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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