Happy Halloween Girlfriends! (Or Ghoul-Friends

Halloween starts the holiday season of treating yourself to a hearty helping of guilt – right? Candy season, followed by Thanksgiving meals/left-over and Christmas and Hanukkah celebrations, on to New Years parties and more. We need some girlfriend advice on enjoying life – sometimes one bite at a time from a girlfriend, and Girlfriend Guru, RENEE YEMMA …

Ok, girlfriends.  You know it’s that time of year, right?

The time when all the sweet treats come out and pay us a visit. (And, what I mean by visit, is that we eat an entire bag of candy and then feel major guilt and never want to see another piece of candy again.)

Yeah, I’ve been there many times – not letting sugar in my house because it’s BAD and I’ll eat way too much of it in one sitting and then I’ll feel awful and fat.

Every time during the start of the holiday season, I hear the same things being discussed among my friends and family.

“I just ate an entire bag of Reese’s peanut butter cups. OMG! Keep it away!  Must workout ASAP!”

Well, I’m here to tell ya that there can be a different way to approach the sweet treat season and that you can enjoy them (all year round) without eating the entire bag and sweating yourself silly on the treadmill the next day.

You see, when you tell yourself NOT to eat any sugary treats, it’s like telling a child that they can’t run in a store.

You want to do what you’re not supposed to do.

You try and try not to eat sweets because of the so-called negative affects it can bring: weight gain, mood swings, diseases; but you still find yourself breaking down and buying the sugary goodies.

Well here’s a secret – the body needs sugar.

Yep, it’s true!

You see, glucose is fuel for the body and mind, but it’s when we overindulge (especially under stress) that causes problems.

So when you try to hold off for weeks without one bite of sugar, your body continues to send sweet signals, which then has you breaking your sugar rule and then feeling guilty about it.

When we eat slowly and with pleasure we can enjoy a few bites of sweetness each and every day.

When we eat sugary foods fast and with negative thoughts we end up eating too much and because of this we gain weight and have mood swings.

So with the start of sweet treat season, why not let yourself indulge a little?

Now, I’m not talking about eating an entire pint of ice cream, or going against doctor’s orders and eating sweets anyway, but what I am going to tell you is this: Take a break from what you’re doing and stop and taste the amazing flavor sweets provide.

And you can do this with what I like to call the sacred sweet appointment.

• Get your favorite piece of chocolate (my favorite is dark chocolate with nuts) and place it on your favorite plate.
• Sit down in a quiet place, without distractions.
• Break off two pieces of chocolate.
• Take one piece and put in your mouth and chew it up really fast.  Try to be aware of the flavors and the texture while you chew.
• Then take the second piece, but this time let it melt in your mouth.  Try to chew as little as necessary.  Really taste the different flavors as it melts in your mouth.

Notice a difference?

When you chew it up fast, you don’t get the same velvety flavors as when you let it melt in your mouth.

When you chew it fast, your body doesn’t get the signal that you’ve eaten, so it sends signals that it wants more.

When you let it melt in your mouth your body gets the memo and doesn’t send out more signals to eat. You’re left feeling satisfied and nourished.

So when it comes to eating sweets, treat it like you would any other food.

Give it the attention it deserves and your body, mind, and soul will thank you.

RENEE YEMMA is founder and creator of The Calm Mama and the Calm Mama™ programs – the proven step-by-step program that inspires busy moms to easily use mindless-creativity (doodling, painting, photography) to melt away stress so they can feel more calm, more energized, and more creative no matter how overwhelming the mommy-to-do-list-day can be.  To learn more, visit www.reneeyemma.com

What is your favorite Halloween treats / candy?

Check out this guest blog by Renee on How Doodling is a great De-stressing activity. (Fun!) Want to be a Girlfriend Guru? Be featured on Girlfriendology!

Happy Halloween Ghoul-friends! (:

Tags: #not done yet, eating chocolate, girlfriend guru, Renee Yemma

This entry was posted on Friday, October 21st, 2011 at 10:55 am and is filed under FOODIES Fab Friends who love FOOD, Girlfriend Gurus, Health and Fitness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.