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A Balanced Perspective Weekly 
on Health and Wellness
July 13, 2006

1. Food Stimuli EVERYWHERE!
2. Website Highlight Of The Week - How My Fees Work
3. Cooking Classes 
4. Improve Your Relationship with Food and Your Body
5. ***Country Weekend Getaway**** Sports, Swimming, Movies
(nutrition & weight loss workshop available, or just have fun!)

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1. Food Stimuli EVERYWHERE!

Most of you have probably heard of Pavlov's experiment. 
Ivan Pavlov was a Russian psychologist in the early
1900's who was interested in how the body digests
food.  In his research he discovered that his subject, a
dog, salivated not only when he came in contact with
food, but also at the sight or sound of anything that was
associated with the food: the person who brought the
food, the food dish, the sound of the door closing when
the food arrived, etc.

In Pavlov's experiment he began to ring a bell just before
feeding the dog.  The dog never salivated at the ringing
of the bell until he associated the bell with the food. 
Salivating when eating is a normal, natural response. 
Salivating to the tone of the bell and other stimuli is a
learned response that produced automatic physiological
reactions.  What's more, Pavlov's dog not only responded
to the bell, but to other sounds that were similar to that
of the bell, like a whistle.

How Does This Help Me?

That's a nice story about a dog, but what does this have
to do with you?  Having an understanding of this and how
it plays out in your world could help you to psychologically
deconstruct your responses to conditioned stimuli that tell
you it's time to eat when maybe you really don't need to
eat.

We live in a culture where food is everywhere. 
Commercials and advertising use the finding of Pavlov to
their benefit all the time.  What happens to you when you
when you go to the movie theater (popcorn, candy), a
party, see the golden arches, or a Domino's pizza logo.  It
seems like we are conditioned to associate food with just
about everything we do...even working out - i.e. protein
bars, sports drinks, etc.  We go to a party, or pop in a
video and we almost feel uncomfortable if we aren't
eating something, whether we are truly hungry or not. 
What's more frustrating is that these stimuli may have
caused us to become so conditioned to have food along
with them, that merely being exposed to the stimuli may
cause our body to respond physiologically as though it
needs food.

What Can I Do About It?

So what do you do when you live in a country where
the media saturates society and culture, associates food
with numerous unrelated stimuli, and the obesity rate is
on the rise?  I'm not going to lie to you.  It's not an easy
battle.  Food is a complex issue.  But below I've listed
some ideas to help lessen its affects.  On a positive note. 
It is possible to disassociate the stimuli.  When Pavlov
began ringing the bell and not offering food along with it,
the dog eventually stopped salivating at the sound. 
Perhaps that is why I no longer "snack."  When I decided
to lose weight 6 years ago I figured out how many
calories I needed and I wanted to spend that on meals
that made me feel full rather than on mindless snacking. 
If I eat any type of snack food now, it is during a meal
time.  Friends snack around me all the time, and more
often than not ... I don't crave what they're having (unless
it's pizza...haha).  In many ways, my body seems to no
longer respond to certain stimuli.

Some Strategies!

So...here's some ideas to get you started.  See if you
can come up with some of your own.

1. Reduce TV watching, or don't listen to or watch the
commercials
2. Stop reading women's magazines.  I know this might
be a hard one, but there is so much reading material out
there that will stimulate your mind and educate you with
out exposing you to food and diet issues constantly.
3. Find out what your actual calorie needs are.  You can
do this at Calorie King www.calorieking.com
4. Become conscious of stimuli that are unnecessarily
associated with food.

Keep moving forward...  Disassociating doesn't happen
overnight!  :-)

Melissa

P.S. Check out the Dynamic Outdoor trip below.  If
several of you are interested, I will also go for the
weekend and do a Nutrition and Weight Loss
Workshop and it will be included in the price of the
trip.  E-mail me....

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"Counseling with Melissa was so much more than what I'd
expected.  I started out thinking I was just going to be
coached through a diet, but she helped with many other
aspects of my life.  She really took the time to get to know me
and respected my values.  We worked on my self-image and I
have learned to be kinder and more accepting to myself.  She
helped me to develop a budget that was livable, ultimately
leading to less stress in my life.  We worked on how I deal with
personal relationships as well.  I am so much more aware of my
needs and how to express them to those in my life.  I also lost
about 20 pounds during our six months of sessions and have still
maintained that weight loss.  I miss my telephone meetings with
Melissa, but it's still very helpful to get her weekly newsletters.
I would recommend her services to anyone!  She is very
balanced in her approach."