The Home of Steven Barnes
Author, Teacher, Screenwriter


Thursday, June 02, 2005

5MM and weight loss

The Five Minute Miracle, designed to strengthen the all-important body-mind connection, can be used specifically to lose weight.  Here's how:
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In terms of physics, weight loss is simple, and everyone knows it: you take in fewer calories than you burn up.  But in terms of physiology, or biochemistry, or nutrition, this can be difficult: slow metabolisms, hidden calories, blood sugar crashes, and high-fat foods are a reality.  Add in the mental factors: lack of nutrition knowledge, not eating at the right times, reliance on fad diets and exercise programs.  Now on top of that, add the very worst problem: the emotions. 
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And that is the bitch-kitty.  The huge problem, the one that people have horrific difficulty addressing, is their emotional need to keep that weight on.  Either due to comfort, fear, power issues, sexual issues, revenge, or devastated self-image, if you are carrying more than about twenty pounds of excess weight, you are safer to assume that some of that is emotional.  If you have over fifty pounds, brothers and sisters, you are almost certainly lying to yourself if you think you can just whip it off by switching your cheesy poofs to celery sticks. 
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The FIVE MINUTE MIRACLE can help on both sides of the equation: Exercise, and Diet.  And by the way--if you aren't controlling BOTH sides, you are lying to yourself about wanting to lose that weight.  What you're doing is "trying" to lose weight.  We know that game, don't we?
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EXERCISE:  Walking is probably your best choice.  Walking hills is even better.  Once you've learned the BE BREATHED technique in the Five Minute Miracle, use it while walking.  Make every step a tiny exhalation, and a tiny abdominal contraction.  Walk from your hips, tucking your butt under, squeezing your tummy a bit with every step.  Do this for at least 30 minutes, 3 times a week.  More serious?  Do it for 40 minutes, four times a week.  The first twenty minutes, you are burning sugar.  Only after that do you begin to burn fat.  So every minute over 20, you are actually normalizing your weight...assuming you don't increase calories.  Want to jack up your metabolism even faster?  Take SHORT sprints UP the hill.  Then slow to a walk, until you've caught your breath.  Repeat.  Do NOT run down hill--it will tear the hell out of your knees.
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DIET.  Stress eating is a real problem.  Actually, the problem is when stress becomes strain, when you respond to life or emotional stress with a non-optimal reaction like junk food.  If you don't think you are going to hit massive pockets of fear and stress as you begin the weight-loss effort, you're lying to yourself again.  So...what you need is a way to dump stress.  Lots of it.  The HEARTBEAT MEDITATION is a dynamic way of processing stress.  If you're not ready for it yet, just sitting quietly and practising BE BREATHED works wonders.  Walking in the park, slowly enough to concentrate on your inner signals, is great.  Stopping five times a day for your sixty-second stress busting BE BREATHED cycle will put you way ahead of the game. Check in on your posture, muscle tension, and breathing patterns.  If any of the three are non-optimal, breathe.  Before you eat those cheesy-poofs, take a sixty second breathing break.  Still want them?  Go ahead.  You'll probably find you eat fewer.
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Clarity is a great thing.  To KNOW when you are eating for stress, and when you are eating for nutrition, and NEVER confuse the two is being honest with yourself.  And honesty is one of the most important values in your search for excellence.  the FIVE MINUTE MIRACLE can help clear the fog away, can make it safer to be honest about what is going on.  And ultimately, can set you free.  It's your life.  Own it.

Steve


1 comment:

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