We've been helping people lose weight without calorie restriction or will power for 30 years now. We've done it by supporting them to restore their health with a whole food plant based diet. And as their health improved, excess weight came off naturally because a healthy body doesn't carry excess weight.
But keeping it off was sometimes a challenge because after some time they would go back to their old habits of reaching for food when they felt anxious or overwhelmed. When they felt pressure and anxiety, food looked like a way out. Their feelings started driving cravings again for low nutrient dense foods, which brought the weight or health challenge back.
A few years ago we came across an understanding that helps us connect the dots between our feelings and our cravings for food. When we begin to see we're reaching for food to find relief from the pressures we can feel in life, to find relief from our feelings, it can start to de-pressurize things and the desire for food lessens.
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So you see the key to keeping weight off is very connected to low moods and our thinking that creates low moods. We have a low mood when we are telling ourselves something that isn't true about who we really are. And that makes us feel tension or anxious. Then we start searching for what will give us relief from those feelings. Often we believe food or some other substance will work. And does it?
This week start to notice your thoughts and feelings when you want to reach for food and you aren't hungry. Do nothing with the thoughts/feelings, just hold them loosely. Or you can sit and get quiet, let your mind settle. From there see if you really want something to eat. You might be surprised.
The recipe this week is for a new version of Connie's Garlic Scape Pesto. It's oil free now and always a favorite of ours this time of year when garlic scapes are plentiful from our organic farmer friends here in Kelowna. Click here to access the recipe.
Not sure what a garlic scape is? The scape is the tender stem and flower bud of a hardneck garlic (the kind of garlic that typically grows in Canada and the northeastern U.S.) Scapes first grow straight out of the garlic bulb, then coil. When harvested, they look like long, curly green beans.
Garlic scapes are a bit milder than garlic cloves, which make them a perfect base for pestos or added to a stir-fry. Give it a try and let us know what you think.