Did you know that HOW you eat is just as important as WHAT you eat?
You can be eating all the "right" foods, but without three key ingredients in your eating, you may be missing out on the royal road to weight loss. Weight loss with ease and long term instead of a quick fix that doesn't last. In fact, no matter WHAT you're eating, you'll want to always incorporate these ingredients. We're starting this week with the first ingredient and over the next couple blog posts, we'll share the others.
#1) BREATHE
One of my fondest memories in my life was about 15 years ago. Camping and visiting dear friends in the Pacific Northwest. After a week of camping in the Olympic Peninsula, we ended our time with a large bonfire on Rialto Beach made out of driftwood. We sat under a full moon til the early hours of the morning. Catching up. Pondering big life questions. Laughing about silly things. It was magical. And also what I remember is watching how the breeze would come through and stoke the fire. The flames would brighten, churning up heat and energy. Without a breeze, the fire would've dimmed and wouldn't have generated heat and energy for as long as it did.
What in the world does this have to do with breathing and weight loss? Here's the thing, just as wood and fire require oxygen, so too your body needs oxygen to "burn" the food you put in your stomach. Forgetting to breathe (especially while eating) can be the most common weight loss downfalls of busy women. So consider adding this vital nutrient, Vitamin O: Oxygen. Breathing is your body's favorite ingredient for weight loss.
"The bottom line is that if you don't have breathing, you don't have a meal. The entire process of digestion is designed to break food down into microscopic morsels that can be sent to your cells and combusted with oxygen for energy release. Over 95 percent of all energy generated in the body comes from the simple combination of oxygen plus food. Without oxygen your food is literally useless."
Marc David: Slow Down Diet
Whoa right?
In short: Oxygen + Food = 95% of the energy your body generates.
Your metabolism is like a fire. Unless you breathe enough oxygen into it, your digestive fire burns dimly and the calories in the food you eat are stored rather than used and burned as energy.
In other words, lower oxygen intake leads to poor digestion which leads to sluggish weight.
When we're stressed or in a rush, this instinctively leads to quick shallow breathing. Which leads to lower oxygen in the body. And your body's digestive fire will dim.
The good news is that with some awareness, you can remedy this by pausing and taking some slow deep breaths - your body's favorite ingredient for weight loss and for energy.
So here's an invitation for you:
Before you eat, find a chair and sit down. Close your eyes if you can and pause. Breathe. Shift your body into slow deep breathing through your nose. It may take just a few breaths or if you're feeling stress, rush or anxiety, it make take many more breaths. No matter what is going on around you, give yourself this gift. And take notice of how you feel before, during and after.
Consider breathing to be a key component in your eating experience, a natural pause during meals. Marc David goes on to say "Delight in oxygen as you would delight in the food itself." And understand that breathing is as essential to your meal as the food on your plate.
Go ahead, give it a try and let us know how it's going. Tag us @nourishtoflourishsociety on Facebook and Instagram and let us know how it's going for you.