Avoiding Holiday Weight Gain

Tired of gaining 5-10 lbs every holiday season? Here is something you can do.
Any healthy person can fast for one day. Try fasting for one day between Thanksgiving and Christmas and again between Christmas and New Year?s day to rest the digestive system and increase awareness and sensitivity to genuine food needs.
Drink as much warm water as you want, or spiced water (boil ginger, cardomom, clove, cinnamon in water). If you are weak, have a glass or two of heated milk of your choice (dairy, soy, hemp, almond). The next morning break your fast with a few pieces of fruit.

Vippassana Food Meditation

During the holiday season, from Thanksgiving through the New Year, there is a tendency to over-indulge in heavy foods and sweets. They are hard to resist, especially for office workers, who are faced with a barrage of candies and sweets strategically placed on the corners of co-workers? desks.

At the same time, many of us gobble down our food, barely experiencing what exactly it is we are putting in our mouths. How we eat is as important as what we eat.

Try this food meditation practice. It can be done with any kind of food, and is often practiced with a solitary piece of fruit (or chocolate!). Take this piece of food and place it in your palm. Consider it. Feel its weight in your hand, and notice its shape, color, and smell. Place the item in your mouth and begin chewing with care. Do not swallow. Let go of everything else in your mind and focus only on the small amount of food in your mouth. We are doing only what we are doing. In fact we are barely doing; we are being. Human being.

You are chewing a piece of food. Pay attention to the food?s flavor and texture. Pay attention to the subtle differences between the surface of the food and its inside. For example, how different does the skin of a grape and its pulp taste? Is the skin astringent? Is the pulp sweet and juicy? In a tangerine segment, for example, does it have seeds? Do they add a bitter note to the otherwise sweet experience? As you continue to chew, bring all your faculties of mindfulness to the experience?in taste, smell, touch, sound. Notice what comes up in your mind in relation to the food item. Notice thoughts; notice feelings. Notice what comes up and sit with it. Notice what comes up and allow it to pass without pushing it away or pushing it back down. Be there in the experience. Be awake to it. Doing something as simple as chewing one bite of food with awareness is the beginning of mindfulness. Now it will be easier to know exactly what it is that is staring at you seductively from that plate of M&M?s on the corner of your neighbor?s desk.

Ayurveda, Acupuncture, and Chinese Medicine in San Diegohttp://www.bodymindwellnesscenter.com

Source: http://blog.bodymindwellnesscenter.com/2010/12/avoiding-holiday-weight-gain.html

Leona Lewis Carolyn Murphy Miranda Kerr Debra Werbowy