seasonAL greetings:

eat globally, grace-fully

**An Encouraging Word, Vol. 14**

an occasional note from Jean Fain

 Harvard Medical School psychotherapist & hypnosis instructor

 Published October 1, 2007

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Read on if you’re interested in losing weight without the deprivation associated with dieting. Feel free to forward “An Encouraging Word” to a friend. If you didn’t receive this note directly from Jean Fain and you’d like to subscribe, send an email to the address above with the word “subscribe” in the subject field. If you’d rather not receive future announcements, send an email with the word “unsubscribe” in the subject field.

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The Seasons Are A-Changin’…

Before tomatoes shrivel on the vine, farm stands close for the winter & yours truly makes like a robin and takes wing for sunnier vistas, a few important seasonal reminders: 

1. As summer salads start to lose their allure, and hearty soups start beckoning, it’s important to remember Bob Dylan’s refrain: The times they are a-changin’. Losing interest in seasonal fare is not, as many dieters conclude, a personal failing.  But a natural, cyclical phenomenon. Come fall, our tastebuds crave higher-density calories -- oatmeal more than bran flakes, beef stew over gazpacho -- for sustenance, for fuel.  Rather than force-feeding yourself lean cuisine and setting yourself up for a binge, let me suggest something completely different: Listen to your tastebuds, satisfy their seasonal cravings, eat mindfully through the dark of winter. And emerge from hibernation slimmer and happier.

2. But don’t get carried away with this notion of eating seasonally, cautions Boston food writer Louisa Kasdon. Eat globally! “I love local food,” Kasdon writes in the September/October issue of stuff@night magazine. “Buying apples and tomatoes at the farmers’ markets makes me happy before I even cut into them. But I like bananas, too, and I don’t plan to move to Costa Rica any time soon. With all the emphasis on “Think globally, buy locally,” it’s worth remembering that Boston would be a pretty grim place to eat if FedEx didn’t deliver.” The Boston chefs Kasdon interviewed for the Stuff article sing the praises of global ingredients: Hawaiian fish, Italian olive oil, Mediterranean spices. Intrigued? Read “Eat Globally” on stuff@night.com.

3. With both seasonal and global cuisine to delight our palates, we can be doubly grateful. Saying grace before meals is one way to practice gratefulness as well as maintain perspective in these diet-crazed, body-obsessed times. A favorite grace comes from poet Dina Metzger’s pen:  “We thank the sun, the wind, the earth, the rain for this beautiful food, all the creatures that gave their lives to feed us, and all the human effort that went into bringing this to us. May we take it in and may it nourish us, and may we return the energy to the world in ways that lessen suffering and bring joy.”

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This Just In…

Speaking of grace, “Mindful Eating Mini Trances,” my new hypnosis CD, is now available at CDbaby.com (http://cdbaby.com/cd/jeanfain5).  Like saying grace, practicing a short trance before meals helps listeners eat with more appreciation, and consequently, with more control and satisfaction. Inspired by the best hypnotic weight-loss study, these five-minute trances make it more do-able, more delightful, to achieve a healthy, sustainable weight.

Typically hypnotherapy clients who want to lose weight practice self-hypnosis 15-20 minutes every day. Most people don't realize, however, that the biggest losers in the hypnotic research literature only practiced these shorter trances. That's right, it was with mini-trances that subjects in the best hypnotic weight loss study lost weight and kept losing for up to two years after treatment ended. Without dieting! The mini trances on this CD were inspired by that landmark study. In fact, track two features winning hypnotic suggestions from that very study.

After an introduction to hypnosis and healthy eating, listeners have their choice of five mini trances to help them make healthier food choices, meal by meal... snack by snack... day by day. While it's not exactly magic, compared to other weight-loss strategies that require normal consciousness, it is magical!

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Food For Thought…

“I support local, and I try to be seasonal, but if I limited myself to what’s local and seasonal, it’d be pretty boring.”

--Chef Rachel Klein, OM restaurant

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In addition to seeing clients in private practice, Jean Fain teaches hypnosis at Cambridge Health Alliance, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, and she writes for O, The Oprah Magazine, among other women's magazines. More information about Jean Fain’s services and weight-loss CDs is available on her website (www.jeanfain.com).

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(Click the Newsletter link below to read other volumes of "An Encouraging Word.")

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