Is It Time To  Clear Your Space?

I flicked on the light, plugged in my fountain and oil lamp, opened the blinds to let the natural light in and rolled up my sleeves prepared to dig into my chore ahead.  At the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve I resolved to clear out clutter in my office and open my work space to rekindle the spiritual energy my office is known for. I spent an entire day dusting, vacuuming, scrubbing window ledges and shredding patient files older than seven years so I’d have space for the stack of files behind my chair, heaped on my desk and tucked in the credenza. I had my work cut out for me.

 
As I moved in silence, from one task to the next, memories of patients swirled in my mind. My heart ached as I came across several patients who died over the years. We bonded—swapped eating disorder war stories—and grew in spiritual, emotional, and physical recovery.
 

When I happened upon Martin’s file (anonymous name), caressing his folder as if he were still present, I remembered the first session of psychotherapy and hypnosis, how trapped he’d become in his body. Martin carried two hundred extra pounds on his 5’10” frame. Without opening his file, all our past conversations bubbled up within me. Like many of my patients, Martin believed therapy with me was his last strand of hope to release his obsession with food.

We began our session with the standard questions I ask during the collection of data phase when first working with a patient. Once I had gathered the medical, psychological, family, and work history I moved into personal belief systems to uncover hidden blocks and buried issues with regards to his eating disorder. I asked Martin, “Do you believe you are responsible for your own recovery? Is it the trigger food(s), or your lack of spiritual connection, or both, that prevent you from recovery? Can your recovery take precedence over an obsession with and addiction to the idea of weight loss? Are you ready to clear out the clutter in your thought process?

 
We discussed different approaches to treating his disordered eating and obesity. I suggested a program of recovery can include but need not be limited to: psychotherapy, a Twelve-Step program, an `anonymous’ support group, the advice of a nutritionist experienced in food addiction, and a prayer group—or a church, synagogue, or mosque group. And the list goes on. I asked, “Which components from this list attract your attention?” He opted for therapy, a nutritionist, and a prayer group affiliated with his church and Twelve-Step program addressing his compulsive eating.

It’s my belief if you’re not in peak condition, mentally, physically, spiritually—if you’re not “right” with your surroundings, and comfortable in your own skin, your full potential will be stunted. Martin believed this to be true, that in order to open his full potential he needed to tap into any and all help available and clear out the clutter in his thought process.

Many of us undergo serious health consequences as a result of food abuse. Initially Martin’s recovery from compulsive eating was out of a medical necessity—raging cholesterol—which led him to seek a doctor of addiction psychology for food addiction. 

 

Most of society doesn’t understand or accept food addiction as a real condition. In fact, people tend to be more understanding when an alcoholic doesn’t drink because so many people don’t drink today, either because they have a problem with alcohol, take medication, or they don’t want to drink and drive. Moreover, alcoholism is seen as an addiction; whereas, this isn't the case with food addiction.

Although Martin managed to reach and maintain a healthy weight, he died at 57 from congestive heart failure, which most likely resulted from lifelong poor lifestyle habits. Sometimes patients go past the point of no return and their bodies can’t repair. Perhaps this was the case for Martin.

Today, my office sparkles and the space I so needed is restored. Although I shredded a mountain of files, the stories will forever remain etched in my heart. As I closed the blinds, shut the lights, unplugged the fountain and oil lamp, I took one last look back at my now squeaky clean quaint space I so love to work in, and smiled at the thought of Martin so excited when he was able to once again tie his shoes, ride a bike, cross his legs, and button the bottom buttons of his shirt. Yes, he died perhaps earlier than his time, but he died after years of getting his life back—no longer imprisoned by his weight. It’s never too late to clear out the clutter and reach for the stars, even if you only touch the moon.

Photos by: Dr. Lisa Ortigara Crego

Dieting on Empty: The Problem with Diet Mentality

I recently helped my patient Melinda sift through her New Year’s resolution, coaching her on diet mentality and how to make healthier food choices to quiet her binge eating. She is a voracious dieter, never trusting herself to put together an eating-for life formula to compliment her lifestyle. In short, she had all the makings of another New Year’s resolution diet fiasco—or so I thought.

Melinda didn’t stick with her diets, and after scrutinizing her timeline of expectation—lose two pounds a week on a 1300-a-day calorie diet—I can understand why.

It looked nothing like my own food-for-life formula, which offers a satisfying mix of balanced meals, exercise, meditation and prayer from an assortment of personal experience and quality recommendations from  patients I’ve spent years curating and tweaking for 23 years.

Melinda’s diet left her hungry, weak, and craving sugary and salty foods.

My patient could have groomed her assortment of diet rituals, but why should she? Like many patients, she was open to try a new diet with the promise of quick weight loss, but not especially determined to stay on it, and her initial experience failed to deliver the promised weight loss in a more efficient way.  The time and emotional energy she’d invested in it hadn’t convinced her on the positive results, and she wasn’t motivated on investing more time.

One of the greatest strengths of investing in balanced meals, exercise, meditation, and prayer is its ability to free the binge eater from diet mentality. For some it’s a way of making peace with years of on-and-off dieting and to release weight for once. For others, it’s a new full-proof formula encouraging food as fuel, exercise as energy booster, meditation and prayer to feed the spiritual hunger.

What  jumping off the diet-merry-go-around amounts to—weight loss, self empowerment, spiritual food, peace of mind—depends entirely on what lifestyle balance you prescribe.

Yes, embarking on clean eating and spiritual practice also poses problems for some. Learning to “feel” emotions rather than eat them requires a closer look at daily issues that were numbed by food. Jumping on a balance life  style formula is like winning the lotto—only instead of getting a pile of green cash—the winner pays taxes, learns of “family and friends” she didn’t know she had and the expectancy to clear everyone’s debt. The experience might be a pleasant one, but it takes work.

This initial flood of emotions and the effort required to address it stands between the dieter and the healthy formula it needs to make peace with diet mentality.

The list of successful patients continues to grow.

For dieters to turn over a new relationship with food, emotions, and experience a thriving, successful lifestyle, they must do the legwork. They must begin with a balanced breakfast, lunch, metabolic boost, and dinner; incorporate with daily exercise, meditation and prayer.

But no doubt people will lack the perseverance to trust that their body and emotions will respond. People lose patience when rapid weight loss doesn’t come, instead a slow and steady change of body, mind and spirit evolves over time.

Next New Year there will be no need of a New Year’s resolution promising to eat a meager 1300 calories only to give up due to starvation. Instead, Melinda will ring in the New Year with a svelte body and a clear mind and have no need to make a resolution at all because she adopted a lifelong plan that she can live with one day at a time.

Photo Taken By: Dr. Lisa Ortigara Crego

The Law of Higher Potential Rather Than New Year's Resolution to Release Weight and Obsessions with Food

Are you starting another diet this year? Did you last year make a new year’s resolution to lose weight once and for all? How about committing to a healthier lifestyle? Did you promise yourself you would exercise or better yet you bought a fancy machine to work off excess weight starting January 1, 2012? We all make promises and  yet resolutions are soon forgotten. What can you do this New Year to make it different?

Every January my phone rings off the hook, patients want an appointment to discuss their eating and/ or weight issues—to make a permanent change once and for all. Although most start with the best of intentions, the most common thing people do is make New Year’s resolutions that fall to the wayside after a few short days or at best a few months. Perhaps the answer is to stop making New Year’s resolutions and tap into the law of Higher potential—and insist and demand the remedy from the Source in order to live your plan every day regardless of what time of the year it is.

How many times have you tried to let go of your excess weight and/or obsessions with food promising a New Year's resolution? I bet you can’t even count. If you tapped into this blog I'm guessing you had an urgent need to resolve a continuous battle with commitments for positive change.

Do you believe in the law of higher potential? Or were you raised not to ask for things from God (or whatever you call your Higher Source) but rather to serve; that it's selfish to think of yourself and ask for you rather than think of others first.

With Catholic upbringing l felt guilty if I asked and expected to receive—that instead it's better to give and serve. I still believe to serve is an ultimate goal but also that the law of my higher potential is my inheritance and I can have that too. My relationship with my Higher Source has evolved over the years. I ask, expect, and receive.

Ask God for what you want and expect to get it. Persistence, with a strong-held purpose for what you desire, is the path. If you want to be thin naturally and free from obsessing about your weight or certain foods then ask for it. As certain as the sun will rise and set I'm certain you can free yourself of compulsive eating and weight issues once and for all—if you ask and expect. Don’t just whine and cry about your misfortune in this life, how you've been saddled with obesity or eating issues. Poor me isn’t going to cut it. Rise above and turn it over to the hands of God—expect and believe—and you will be lifted from your misery.

Each January we're bombarded with diet and weight loss products and pummeled with magazines, billboards, movie stars, and the television pushing the message thin is in. Is it? Take Margareta, a beautiful girl who could easily have been a movie star. At one time, not so long ago, she had the body, looks, and intelligence, but today her lovely curves are replaced with extra pounds as a result of diet mentality and faulty thinking. When she was thin she thought she was fat and obsessed over food and her weight until this belief came to fruition.  She expected and believed she was fat. She binged mostly and restricted occasionally. She thought about foods she’d indulge in every wakened moment. Sometimes she refrained but mostly she downed sugary gooey foods followed by salty, fried carbohydrates. She over-exercised daily in hopes of losing weight. Although she wasn’t obese she was overweight by 30 pounds. In her mind she felt 100 pounds overweight. Why? Because she couldn't see herself as she was but only as she thought she was. And to her, she was fat, frumpy, and dumb.

Many who struggle with the obsession of food and weight are like Margarita suffocating by their own hands. She didn't believe in her beauty and that a Higher Energy would lift her burdens.  Like many of us, she white-knuckled her way to her current weight.

Margarita has a history of being either too thin or too heavy and rarely in the middle. She didn't trust the natural foods God provided to fuel her and give her strength. She feared foods. She feared eating. She feared a “normal” weight because her life revolved around bingeing and dieting. What would life be like if she had to live in the now and get off the diet merry-go-round? In her mind she found relief jumping on the diet wagon after a cycle of binge eating. To her, food represented fat. We discussed eating healthy meals every four to five hours and eliminate foods that triggered her negative thinking and prompted her cravings. We talked about the power of her mind to connect with her Higher Potential. At first, she was apprehensive at the thought of setting positive health intentions and trust in the law of higher potential, but something clicked and change took hold. Her body returned to a healthy weight and diet mentality was a thought of the past.

I don’t mean to simplify the answer. Coming to terms with compulsive eating takes work. Where do we put the trust first: God, self and then good food. What is good food? No doubt to eat real foods that don't trigger compulsive eating is an excellent start place. Simple carbohydrates may trigger obsessive thoughts about food. Should you remove these foods first or call upon God first? Can you reach a Higher Source—your law of higher potential—while in the throes of eating addictively? Turn to God first and let him carry you.

Think of the Footprints:

A man asked, “Lord, You said that once I decided to follow You, You’d walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life, there is only one set of footprints.” The Lord replied, “My precious, precious child, I love you and would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.”

Turning back to you, I ask, how many times have you tried to let go of your excess weight and obsessions with food as a New Year's resolution?  You picked this blog for a reason. You are searching for the answer to what feels like a life-long problem. You have an urgent need. Like Margarita, you may have it in mind to lose 30 pounds.  You might look at that number and think you have to do it all now. But you don’t. Instead try and pray and insist and demand the remedy from a Higher Energy. Tap into your Source, it’s your inheritance—a gift for you. The Divine Source loves you. God, the law of Higher Potential, is there with you every step of the way. You are His child

And if you have trouble walking along with Him, let him carry you. He is strong and tireless, loving and kind. You are worthy of his love. Give Him a try. What do you have to lose? (No pun intended). You can ask for things from God. It’s okay to serve yourself. It is not selfish to love you and to let your Higher Source love you. Break free from your obsession with food and step into a life with peace and tranquility—your Higher potential.