Hello all, 

Lots to say today about the season.  I know things can get rushed, with more to get in each day.  I know each day this week there is an extra activity relating to my daughter’s world that is happening.  In the past,  I would have been running around, driven by my perfectionist to “get it all right” , leaving my self care and making nourishing meals in the dust.

Gratefully I have “finally” listened to how crummy I feel when I put others’ desires always first and how that impacts even how I feel about myself and being in my body.  Usually it boils down to feeling full of resentment in a time when  I desire to be full of reverance and joy.

Here are 3 ways to stay focused on your positive body and Intuitive Eating desires the next couple of weeks :

​1)  Make a plan for how you will get nourished.  This takes some level of caring about yourself.  My first suggestion:  take 10 min after you finish reading/watching this and write in your planner or in your phone when in your day you will take that walk, call a friend to connect, write in a journal, meditate, etc.  It doesn’ have to be long.  We are looking or the action that creates new neuropathways here.

2)  Take a close look at eating circumstances that stress you out or you have experience with that you don’t want to repeat.  For example, if you don’t want to over-eat at a holiday party, how can you show up ready for the outcome you want?  Do you need to not show up over-hungry?  Do you need to scope out the entire offerings of food (appetitizers, dinner and dessert) and decide which you want the most?  Do you need to set aside the food you want and afraid to not get your fill of?  Can you ask for a recipe of something you loved but didn’t have the room to finish?

3)  Know that just because people say things that bother you about food or weight doesn’t mean they are right.  What I mean by this is let’s say so and so relative says you shouldn’t eat sugar or bashes their own or other’s body.  Or so and so says “good thing  I a going to the gym tomorrow”.  That is totally their wounding.  We will only be triggered by that to the level that somewhere in us , we agree.  We can own that too but temper it with the inner wise grown up, more of our essense, we are working to run the show.  

You can say hello and thank you to all the parts of ourselves (the perfectionisht, the warrier, the victim, whomever  is using food and body image worries to protect us) and get grounded with you.  The you that wants more peace and to be free.

For a bonus: I recorded this video about turning toward what is somatically (physical sense of yourself and emotions internally) this time of year.  The reason so many of us use dieting behaviors is to shield ourselves from parts of ourselves we don’t like or don’t have the resources to feel all the through.  Listen for my thoughts on being with yourself.
As always, welcome your comments and strategies you have tried that have been successful with riding the waves of emotion and expectation that come up this time of you.

May you be well!
​Tracy