Category: Urge

How Are You Eating Your Food?

8/6/2014

I have learned over the years that it doesn't matter how healthy I am eating, that if I am eating quickly or when I am stressed, I have a difficult time digesting my meals.

Check out this video that it is not just what we are eating that contributes to healthy digestion but also how we are eating.

Please comment below: Have you noticed a difference in your ability to assimilate a meal when you are eating when you are relaxed or stressed? I would love to hear from you!

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How Your Binge is Protecting You

7/27/2014

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Let's get vulnerable shall we? My first year of Graduate School to get my Masters in Body Psychotherapy was intense. The way I like to describe the experience to others, is that the classes are shaped in a way to rip your heart out of your chest, make you look at it, so that you can do the same for others. Additionally, while going through the program, you also have to be in therapy so that you know what your triggers are and don't project your issues onto other people.

So my first year of Grad School I was mucking around in the deep dark depths of my soul. I was looking at pains and wounds I hadn't explored probably ever. There was a lot of crying and a lot of eating. I had never binged this much on food in my entire life. I was uncomfortable and it was unsettling. Here I was still calling myself a nutritional counselor and spending whole days just eating dates.

While being in that period of time felt like forever, I can look back on it now and feel grateful for that experience. I was using food as a tool to cope with emotions that just felt too big to manage. I was talking about situations from my past and deep wounds that I wasn't entirely sure how to sort through, process, assimilate, and digest. My binging was a way to protect myself. It was a way to feel grounded on earth, that I was still alive, and that these situations didn't eat me and swallow me whole. It was a way to fill myself up when I was exploring situations that left me feeling so empty.

The one thing I want to offer you that I could have done without during that time was the judgment. If you have ever binged or are currently struggling with binging it is not something that is bad, not something to be shamed, or ashamed about. It is a message from yourself to yourself. You can learn from these experiences with food and they can teach and reveal to you your own resiliency. Whatever your binging is trying to help you get through, it is actually a sign of your strength. You are getting through whatever difficult experiences that are happening. The situation and the binging will eventually subside (even if it has been years), I promise you.

Binging is a way to feel connected to yourself, to feel your aliveness. I recently heard Marc David, founder of IPE, say that binging has a lot of power to it. So you engaging in the act of binging can just be a misguided attempt to step into how powerful, resilient, and strong you are.

The lesson that my time with bingeing helped me to discover was to reach out and talk. So I will leave you with this the next time you are feeling the need or desire to binge on food, pick up the phone and talk to someone. Call your mom, your dad, a sibling, a friend, a significant other, whoever you want and talk about your emotions. You can talk about the fact that you want to binge but that is skirting the issue that some big emotions are coming up that feel like they have the power and are going to consume you.

Even if you have the binge, once it is over and you feel yourself coming back in to your body, still pick up the phone and call someone or take out a journal or a piece of paper and start writing. Find some way to connect back with what is coming up for you because even after the binge is over the emotions will probably still be there. And remember to send yourself so much loving kindness because you are just trying to do the best job you can taking care of you and, trust me, you are doing a pretty damn good job.

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Cravings Are Meant To Be Heard

7/16/2014

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This was my very first episode of Gut Guru.

In this episode I talk about cravings and how they are meant to be heard, they are meant to be listened to, and they typically have a message for you.

How do you typically approach your cravings? What do you find yourself craving on a regular basis?

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Are you nourished by conversation?

6/6/2014

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I get really excited about things. Ethan, my boyfriend, often compares me to a dog when I get really excited because I can't contain myself. I want to pounce on the opportunity, the conversation, the situation. I get so wrapped up in the moment that I can forget about waiting my turn to speak and being patient with my surroundings.

Furthermore, I grew up in a family where I am the youngest of 3 and the only girl. So I constantly felt like I had to interrupt to be heard over two very entertaining and loud brothers. This continues to show up in my life now.

I try to be kind and compassionate with myself when I notice I am getting super excited and want to speak when it is not my turn or feeling the urge to interrupt someone else to make sure I get my point across. I'll admit, this is a constant practice for me, both to pause and take a breath and to be kind and compassionate toward myself. But, something that has helped (besides talking to myself to either calm myself down or tell my inner child that they will be heard eventually) is to start to focus on what the other person is saying.

I teach my clients that we are not just nourished by what we are eating but also by our surroundings and environment. A conversation can satiate you just the same way a meal can when you are really hungry. When we slow down, not just with our meals, but with our friends and family we get the chance to enjoy their company and truly listen to what they are saying. When we sit and listen to what someone else has to say we can then process that information easier and digest that experience thoroughly because we were truly present and not in our heads thinking about the next things that we want to say.

Greek Philosopher Epictetus said: We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.

When I am able to listen with both my ears, my excitement does not diminish but it gets contained; it becomes more manageable in the moment so that I can stay present with myself and those around me. This feels more nourishing in the end. When we are able to be nourished and satiated by our conversation with others, we feel connected to our surroundings and thus more connected to ourselves.

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Nourishment for your email:

How Are You Eating Your Food?

How Your Binge is Protecting You

Cravings Are Meant To Be Heard

Are you nourished by conversation?

Stephanie Mara Pollock

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