Coaches Blog
The Story Your Body Tells
About a week ago my daughter asked me to put on my wedding dress. Amused by the idea, I put it on but I couldn’t do it up! Normally that would have made me upset and sent me into a tailspin about my diet and exercise, the “what am I doing wrong” or “what am I not doing enough of” head game. But this time it was different. Instead of jumping out of my body, […]
From Restriction to Lightness
These days, it always takes me a moment to really feel what kind of relationship with food I have now. Because it has turned into a subtle, very dignified and light flow of loving energy. It´s almost like a true friendship that fills your heart with joyful love, yet never pushes itself to the fore. To me, this really feels like a miracle! Not only was I convinced for so many years that I may […]
How to Turn Your Eating Challenge Into An Adventure
To make any big change with our eating challenges – and indeed health – there is a fundamental mindshift that has to take place. This is to move from struggle to adventure. The struggle mindset says “To shed this weight I need to punish and deprive myself. I don’t have the necessary willpower to make this change a natural part of my life. Therefore I must be my own drill sergeant/prison guard/irate headteacher, and constantly […]
Finally Freedom
After being a Body Oriented Psychotherapist for more than 25 years, I had to face the fact that there were some areas of my own reality that I totally ignored. I had been yo-yo dieting since I was 23 and for me the problem was not that I could not lose weight…but I could not keep it off. From Cetonic to the Paleo diets, from Acupuncture to Homeopathy, from Yoga to Pilates, I tried every […]
The Chef Who Couldn’t Eat
It was a summer Saturday like all the others. I had spent the day manning my popular farmers’ market stall on the small island where I lived, selling homemade wood-fired oven bread, jams, and chutneys made from local produce to islanders and tourists. I worked hard but I loved it! I went home that afternoon with a bit of a sore throat but decided to go out to a friend’s party anyway. It was cold […]
Finding my Feminine
There once was a little girl who grew up in what seemed to be your everyday normal dysfunctional family. She was the youngest out of 4 kids, her parents were divorced, and she was none the wiser as to how healthy families were supposed to function. Without falling in love with the person every little girl should have as their first great love, her father, she was desperate to be told she was lovely, she […]
Joy Bunny Returns
I am a Joy Bunny, similar to a Fun Fairy, sprinkling joy to all those who are willing to receive. Even though I was born this way, I became lost in the briar patch of life because of challenging events or comments from others. Others’ opinions of me filled my head, and my self-talk became negative and I questioned my worthiness. In addition, as a wife and a stay at home mom, I believed that […]
When I Decided to Heal
When I was nine years old, I decided that I was too chubby and needed to go on a diet. First, it was all about not eating at night, then it became about exercise and later it went into full-on restriction of all kinds of food. When I was 23 years old, I landed in a treatment facility because my body was slowly giving up and so was my psyche. As a result of struggling […]
Discovering Beauty
Who would have thought just 6 months after I decided to take my love of Health Coaching to the next level by enrolling in the Institute for The Psychology of Eating’s certification course that I would be facing the biggest body image challenge of my entire life? Ever since I can remember I have had an absolute love for all things health, fitness and longevity. This hobby increasingly became a part time job, though, because […]
This is Not You
When I think about my journey towards fitness, I clearly remember when and how I started. It started with comments from people around me who judged me for the way I used to look. I was called an elephant once, but then it triggered a desire in me to transform my physical personality. I started looking after myself and slowly this passion grew and developed in to a career. I started running classes and doing […]
Wanting. Trying. Trusting.
In the process of becoming a better coach, I’ve had the opportunity to be on the receiving end of a lot of amazing coaching from my peers. During one of those conversations, I was talking about wanting to lose some weight that I had gained after my father passed away. It was just enough weight to make my clothes a little tighter and to make me feel less comfortable in my body, after being at […]
Relaxing Into Life
I began to feel exhausted at the age of 15. As I approach my 30th birthday, it dawns on me that this is now half my life. I’ve tried everything to regain my energy, including going to various traditional medical doctors, acupuncture, supplements, functional medicine, bio-meridian medicine, radically changing my diet, yoga, therapy and various different healers. Some modalities were helpful, others less so. Eating healthy has made a tremendous difference, but nothing gave me […]
I Was a Wellness Teacher – and I Felt Like a Fraud
Thirteen years in, I’m familiar with the territory of being a practitioner in the health and wellness world. At age 18, I jumped into my first of three summers working at a fitness and weight-loss camp for overweight kids. At age 22, I became the founding wellness teacher at a school that wanted health and wellness to be a strong part of its identity. During my seven years there, I taught hundreds of kids, created […]
I Am Not Broken. There is Nothing to Fix.
The most important transformation I’ve had at this phase of my journey with food, body image and spiritual growth is my continued application of self-acceptance, compassion and – dare I say – love of myself and others. Creating an inner world of peace that makes it possible for me to reach out and help others find this for themselves is my driving force at present. I am done trying to fix myself because I have […]
Healing From the Inside Out!
When I started my healing journey I believed that food would save me. I thought that eating the right fruits and green leafy vegetables with nuts and seeds and legumes was the answer I had been hoping for. I had been diagnosed with colon cancer and I was looking for some control back in a situation that left me feeling vulnerable and scared. Eating a plant-based diet seemed like the solution – it helped me […]
Let Freedom Ring
Ah Freedom. What a wonderful thing to experience. Who knew life could be so sweet? I certainly didn’t. Freedom: “Absence of undue restrictions and an opportunity to exercise one’s rights and powers.” -Dictionary.com. Okay, sign me up for that. I used to think that freedom meant I could do whatever I wanted. Eat whatever I wanted and then just exercise it off. Drink and party as much as I wanted and because I was young […]
Your Exit Visa From Food Hell
We all know that there is no quick ‘n’ easy solution to weight loss or eating problems. For both myself and my clients, I see time and again how deep, lasting change is no overnight process. But once in a while you get an exit visa. What do I mean by this? Let me explain. There are two choices if you want to leave food hell: 1. Buy a magic pill. This is temporary leave […]
Transforming Masculine Exercise into Feminine Movement
I have always loved to exercise, but the truth is I have always exercised from a Masculine place – intense, goal-driven, forceful, competitive, aggressive and egocentric. Throughout the Eating Psychology Certification Training, Marc David shared the concept of Masculine and Feminine energy and it really spoke to me and resonated deeply. I was inspired to bring more Feminine energy into my life and I saw that the way in which I approached exercise would be […]
Feeling at Home in My Muffin Top
I tried on my favorite jeans this morning and they were a bit more snug than I expected. I glanced into the mirror hoping to prove otherwise. Unfortunately, suspicions were confirmed. My cute mini love handles graduated to full muffin top stature. It was enough to provoke a low level of pressure to do something about it. Then, the shame of hypocrisy set in because I teach about body image, self acceptance and compassion. I […]
Giving up on Fast and Easy- What True Health Really Required of Me
I used to dread the New Year. It’s that time when so many of us go searching for answers to the dissatisfaction with our physical selves. The diet industry then comes crashing in, claiming to provide us with everything we need to acquire the bodies we’ve always wanted. The choices are vast; an entire smorgasbord, so to speak, of nutritional plans, cleanses, memberships, machines, books, subscriptions and dietary food products that all promise to be […]
How to Be a Body Whisperer
The tides are changing in the world of health and wellness. Where we once heard phrases like: “No pain – no gain” “Push through the resistance” “Fake it ‘til you make it” We’re now hearing phrases like these: “Tune into you body” “Listen to your hunger” “What is your body saying to you?” “What food does your body really need?” “Tap into your body’s wisdom” This attitude shift from push and ignore the body to […]
Let It Go!
I recently completed a 30 day Hot Yoga challenge and throughout the 30 days, I continually asked myself, “what can I let go of?”, so that I could move deeper into my practice. The more I let go, the more I opened up and moved into my body and relaxed into the postures. Letting go of that which does not serve is probably one of the most important practices to cultivate in life. Letting go […]
Awareness Brings Change
My earliest memories reflect my desire to be IN my body. I was so connected to it in movement, feelings and desires. I felt strength, stability, security and love from within. It wasn’t until I reached my mid 20’s that the connection with my body began to weaken. Toxic beliefs and fears seeped in and I couldn’t shake them. They were shrouded in judgment and criticism. I didn’t understand why the connection was breaking…it was […]
Breaking the Rules
I wanted a sandwich for dinner – an avocado, melted Swiss cheese, cucumber and spinach sandwich on sourdough spelt bread. Yum! But before I took my first bite, the “nutritional choir” chimed in, singing: gluten is bad, bread will turn to belly fat, this meal has too many carbs and not enough protein, dairy is congesting, cucumbers aren’t in season, and on and on the singing went. My body was saying, “yes, this looks so […]