In a land “flowing with milk and honey”… 

…which is just an old Jewish way of saying a “food-and-resource-rich” society…

…we must learn to correctly steward wealth…in this context, a wealth of food. 

When grub is constantly available, when a whole box of donuts are on the break room counter as a freebie from your visiting vendor, and you happened to have had a long stressful day…

…is not the time to train your self-control muscles.

You need to prepare in advance.

In most of the USA, stress-eating, overeating, and under-exercising is the “norm”. If you live in a society like this, first of all, congratulations! You are among a small percentage of human beings with plenty of food available, not threatened with famine and starvation.

Second, no matter your tax bracket, if you’re carrying excess body fat, see this process as maturing in the best use of the food so plentifully available. Americans and others like us have mostly lost perspective when it comes to food choices and especially portions.

Having access to a lot doesn’t mean we are obligated to eat it all, do it all, have it all…NOW.

That is the immature response to food wealth (buffets, huge restaurant portions, fast food, cheap snacks, free lunches, etc). 

It’s also often stress-induced.

What does this have to do with essential oils?

Essential oils support cellular “reset” mechanisms that help change your brain chemistry (thus also mood), improve digestion, and help transform your appetite, cravings, even your emotional and mental responses to stress. 

Stop Emotional Eating

Most with the tendency to over-eat can relate to munching (or binging) as a solution to almost everything…from feeling happy to sad to angry to exhausted. A calm, healthy nervous system and a strong, robust digestive system (gut) can completely change your experience of these emotions, slowing your reaction and thus giving you time to think, adjust, get what you really need instead of self-medicating with food.

Peppermint essential oil decreases cravings, suppresses appetite, and improves satiation. It also assists with healthy digestion and alleviates digestive discomforts…but what I love about Peppermint is that it also opens your airways, literally helping you breathe deeper, while boosting energy and improving clarity and alertness.

Save by getting Peppermint as part of a discounted introductory kit.  

You may not have realized this, but those latter benefits can dramatically impact your stress levels, reduce cravings, help soothe your emotions and just flat make you feel better. Working with Peppermint, you might forget about the junk food down the street altogether as you relax, revive, and think more clearly.

Simple Solutions without a ‘Catch’

Self-medicating with food is, no doubt, one solution. It’s just that, like so many solutions we have devised…they come with a ‘catch,’ aka “side effects.”

Of course, self-medicating with food isn’t the only cause behind carrying excess weight. So often, we think knowing ‘the name’ of a devil gives us power over it.

Honestly…you don’t always need to know its name. That is why I LOVE essential oils and other natural remedies.

Start with a few oils that work in the general ballpark for your need such as those having a metabolic impact, or ones that affect mood and hunger hormones, and you might just get your breakthrough with minimal attention and energy given to the problem…

…simply by focusing on the solution, instead.

Whatever is standing in the way of your best life in a body has to fall away as you increase that which heals you.

Every single essential oil offers MULTIPLE BENEFITS. I could go on and on about the astonishing intelligence of the tiny molecules that make up each oil…

…but just as you saw with Peppermint, you will learn that every essential oil — especially when they are used together in blends — will bring healing and support to multiple aspects of health, from mental to physical and even spiritual.

Yes…essential oils such as Frankincense and Myrrh have long been used to enhance times of prayer and meditation, connecting heaven (mind/spirit) to earth (your body, your life).

Ingest, Inhale, Absorb

Even if you’ve never cracked open a fresh bottle of essential oil, they have always been a part of your life. You inhale them as you walk through rose gardens. You ingest them when you enjoy a dessert with lemon or orange zest, or when you drink peppermint tea. You absorb them through your skin when you use a pure, lavender infused lotion or natural rose oil for perfume. 

Unfortunately, most of what you find in retail and drug stores contain little to no “real” essential oil, which means you don’t benefit from the oil’s powerful medicinal properties.

They are usually a cheap, diluted or artificially manufactured grade such as food or perfume grade. 

Even prescription, diet, and over-the-counter drugs are often a patentable, man-made attempt to imitate what plants do. Many are no more or less than the so-called “active ingredient” of a plant, stripped of its protective and beneficial components, extracted and compounded to 1000x times more concentrated than what is found in nature, and formed into a pill that provides a band-aid quick fix and causes harm (aka “negative side effects).

My advice…avoid these except when no better alternative exists.

Summary

In summary, give yourself time to integrate plant-based medicine into your daily as you implement new and better eating/exercise habits.

Essential Oils are unique in their ability to support humans and other animals because they can affect us mentally, emotionally, physically and, by extension, spiritually.

Through the incredible healing and cell-supporting molecules in them, Essential Oils affect: 

• how you feel
• your baby’s or child’s temperament…
• diminished anxiety and stress levels…
• better sleep…
• alertness and energy levels…
• focus and concentration…
• brain health…
• heart health…
• immunity…
• recovery…
• fitness…
• appetite…
• cravings…
• health.

They supported me through some of the biggest life changes and they still do. Try these three and let me know how it goes. There are certainly more to play with, and I’d love us to work together to figure out which oils best suit your needs!

Used internally, topically, and/or aromatically on a regular basis, essential oils can help you change your eating habits, improve digestion, absorb more nutrients, exercise bigger better faster stronger, recover faster, and be in a better mood while you do it.

Happily, Grapefruit is also mood uplifting, stress-reducing and helps our bodies produce happy-and-positive-feeling-chemicals, which may indirectly help us to avoid eating for emotional support.

CINNAMON 

• The original, all-natural “carb blocker” because…
• Slows the release of glucose (sugar) into the blood, so that your body uses it for energy and is not forced to store it as fat, which also…
• Reduces sugar rush and crash, and…
• Helps reduce sugar cravings and overeating

Cinnamon is a “hot” oil (meaning spicy) so it can be hard to swallow just in water. Try it in your smoothie, with food, in a capsule or perhaps your tea or cup o’ joe (blend it with Ginger Essential Oil to really give your metabolism a KICK, powerfully improve digestion and help reduce inflammation). Anytime you are going to eat refined carbs or sugar, even in fruit, add this essential oil to slow your glucose and insulin spike and reduce fat storage!

Used internally, topically, and/or aromatically on a regular basis, essential oils can help you change your eating habits, improve digestion, absorb more nutrients, exercise bigger better faster stronger, recover faster, and be in a better mood while you do it.

PEPPERMINT

• Kills cravings
• Helps to reduce appetite
• Assists digestion
• Boosts metabolism
• Increases focus, energy and alertness (so you don’t go grabbing a quick sugar fix)
• Energizes your workout (when sniffed or applied topically)  

I love to put a drop or two of Peppermint Essential Oil in my water, but it may not be suited to everyone’s taste. You can add it to any beverage or smoothie (which is true for all internal usage of EOs), add it to food or make your own “superfood” peppermint patties with a few simple ingredients (cocoa powder or nibs, coconut oil, Peppermint, and some honey + stevia with vanilla will do!). You can also diffuse it or take a whiff before eating to increase satiety and decrease mindless munching (which maybe isn’t always so bad, but just not a healthy habit). When I’m heading into a workout, I love to put a drop on my temples and sometimes on my chest. It deepens my breathing and is very stimulating! Or mid-afternoon if you’re feeling a slump, try rubbing a drop in the palms of your hands and then cupping your nose. Suddenly everything will seem so bright and alive!