The Meaning of Hunger

By Mary Desaulniers

In the weight-loss industry, hunger is a dirty word, the villain that must be stopped in its tracks. It is this determination to eradicate hunger that has created the worst propaganda for diets. “Diet” has become a dirty word. Diet is associated with pain, starvation, and all things "undo-able." If we look at hunger more closely, we will see that villainy is only part of its heritage. Hunger can be viewed more appropriately as an interim stage, part of a process of transformation. What we learn from our hunger is the key to long-term success in weight management.

There are different kinds of hunger. An example is the real hunger for sustenance that comes after a hard day's work. This hunger is necessary for our survival as it tells our body that it needs to replace the energy that has been expended.

Another is the hunger we feel when we are bored—the Sunday afternoon variety that creeps into our bones like a bout of flu. You feel hungry even after a meal and you can't seem to shake it off.

A more insidious form is the hunger we feel at the end of the day; a hunger that is ravenous. Partly because we are hungry, but mostly because we are carrying the ravages of the working world home and we have no other avenue to tame the beast. This is the form of hunger that leads to unbridled bingeing and weight gain. As long as the issues (at work or at home) remain unresolved, the body will deposit layers of subcutaneous fat much like an armor to shield itself against what it feels to be an unjust grievance.

This hunger is the most redeeming of the three as it places in our path a problem that is actually an opportunity for personal growth and transformation. Change is inherent to the nature of the body; it is through change that we evolve; through change that matter is transformed into light. "Many physicists believe that all matter is ultimately composed of trapped light," so claims physicist Fred Allan Wolf in his book "Mind into Matter."

We are "trapped light" when we are confined by the "unconscious ideas that we've been taught" such as:

• I am this or I am that.
• I am not good at this.
• I am meant to be fat or slow or lethargic.
  

These are all part of the armor that keeps us tied to the ground.

This trapped light can be released when matter is brought into motion. We are not only talking about physical motion like exercise; but creative motion—the meaningful activity, which we all know is capable of birthing the unknown or suppressed self. The self trapped by inertia and fear, the self that sees no way out of its misery other than bingeing to oblivion. Jungian analyst, Marion Woodman, calls this inertia "the Great Mother crocodile," that prefers "sleeping in the mud to transforming in the fire" ("Dancing in the Flames").

It is with us as well. We need to find out what the source of our hunger is.

• What is the grievance that is eating us?
• What unrealized dreams lay dormant under our cold spell?
• What possibilities for growth and spiritual awakenings have we stifled because of work, relationships or fear?
• What changes need we make to resurrect those dreams and desires?
  

Will the path be difficult? Yes! Will it be fraught with danger? Yes! Need we fear it? No! We have the power within us to "birth" this new self. As long as we keep our vision steady before us, we will succeed. Moreover, there are guides along the way—weight loss coaches, well-meaning friends and family, our own intuitions. These can provide us with the tools to make the journey successful.

It is far more dangerous to keep things the way they are. The armor of fat and denial we have built around us becomes more impenetrable with time. Unless we choose to see and create a new reality, “the great Mother crocodile” prevails.

It is so important for us to understand the meaning of hunger. Sometimes hunger is not simply hunger for food. It is hunger for the emergence of a new self. Hunger for a birth that, like any other birth, is a labor in progress. Are we serious enough about our well-being to confront our hunger? Turn its energy around so that it serves, rather than stifle us!

A runner for 28 years, retired schoolteacher and writer, Mary is helping people reclaim the wisdom of their bodies. Nutrition, exercise, positive vision and purposeful and creative engagement are the tools used to turn bodies into creative selves. You can visit her at http://www.greatbodyat50.com/ . Tune in to her new Internet Radio Show Reclaiming the Body’s Wisdom.

Published in Networking Today, October 2006.

Profile: Great Body at 50 Mary Desaulniers...New VoiceAmerica™ Talk Show Host

By Susan Regier

This fall, London resident Mary Desaulniers will host a new VoiceAmerica Internet radio talk show on the 7^th Wave Network. A health and wellness expert, Desaulniers’ show, “Reclaiming the Body’s Wisdom” begins October 5^th and broadcasts at 3:00 p.m. aimed at anyone interested in health, fitness, and quality of life.

After teaching high school for twenty-eight years at Laurier and Saunders, Mary Desaulniers turned from teenagers to working with adults over fifty – to help the aging boomers have a “Great Body at 50” – or basically to teach them how to stay young and inspired for the rest of their lives. Good health and fitness have always been a way of life for Desaulniers. For nearly three decades, she has run up to five miles a day, five days a week.

“I remember turning fifty with the usual fear and denial that accompany many of us who cannot understand how quickly the years have sped by. Now at fifty-six, I can honestly say that this is the best time in my life,” said Desaulniers.

Today, Desaulniers is a writer and the Senior Health Editor at www.e-healtharticles.com and is a featured expert at www.WeightLossBuddy.com and www.Sideroad.com. Plus, her articles and short stories have been published in Nineteenth Century Literature, The London Magazine, the literary journal Grain and anthology Entering the Landscape.

In this series, listeners will learn how to tap into the wisdom of their own bodies. Desaulniers has been given total creative freedom over her weekly broadcasts, which begin October 5^th. She has put together an impressive line-up of guest speakers, including Dr. Bruce Lipton, a cell biologist and former professor at the University of Wisconsin Medical School; Dr. John Diamond, a pioneer in alternative and holistic medicine; and Carol Emery Normandi and Laurelee Roark, founders of Beyond Hunger Inc.

“What we lose at fifty is compensated by what we gain at the same time. This is a zero-point field where everything or nothing is possible…and where taking a risk can mean everything that lies between aging gracefully and dying before death,” said Desaulniers.

To tune into “Reclaiming the Body’s Wisdom” with Mary Desaulniers, log onto the 7^th Wave Network at www.7thwavenetwork.com. Callers are welcome during the 3:00 p.m. live broadcast every Thursday starting October 5, 2006 by calling toll free 866-472-5795. Past shows will be available by On Demand and podcast download.

As more people are working and surfing online, Web-based radio programs have become increasingly popular. VoiceAmerica™ is the single largest producer of Internet talk radio programming in the world…and Mary Desaulniers’ program promises to be a major hit to the aging boomers.

For more information about Great Body at 50 visit www.greatbodyat50.com.

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Susan Regier is the publisher/editor of Networking Today and owner of Vantage One Writing, a professional writing service for businesses. (519) 471-8726 E-mail: susan@vantageone.ca Web site: www.vantageone.ca

Published in Networking Today, September 2006.

Why Diets Don’t Work!

By Mary Desaulniers

It has become a familiar scenario: you start the day with black coffee; you lunch on carrots and celery sticks. You eat a mouse-size dinner. By the end of the week, you’ve barely lost a pound.

Sound familiar? Most people who begin a diet-fasting regimen regain their weight, plus more, within a year. The reason is simple: a body in starvation mode will fight to hang on to every fat cell. Your body thinks it is starving if you skip meals and/or eat junk food, that is, food rich in calories but is nutrient-deprived.

What kind of message are you sending your metabolism if you skip a meal or two every day – or if you insist on Big Macs and Fries?

The message is simply this: Times are tough; you need to buckle in the fat!

So, how does your body respond?

• Your metabolism slows
• Your body tries to save calories, not burn them off
  
• Muscle, rather than fat, gets burned off for energy
• Any food you eat (even black coffee) is stored as fat in preparation for what your body thinks is THE LONG FAMINE.

Result: You gain weight; you are tired. Food and fat have become a vicious circle.

Add exercise and you stress the body even more by increasing caloric requirements without giving the body proper nutrients. Starvation and exercise (eat less, exercise more) is just another Urban Legend for weight loss.

There is a way out of this circle, however, and it takes no more than a basic understanding of the “psychology” within the body’s metabolism. The body has a mind of its own, a mind that controls the thermostat of its metabolic functions.

• Starve the body and it turns the thermostat down so that no fat is burned and everything ingested becomes stored fat.
• Feed the body and it turns the thermostat up and happily burns fat as fuel and builds lean muscle tissue.
  

You’ve heard it before: your thoughts create your reality and nowhere is this truer than in the body. Feed it proper food, give it optimal cellular nutrition in the form of proteins, low-glycemic carbs, vitamins, mineral, botanicals, and water and your body will purr away like a well-tuned engine. Your body thrives on abundance.

Only through adequate cellular nutrition can exercise be a safe and effective means to building muscle and breaking down fat. Your goal should be as much lean muscle as possible and as little stored fat as possible.

This goal can be achieved by increasing your protein intake. Why? When you eat protein or fat, your body releases glucagons, which:

• raises blood sugar by converting protein and fat into glucose
• burns fat
• decreases cholesterol production
• increases release of Human Growth Hormone
• makes kidneys release fluid
• releases fat from fat cells for energy
• turns dietary fats into ketones for energy
  

In short, glucagon shifts the metabolism into BURNING MODE. Compare this scenario to that produced by Insulin, which is released when you eat carbohydrates. Insulin

• lowers blood sugar
• increases storage of fat
• stimulates the liver’s synthesis of cholesterol
  decreases growth hormone release
• increases appetite
• makes kidneys retain fluid
• shifts metabolism into STORAGE MODE
  

What does this all mean to the contemporary dieter? A sense of abundance goes a long way. Feed your body lean!

Mary Desaulniers is an independent Herbalife distributor in London, Ontario. For more information, visit MD Marketing or call (519) 652-9665.

Published in Networking Today, February 2003.