Spring is finally here…rain and all! It is time to climb out of our winter shells, breathe fresh air, and get our bodies into action once again. Remember that exercise does not have to feel like punishment. Just getting outside and wandering or working among spring flowers is a perfect way to awaken your body and spirit – and is a good start to burning off some of that winter fat. Tip: Go explore spring – get out of the house, away from the kitchen, and give your body a chance to move. Knoxville has a botanical garden that not many people know about – it’s a great place to explore spring on foot. Learn more at www.knoxgarden.org.
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We now have an extra hour each evening to play! As the weather continues to get warmer and the sun continues to set later, we have more time in the evenings to be outside and move our bodies. Maybe it’s just a simple walk, or playing with the kids in the yard. Maybe it’s gardening or working on the house, or even doing yoga on the back porch…
Do anything! Move your body and enjoy that healing feeling from being outside, among the perfect and divine creation of our earth. It doesn’t have to feel like exercise – it doesn’t even have to be “exercise”. Just MOVE. In any way.
One of my clients taught me a great little tool that I’d like to share.
When you feel a binge coming on….that compulsive and URGENT need to go directly to food, look at the clock. Give yourself 5 minutes before going to food. Just 5 minutes. Distract yourself, calm yourself, talk to yourself….whatever you have to do to stay away from the food. Keep checking in with the clock. When five minutes have passed, check in with yourself. How are you doing? Are you hanging in there? Are you OK without the food? Do you think you can last another 5 minutes without going to food? If so, go for it. Use this time to write in a journal, talk to yourself, listen to music, relax and BREATHE…..again, whatever you need to do to calm yourself down and bring yourself back to balance without the food. Continue this cycle over and over again until the urgency passes (and it will eventually pass).
If after one or two 5 minute intervals you absolutley must go to food and can’t hold out any longer, then you can congratulate yourself for interrupting the cycle. It may take many 5 minute exercises over a long period of time to build up the ability to completely stop the cycle of binge eating. If you can interrupt the cycle even for 5 minutes, then you have exercised your ability to change. Just like exercising a muscle, strength will come in time.