Having Difficulties on the Scale?

Hi All,

Hope you're all doing great out there.  Summer is winding down.  I hope it was a good one for you.  Personally, I'm still enjoying the warm Phoenix weather, but I'm ready for a little cooler weather too.

Today I would like to talk about releasing the extra weight some of us carry around.  Of course we know that you need to eat less, and move the body more and you will probably drop the pounds, right? But there's a little more to it for most of us and maybe a more holistic or complete approach is what we need.

flier for Holistic Weight Management with Hypnotherapy Group

Sometimes the change is not quite so simple.  If it was, none of us would be overweight.  One thing we need is to bring a desire to change.  Do you want to be healthy and fit?  Do you drop the extra pounds that do not serve you?  Well, if you have desire and some dedication, you can do it.

We need to change our relationship to food.   Hypnotherapy can be a big help with that.  We can change our view of food and beliefs about it.  We love food and desire to eat healthy food in the amounts we need to power this body....thru hypno, we can internalize this.  We train ourselves to desire good food in the right quantities.

We also want to change our view of ourselves.  We are all beautiful, in a beautiful, wonderful amazing body, but sometimes we don't believe it or know it.  We want to take care of this wondrous vessel.  We can train ourselves to enjoy feeding it good food and exercising it.  We can eat in moderation if we want.  We can exercise it more also - either way, we learn to and train ourselves, easily and gently, to care for our body and love our body.

All of this is fine - but if we don't remove the blocks to this, we won't really make meaningful change.  So we address the reasons why we eat the way we do; the emotional eating, insecurities, etc.  We need to get to the bottom of this and release those old emotional blocks that keep us trapped in the old habits and patterns...and we can do that.

Of course - in the group we continue to learn a little about holistic nutrition each week and support each other and share tips and foods that are working well in our personal journeys.

I got up early this morning and wrote a new hypnosis script that I will share tonight with the group.  It follows these themes.  I also provide a self hypnosis CD to attendees.  It's good for reinforcing the changes between group meetings.  I'll be recording the new script as well.

If you're in the Phoenix area - come by and join us tonight at 5:30 or on another Thursday soon.  I also work with people one on one, if a group isn't your preference.

Have a great day out there.  Enjoy those bodies - eat well, think well, and move it too.

Blessings,

Tom

www.HolisticTherapySolutions.weebly.com

Holistic Nutrition - it's what's for dinner

Hi All,

Having a pretty good summer here.  Nature sure put on an amazing show for us last night.  Some amazing storms pop up in the desert on summer evenings.  Hope things are going well for all of you, wherever you're reading this blog.

Summer storm in the distance

So one of the things I've been working on, personally, is making changes in my eating habits.  I'm working toward eating a more nutritious diet.  I've been doing pretty well for the most part, but one thing we don't do as much as I'd like to, is cook foods from scratch.  I guess that's the next phase.

On a professional level, I run a weekly Holistic Weight Management with Hypnosis group here in Phoenix, AZ.  Of course it incorporates hypnotherapy with sensible eating, exercise and a strong desire to change your body to a healthy, well balanced, right sized vessel.  We also do this with the support of a positive like minded group.

There's an holistic nutrition aspect to this group as well. Each week we look at a few foods that we can incorporate into our diets.   We look at good wholesome foods, their nutritional content and how we can incorporate them into our diets.  Remember though - this isn't a diet.  It's basically eating healthy on a daily basis.

Last week, the South American grain, Quinoa came up in the group.  So I decided to cook dinner last night and make a dish with quinoa.  I also wanted to prepare a dish with Lentils.  Both are power foods and very nutritious.

Leftover Quinoa Tabbouleh

Quinoa is considered a supergrain.  It's high in fiber and rich in high quality protein.  It originates in South America and was a staple of the Incas.  I bought the quinoa out of the grocery store bulk bin where it's very inexpensive.  It's easy to make, is loaded with fresh vegetables, was delicious, and a very nutritious and low calorie choice at only 182 calories per serving.  I found the recipe on www.myrecipes.com.

The lentil dish I made was Mujaddara Arabic Lentil Rice.  I got the lentils from the bulk bin as well.  I prepared it with onion, brown rice, and cumin.  It's a simple dish and took about an hour and 15 minutes to prepare.  I found the recipe for this dish on www.allrecipes.com.

Lentils are an amazing food.  They're high in fiber and excellent for your heart.  They also promote healthy blood sugar.  They're low in fat and calories, but high in Iron and an excellent high energy food.

All in all it was a good learning experience and a very tasty and nutritious meal.  As I write this, I'm finishing hard boiling eggs and cooking brown rice pasta for a cold tuna and wild salmon pasta salad for dinner tonight.

Cooked Brown Rice Penne macaroni - for the tuna and salmon salad.

OK - so I want to have full disclosure here.  I don't eat a perfectly holistically nutritious diet all the time.  However - here's the key.  Do the best you can.  Try to eat as much fresh fruit and vegetables as you can.  If you get organic, great.  If you don't, don't beat yourself up about it.  I try to be grateful for the food I have and eat a well rounded healthy diet.  Little by little, I'm incorporating more and more wholesome foods and eating less processed food and fast food.  Just be gentle with yourself around food and keep making progress.

I hope you found this helpful.  Enjoy your day - wherever you are and whatever you're doing.  You can touch peoples lives every day.  Be kind to others....and yourself.

Peace,

Tom

Owner and operator at Holistic Therapy Solutions LLC in Phoenix, AZ
www.HolisticTherapySolutions.weebly.com

At the Center of You - Logo

Hi All,

Wow - it's been a busy couple of weeks.  Between holistic therapy work, this logo, and some other stuff....it's been a quick, busy time (and a good time).  It's really good to be busy sometimes.

So a lady named Laurie hired me to do a logo for her business, a couple weeks ago.  The biz, At the Center of You, is her new business.  She's opening it in Wickenberg, AZ.  Wickenberg is kind of a cowboy town about 70 miles NW of Phoenix.  Her business consists of her life coaching, hypnotherapy, and other holistic modalities, plus a little merchandise for sale.  It's also a very unique business in that town with a large potential.

So we sat down and started brainstorming.  What we came up with was the image of a horse sitting on a mat with legs crossed meditating.  It bridges the gap between the holistic/spiritual aspect of the biz and the old west feel of the town.  It was fun how we really clicked and both came to this idea really quickly.

Pencil sketch of the logo design for "At the Center of You"

First I sketched the cartoon horse logo and she approved, right away.  She was very pleased.

Pen and Ink - complete with coffee spill.

Next I drew the illustrated master drawing in pen and ink.  I even spilled coffee on it (as you can see in the photo).  My scanner is out of commission - so I start working in the computer, on the pen and ink photo.

drawing the black and erasing the white - in progress

I took the photo into Photoshop.  Selected All, and copied and pasted on to a new layer.  I colored the base layer completely orange and started defining the illustration by erasing the white on layer two.  I used the pen tool and would draw a path around an area, color it black, select the area, select inverse and erase the white around each section.  Hope that doesn't sound confusing.  I know it's definitely not the industry standard way of doing things, but that's ok.  It works.

black and white logo complete.

When I got the nice crisp black and white picture done, I saved the layers and starting adding layers under the black and white layer, and began adding color.  Laurie gave me her business card, told me it reflected her personality - and asked for the logo to be reflective of that.  The card had a robin egg blue color with a script type style for her name and a light san serif type style for the rest of the text.

adding sky color

So I started adding color to the background.  Trying to be consistent with the feeling of Laurie as reflected in her business card.

working on the horse.

Once completed, I did spend a little time, tweaking the color a bit, and then formatting both black and white and color, for both print and for electronic/web use.

Completed logo design

Again - this was a fun job.  I enjoyed working on it and the style of cartoon type logo, is really in my wheelhouse.  She was happy with the logo and it really met all of her criteria.

That's it for now.  Enjoy the coming week.  Be present and enjoy those around you.  Enjoy being with yourself as well.

Peace,

Tom

Art Portfolio - www.behance.net/tk-art
Facebook page - www.facebook.com/pages/Tom-Kreienbrink-Art-and-Design/

Meditation - again.

Hi All,

I hope you've all had a great weekend.  One thing I'm working on is I'm trying to make the most of every day - even Mondays.  We've had some dramatic storms here with plenty of damage recently.  I guess more and more that's common in most places.  Stay safe out there.  I also caught that summer cold going around on Sunday. While I was in recovery mode on Sunday - I watched an interview with Deepak Chopra, by Oprah Winfrey.  It was quite interesting and focused a lot on meditation.  I thought I'd share some of the highlights.

For those of you who may not be familiar, Deepak Chopra is a medical doctor, scientist, and author.  He combines spiritual practice reflected in scientific data, and writes and lectures about it.  He also has been meditating for 40 years.

Dr. Chopra starts out by talking about how meditation keeps him in a state of personal balance.  By progressively quieting the mind - daily meditation keeps him balanced and provides inner peace.

He describes meditation as a progressive quieting of the mind that takes you to God.  Meditation is quieting the mind and allows you to open the door to the Spirit and creativity.  Prayer is where you're talking with God - Meditation is where you listen.  However - in his opinion - it's not a part of any particular religious practice.  It works with whatever your spiritual practice or specific religion.

A meditation practice is a great way to control stress in your life and can bring  about physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing for the person with a regular practice.

Physical care of ourselves is important also, according to Deepak Chopra.  Important elements include getting enough sleep, some exercise, food with phytochemicals, keeping our weight at an optimal level, and being emotionally free.  The last element includes practicing forgiveness and not holding any resentments or grievances - none.

Another important piece of meditation includes being present.  Bring yourself to present moment; don't allow yourself to dwell on the past or think about future wants or events.  Just Be, and be still.  Relax and breath naturally.  Observe thoughts that pop into your mind and let them go by.  In this way you can also be present while awake as well.

He also discussed mantras.  He breaks down the word like this; "man" means mind and "tra" means instrument...it's a mind instrument.  A mantra is a tool to help us go where we need to go in meditation.  Some people have specific mantras, some use short passages from the Bible or other religious texts.  Other folks use "Om."  Repeat your mantra in the rhythm of your breathing.

Dr. Chopra meditates 2 hours in the morning and also meditates for a period in the afternoon.  He recommends morning meditation and a period of mediation before the evening meal.  Periods of meditation 15-20 minutes long will be fine - you don't have to do 2 hours.  Just sit in a comfortable position, (or lay, if you don't fall asleep), and then breath.  A mantra you can start with is "soul" on the inhale and "hum" on the exhale.  Just keep repeating to yourself with your breathing and relax.

There are many ways to meditate.  Many different techniques, guided meditations, you can listen to music or nature sounds - - the important thing is that you relax the mind.  However you meditate - just do it.  Make the time for you, even if you start with 15-20 minutes a day.

Good luck with the meditation everyone.  I've been meditating for over 30 years and I'll attest that it helps me have peace and serenity in my life on a daily basis.  It energizes me, refreshes, and keeps me centered and balanced.

Have a great week. Take care of yourselves.  Watch out for those summer storms - they can be potent. Be good to all those around you - even if they're different than you.

Peace,

Tom

Holistic Therapy Solutions - www.HolisticTherapySolutions.weebly.com
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