|
|
HEALTHY HAPPENINGS August 2014 |
What are you craving?
By Sarah Finkbeiner
|
Chocolate, bread, candy bars, ice cream - it doesn't really matter what you crave. The important thing is to understand why you crave what you do.
 As a Certified Holistic Health Coach, I help my clients explore cravings in depth.
I help clients listen to their bodies, so that their cravings no longer run the show.
Cravings themselves aren’t a problem or something to feel guilt or shame about. They’re critical pieces of information that help a person understand what their body needs. Cravings are simply a brilliant way of attempting to maintain balance; they’re the body’s solution to underlying imbalances.
If you truly want to get your cravings under control, you must deconstruct them. Looking at the foods and behaviors in your life are huge clues to what’s driving your cravings. Ask yourself, what does my body want and why?
For example, let’s look at sugar. Nearly everyone craves sugar. Craving sweet foods is totally normal.
A sugar craving is simply the body asking for energy. Sugar gives us that high that helps us feel light and elevates our mood. Scientifically, eating sugar releases serotonin in the brain which helps us to feel more relaxed. But too much leaves us drowsy with big mood swings, irritability, anxiety, and loss of focus.
 Most diets work with denial and deprivation, but diets aren’t sustainable. My approach is to add in the good to crowd out the bad.
Here are 3 steps you can take right now:
1. Adding in sweet vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes, beets, brussel sprouts, onions and squash helps to crowd out less healthy foods in the diet. The more you eat, the less you’ll crave sugar.
2. Use gentle sweets. Avoid chemicalized, artificial sweeteners and foods with added sugar. More natural sweeteners like maple syrup, brown rice syrup, dried fruit, whole fruit, and stevia are great alternatives.
3. Slooooow down and find sweetness in non-food ways. Your body does not biologically need sugar, but it does long for hugs, time with friends, outside time, workouts, massages, fulfilling work, and rest and relaxation. When life becomes sweet enough itself, no additives are needed!
By learning to observe your behavior and interpreting your body's signals, you'll be able to modify your diet and lifestyle in a more health-supportive way. And you don’t have to do it alone. Working with a coach gives you the support and guidance you need to get you on the fast track to health and happiness.
Contact me at info@sarahfinkbeiner.com or call 435.260.0424 to set up a free consultation to discuss your individual needs and desires. I promise you’ll walk away with at least 1 “A-ha!” and clear action step to take so you can start feeling your best now. You can visit www.sarahfinkbeiner.com to read more about my approach. Location is not a limiting factor! I work over the phone with people all over the U.S. as well as in person in beautiful Moab.
Dedicated to your health and happiness,
Sarah |
We often talk about the philosophy behind Outward Bound, the inspiration in the work we do and the amazing environments that are our classrooms. But the true heartbeat of the Colorado Outward Bound School is our staff – past, present, and future. So we stopped time during the busy season to catch up with Kristen Hayes, one of the Program Managers at Colorado Outward Bound School’s Southwest Program. Here’s what she had to say:
Tell us about yourself!
 I am from the San Francisco Bay Area, CA and was fortunate to grow up hiking and exploring the local open space as well as backpacking with my family in the Sierra Nevada.
How did you end up at the Colorado Outward Bound School?
I moved to Moab in 2007 in order to work as a wilderness therapy guide for Aspen Achievement Academy in Loa, UT. After two years of wilderness therapy and an ankle injury that prevented me from backpacking, I was still interested in being based out of Moab and utilizing this spectacular landscape for education and transformative experiences. I was drawn to Outward Bound’s mission and history, and was interested in the opportunity to lead long wilderness expeditions on the western rivers and through the canyons of the Colorado a Plateau.
What’s your job?
I am currently a Program Manager at COBS. I am part of the administrative team through the peak summer season which includes supervising courses, directing the Canyonlands Leadership 50-day Summer Semester, training and mentoring staff.
 What’s your favorite part?
The best part about my job is witnessing growth in students and the amazing wilderness classroom I get to call my office.
You live in Moab year-round, right? What’s the best thing about living and working here?
Definitely the amazing playground that extends in all directions. The amount of water pulsing through this desert. The community events. And the quiet winter season when the town shrinks back down.
What are you most looking forward to this season?
I am looking forward to visiting the Uinta Wilderness as part of the Summer Semester,
a course area we haven’t used for ten years now.
Which piece of gear will you never leave home without?
Jerky from Ye Old Geezers meat shop. And a headlamp of course.
 What advice would you give someone looking to take a Colorado Outward Bound School course?
It will surpass anything you could expect.
Favorite quote to share with a group?
“When you hear, a mile away and still out of sight, the churn of the water as it begins to swirl and roil, fretting around the sharp rocks- when you hear that unmistakable pounding- when you feel the mist on your mouth and sense ahead the embattlement, the long falls plunging and steaming- then row, row for your life toward it.” -Mary Oliver
Colorado Outward Bound School has been rowing, canyoneering, exploring and serving in southeastern Utah since 1967. We hope you’ll join us, and mention you read about us in Moab Happenings. Please visit www.cobs.org or call 866.828.1198 to start your adventure
|
|
|
|
|
|
© 2002-2024 Moab Happenings. All rights
reserved.
Reproduction of information contained in this site is
expressly prohibited.
|
|
