Sugar in your Tank
We’ve talked in past sessions about facing our problems head on instead of
trying to go to the other areas of our life and steal false power from those
areas. Doing things such as screaming at our family or going out and getting
drunk to pretend our problems don’t exist...makes our life worse not
better!
We have also talked about how each time we make a real life choice to
change our daily activities in a positive direction, we subconsciously feel
ourselves move closer and closer to that goal. When we feel ourselves
moving closer toward being the person we want to be, our sense of true
power increases.
There just something within us, as humans, that we NEED TO KNOW our life
is moving in a positive forward direction. That hope is what squashes
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depression and alcoholism. When we are making positive healthy daily
decisions, we feel ourselves moving in that positive forward direction.
No more excuses, no more blaming others--just our daily choices that add
up to an inner feeling that today, we are PROUD of who we are!
Till death do us part…
A recent study showed that chronically angry or hostile adults with no history of heart trouble might be nearly 20% more likely than their more calm peers to develop heart disease. The researchers found that anger and hostility seemed to do more harm to men's hearts than women's. Among patients already diagnosed with heart disease, those with angry or hostile temperaments were 24% more likely than other heart patients to have a poor prognosis to survive. (Kim Kam WebMD)
Are you CAUSING your own death?!
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If it won’t matter to you in 5 years, is it really worth
getting all huffy about it today?
When we care about our future, everything changes.
Today we are going to talk about the things that are going into our bodies
and the effect they have on our emotional and physical state and the
impact they have on our ability to move in a FORWARD direction toward
our goals. We cannot walk around act like a cranky person and expect the
people in our lives to tip toe on eggs shells around us. That is not fair to
them and we deserve a much better life!
Anger does not cause domestic violence. Neither does bad moods.
Domestic Violence is about power and control. We control our anger and
moods at work and in front of the judge—because there are big
consequences if we don’t.
But there are certain things we can do to position ourselves to succeed and
better handle the situations that arise throughout the day.
The quality of your daily fuel you put in your body will determine your
destination and the speed with which you arrive.
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Mind-Body Connection
“The chemicals in your brain that promote positive moods,
such as serotonin and dopamine, rely on food and nutrients
for proper function. Not eating healthy calories, which
promote serotonin production, can cause depressive or
erratic moods.”
“Low-carb dieters have shown unusually high feelings of
depression, tension and anger” says Judith Wurtman,
psychologist and director of the Women's Health Program at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston.
“Overeating can also cause feelings of shame, guilt and
depression and interfere with blood sugar control, which can
disrupt positive moods.”
Auto Mechanic
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I want to challenge you to begin to think of your body as a car.
Would you run your car at full speed if your gas tank is on E?
Would you pour a big bag of sugar into your fuel line?
Some of you have experienced first hand the detrimental effects of having
someone literally put sugar in your gas tank.
Do you know what happens when someone does this to your car? I’m not
a mechanic, but from what I understand it clogs up your fuel filter, then
what makes it past there gets into your fuel pump and eventually into the
fuel delivery system. Your car will likely hesitate, stall and possibly even
lose power all together. You can try to rebuild it but usually you are left
with a sticky gummy mess.
Sometimes, we put SO much garbage in and watch SO much garbage come
right back out, it gets to a point where it feels like there is no chance of
rebuilding our life. You may be at a point in your life where it feels
hopeless. But the GREAT thing about life is that every day is a new
beginning! We can CHOOSE whether to buy vodka again today. We can
CHOOSE whether to scream at our family or to walk away. You are the only
one who puts on your shoes each day and you are the only one who can
change your life if you don’t like it!
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We can’t keep pouring trash in and still think our bodies and our minds are
going to keep functioning in top performance. It just isn’t going to happen
long-term.
What kind of fuel would you say is going into your body right now? Let’s
rate the different areas of our life.
Our ears---radio, tv, friends, comedians?
Our eyes—violent movies, pornography, magazines, books?
Our mouth—healthy food, water, alcohol, beverages, drugs?
Our body--exercise, sports, activities, good sleep, vitamins?
If you were an auto mechanic, what “grade”
would you give the Fuel Quality you have been
putting in? Sugar? Regular? Unleaded?
Premium?
If you listen to comedians who are doing a good thing—making you laugh—
but they call women the ‘B word’ like it’s a name, its packaged pretty but it
is still garbage because when it comes out of your mouth to someone you
love it hurts them.
We have talked about how sometimes when people feel powerless in one
area, they turn to another area to try to gain false power. Some children
who are in violent homes or whose parents go thru a divorce do this.
They become emotional eaters. Sugar is a common choice to try to
“numb” their pain that they are experiencing but cannot make sense of.
Let’s take a little detour for a moment…
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As an example and for a visual, let’s look at sugar and how it affects our
body when we continually turn to it for comfort or to silence feelings of
powerlessness. Obviously, there are MANY other addictive things people
turn to numb their pain.
We are just going to use sugar as an example for our visual.
Maybe your area you feel powerless in is being unable to stop cigarettes,
alcohol, or drugs, a failing relationship, custody battles, parenting
challenges, work stress….
The dark side of sugar
Americans spent an estimated $23 billion dollars on candy and gum. The average American consumed the equivalent of about six regular sized chocolate bars a week-marking the fifth consecutive year of increased demand. (1)
Today we have a nation that is addicted to sugar. In 1915, the national average of sugar consumption (per year) was around 15 to 20 pounds per person. Today the average person consumes his/her weight in sugar, plus over 20 pounds of corn syrup each year.
Diabetes is another commonly known disease caused by sugar as well as a
high fat diet. Diabetes is caused by the failure of the pancreas to produce
adequate insulin when the blood sugar rises. A concentrated amount of
sugar introduced into the system sends the body into shock from the rapid
rise in the blood sugar level. The pancreas eventually wears out from
overwork and diabetes then rears its ugly head.
One can of Cola contains 11 teaspoons of sugar, and that’s
aside from the caffeine. It’s the sugar that gives you quick energy, but only
for a brief time due to the rise of the blood sugar level. But the body
quickly releases a rush of insulin, which rapidly lowers the blood sugar
and causes a significant drop in energy and endurance. It is easy to see
why America’s health is in serious trouble.
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This class is obviously about not about whether or not to eat sugar. But
taking good care of your health positions you to move closer to your goals
and obtain true power by solving your own problems.
When we get healthy in each area of our life, we feel
better about ourselves and don’t have those feelings of
powerlessness that cause us to try to obtain false power
in other areas of our lives.
Helping your children learn to talk through some of the things they are
feeling or getting them professional help can help them not to turn to other
means to gain false power.
You may be turning to alcohol or drugs or cigarettes or
yelling at people you love to cope with your stress.
A much more effective way to relieve stress is to make healthy daily life
choices long-term.
The goal of today is make the mind-body connection.
Mind-body connection: When we take care of our body, our mind follows!
No one wants to live with a cranky person!
Only eating one meal a day does not keep your blood sugar levels even
throughout the day and can fuel irritability.
Just like our car, we want to give our bodies everything it needs to function
at peak performance.
Eating consistent healthy meals, avoiding alcohol/drugs, and taking care of
your health positions you to succeed.
Never, ever walk through the front door of your house “starvin’ to death.”
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That just positions you for failure. Carry crackers, chips, etc in your car to
keep your blood sugar stable throughout the day.
Sleep article:
1. Poor sleep makes learning difficult. Sleep deprivation affects your
ability to learn in two ways. Because you can’t focus as well, it’s more
difficult to pick up information, so you can’t learn efficiently and may
increase levels of frustration. It also affects memory, which is essential to
learning. In children, sleepiness can lead to hyperactivity, also hampering
learning. Teens may lose the focus, diligence, and memory capacity to
perform well in school.
2. Sleepiness slows down your thought processes. Scientists measuring
sleepiness have found that sleep deprivation leads to lower alertness and
concentration. It’s more difficult to focus and pay attention, so you’re more
easily confused. This hampers your ability to perform tasks that require
logical reasoning or complex thought.
Sleepiness also impairs judgment. Making decisions is more difficult
because you can’t assess situations as well and pick the right behavior.
3. Research suggests that the nerve connections that make our memories
are strengthened during sleep. “Sleep embeds the things that we have
learned and experienced over the course of the day into our short-term
memory,” says Avelino Verceles, MD, assistant professor at the University
of Maryland School of Medicine and director of the school’s sleep medicine
fellowship.
It appears that different phases of sleep play different roles in consolidating
new information into memories. If your sleep is cut short or disrupted, it
interferes with these cycles.
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When you’re sleepy, you may forget and misplace things often. And the
inability to focus and concentrate caused by sleepiness further weakens
memory. “If you’re not able to concentrate on what’s at hand, it’s not going
to make it into your short-term memory and then long-term memory,” says
Allison T. Siebern, PhD, a Fellow in the Insomnia and Behavioral Sleep
Medicine Program at the Stanford University Sleep Medicine Center.
Rusty Rick:
Rusty Rick feels miserable pretty much most of the time. He has become very isolated over the last 5 years and stopped every activity he used to like doing. His diet consists of cigarettes, beer, pizza delivery, and frozen dinners. His only form of exercise is reaching for the remote control. His neighbor’s dog wouldn’t stop barking. Rusty Rick went and got his pellet gun and shot the dog from his porch. The neighbor across the street sees him do it and calls the police. Rusty Rick is hauled
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of f i n a pol i ce car .
Can you relate to Rusty Rick’s life? If Rick’s life were a car, do you think he
was giving his body the fuel it needed? What could Rick have been doing
differently to position himself to better handle the situations of his life?
Domestic Violence Review:Every week we will review one area of Domestic Violence. You will then be able to draw a very clear line in your head of what a positive healthy relationship looks like and what a negative unhealthy relationship looks like.
Domestic violence is based on power and control and
can take many forms including physical abuse,
economic abuse, emotional abuse, verbal abuse such
as threats and intimidation, stalking and a variety
of other forms of control used to instill fear and
dominate their partner.
Healthy Relationships involve an equal partnership
where both partners feel safe in every way and have
open honest communication. Both partners feel
comfortable expressing their emotions and their
opinions and work together to compromise and
achieve mutually satisfying solutions.
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Every day we have the opportunity to start over. We can CHOOSE to
position ourselves for success. It is every adult’s own responsibility to give
their body what it needs to function at peak performance. We should not
count on others in our life to tip toe on egg shells around our crankiness
when we are hungry, tired, overworked, stressed, etc. We ALL feel that way
at times. But not everyone takes that out on everyone around them.
Do you know what your own body needs in order to function at peak
performance and have stable consistent moods? If you wake up cranky, do
you know what steps you need to take to snap out of it? Is your family
afraid of you when you are hungry or tired?
We all feel those things, but as adults, we need to take responsibility for
that. We never want to make others feel like it’s their responsibility to care
for their own body PLUS our body. We need to have an awareness of the
mind-body connection and be consistently giving our body what it needs to
avoid moodiness and crankiness.
If someone says you are “cranky,” don’t get offended. Thank them for the
reminder and go give your body some food, rest, exercise, stress reliever,
etc. If you’re a parent, you can also pass that on to your children and help
them to learn to take good care of their body to help avoid tantrums.
Quiz_____________________________________
(Remember, all Quiz questions are based on PARTICIPATION. You are not
graded on how perfect your answer is. You are graded on how much effort
and sincerity you put into the answers. Sarcastic answers are considered
Blank Answers and will not be accepted as completed. So just do your best
on each question and if it doesn’t fit your situation exactly, just adapt the
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question to fit your life. REMEMBER: This is a 90 minute class so take your
time and put thought into each question!)
1.Write down your answers to your homework from last week.
2. Write down your answers to the questions and the Code Words that
were given in the video.
3. Chronically angry people are what percent ____% more likely than their calm peers to develop heart disease? Explain whether or not you feel this statistic applies to your current life.
4. If you were an auto mechanic, what “grade” would you give the Fuel
Quality you have been putting in? (Sugar, Regular, Unleaded, or Premium.)
Explain your answer.
5. What are 3 things you could do to ensure you were putting “premium”
fuel in your mind and body?
6. What are the chemicals in your brain that affect moods? How can you
help regulate them? Do you think your levels are kept consistent
throughout the day or bounce around?
7. What are 3 impacts lack of sleep can have on our day? Describe how well
you sleep and how you think that impacts your day.
8. Explain this phrase: “You become the top 3 people you spend your time
with.”
9. Rate the friends/family/people you spend most of your time with on how
healthy they are. Do you think they have made the mind-body connection?
Give yourself a “1” if you think you mostly hang around “drunks” on the
weekends. Give yourself a “10” if the majority of the people you hang
around eat healthy, do healthy activities and are active positive people.
10. Can you relate to Rusty Rick’s life? If Rick’s life were a car, do you think
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he was giving his body the fuel it needed? What could Rick have been doing
differently to position himself to better handle the situations of his life?
11. Domestic Violence Review: What are 3 things a parent could teach their
child about the mind-body connection? What things could you teach them
to do on a daily basis? Do you feel others have had to tip toe around your
moods in the past? Do you think they still do today?
12. Choose 3 Toxic Belief from the list below that you think may have
helped fuel Rusty Rick’s outburst.
Toxic Beliefs:
---I need to have control over my partner…otherwise she might sleep with
other men, leave me, do something I don’t like or mess up her life.
---The whole world should revolve around me.
---Everyone should be perfect at every moment (except me).
---My partner should be able to read my mind.
---Things need to always be done the RIGHT way (my way).
---No one deserves a break but me.
---I am the boss of everyone.
---I should never show my feelings to others or they will think I am weak
---Women can’t be trusted, they will all stab you in the back
--- When my partner does something I don’t like, I have to scream at them
to teach them not to do it again
--- My partner should obey me and do what I tell her to do
--- I need to be pushy and demanding otherwise people won’t respect me
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--- I am the man of the house and I need to always make sure she knows
who wears the pants in the house or my partner/family will run over me
--- Everything will always go as planned.
--- That’s ‘woman’s work’—that’s beneath me!
Homework for Next Week: Notice this next week how well you care for your body. Rate yourself in the following areas:
--Healthy eating
--Avoiding alcohol/drugs
--Sleep
--Mentally (good, positive going into your mind?)
In each area, give yourself a “1” if you feel it’s amazing your body didn’t crash this week after the way you treated it. Give yourself a “10” if you feel you gave your body everything it needed to function at peak performance this week. (Or rate yourself somewhere in between).
Which side deals with our problem and begins taking steps in the process of
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fixing the problem to gain true power over our life?
Parenting- behavior chart and rewards or screaming maniac psycho
parent watching SuperNanny as a family?
Your two “you’s”—the public you and the you your kids see…are they the
same person?
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