We exert so much energy trying to control our food and trying to control the way our bodies appear. 

Because we’ve been taught to think that this kind of control will be the antidote to the parts of our lives, the parts of ourselves, that we feel most vulnerable about.

→Our bodies.

→Our self-worth.

→Our ability to make things look easy. Like we’ve got our shit together.

Control in its basic form is a response to feeling powerless in some way.

So when we look at the staggering number of women engaging in disordered eating patterns, it makes so much sense.

We feel powerless. We feel ashamed. We feel self-doubt.

How do you want to feel in your body?

No, not how do you want to feel once your body is the size you’ve been dreaming about.

In this current moment, what are the feelings that you want to feel, and truly experience, in your body 🙆🏻?

→Yes, even if you feel uncomfortable in it!

Let’s talk about willpower real quick.

Around this time of year food and body comments run rampant.

“It can't believe I’m eating these ____. It’s like I can’t stop!”
“You have so much self control! I can’t be around _____ without losing my sh*t.”
“Don’t judge me, but I’m going to eat ____.”
“If I can just make through these 30 days without ______ I’ll be golden.”

We rely on the idea of willpower, hoping it’ll help us follow restrictive diets. That it’ll help up control ourselves around food and lose those last ____ pounds this new year.

Although Thanksgiving has become a day for overindulgence and many times a built in day to get your eat on, I want to encourage you to take a macro view. Zoom way out to see your entire day. Yes, the appetizers and food will be aplenty, but what else will be going on? What is really important to you on this particular Holiday? How do you want to feel before, during and after your day?

The organizing, the prepping, the cooking, the entertaining, the perfecting (🙋🏻 ) and even the cleanup can be exhausting and so stressful. 

Oh, don’t worry, I didn’t forget about other serious sources of stress…

THE EATING. Potential weight gain. The pies taunting you from the back room. The diet talk, comments on your body size and fear of judgement about what you are/aren’t eating.

At the pits of the disorder I found myself in the all too similar place of I where I had been when I carried more physical weight- the anxiety and depression were still there. I was still hyper-focused on the way my body appeared, which continued to fuel the feelings of shame, worry of not being good enough and steepened the spiral and isolation of depression.

I was using the disorder to cope, and escape, to comfort and soothe.

Hello darkness, my old friend!

Let’s break down the word emotion real quick.

This is a great tool to call to mind when you feel like you just can’t deal with those tough feelings… those emotions that can be so overwhelming that you want to hide under the covers and never come out.

Emotion → E-motion → Energy in motion

5 tips to get started on your journey toward body acceptance.

Whose body rules are you living by?

Spoken rules and unspoken rules…

Without acknowledging and questioning them, they can dictate how we see and treat ourselves.