Earthly Eating

• Stress: When you are under pressure, your body releases the hormone cortisol, which signals your brain to seek out rewards. Comfort foods loaded with sugar and fat basically “apply the brakes” to the stress system by blunting this hormone. When you reach fro food in response to negative feelings such as anger or sadness (like potato chops after a fight with your spouse), you inadvertently create a powerful connection in your brain. The food gets coded in your memory center as a solution to an unpleasant experience or emotion. Face the same problem again, and you brain will likely tell you, “Go grab the Doritos.”

Solution: What you are really craving is to feel better. You have heard the trick about phoning a friend or exercising instead of eating. But, taking a walk alone won’t help if you are already feeling lonely. Instead, identify your current emotion-bored, anxious, mad-by filling in these blanks: “I feel ______ because of ______? Then find an activity that releases it. If you are stressed, channeling nervous energy, into a workout can help’ if you are upset over a problem at the office, call a friend and ask for advice.

• Eating Less Than You Usually: If you are eating fewer than 1,000 calories a day and restricting an entire food group (like carbs), you are putting your body in prime craving mode. Even just 3 days of strict dieting decreases levels of the appetite-reducing hormone leptin by 22%. “restrained eaters”-dieters who severely limit calories or certain foods-aren’t necessarily thinner than regular eaters; they’re actually about 1 to 2 BMI points higher, or the equivalent to 10 to 20 pounds, as their self-imposed food rules often backfire.

Solution: Don’t eat around your cravings. Trying to to quell a craving with a low-calorie imitation won’t satisfy your brain’s memory center. For example, if you are craving a milkshake, yogurt won’t cut it-especially if you’ve been depriving yourself. You may even take in more calories than you would if you just had a reasonable portion of what you wanted in the first place. Munching five crackers, a handful of popcorn, and a bag of pretzels, all in the effort to stay away from the potato chips you wanted in the first place, will ultimately give you about 250 calories than if you would have eaten a single-serving bag of the chips.

• Are You Getting Enough Sleep?: A few sleepless nights are enough to drop levels of the hormone leptin (which signals satiety) by about 18% and boost levels of ghrelin, an appetite trigger, by about 30%. Those two changes alone can cause your appetite to kick into overdrive, and cravings for starchy foods like cookies, potato chips, and even breads by 4.5%

Solution: Have some caffeine: It can help you get through the day without any high-calories pick-me ups. It won’t solve your bigger issue of chronic sleep loss, but it’s a good thing for short-term fixes in your sleep patterns until you can get back on the right track. Caffeine should be taken or drank in moderation of course.

• Are You Just Doing This Out Of Habit?: You may not think much about it, but seemingly innocent routines, such as eating cheese popcorn while watching TV, create powerful associations within our brains. The thought of letting go of these patterns can cause a fear response in an area of the brain call the amygdala. Once the food hits your lips the fear response shuts off in a quick second.

Solution: Eliminate sensory cues. Smells, sights, and sounds all act as a powerful trigger. Watch television in your basement, or bedroom so you are far away from the ki8tchen and the cupboards full of snacking foods that you really shouldn’t be eating before snoozing anyway.(Source: Prevention 2008)
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Earthly Eating Recipe

Cherry Kolaches with Cream Cheese
Serves: 18

For the sweet yeast dough:
2 packages active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
3/4 cup lukewarm milk
1 cup margarine, melted
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. salt
4 1/2 cups flour

For the cream cheese and cherry filling:
1 can cherry filling
1 (8-ounce_ package of cream cheese
1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Combine with the next 6 ingredients in a large bowl, Beat until smooth, about 1 minute. Cover with damp cloth. Place in the refrigerator at least 2 hours or overnight. Combine cream cheese, cherry filling and sugar. Set aside.

Divide dough into egg-sized portions with a spoon; form ball. Place balls on greased baking sheets. With a spoon, make indentions in the dough balls for fruit filling.

Fill each indention with a large tsp. of filling. Let filled rolls rise on baking sheets for about 1 hour.

Bake for about 20 minutes at 350°F, until rolls turn golden brown.

Happy Eating!