On weight, wellness, and the moon

I am asked pretty frequently about how I lost baby weight following two pregnancies in two years. The truth is that I followed a very strict low-calorie and low-glycemic index eating plan that made the most significant impact in my weight loss; but that wasn't all I did. I have had a complicated relationship with food and weight for most of my adult life and resolving those issues involved a lot more than just counting and restricting calories.

My relationship to my own spirituality has been the key to losing weight and maintaining the loss over time without following a plan or counting calories. I credit my connection to nature and my observation of moon phases, funny enough, for much of my ability to see food as it's meant to be viewed - as a source of fuel. Eating is pleasurable, and was meant to be so. But it's a source of energy for our physical bodies, nothing more and nothing less. And the more we eat whole foods in their most natural state, the healthier we will be. The more aware of our own physical activity levels and the more we attune our eating with our activity such that we burn the calories we take in, the easier it is to achieve a proportional and maintainable weight that is not a burden to our circulatory systems. Your heart has to work so hard when you are overweight! If for no other reason, you should pursue a healthy weight just to be kind to your heart.

So what does it mean to attune yourself to nature and follow moon phases in order to lose weight? It means that as the moon waxes and wanes (grows full and then less full), so your body is naturally inclined to hold on to water and excess calories at particular times of the month (this is true for both sexes, by the way, but is exacerbated for women by the menstrual cycle). I eat fewer calories in the first half of the month because I find that it's easier to maintain my weight as the moon wanes, which is in the second half of the month. I also look to the moon for guidance about harvest cycles and direction toward which foods are seasonally appropriate and freshest at any given time. I create gemstone elixirs at the new and full moons that I use at other times of the month to maintain and boost my metabolism.

Most of all, though, in connecting to my own spirituality I am "doing the work" of resolving inner conflict and addressing shadow issues in my life that I propose are tied to weight gain and obesity for many people. The thinner you are, the less padding you have against the pains of life. People gain weight to avoid love, intimacy, connection; as they lose weight, they become physically closer to those around them. The discomfort with such closeness is in my view the primary reason so few people maintain weight loss over time. Spirituality is the channel I use to process my own challenges in life such that I can appreciate intimacy with others and not avoid it.

Here's to your health and optimal weight, and to the moon for her guidance.