I Wore the Dress!!!

I WORE THE DRESS!!!

A few weeks ago I went shopping. While at the store, I wanted to buy a certain dress, but it was sleeveless and I was feeling self-conscious about my arms.

In the end I bought the dress, I brought it home, and I wore the dress anyway.

Even though I still had some hesitation about wearing it in public, I decided to let my healthy voice win.

You see, we all have an “unhealthy voice” in our heads and a “healthy voice”.

Our unhealthy voice is the voice that tells us “you look fat in that outfit” or “you need to lose weight” or “are you sure you want to eat that? Look at the calorie count”.

Our healthy voice says “these are my arms and there’s nothing wrong with them” or “this dress is beautiful and I’m going to wear it anyway”.

This time, I chose to listen to my healthy voice, and I’m so glad I did.

The process of learning to accept your body isn’t always easy, but it is possible.

Just like me, I’m sure you have a dress or outfit sitting in your closet that you haven’t worn because you don’t feel attractive enough in it.

I just want to encourage you to reject your unhealthy voice and wear it anyway.

When I wore my dress, I felt beautiful. I’m so happy I decided to accept myself for how I look and put on the dress.

P.S. - If you're a woman who wants to learn more about self-love and body acceptance, sign up for my newsletter. It's filled with so much good info. I can't wait to share it with you! Sign up here

You Don't Have to Eat the Entire Bag of Candy

JUST BECAUSE THE BAG OF CANDY IS SITTING THERE DOESN'T MEAN YOU HAVE TO EAT THE WHOLE THING.

I had an awesome experience today. I wanted some candy. If you've been following my posts, you know that I no longer follow diet culture rules, and instead follow the principles of intuitive eating.

In other words, IF I WANT SOME CANDY, I ALLOW MYSELF TO HAVE SOME CANDY!

Let me tell you how amazing it feels to give myself permission to eat candy whenever I want it.

The reason I'm able to do this is because I'm no longer eating candy to dull my emotions. Instead, I only eat candy now if I truly want it.

LET ME EXPLAIN MORE...

How many times have you eaten sweets, but when you really stop to think about it, you were only eating it to make you feel better about something else going on in your life?

It's not your fault. That's how our culture teaches us to respond.

You have a bad day at work? Eat some M&M's.

Get in a fight with your spouse? Eat a Snickers bar.

Your kids stressing you out? Eat some skittles...then eat some ice cream too while we're at it.

That's how so many of us react to stress, and it's how I used to react to stress too.

I used to eat to make the pain go away. Anyone identify with this?

But I don't do that anymore because I've learned a better way (and I can teach you a better way too).

Now if I'm stressed or upset, I deal with it through ways that don't involve eating.

That means I only eat candy when I actually want candy...not because I'm trying to run away from something else in my life.

Learning how to do this has been so transformative.

Today, when I bought myself candy, I really thought about it after every bite. I checked in with myself. I asked myself if I felt satisfied or if I wanted more.

Once I'd had enough, I stopped. Well, to be completely honest, I probably ate one more handful past feeling satisfied, but the point is, THERE WAS STILL CANDY LEFT IN THE BAG WHEN I GOT DONE!

I did not feel like I had to eat it all just because it was there!

How many times have you bought a bag of candy, or cookies, or chips, and before you know it, you've eaten it all?

And not just that, but you can't even really remember what it tasted like.

You were distracted while you ate it. And since you were eating it in reaction to something (anxiety, pain, fear, stress), your only thought was to eat it as fast as possible so you could feel better.

How many times have you wished you knew another way to cope?

The good news is, I've learned another way to deal with life without eating to avoid feeling my feelings.

So now, when I do choose to eat sweets, I can stop when I've had enough because I'm eating strictly for the enjoyment of the food...and nothing more.

Do you want this for your life too?

If so, I can help you.

MY COACHING PROGRAMS ARE FOR:

Women who identify as emotional eaters.

Women who are tired of dieting all the time.

Women who are tired of hating themselves and their bodies.

Women who want to learn how to love ALL of themselves.

Women who no longer want to use food to escape from the stress of life.

Women who want to learn how to listen to their body by eating when they're hungry and stopping when they're full.

WITH MY UNIQUE METHOD, YOU WILL LEARN:

How to ditch the diet mentality

How to overcome emotional eating

How to love yourself now

How to stop worrying all the time about calories, points, and macros

How to eat according to your body's natural hunger and fullness cues.

I can't change the fact that negative emotions will come. What I can teach you to change is your response to those negative emotions.

You do not have to use food to cope with the stress of your life anymore.

You can learn how to eat the candy just because you want some, then leave the rest of it in the bag when you've had enough.

P.S. - If you're a woman who wants to learn more about self-love and body acceptance, sign up for my newsletter. It's filled with so much good info. I can't wait to share it with you! Sign up here

Have You Ever Eaten to Deal with the Stress of Work?

HAVE YOU EVER EATEN TO DEAL WITH THE STRESS OF WORK?

Tell me if this sounds familiar.

Work is stressful...so you eat to cope.

You have deadlines to meet...so you eat to cope.

You have a ton of patients to see...so you eat to cope.

You have families that are upset...so you eat to cope.

You're burned out from work...so you eat to cope.

You're short-staffed again...so you eat to cope.

I completely understand, because I've been there before myself.

I've been a doctor for 17 years, and over the years, I'd developed an unhelpful habit of eating to deal with stress.

When I think about it, it probably started in med school, or maybe even in college. Eating became one of my go-to ways to deal with the enormous pressure I was under.

Maybe you understand where I'm coming from because eating is also how you deal with stress, especially the stress from the last year.

If you gained weight this past year, don't beat yourself up. You simply didn't know a better way to deal with your stress.

It's not surprising that you gained weight when you think about how good food makes us feel. It's meant to be pleasurable.

However, the problem comes when we consistently use food to make us feel better. We choose to get high on food, because when we do, the pain lessens.

When our brains get a dopamine hit from eating candy or chips, it makes us feel better.

That feeling is short-lived, though.

Before you know it, you're chasing the high that food gives you, and you're eating more and more just to deal with life.

I've lived it so I know exactly what you're going through.

The good news is, THERE IS A BETTER WAY!

I recently went back to work, and it was incredibly stressful. But you know what I didn't do? I didn't eat just to numb my emotions.

Instead, I found other ways to deal with my stress.

It sounds so easy, but if it were as easy as it sounds, none of us would ever reach for comfort food as a way to feel better.

It took me awhile to learn this, and now that I know it, I'm taking what I learned and teaching it to you.

P.S. - If you're a woman who wants to learn more about self-love and body acceptance, sign up for my newsletter. It's filled with so much good info. I can't wait to share it with you! Sign up here

My Trainer Made Me Lose My Sanity

 MY TRAINER MADE ME LOSE MY SANITY

Facebook recently showed me a memory from July 2020.

1 year ago I had just finished a weight loss program with a personal trainer where I lost 30#.

What I didn't realize back then was that the trainer and his weight loss program was a perfect set up for disordered eating.

The reason his program worked was because he had me restrict my food to the point where I was barely able to eat anything.

I certainly wasn't eating as much as my body needed, and there were so many foods I wasn't allowed to eat.

No wonder I lost weight. If you starve yourself, you will lose weight.

But the problem is, when you go on a diet, weight isn't the only thing you lose.

You also lose your sanity.

Let me explain what losing your sanity while dieting looks like.

Have you ever been on a diet and found that all you think about is food? Every day, all day, you spend your time obsessing about all of the food you're not allowed to eat. Then, after a few days, you break down because you can't take it anymore, and you eat everything in sight.

But as soon as you take your last bite, the shame sets in. The shame sets in as you take inventory of all of the "bad food" you just ate that you weren't supposed to eat on your diet.

So you vow to get back on your diet. And the cycle of restrictive eating and yo-yo dieting starts again.

That's my definition of losing your sanity. Dieting absolutely sucks!

So in July 2020, my FB memory showed me that although I had lost 30#, I was sicker than I had ever been before.

Back then, I thought the answer to my problems was going on a restrictive diet. My trainer was dangerous, but at the time I didn't realize it. I thought he knew what he was doing.

Now I know he was leading me down a very unhelpful path.

In our society, dieting is so common that we never stop to question it. Why do we let a trainer tell us what to eat? Why do we think a trainer knows what our body needs more than we know?

When you think about it, it makes no sense.

Thankfully, I finally broke free from the thinking that says diets are the way to go and losing weight by whatever means necessary is the ideal.

I've learned a new way to live.

How would you like to be able to live your life without going on another diet?

How would you like to love yourself RIGHT NOW in your current body?

How would you like to eat whatever food your body actually wants?

How would you like to stop putting food into "good" and "bad" categories, and just enjoy food for what it is without feeling guilt?

This is how you get your sanity back around food, and I can help you reclaim it.

I have been where you are now, and trust me, it's not a pleasant place to be.

Now, I eat what I want, when I want it. I've still actually lost weight as my body readjusts to my natural set point. And, I don't have to starve myself or deal with some trainer yelling at me for eating too many grams of carbs.

P.S. - If you're a woman who wants to learn more about self-love and body acceptance, sign up for my newsletter. It's filled with so much good info. I can't wait to share it with you! Sign up here