I'm still hanging in...

[Robin T.]

Hi Everyone,

I've spent a lot of time journaling recently and a definite pattern
seems to be emerging. Eating in the kitchen while standing up =
disaster. Well, maybe not disaster, but definatly consuming more than
I had planned. I thought it was just that I tended to eat too much
after a certain time of day...like after 6 pm I have absolutly no
control, but I seem to do fine if I'm sitting down to a meal.

This pattern/phenomena became particularly apparent this week during a
visit with my in laws for the holidays. For many reasons, over the
years these family gatherings have been some of the most stressful of
my life but in the last couple (since I began at TAI) I am beginning
to see so much I just glossed over before in terms of how I react to
stress. And this time, I was fully aware of each and every time I hung
around the kitchen island grazing on whatever was available. This
happened most often when someone was visiting for around whom I had
emotional reactions. So I would ease on over to the cookie jar and
grab another special K bar, cookie, etc and devour it until I had to
come up for air.


This year for Christmas, my husband gave me my first Ipod. I found
telecasts in several places including one by Dr. Mona Lisa Schultz, an
MD, PhD in neuroscience and a medical intuitive who has also studied
Chinese Medicine (I am a long-time fan of her work). In one of her
podcasts, she discussed the mind-body connection in eating simple
sugars combined with fat and how this combination actually stimulates
the production of neurtransmitters (serotonin) and how you can almost
predict which neurtransmitters will lift a person;s mood based on the
types of food they crave. And that ultimatly whatever "imbalance"
exists in your brain it is ultimatly a result of how we frame the
world or what stories we tell ourselves about what is going on and how
we choose to react. But first comes the change in thinking. (it was
kind of cool that she also is able to associate a person's condition
with a Chinese medical pattern) and then the change in perspective
that will shift the physical condition. I guess I just need enough
space between the impulse to graze and the initiation of the act to
think better thoughts.


So I am practicing not eating while driving or standing up...(actually
I;ve been practicing this for 2 weeks but it all went to hell during
the in laws visit). Some of this is just habit, like grabbing
something at the last minute to eat in the car instead of sitting down
to breakfast, and some of it is self-medication. It is the latter that
I struggle the most with...knowing what to do with my emotions in an
environment where I become reactive and how to move through this
peacefully without consuming more than the daily page in my diary can
hold.

I look forward to hearing from anyone out there who can relate...

I am starting the chapter about food energetics and will post again
soon.

With love,
Robin T.