Fun Webisode Series

Starting next Tuesday (3/3/10)

Wanna hear a great new song?

Click to buy Jason Castro's new single, "That's What I'm Here For," available NOW on iTunes and Amazon

Also, tune into The Bachelor: Jason and Molly's Wedding tonight on ABC to hear Jason perform it.

A Miracle Remembered

30 years ago today...a Miracle at Lake Placid occurred when the misfit, amateur hockey team for the United States beat the best hockey team in the world and heavily favored Soviet Union team, at Lake Placid. USA went on the win the gold the next day against Finland. But it was this game that punctuated a time when the world had changed.

Hear Me

My friend, Meg and I were talking last night and got on the subject of eating. As we were talking (well, as I talked) I realized and even said I should post this online...

I think tracking our food is a good thing. It helps us to really know what/how much we're eating. Too often we eat without being in the moment....munch while doing other things and don't realize just how much we're consuming. But there is a drawback to being hyper-aware of just what you're eating for the purpose of losing weight. Once again, it comes back to my beef with formal diets.


While eating is necessary to sustain us, thinking too much about it is every bit as troublesome as not thinking enough. Diets tend to teach us what to eat, how much to eat, and when to eat it. [i]What they don't teach us is how to eat intuitively.[/i] So you have success with losing weight because you follow a plan. Whether it's a calorie/point plan, or a eat this, not that plan. ..great! But when you're done with the plan (because generally, a diet plan is not a lifelong plan), you still don't know how to eat intuitively.

Intuitive eating in built-in at birth...it's a primary drive to survive. A baby cries when he/she's hungry. A baby stops eating when he/she is full (note to Greenie's in-laws ;) ). Somewhere along the line, whether it's because our mom's told us to finish our plates even though we didn't want more....or because we started eating when we were bored, angry, sad and not because we were hungry....or maybe it was simply that breakfast, lunch, and dinner are at "set" times, so we eat at a certain time of day, not because we're necessarily hungry at that time of day...whatever it was, the trigger mechanism of hungry/full got wonky.

Diets work because you eat according to plan. To eat intuitively means eating when your hungry....stopping when you're full. Sounds simple. And it is. But because it's an inherent trait...something we didn't have to learn, once we've suppressed it it takes some work for our conscious mind to recognize again.


The loop of intuition^^^

And this is where writing down what/how much you eat is so important. As you write it down, take note of the time of day you ate, what you were feeling at the time (hunger, boredom, etc.). When sitting down to eat, take notice of how much food is on the plate. How do you feel about the food (can't wait to shove it in your mouth!....meh, I HAVE to eat it because it's lunchtime, or because the diet said I should). Start getting in touch with your bio-rhythms. Are you never hungry in the morning? But you eat anyway because everyone says you're supposed to? Are you sometimes more hungry, sometimes less hungry? Are you craving certain foods? Are you hungry? Do you prefer meat over salad? Do you like dinner for breakfast and breakfast for dinner? Are you full, but keep eating because it tastes soooo goooood?



Maybe your body is trying to tell you something. Listen to it. Our bodies and our subconscious mind are so much smarter than we are. The body knows what it wants. The subconscious brain does too. But our conscious brain is stupid and our mouth is even stupider. It will eat whatever we put into it whenever we do it (most of the time). So listen and interpret and start to eat intuitively again.

I wrote the following statement in response to my friend telling a story about how her husband, who recently got his MBA, made her feel that she was wasting her degree being a mother and working as a bartender. She's chosen to not go back to school a few years ago for financial reasons, but he'd chosen TO go back to school so that he could make more money at work. She felt that whether she was a bartender or a lawyer wasn't the point, it was that he was measuring her worth by her paycheck. So I wrote this for her.

We, as women, are not defined by our professional life. We are miracle workers. We are the vessel that, without us, the entire human race would cease. We are homemakers, even when we work full-time. We are comfort. We are compassion. Our tolerance for pain is unmatched. Yes, we are capable of performing any job with skill and success, but as women, we are so much more than the ability to bring home a good paycheck.

I'm thinking of making a plaque...

Did a Bad, Bad Thing.....

If we were meant to always do the right thing, why did Ceiling Cat invent alcohol, cigarettes and the beach? This is where I got into trouble.

You see, back on Labor Day I spent a lovely 3-day weekend with good friends at our family beach house at the Outer Banks of North Carolina. My friend Terri, a lovely, petite, fun-loving woman with enough energy to power NYC, gave my husband and I a lovely basket of goodies, including his favorite spiced rum, and my Blue Sapphire gin, as a thank you for having she and her husband accompany us to the beach house. The only time Terri smokes is when she is drinking, so sure enough, after we'd made our cocktails and settled onto the deck to enjoy the beachy night air, Terri lights up. She offers one to me and I say "What the hell, we're on vacation!" and accept one.

My husband gave me the stink-eye, so Terri told him to leave me alone. That smoking on vacation is like drinking on vacation. You don't drink in real-life like you do on vacation, right? So this is just a temporary vice.

Riiiiight.

I bought a pack of cigarettes on my way home from the beach...because in NC a pack costs only around $3.00!! I smoked about 4 out of the pack before gagging. I ended up giving the pack to a co-worker.

Two weeks later, I drove down to Charlottesville, VA to see a concert with a girlfriend, and to go to Monticello the next day. As I arrived in Charlottesville, I stopped for gas, and saw a sign "Camel Lights - $3.50." I swear to cheeses there was a parting of the clouds and a voice spoke to me. So I bought a pack.

Since then, I've smoked a pack a week. I know that's not too much really, but heavens to Betsy Ross, I'm supposed to be a fitness professional! I profess Wellness in my daily 9-to-5! And furthermore, I haven't come out to my husband that this has become a regular habit. I'm living a lie!! Ceiling Cat, help me!

By the way, I don't blame Terri at all for my fall from grace. I"m responsible for my own decisions and actions. She just provided the opportunity. I made a pact with another co-worker that this weekend I will quit. Since doing that, I'm noticing the Camel Lights are barking back at me...I've actually gagged on the smoke twice this week. This is a good thing.

That's What I'm Here For

"That's What I'm Here For: The Road To the Debut Album" features in studio video and footage of the creation of Jason Castro's new CD. Watch it. Buy it.