Here is a guest blog from our Women, Wine & Wellness - Lowry speaker for February, Sherry Hess, owner and creator of Living Flavor Revolution/Legendary Spice.
To receive an invitation to this private event, you can sign up here: 
http://www.waystooptimizehealth.com/women-wine-wellness-lowry.html​

I love this question. It’s such a great conversation starter. 

Food, and flavors have so much responsibility to us as humans. It is our sole source of fuel, it heals, rebuilds, energizes and sustains us every day. It also brings us emotional responses and can spark a memory out of nowhere. As simple as the question sounds, the answers that I have gotten over time have varied greatly. I find great joy in hearing stories about flavors, and particularly the WHY’s of what puts a flavor at the top of someone’s list.

Take a moment here and decide for yourself. What is your favorite flavor, and why? No judgement here, there are no parameters around what the definition of flavor is. Someone once asked me, “Is ‘taco’ a flavor?” Yes, of course! When I ask this question to start the conversation, anything goes!

Do you have your flavor in mind? Now sit with your “why?” Is it a childhood memory, like drinking grape soda at family picnics that makes you love everything grape? Or, does a particular flavor make you feel something physically like the heat of a jalapeño? Is it simply the flavor you reach for every day that goes with everything? Whatever the reason I’d love to know your why.

The first time I asked this question in a group, I was fascinated with the responses. They seemed to be affected by culture, memories, simplicity of eating as well as simple pleasure. Sometimes it was a flavor category and not tied to a specific food item. I loved that too. There didn’t seem to be a common thread and it intrigues me. Like I said, it’s a great conversation starter.

When the question circled the room and it came to me…. I couldn’t answer! Can you imagine? Here I am the flavor expert, posing contemplative questions and I froze! I think it’s because I know too much about all of the pros and cons and beautiful combinations various flavors can make. It’s like asking an artist to pick their favorite color on their paint palette. It’s practically impossible because every color responds differently when it’s mixed with or adjacent to every other color. How do you choose just one?

But, eventually I did. It’s butterscotch. It’s hard to find now because everyone thinks salted caramel is a better gig. I disagree. My "why" is about both the experience in my mouth and the memories it evokes. Butterscotch is buttery, savory, soft, rounded, with a hint of salt, plenty of sweet and that magical complexity of “scotch” hidden inside. And, well, it’s what I craved during my entire pregnancy with my son. I love the flavors AND it reminds me of nurturing and growing my beautiful boy.

Share with me! What’s YOUR favorite flavor and WHY?

Contact Sherry: https://legendaryspice.com  | legendaryspicegirl@gmail.com  | 302­-593­-7866 

During the month of February we’re focused on how you can best give yourself a Valentine with some Self-Care. I know you’ll agree that some healthy, self-caring behaviors can deliver immediate results or in a very short term. For example, you might have some favorite music that you play that always cheers you up or a hobby that gives you a lot of joy and its not hard to make time for it.
 
There are also some areas of self-care, though, that deliver more results in the long term and can, for some people, seem like a tough choice in the moment. For many people, good nutrition is an example of this, especially if they’ve never experienced the long-term benefits before. People know they need to have good habits in this area to feel their best, but when it comes right down to it, they can struggle with making those sensible, long-term choices. We know this to be true because of the massive failure of dieting as a strategy for getting healthy. It turns out diets are hard to stick to!!
 
So what is going on? Well, two different parts of the brain are in a battle here.
 
The emotional part of the brain responds positively to instant gratification. It can seem so much more appealing in the short term to eat that brownie when you get home from work. After all, it tastes delicious and the sugar and processed flour give a bump to your feel-good brain chemicals. You are on a sugar high! Actually we humans are designed in our hard wiring to seek out high calorie foods so it is natural for us to want them.
The emotional brain says “Yes” to the brownie!
 
The logical part of the brain, though, tries to reason it out. It knows that you should just wait to eat a healthy dinner, that would be better for your long-term health and that you’ll feel better in the long run.
 
Unhealthy choices usually happen on impulse when the emotional part of your brain triumphs over the logical one.
So how do you keep your logical brain in the driver’s seat?
 
I’ve found that one of the biggest reasons for the emotional brain to be running the show is stress and overwhelm. The logical brain can only function well when you have some reserves in the tank. If you are run ragged emotionally and physically depleted, then there is a good chance you’ll be short on logic and behave more impulsively. It’s going to be really tough in these conditions to implement any healthy, new habits that will only pay you back in the long term.
 
Reducing stress and overwhelm by having a backdrop of regular self-care and ensuring that you include positive activities in your life that bring you joy, are essential to you being able to respond well in the moment.
 
Ways to do this could be hobbies, connecting and being present with loved ones, reading, regular exercise, yoga, massage therapy, daily meditation, daily affirmations, being organized, setting boundaries, essential oils or journaling. I am sure you have many other ideas so brainstorm your own list and start incorporating them in your routines.
 
Of course there are a number of other things you can do to increase your chances of success with transforming your unhealthy patterns. I love helping people figure out and implement these strategies. It’s a huge piece of the Break the Yoyo Diet Cycle Program and for many people it is foundational to being able to implement real and lasting change in their lives. After all, if it were easy to stick to a nutrition self-care plan more people would be doing it.
 
We’ve got some great deals this month to help you with Self-Care so please take a look, we’d love to help. <3