What exactly is Mindful Eating? What are some of the (other) reasons why we grab for food when we're not hungry? What are three tips that we could all benefit from? Let's find it out together with our nutrition expert guest, Michelle Sugiyaman. Listen as we discuss all about food, eating and nutrition. Michelle also share what made her transition from being a chemist to a wellness expert.

About the guest:

Michelle Sugiyama engages, inspires, and empowers individual clients and corporate employees to move towards their best self. She is the Founder of Mindful Eating, a mindful eating expert, Nationally Board-Certified Health & Wellness Coach, and Master Certified Health Coach, with an active coaching practice. As a two-time #1 International Bestselling Author and International Speaker, she has been the highlight at numerous employee wellness programs and other venues with captivating seminars, webinars, and culinary demonstrations. Michelle was named most inspirational health & wellness coach and excellence in wellness education by Global Health & Pharma in 2020. She also holds a culinary certification from Le Cordon Bleu, a master’s in organic chemistry from The Ohio State University and is a member of the United Research Forum's scientific committee.

 For over 18 years, Michelle has been bridging the gap between “knowing you should be healthy and actually doing it”. With empathy, positivity, and personalized strategies, she is dedicated to helping others strive towards optimum productivity, health, and happiness. Michelle’s inspirations are her adopted daughter and 101-year-old grandmother; whose mantra was Health is #1.

michelle.mindfuleating@gmail.com

www.mindful-eating.com

Books:

Break Free to Stand in Your Power Kindle Edition:

https://www.amazon.com/Break-Free-Stand-Your-Power-ebook/dp/B08B6D5KQG

Break Free to Health and Vitality Kindle Edition:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09J3Z269Y/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellesugiyama/

https://www.facebook.com/MindfulEatingNow

Mentioned Resources

https://mindful-eating.com/ and download your free Health Meal Ideas PDF

About the Host:

Howard Brown is a best-selling author, award-winning international speaker, Silicon Valley entrepreneur, interfaith peacemaker, and a two-time stage IV cancer survivor. He is also a sought-after speaker and consultant for corporate businesses, nonprofits, congregations, and community groups. Howard has co-founded two social networks that were the first to connect religious communities around the world. He is a nationally known patient advocate and “cancer whisperer” to many families. Howard, his wife Lisa, and daughter Emily currently reside in Michigan, and his happy place is on the basketball court.

Website

Http://www.shiningbrightly.com

Social Media

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/howard.brown.36

LinkedIn - https://wwwlinkedin.com/in/howardsbrown

Instagram - @howard.brown.36

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Welcome to the Shining Brightly show. I'm Howard Brown author speaker, Silicon Valley entrepreneur, international peacemaker, and yes to time stage for cancer patients survivor advocate. Each episode will take you from resilience to hope and a whole lot more. Because shining brightly does make the world a better place. Be prepared to be inspired.

Alone Hello, welcome to shining brightly. It's your host, Howard Brown, extraordinaire. We're so excited today. We have amazing guests that really helped people. They help people with their lifestyle, they help people shine brightly. That's what we got to keep doing. That's how the world is a better place. So today we have Michelle Sugiyama. I'm so thrilled to have you here. Welcome. How you doing?

Great, Howard, thank you for having me. It's such a pleasure and honor to be here with you today.

You look so refreshed back from vacation. I you got all your energy. I'm so excited to have you here. So, Michelle, the reason you're here today is that I have to tell you, I'm going to be the student, I need to learn how to be a mindful eater. Unfortunately, I just graze and grab food and I like I'm not really disciplined about this. I'm going to try to learn some discipline on paying attention really, really strongly today. So you're out in California, you are a biker, right? You ride a motorcycle.

I know.

My Strange but true fact that I learned about Michelle in our in the greenroom. So let me read your bio, and then you'll fill in because it's a little bit long, but I'll highlight the good stuff. So Michelle Sugiyama, you engage you inspire you empower individuals, clients, corporate employees to move towards their best self, oh my god, that's so powerful. You're the founder of mindful eating, and your mindful eating expert. You're nationally board certified and health and wellness coach, master certified health coach as well. And you're a two time international best selling author and speaker you've been highlighted in numerous employee wellness programs, in venues, seminars, as well as current area culinary demonstrations, you were named the most inspirational health and wellness coach and excellence by the global health and pharma in 2020. Wow. And you got two certifications, certification from culinary certification from a cordon bleu, and a master's in organic chemistry, which I think that was from your past from The Ohio State University. And you're a member of the United Research Forum for Scientific Committee. Oh, my goodness, and you've done so much. But you really, I think you want to for the last 18 years. Tell me what you've been bridging the gap to add on? What did I miss? I hope I hear that straw.

Sure. I've been bridging the gap between knowing you should be healthy and then actually doing it. And that can be fairly hard for a lot of people they know they should be healthy. They know they should be doing stuff, right? simple lifestyle changes, but then again, it's so hard. So I tried to just bridge it so they can actually do it.

And tell me who your passion and inspiration are and why.

Sure. So I have two inspirations. And one of them is my adopted daughter. Mikayla, she is now 11 going on 21. And I also have 101 While she's deceased now 101 year old grandmother. And her mantra was health is number one. And that is one thing that I tried to spread as far and as wide as I can because it certainly is

a memory. She's looking down on us. podcast, which is amazing. Oh, those are great inspirations and passions. Thank you for that. So I'm just a little confused. Here. We go from chemist to a wellness expert. You got you got to help me out here. How do you get from here to there? That's just a big detour. But a good detour. Tell me how you got there. Yeah,

well, I started out thinking I was going to be a chemist, right? I started out in the bench. Got my master's was, you know, doing lab work for many hours every day. And I was really an extrovert, really. So I wasn't really extremely happy. Being a chemist. I was in the industry for a decade. I traveled a lot. I met some great people, but it just really wasn't my bliss. It wasn't my passion. I didn't feel like I was actually helping people. Right. So then I just decided it took about two years actually for me to truly quit the job. And I said you know what, I'm gonna go to culinary school, because that was one of my passions was to cook. I would for enjoyment, read culinary books and look at pictures and since I was like in middle school, and I said you know What I'm gonna do this before it's too late. And so I went to culinary school did an externship in Avignon, France, which was amazing. Oh, my gosh. And then I came back to the States unscathed, because it was pretty hard work. And French chefs, you know, they're pretty tough. And decided I really wanted to help people. So I became a personal chef, focusing on healthy food for families and individuals. So they can, you know, eat around their own dinner table, have conversations with people that they love, because I just saw too many families going to grocery stores and filling their carts with really, very unhealthy food, a lot of frozen food, a lot of processed food. And I really wanted to try to help people that way. And then I was fortunate enough to be able to go and speak at some major corporations. So I would include healthy cooking demonstrations, as well as you know, educational stuff, so I could help individuals and corporate employees.

Well, as you know a little bit about me is that, you know, being a two time cancer, survivor, patient and healthcare advocate, diet, nutrition is really important, especially for colorectal cancer. It can make all the difference in the world. And I unfortunately, you know, went through the hard route of chemotherapy and surgeries. And now coming out of it, I'm learning to eat differently. I, it's very difficult for me to digest lettuce and roughage and things. So I have to work around that. But I'm learning and as I said, that's why I'm going to be the student today. So sure, sure. You know, I hear the term mindful eating. What how would you define it? What does that mean? Well,

the great thing about mindful eating is not a diet. So it is something that we can do, where we can enjoy, let's say, perfectly cooked pasta, you know, with wonderful aromas of garlic and fresh basil, or simply enjoy the taste and texture of homemade, let's say, chocolate ice cream or some other treat, but where we slow down, and we truly appreciate everything about that food, but we're also aware about our body, our spirit, our environment, right? So it's just really about awareness. And mindful eating started about the 1980s. But it's based on, you know, Eastern philosophy of mindfulness that's been around for, you know, 1000s of years. And it's truly about just being present being aware in the moment.

Can you can you be mindful eating a cheeseburger or a steak? Or is that off the off the grid?

No, you can absolutely, as a matter of fact, in one of my workshops, I do mindful eating and chocolate, chocolate tasting. And it's much like, you know, like a wine tasting, but we use dark chocolate, or you can use milk chocolate. But really, you can be mindful with anything that you are eating. Right. And

so it's really interesting that, you know, in a wine tasting, they actually tell you to look, swirl, and then use your nose they're trying to incorporate more senses into before you take that step. So would that be considered mindfulness?

Absolutely wouldn't be considered mindful. So actually, when I when I talk about mindful eating, I say really mindful eating, starts before you put anything into your mouth. Right? It's really about observing, like your environment, where you are, let's say you are at a party. All right. And there's like, amazing food in front of you and say, it's a buffet, buffet style, okay. And first of all, you went there hungry, you didn't eat all day, and you went there hungry, and you're having a great time. And you are like, Oh my gosh, you know, I'm going to just eat whatever I want, because I saved my stomach for that. And then you get up, pick up the plate right away. And then you just go from, you know, Table to Table. You eat quickly. You don't wait for your brain and your gut to connect, which takes about 20 minutes and then you get up right away and you get more food and that's that's being a challenge eater, what I say not a mindless a you're just being a challenge eater, but when you're mindful, it's just like, Okay, I know I'm going to an event tonight. I know there's going to be some amazing food. So what's the smart thing right hydrate a lot throughout the day, eat some healthy food, right? You don't have to eat a lot but eat small amounts of healthy food. Maybe also right before you get to the to the event so you're not starving. So all of a sudden, you don't like grab for a whole ton of you know, very unhealthy food, maybe that's got tons of fat right or tons of sugar. And so it starts even before you get to the event and then you So what I like to do is I like to kind of scan all the tables to see exactly what I'm going to choose before I even pick up a plate. And that way I kind of have a plan, right? It's even about good business, you got to have a plan, right? So I have a plan of what I'm going to eat. And then I take, you know, portions that I think are going to satisfy me, I don't take too many. And then I'll eat that kind of slowly enjoy myself, be mindful about, you know, the food, the aromas, the textures, but also, I'm enjoying the company that I'm with, because it's all about really like

that, because first of all, I heard you hydrate before, I really liked that, because hydration throughout the day is really important. I, that I tell that to anyone, you don't have to be, you know, in bad health, or a cancer patient, that hydrating is the key. That's really great. It is really hard. And we'll get to this next question. But it's a discipline because you feel like you go to these buffets, right? Or all you can eat, which is terrible, right? And you just want to get your money's worth, right? You're You're not thinking, you're thinking with your wallet, like, oh, I paid 9099. And I got to just keep going up to that buffet and eating and eating. So I think that you're you'll, when I ask this next question, we'll talk about some type of discipline. But what are some other reasons like, you know, we grab food, and we eat even when we're not hungry? Why do we do that?

Exactly. And there are so many reasons. And really, I try to unpack all of the reasons why we do grab food, when we're not truly hungry. And one of the, I guess, why I got into mindful eating is because for 15 years on and off, when I was in some very stressful times in my life, I was I actually had an eating disorder. And it lasted for quite a long time. And I really thought to myself at one point that it was going to kill me. And I really want to help a lot of people, like, unpack all of the reasons why they're getting hit with these eating triggers. And you can get hit with an eating trigger, all by itself, or you can have multiple eating triggers coming at you at the same time, or throughout the whole entire day. And we talked about water before, right? And hydration is actually one of the reasons why we grab food and we're not, we're not hungry. Wait, we might actually be thirsty. Hmm. And thirst can be a trickster, it can say, you know, it can make your brain think that you're hungry. So one of the things that I like to do, one of the tips is actually is to have people put water right next to their beds bedside on their bed stand, because that is the first thing that they see when they roll over in the morning. And that is their tip or their visual trigger that says okay, I need to start hydrating, right away.

That's a great tip. I want to key on something. I've read something recently that mostly mostly young teenage women, not always it could be college age, too. I hope not younger than teenage, but they're on Instagram. And the ability to everyone looks so polished, right? Because you have these apps that can make you look, you know, like a supermodel. And I heard that's driving a rise in eating disorders binge or, or bulimia or other stuff. That's frightening. It's just frightening the pressure in this digital world that we live in, you know, to be body perfect. And I just that goes along with eating right? So you have that discipline and that in your mind and things like that. It's not just stuffing your food and throwing up, it comes down to psychologic psychology and your high right?

It does it does. And you know, even before this digital age, I mean, there was a lot of pressure for young women to really have that perfect physique. I mean, in magazines on television. But yeah, it's there's a lot of stress and pressure. And stress is probably a very big reason why people grab food when they're not hungry. Frustration, anger, disappointment, loneliness, throughout COVID. Right. There's there's a lot of mental problems going that going on that's probably maybe caused people to eat when they're not hungry, a lot more than maybe pre COVID. I don't know. But there was a study done in 2018 by the Mental Health Foundation, and the respondents 46 of the respect 46% of the respondents said that they eat too much or they eat unhealthy food when they're stressed out. So with COVID It might, you know, be a lot more than 46%. So that's another reason why we grab food when we're not truly hungry. And that's one of the newer isolated

with COVID. Right, and we kind of were thrown in jail, right? And you brought up the stores of toilet paper and food and maybe they weren't the healthiest foods and snacking. So I used to hear that term the freshman 15 men and women but the COVID 20 Yeah, you know, people sat and they were less active and restrict Get on there movements and stuff and exercising. So what are some of the you know, you have some some, you know, top tips for us that we could take home with, after watching,

right, so other than hydrating, the top three easiest things that I think you can do when it comes to getting hit with stress, right is to walk, talk, or relax, to walk, talk relaxed.

And those things are so easy to do just to help us bring you back down, bring us back down, right and center ourselves. And you don't even have to walk very far, it could be just walking down, up and down your stairs a couple times, walking around your house, walking down the street, right talking could be just calling up a great friend and having a nice conversation for just a little while. And then relaxing, could be journaling, listening to music that you love. It could be meditating, if you are a meditator, or just simply doing deep breathing. And I love to do box breathing. I don't know if you've ever done it before

Howard. I've heard of it, but I'm not sure what it is. So

yeah, it's really simple. All you got to do is breathe in for a certain number of counts. Okay, breathe in for four counts. And then you hold for four counts. And then you exhale for four counts, okay? And then you maybe three reps of that. And then you'll just notice, it's just amazing how your stress level just comes down, like your shoulders start to drop from your ears, because you don't have times where you are like this, right? And we're all stressed out, we have a lot of stress in our shoulders or our jaw. You can even move your jaw back and forth. I love

it. Because it's real simple stuff that you can do. I have a chapter in my upcoming book shining brightly that talks about finding your happy place. And you suggested that it could be yoga, it could be music, it could be art, it could be cooking, or cooking, and maybe testing mostly quite nature. You know, you got to find that spot. For me. It's the basketball court. I feel like you know, I'm in the zone, and nothing matters out there. I'm out there and playing, playing some hoops, but you got to find that spot, or find that happy place for you. So those are really, really good tips. So what's coming up for you next? What do you got going on?

Oh, thanks for asking. Yes. So I have a six week mindful eating workshop that I do for corporate and also individuals. And I'll have one session coming up in September, which is probably after when this airs, so that perfect timing. And you can find that workshop on my website, mindful dash eating.com or mindful hyphen, eating.com. And it'll be under Events. And so that workshop is where we unpack all the reasons why we eat when we're not hungry. And then tips that you can incorporate into your everyday busy life to help you overcome these triggers. Right. And then some also some other things that you know will just help to heal your body from a cellular level. Because really, right that's what we that's what we need to do. And it can be small things, small steps, baby steps, but they all add up.

Well, mindful eating is going to help help everyone shine brightly. And, Michelle, you are shining brightly with us today. I'm so thrilled to have you. Please again, go to our website at mindful eating.com My website is shining brightly the.com with a book coming out and in the speaking circuit happening. It's just really important. I bring on interesting people like yourself, that are experts and can really help us move forward and keep on shining and listen, hydrate and grandma's mantra health is number one. Thanks for being here. Michelle. You're awesome.

Thank you.

Welcome. Thank you, Howard. Take care now.