Why getting off sugar takes so much more than just “quitting” for many of us

Posted on January 24, 2012 by mterpeluk

Dropping sugar isn’t something everybody can do with willpower. If we use willpower like we do with diets to try and stop eating sugar, we’ll fail. I don’t mean everyone will fail. I mean, those people like me – who can’t just will ourselves to quit sugar. Those people like me who try and try to “moderate” our consumption of it, but can’t. Those people like me who want it to just be a food fix and be done with it. It just can’t be. I tried it for way too long.

For people like me, getting off sugar takes something much more, much bigger than a 30-day sugar detox or just saying “I’m getting off sugar.” It took me getting entirely off it – not on my own power, but someone else’s. That someone else was God. He put the people in my life that knew better than me what I needed to do to get me off of it. It could no longer be an intention. It couldn’t be, “I’m stopping this tomorrow.” I needed help NOW. This was not something I could pretend I could do on my own or just do because I was committed to it. I needed something greater than me because I wasn’t so great at stopping the sugar myself. I see it everywhere, everyday. I see people giving power to the sugar, letting it run their lives. I’ve seen my mom go through it. I’ve seen myself go through it. I do NOT want to give that stuff power in my toughest moments, like the grief I’m going through today. That’s why I went back to where they prescribed me my food plan, because I knew that I wanted to get anchored in it again as I walk through this pain. Thankfully I wasn’t turning to it to ease my  pain. That power is gone, thank God. But I did allow it back in my life and it was just too close. Right now I’m too emotionally raw, and a little stressed to let it be there. That’s okay for me. I know what I need today.

We have seasons of emotional hardship, of stress, of pain – we can’t begin to think we’re alone and we certainly do NOT have to give that sugar the power. But the moment we surrender and realize there is something more powerful that can come between the sugar and us (I promise you it’s stronger than sugar) is the moment we get a taste of freedom. That freedom has given me a life and today it’s giving me the clarity to live as I walk through this grief without turning to that sugar one day at a time.

So if you are in your first minute, first hour, first day, or first few weeks of trying to get through no-sugar, just know there are ways – bigger ways than you can imagine, AND resources to give you what you need. You are NOT ALONE!

 To gain self-control, give God control.

 Author Unknown

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Your HV: How to go with the flow when the gym is packed

Posted on January 18, 2012 by mterpeluk

So it’s January 18th. America is still in diet mode and my gym is full steam ahead with their Biggest Loser program. I got a taste of it today when I got there  5 minutes before my class started.

I walk into the locker room and I see a woman who often shows up a few minutes late and doesn’t get a bike. She is on a mission to get up there and get one – like if she doesn’t get it, the world will end. In the past, I probably would have raced her up there. (Ha)  Today, my Healthy Voice says, “You get a bike, you get a bike. You don’t, you don’t.” I’m chatting with the instructor Lisa outside of class because I haven’t seen her for a few weeks. I walk in and the bees are swarming. You’d think it was Black Friday but in the spin room. Is there a sale or something? Lisa says, “Go grab my bike.” I look up and I say, “It’s taken.” At this point, I want you to think about what you’d do. Would you freak because you were waiting all morning to do this class and now this crew just threw you off so you have this huge desire to throw someone off a bike? Or….do you respond and adapt to the situation.

Because of the gifts I’ve received in my recovery I was able without even thinking to just say goodbye to Lisa and find something else to do. I didn’t have to huff and puff or tell someone I needed to be there more than them. In fact my Healthy Voice piped in pretty quickly and said, “You got a half-marathon coming up in one month from today (huh), how about jumping on the treadmill?” And so I did, and I actually ended up having a very nice run. Between my tunes and the old-timers next to me on the treadmills running at a nice clip – I felt good. I was exactly where I needed to be and didn’t think once about that spin room. What a blessing for someone who used to be a complete exercise addict. Even better, I took my time – picked up the pace, slowed it down, had some water. I enjoyed my run where before I would have been trying to beat those guys. Growth, is all I gotta say.

Friends, workouts are important, but they aren’t the end of the world if you don’t get the one you want.  If you don’t get in a class or you miss one, or you are injured – do something different or enjoy the rest. Variety and rest and two beautiful things when it comes to your physical health. If you are open to adapting, you’ll probably find exactly what you needed, just like I did today. My HP had a different workout planned for me and that’s cool. Going with the flow is a beautiful thing! (not saying I do it all the time – but felt grateful to do it with a workout today).

 

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Why It’s Time to Stop Fixing YOU physically and be ALL of you.

Posted on January 13, 2012 by mterpeluk
‎”Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”
Mother Teresa
I read this quote and I think about the things I feel newly faithful in – like living life a day a time, and surrendering every piece of me – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual to a power greater than me. For if I’m faithful in these things – I can find immense strength to live my life in all things. It reminds me of the scripture that states: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Whether you believe in God, a higher power, spirit, or light – there is something greater than you that can help you through your darkest times and transform you in every aspect of your life.
I’m still on a bit of a spiritual high after getting back from Florida on Tuesday night. I was fortunate enough to go back to where I started my journey of recovery to Milestones in Recovery. It’s where I knew I needed to go to kick of this new year, and just be. I didn’t need a diet, because I don’t do those anymore. I needed to reground myself in the only way I know how – physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally. For if I didn’t, and chose to do a diet – I’d be back fixing only the physical – which is where my Unhealthy Voice lies. For it tries to make me believe that my self worth lies in the physical and I’m only good if my weight is good. I know it tells many of us that. But I know my Healthy Voice. I choose my Healthy Voice. I chose to follow it because, even though I’m spiritually strong, I’m emotionally raw after the sudden death of my father. It’s a place that can be ripe for relapse for those in recovery, or even those trying to stay healthy. It’s a place that we try to fix with diets. But it can only be fixed by feeling every bit of it.
Shortly after Dad passed, I knew like I knew my name that food had NO power anymore. There is nothing it could do to make anything feel better. To think I used it for all those years after Dad left when I was a kid. Nothing could take this pain away now and that food was not going to prevent me from feeling it. I was immensely grateful to feel it in recovery. Then I started to recognize this little voice, this fear – a fear I didn’t want to hold inside. So I spoke it and brought it with me to Milestones so I could walk through it in the safest place that I knew I could. It said, “I’m afraid of the food. I’m afraid it’s going to try to become the center of my life again like it did the first time Dad left when I was seven.” That fear was enough for me to face it because I knew what letting it fester could do. Facing it at Milestones gave me exactly what I needed. I needed the courage to walk through the fear as a woman in recovery, knowing I have tools now, that I won’t have to go back there. I could let the fear be there, and that’s it. I could keep taking the next steps. So I did. In doing so I went deeper into the spiritual journey of my recovery. I got big and small reminders that God is in charge and I’m not, which is a beautiful thing to know. He told me through people who challenged me, and people whose stories gave me strength. He told me through the butterflies outside my window and the sunsets every night. He told me through the people that work at Milestones with the tools they could give me to remind me I still don’t have to think I’m in charge of my food. God’s in charge and that’s okay! In fact for me – that is the most freeing thing of all given that  used to be the center of my life. Even better – I’m not alone in it.
I got clarity about my own program and my purpose in my work with the Healthy Voice. I still want to help every individual find their Healthy Voice within. Marty Lerner said in my time there that he’s on a mission to get the word out that this isn’t just about a food plan because if it was, it would be a diet. It needs to be spiritual and I couldn’t agree more. I believe so deeply that the work I do and the book you’ll read is to show you that there is a spiritual solution to this weight problem so many people struggle with today. My primary purpose is to take care of mine and keep it separate from God’s call for me with the Healthy Voice.
My purpose is simple with the Healthy Voice – there is a spiritual solution to this – that if you allow this power within to empower your Healthy Voice, you can find not just physical strength but emotional, physical and spiritual. All of it. All of those distractions out there – are just there. It’s funny because I subscribe to Women’s Health, haven’t read it in years because the further I get on the journey the more I look at it and get triggered. All I see are tips, tools and strategies on how to fix my body, my feelings, my eating habits – fix me. I don’t want to fix me! I just want to be me!! On my last night in Florida I was prepping my reading materials for the plane and picked it up and thought – I am so glad I don’t have to get involved in trying to find the solution in these pages. I’m sure there is great stuff – but it’s not the answer to my prayers. Thank God I know today – that I am more than a physical human being. I’ve got relationships. I’ve got feelings and I’ve got God. Without that stuff, I’m nothing. So this whole obsession with being in the best shape, having the best body – is so yesterday. Does it mean I’m going to let myself go? No, it means I’m going to take what God has given me – use the tools –  so I don’t have to obsess about my food and exercise, and let myself embrace the rest of my life – people, feelings, passion to write, and ALL!!!!! He’s got so much planned for me that I’m glad I don’t know – of course sometimes I’d like to! Duh!
So as you start to beat yourself up about your New Years Resolutions to get in shape, drop sugar or get to the gym. Use that as the anchor though for growth. But don’t obsess about it and don’t go it alone.  THere are groups out there that can help you. The national belief that getting healthy and losing weight is a lone ranger thing is in my opinion FALSE. We are all in this together. So find somebody whose in it with you or else when life hits, you’ll end up trying to fix yourself again.
YOU DON’T NEED FIXING! You need enjoying life. Live. Breathe. Get grateful for all those other fabulous things in your life – cause you have them, I know you do. If you don’t – seek them out but don’t think that you can only seek them out when you lose the weight! Start now. Do what you need to do to work on the physical, and start working on the rest cause let me tell you – obsessing about the physical is just BORING!
Love,
Your Healthy Voice :)

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New Years Resolutions and a Healthy Voice Manifesto

Posted on December 29, 2011 by mterpeluk

The other day I walked into the front door of Barnes and Noble. Standing there, starting at me was the biggest marketing display of the diet industry. Every one of the top 50 diet and fitness books. Gotta love strategic placement. Whether it’s the bookstore or the diet commercials on TV – THIS is the time to get your weight off.  We see this stuff and many of get a visceral feeling of having to get back on the train again, “Here I go again! Which one is it going to be this time?!” So you buy a new book, rejoin your old diet or try a new one. Each time you literally follow through with the definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. We are a nation addicted to dieting.  I spent 25 years on 20 diets and wouldn’t let myself start living until I lost the weight. When I gained it? Life had to stop until I lost it again. A crazy cycle. You know where it takes you. Don’t go there. Be nice to yourself. You don’t need fixing. Your thinking does.

What if while you are trying to decide what it’s going to take to get you healthy right now, you didn’t just think about just your physical health? What if you thought about the rest of you? Don’t know if you know this – but newsflash. You are more than your weight. I know. It’s a shocker. You are a beautiful human being with emotions and a spirit that need nurturing too.  If you only work on the physical, you’ll be feeding the beast that is the Unhealthy Voice that wants to keep you on the surface and completely distracted from your deeper self. I know you are all about, “If I could just lose this roll, I’d be good.” Yeah – there is always something. I got a roll here and there too. How about this year considering not fixing yourself for your Unhealthy Voice, and just doing what you need to do for you because you deserve to shut that thing up and feel good in your skin?!

‘Cause here’s the deal – if you realize life goes beyond that number on the scale, you can start to realize you are more than it. If you choose that workout, that nutrition program – that thing that gets you grounded – you’ve got your first start. You are making a physical step despite how you may feel. You are now free to move about the cabin that is LIFE! Don’t mess with obsessing about your body, your pant size, your snacks – OMG it’s such a waste of energy. Let that stuff be your grounding and then move onto LIVING! I know it’s not easy. But that’s where I’m going to take you – in my book and on my website. You’ll be able through my story to see your own so you can let it go and finally get the tool to help you navigate life with food in it. THEN my website will give you all sorts of ways to live it every day. It’s an adventure I can’t wait for you to join me on. 2012 is going to be a GOOD year for us!

Until then…some mental food for thought…

This week I’ve been working on the Healthy Voice Manifesto. I’ve seen a lot of people whose brands have these on their website, so I thought I’d give one a shot. It helps you know what this Healthy Voice ™ thing is all about and essentially – gives you a taste of how you can tap into yours.

So when you are making your list of resolutions – consider these as another piece of the puzzle, not another thing to do – another way to know and love yourself even more. It’s probably what you haven’t felt like you’ve had permission to even consider believing. Permission – granted.

Enjoy and let me know what you think! Btw, stay tuned for a New Years Eve Post on what I’m doing to get grounded physically so I can go deeper into my Healthy Voice in the New Year.  Stay tuned for later in the week I’ll share with you how I’m starting off the new year in a way I’m pretty psyched about called, “My Physical Grounding for the New Year”

THE HEALTHY VOICE ™ MANIFESTO

This is about going deeper than your surface to live your most fulfilling life.

This is about being strong in your body so you can be strong in your mind and spirit, not more obsessed with your body. That’s not you – that’s your mind.

Your weight is just the result of your thoughts, feelings, and physical reactions to life. This is not about finally finding the zinger solution to the problem you think is your weight. You are distracting yourself by focusing on only one piece of the puzzle. Get to know yourself and everything that makes you who you are so you can begin to nurture the self that has been begging you to all along!

It’s about owning your power in your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual life. It’s about how deep you want to go, not how deep someone is telling you that you have to go. You get to go as deep as you want.

This is about knowing that life is about walking THROUGH life and all it’s ups and downs. No need to stop and fix you. You will get through it.

This is about letting that Healthy Voice within you shine for the world to see.

This is not about beating yourself up when you fall. You can put down the stick. You are done with that self-abusive perfectionist. This is about loving yourself, nurturing yourself and GROWING EVERY TIME YOU FALL.

It’s about knowing how to tap into your Healthy Voice in and around you.

This is about knowing that life isn’t a dress rehearsal and you got one moment – that is now, no sense focusing on the past or the outcomes of the future. There IS NO BETTER VERSION OF YOU, only a better way to live within you.

This is about knowing the people, the places, and the things that will keep you strong when you’ve got to navigate those things that trigger your Unhealthy Voice in life – because they will. The stronger your Healthy Voice is – physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually – the more prepared you will be for life.

Change is the only thing that is constant in this life. No workout, diet, person, or thing can give you ultimate security, except that which created you. Rely on it.  Swim out halfway by getting grounded as you can in mind, body and spirit because I can tell you when life does happen – the workout and the diet won’t be enough to help you navigate your emotional self.

You’ve got that Unhealthy Voice. You can’t pretend it’s not there until you face the fear it thrives in. When you know it, what it’s made of, where it shows up – you can finally navigate it. Take away its power and you find your own power.

You don’t have to have a Healthy Voice. You GET to. You get to CHOOSE it every single day of your life instead of your victimhood. It’s called willingness and that’s all you need to hear it. If you are – it will take you on the ride of your life and keep taking you further and further on it. You won’t know what’s coming to you – because it’s much bigger and better than that number on the scale you’ve been told to believe is the ultimate barometer of success in life.

Meredith Terpeluk, Healthy Voice ©

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