at midsection
  • increased inflammation
  • gut microbiome die off
  • nutrient wasting
  • decreased energy
  • appetite deregulation
  • desensitivity to pleasure
  • decreased metabolism
  • decreased Thyroid function 
  • decreased oxygen uptake
  • poor sleep

Imagine how this affects us if we have a weight challenge, or body transformation goal!  Even if we are not pursuing a food and body goal, none of these optimizes our health.  It makes complete sense that we want to reduce stress whenever possible. 

If you answered that you are a “fast” or even “moderately paced” eater, then you have now identified a stressor that you can choose to get rid of!  Reducing stress always has positive benefits, so why wouldn’t we put some effort into slowing down with our food?

The main reason is because eating fast is a habit. 

Generally, until someone asks us this question, we never even consider our eating speed.  In fact part of the problem is that many of us never even consider our food! 

We may skip breakfast or grab a pastry at the coffee shop, then eat lunch at the desk or running between clients, then grab some take out on the way home for dinner.  If any of these behaviors sound familiar, then you have a golden opportunity to release some of the stress that you carry!

(Slowing down with food is also a first step in releasing patterns of bingeing, after-dinner eating, and overeating.)

If you are interested in trying to break the habit of eating fast, you have much to gain!  So what do you have to lose (besides stress)? 

Here are some other symptoms caused or exacerbated by fast eating which can also diminish or go away completely:

Eating fast is a habit.  Eating more slowly requires some effort because we are creating a new habit, and new habits take time. This is NOT about counting bites. This is about relaxing with food and increasing pleasure! This is about enjoying our mealtimes and boosting happiness. This is about being present, becoming aware & listening to our body.

Fast eating is a habit.

Slow eating is a habit worth cultivating.

Grow on!

If you want to release the stress of fast eating, start by coming to your meals in as relaxed a state as you can.  Try to eat somewhere quiet when possible, or at the very least not in an environment that feels stressful.  Don’t watch the news, and incorporate some music that relaxes you if that appeals to you.

Before you begin to eat, take two or three grounding breaths.  Allow your heart rate to calm, then turn your attention to your meal.  Be present with your food.  Savor the flavor.  Explore the textures on your tongue.  Really enjoy the relaxed time with your food.  Food is meant to be a satisfying pleasure.

If you are eating food you do not enjoy, ask yourself, “why?”.  Food is meant to nourish body, mind and spirit, and we absorb far more nourishment from food we enjoy than from food we do not enjoy.

If you generally take 5 minutes for your meal, try to make it last 10 or 15 minutes.  If you generally eat in 15 minutes, try to stretch that out to half an hour.

I hear you!  

Life is busy.  Sometimes, unfortunately, we might actually have only five minutes to eat.  We can still approach our meal in a more relaxed and calm manner.  If you truly only have a short time, make that time count.  Breathe deeply and relax.  Taste what you are eating.  Be present to the flavor and texture. 

Enjoy!


Find lots more information on the benefits of slowing down when we eat in this fabulous book by Marc David, the founder for the Institute for the Psychology of Eating.

Stop Choosing Extra Helpings of Stress

The dictionary says stress is a state of mental or emotional tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances.

The dictionary is wrong.  How do I know?  Because stress is a feeling – an emotion – and the only place our emotions come from is from the thoughts we think.

Adverse or very demanding circumstances will absolutely cause some people to think thoughts that lead to feeling stressed.  Those exact same adverse or very demanding circumstances will cause others to think thoughts that lead to feeling exhilarated.

Our Thoughts create our Emotions, which drive our Actions.
We each brew our own TEA.

What Thoughts/Emotions/Actions am I conjuring?

Since this is absolutely true, we want to select our thoughts with great care and intention.  

Self-chosen stress vs normal, natural stress.

What is a “normal” or natural life stress?  These are stressors that we cannot control, like aging, health concerns, natural disasters, financial setbacks.  Those kinds of stress show up in every life, and Google can offer myriad advice on how to handle them.  I want to talk about optional stress – the stress we choose that is completely unnecessary – yet is often MORE damaging to our health and peace of mind than natural stress.

Self-chosen stressors include, but are not limited to:

  • negative self-talk
  • self body shaming & body hate
  • adopting weight loss strategies that are stringent & impossible to maintain
  • artificially controlling appetite
  • limiting a needed macronutrient such as protein, fat, or carbohydrates
  • believing we are unlovable, and will never be loved unless we lose weight or look different
  • trying to create an impossible-to-have body
  • unfavorably comparing oneself to others
  • believing we are alone in this world, or that the universe is against us

The list goes on, and is different for each of us.  When we choose these stressors, we live under a constantly higher level of stress than is necessary. 

Most of us have plenty of natural stress in life, so why would we choose this type of self-harming thinking?  We have been conditioned over a lifetime to choose these stressors. We didn’t make this stuff up.  We didn’t invent thinking negative thoughts about ourselves.  The world we live in trained that behavior into us, some more than others.

Other than the fact that stress feels crappy, why do we want to begin learning how to let go of these self-chosen stressors?  Constant stress causes increased insulin, and increased cortisol which can lead to:

  • weight gain
  • inability to lose weight
  • inability to build muscle
  • decreased calorie burning
  • increased fat deposits at midsection
  • increased inflammation
  • gut microbiome die off
  • nutrient wasting
  • decreased energy
  • appetite deregulation
  • desensitivity to pleasure
  • decreased metabolism
  • decreased Thyroid function 
  • decreased oxygen uptake
  • poor sleep

So how do we begin to let go of these self-chosen stressors?

Awareness is always the first step.
We cannot change it if we do not see it.

The Grow on! section below includes a way to begin cultivating more awareness around self-chosen stress.

Don’t beat yourself up for thinking stressful thoughts!  It’s a conditioned human behavior. Give yourself some grace, practice letting go of self-chosen stressors, and see what happens for yourself!

Grow on!

How does stress show up in your body?   
Write a physical description of how it feels when you are STRESSED about something. For some people it will include sweaty palms, or a racing heart. For others it might feel like a twist in the solar plexus or a kick in the gut. Whatever it is for you, take a minute to describe the physical sensations that arise for you when you feel stressed out.

Practice awareness by noticing these physical symptoms each time they show up. As you become aware that you are feeling your symptoms of stress – ask yourself what thought you were thinking that caused the symptoms. Then ask yourself if it is a life stress, or a self-chosen stress.

If it is something you are choosing to think/believe, what will it take to give self permission to let it go?

Reframing thoughts is a superpower that grows with coaching! 

If you are ready to let go of some of your self-chosen stress and need some help or guidance, I would love to chat with you! Click THIS LINK to schedule a free conversation to see if I am the right coach for you!