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How Your Eating Habits Affect Your Energy

3/22/2019

Guest Blogger: Trevor McDonald LinkedIn // Website

You are what you eat, and if you're not fueling your body correctly you might feel run-down. After all, your body is a machine. Food is fuel. Although, there is certainly room within the engine for a treat from time to time. There's a reason luxury car owners only put premium in their vehicles. They know it helps the car run better and can extend its life. It can also help reduce the need for some maintenance tasks down the road.

Your body works in the same way. It needs the right food in order to convert it into the kind of energy you can use. This is challenging considering there are a lot of elements in modern-day food that are highly addictive. However, if you focus on thinking of your body as a machine that deserves quality fuel, you’ll get on the fast track to feeling more energetic.

How Food Effects Performance

1. Sugar is arguably the world’s worst drug. There’s nothing wrong with natural sugar in very small quantities. However, most of the sugar we consume today is highly processed, and we consume it in great quantities. Eating sugar influences your sleep, your fatigue level, your mood, and your overall health. Processed sugar can be linked to type 2 diabetes, is highly addictive, and contains empty calories. Plus, we build up a tolerance for sweetness. A person who has never had processed sugar would likely gag at a slice of birthday cake. Re-train your tongue to natural sweetness, such as berries and fruits, and you'll find an energy boost.

2. Caffeine is the most widely used drug in the world. Caffeine is genuinely a drug, but one that is socially acceptable. It affects every part of the body, including the brain and our energy levels. Like sugar, it is also very addictive. It can cause withdrawal symptoms if you have a coffee habit, and many people think they depend on it to keep their energy levels high. It can work in the short-term, but it also comes with a crash. Weaning yourself off of coffee and replacing it with decaf tea over a long period of time can help stabilize your energy levels.

3. The starve and binge cycle is doing a number on your energy. There are various approaches to eating for fat loss and muscle gain. Many work in the short-term, but at the risk of our sanity and energy levels. One diet in recent years that has leaked over from the bodybuilding world to mainstream society is intermittent fasting. There are many types of this fasting, but a common one is to have an eight-hour “feeding” window every day followed by 16 hours of fasting. During those 16 hours, only water, coffee, and small items less than 50 calories are allowed. It can help bodybuilders cut weight for competitions, but was not meant for non-professionals or for use long-term. As you can imagine, your energy levels will be all over the place. However, it can be addictive to see those pounds (aka water weight) drop so quickly. Remember that diets should be a healthy choice for life with wiggle room, not a prison that dictates your daily life.

4. Let your instincts drive your breakfast decisions. Should you skip breakfast? Only eat all-protein at breakfast? Keep it light? There’s no one answer for everyone. Breakfast is the time when you “break fast," and your body will tell you what it needs in the morning. As long as you’re not regularly heaping piles of pancakes or other desserts playing dress up as breakfast, you'll be on point. Some people need a generous breakfast while others require a little more time to wake up before their body starts asking for fuel.

5. You’re not feeding your muscles or re-fueling after cardio. When you work out, you depend on stored energy (fat and glycogen) to get through it. With weight-bearing exercises, your muscles demand protein immediately afterward to repair and heal. After a cardio session, your body needs a little BCAA boost. Failing to eat, or making poor food choices, after a workout isn’t just draining your energy. It’s also minimizing your workout.

Feed Your Body What It Needs

When it comes to food as energy, it sounds so simple, but it can be very difficult to choose the right things. There’s a lot tied to food, including emotions and addictions. However, it’s a good idea to simply remind yourself that you’re fueling your body. What do you need, what do you want, and what are you trying to do with food that might be better addressed in another manner?

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Seek Synchronicity

11/28/2017

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You are out of Balance

You night not notice it, but you have become so comfortable with how things are that you just accept that this is how you are supposed to feel. When was the last time you checked in with yourself? When was the last time you tried something new? When was the last time you felt uncomfortable? When was the last time you allowed yourself 15 minutes of time to allow your thoughts to run wild? When was the last time you allowed yourself 15 minutes to quiet those thoughts?

How well do you know your Self?

In the movie Anger Management, the main character is asked to explain who he is. Can you do this? Without describing yourself as what you do, who you know, where you live, what you enjoy? Can you describe your Self?
Try this: write down that which you do, where you live, what you enjoy, who you know, who you are in relation to others, etc. Now, describe what you look like, what you love and what you dislike about yourself.
Now, read what you have written. Is this you?

You are not your self.

Through the practice of yoga asana we develop an understanding of our habits. We learn that we have, over time, developed practices that protect us, that compensate, that hide the imabalances.
When we direct our breath, we identify the limitations we place upon ourselves and the ways in which we cheat ourselves from accepting who we are and what we need.
When we sit or rest in silence we learn to listen to the chattering within us. We begin to hear our body and breath. We notice the useless thoughts buzzing around in our heads.
Movement, breath and silence help us to identify all of the imbalances to which we are blind; it sheds light upon that which we have allowed to hide in the darkness.

You are your Self

We are not here to direct you through a workout or fix your ailments. We are here to help you to identify your imbalances. We are here to guide you through asana sequences that address physical and energetic change. We are here to guide you through breathing practices that shift your awareness and spark emotion. We are here to encourage you to be silent so that you can hear the chatter of your mind.
It's time to show up. To be here. It's time to seek synchronicity.

Create Synchronicity

Yoga's sister science, Auyrveda, brings balance to our body, breath and mindful practices. By evaluating our lifestyle, eating, sleeping and working habits, we begin to paint a picture of who we are. We begin to see the difference between the self and the Self! We become whole only by breaking apart the pieces of our own individual puzzling selves. Each of us is like a puzzle that appears to be put together, but when you look closely, you see that there are pieces added or misplaced. As we practice, as we shed light upon the darkness, we begin to identify the pieces that need to be removed or replaced.

Book a Synchronicity Session today.

30 minutes
$40

Identify imbalances. Learn how to return to your true nature. Return to synchronicity through specified practices.

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8 Limbs and all the time in the Universe

4/11/2014

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As a Yoga studio, our job is to share our knowledge, experience and ideas about Yoga. Our hope is that you, our practitioners, will absorb what we share and, eventually, begin to do the same. There is a middle ground, though, for all of this. You see, we all have to practice and our practice is more than just what we do in the studio. It is the generalization of the skills we learn in class into our lives.

Have you felt the effects of your practice? To find Yoga is to find your Self. In order to get there, you have to restrain (Yamas) your wants and observe (Niyamas) your needs. The way you treat yourself should be reflected in how you treat others. And, if you see yourself as spiritual, holy, god-loved, etc. then you will see all others in this way.

Post by Jason Benghazi Smith.

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Extending Inward

11/23/2010

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Hatha Yoga is the practice of focusing upon our outer shell. The metaphor of a tortoise is used to describe how we can protect our Self from the distractions of the world. Hatha is the shell; protecting that which lies within. Each of the tortoise limbs, head, and tail are representative of our ability to either reach out into the world or draw inward toward Self.

Our Energetic Bodies

Focus upon our physical bodies often helps us to develop awareness inward to our energetic body. Most of the practices taught today bring attention to the athletic benefits of Asana rather than the energetic. An authentic practice includes not only physical accuracy, but postures that are intelligently sequenced to help practitioners feel the movement within.

Most of us experience physical dis-ease. There may be pain in our backs, shoulders, knees, etc. Sometimes, through a physical practice, these pains will gradually go away. However, there are times when the discomfort we are experiencing is an expression of an inner condition.

Energetic Centers

Each of our cakras, or energetic center, aligns with a specific physical nervous plexus. The way in which we feel energetically will effect how we feel physically. Think about when you get stressed out. Energetically, you may at first feel driven and directed but, over time, you will begin to run out of energy. You'll begin to feel fatigue and eventually your body will become sick. You may get a cold or s stomach ache. Your energy body is sending you signals of it's dis-ease.

As humans, we tend to numb ourselves to avoid feeling our emotions and the imbalances in our energy bodies. We work too much, drink to much and spend too much time avoiding listening to ourselves. As we practice Hatha Yoga we turn our attention within in order to connect and identify where energy is limited, trapped or blocked. We have to be willing to experience what we feel both in our bodies and deeper.

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How Your Eating Habits Affect Your Energy

How Food Effects Performance

Feed Your Body What It Needs

Seek Synchronicity

You are out of Balance

How well do you know your Self?

You are not your self.

You are your Self

Create Synchronicity

Book a Synchronicity Session today.

8 Limbs and all the time in the Universe

Extending Inward

Our Energetic Bodies

Energetic Centers

Jenay, E-RYT, Director

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