Some really eye opening, (and often funny) insights come to my clients when they start thinking about WHO’S ACTUALLY EATING.
There are a lot of ways we can completely check out while we’re eating, and one of the most surprising is when we find out IT HASN’T REALLY BEEN US doing the eating.
I know this sounds far-fetched but it’s not; here’s what I mean-
If you grew up in a family, and that family ate food, you picked up a lot of habits and beliefs, likely without even realizing it, about “How I Should (or shouldn’t) Eat“.
This happened recently to a client:
We’d been working together for just a few weeks, and she was beginning to get deeply aware of how she felt when she ate certain foods, and what happened when she ate them. It was a completely different approach for her, and she was having a lot of fun with it compared to her Old Diet Mentality of “I have to give up the stuff I love” that had never really worked for her long-term anyway.
Here’s what she said –
“I’d done a favor for my elderly neighbor, and as a thank-you she made me some dark chocolate almond bark, which I love. My first thought was, “Oh no, I can’t eat this! I’ll gain weight! I’ll start eating too much sugar again!“. But my second thought was, “Let’s see what I want here, nothing to be afraid of.” So I sat down, slowed down and took a bite.
Hmmm, what’s going on here? I took another bite, just to be sure. I couldn’t believe what happened. As I’ve been getting so much more aware of how I feel when I eat lately, I notice I’m not eating nearly as much sugar, it’s just happening naturally without my “working” at it.
Even a few weeks ago, I’d have eaten the whole plate of, but this day I found out it was too sweet for me to authentically enjoy more than a few bites. But oh, did I ever enjoy those few bites.
But then something weird happened and I had this sense like I “had” to keep eating – my Mom’s voice was in my head saying, “Honey, don’t waste that now, finish it up, she made it just for you!” And it was SO great to finally understand I can give this back, that after all these years it was my Mom eating MY Food, not really me. it was crazy! And from here I learned how to give this energy back to her, with love, and only keep what’s mine.
In the moment I caught this, I stopped eating with no conflict whatsoever, it was an easy choice, with total peace. It sounds like a little thing, but it changed EVERYTHING for me, it was amazing! And I can do my own eating now, yikes, I’m 43 years old!”
What a powerful experience that was for her. The tools she’d been learning in our work together helped her practice her awareness of HOW she felt in the moment, to notice what she’d never noticed before, although she realized it had been this way for a long time.
How much gentler, truer and easier this is than
The Old Way That Doesn’t Work…..!
Okay, it’s your turn now.
Here are a few power questions to get you started:
- What were the food stories you heard growing up?
- Do the habits or beliefs you grew up around still serve you today, or is it time to create some fresh ones?
- Are you still subtly fighting against them? (I’ll eat whatever I want, no one can tell me what to do)
- Or do you let them run the show? (Everyone on my Dad’s side carries extra weight)
Ironically, both of these last two make it almost impossible to eat with pleasure, or release any excess weight for good, and that’s exactly what I’m here to help you with.
I invite you to play around with this in a lighthearted and curious way.
It’s almost a guarantee that you can take back some personal power by shedding some old habits that will lighten you up, literally!
And as always, you can find out if this work is a fit for you here.
If you’re ready for some real help, you got it.
No more pushing, no more deprivation, no more guilt. Naturally and organically, start knowing what the heck you want and why you want it. Sounds pretty good, huh……..?!
Here’s to awakening your natural relationship with food, body and soul,
Love,
Marina