Have you ever felt guilty around food? Do you ever find yourself eating mindlessly, without real awareness of what you are eating? Or maybe you have a fear of food because of past experiences related to food or your body…
I am going to help you overcome some of these feelings so you can ditch the emotional eating AND all the negative feelings that come along with it! We are going to bust the barriers that are holding you back from enjoying food and using it for FUEL. We are going to find a balance between enjoying the foods we eat and fueling our bodies with nutrition.
I am so passionate about this because I was there. I was the girl who wasn’t happy with her body. I was uncomfortable and constantly comparing myself to other girls. Deep down I knew nothing was wrong with me, but it sure felt like there was.
When I put on clothes in the morning, I would critique myself. “Your legs are too fat.” “You need to be skinnier.” “She is way prettier than you.”
I got stuck in this inner battle of wanting to look differently because of how I felt on the inside.
This was consuming. Everywhere I went I was looking at other girls, comparing myself to them. When I wasn’t around other girls I would look at myself and still be unhappy.
I had an unhealthy relationship with food too. My food consumption depended on my mood. If I was having a bad day, you bet I would be having an extra scoop of ice cream that night. Because ice cream makes you happy right?
By the way, this is nothing against ice cream. I still enjoy my ice cream now and then, but I don’t NEED IT to make me happy or make my day better.
With a lot of learning and hard work, things started to change. As I went on a journey to healing my body image and releasing the emotional attachment to food, I started to feel GOOD. I stopped comparing myself to other girls so much. I felt comfortable in the clothes I was wearing. Not because they were a certain size, but because I was comfortable in my own skin.
When I learned how to be comfortable in my own skin, I changed. I was HAPPY. I was CONFIDENT. I wasn’t the completely shy girl who hid from others, didn’t stand up for herself, and never said no.
I had boundaries. I said no when I needed to. I was healthy. I felt GOOD.
WHAT DO YOU THINK GOOD WOULD FEEL LIKE FOR YOU? Have you been there? If not, I want you to really visualize what that would look like.
Let’s dive into what you can do to get there.
And let me say this: CHANGE IT POSSIBLE. Change is possible. But you have you put in the work and you have to be consistent. It won’t happen overnight and it might be hard work, but believe that change is possible.
1) STOP NEGLECTING YOURSELF
In order to make changes in your life, you have to stop neglecting yourself. As a society, we are told to be selfless. And it’s true that we need to think of others, but YOU HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF IN ORDER TO TAKE CARE OF OTHERS.
And in order to truly love and care for others, it has to start with you.
When I started my journey to overcoming my issues with food and my body, I started to prioritize myself. I was making sure I was taking care of myself and had my needs met.
My journey started with some minimal self-care. I was on a mission to feel better in my body, and I knew that in order to feel good in my body I had to take care of my body.
So I started taking care of myself… slowly at first.
Just one thing at a time.
I started with the physical, then moved to the mental, then the emotional. It was a journey.
I had always been pretty active, so I focused on moving my body in ways that felt good and that I enjoyed. When I began to enjoy the movement, I became more consistent. When I became consistent, I started to notice a difference in how good I felt. (See how much of a difference consistency can make in just one thing??)
I also started to focus on what I was putting in my body and how I was fueling my body. Here’s where the mindset shift comes.
Exercise and nutrition are used in the way your mind decides for them to be used.
When you use food because you are feeling sad, you are emotional eating. When you use it to fuel your body, you are eating to fuel (aka energy to take action). See the difference?
We have to become more conscious of WHY we are eating and be more present in the moment to use food as energy for our bodies instead of our emotions.
You deserve to take care of yourself!!
What if these consistent steps could change the way you feel in your skin, the confidence you have, and the happiness you feel???
WE ALL HAVE NEEDS. And we definitely need to take care of ourselves.
2) OVERCOME THOUGHTS AND BEHAVIORS
We have to overcome the mindset that we need to put ourselves last. It starts with you. With you taking action.
As I mentioned before, I started with the physical feeling, then moved to mental and emotional. I think we often, at least I do, forget about the emotional healing. But it’s as much a part of it as physical and emotional.
So I did two things.
I started reading 10-15 minutes of a personal development book a day. And I invested in coaching and therapy.
By the way, I didn’t always WANT to do these things, but I did them anyway. And that’s sometimes what we have to do to create change.
I started to grow my mindset through the reading and this is a continual process. I continue to read some every day, because as humans we are always learning and growing.
The coaching and therapy has helped me process my emotions and have the ability to grow into the woman I want to be and achieve my biggest dreams (one of which is being here with you all today).
Here is the process I used to start overcoming thoughts and change behavior.
Become aware of your thoughts, behaviors and emotions.
Replace the thoughts and behaviors
This is the same with emotional eating. We have to become aware of our patterns and our emotions in order to overcome the emotional eating.
We have to understand WHY we are using emotional eating instead of a coping skill or different strategies to reduce the unpleasant emotions.
When we have a thought about ourselves or someone else that creates a negative emotion, going to a self-destructive, negative behavior (i.e. emotional eating) is natural.
So when we have a negative thought about our body or we are going through a tough time, we feel sad or mad or some other negative feeling. So food is a comfort when those feelings come, and the behavior is emotional eating.
When we replace the behavior with something else, we break the cycle!
3) COMMUNITY
We can’t do this alone. As humans, we are made to biologically need other people. That’s why support and community is so important.
About two years into my self-love journey I joined a community of other women…
Up until that point I was inconsistent and not motivated.
I was just going through the motions.
This community changed everything.
I started ENJOYING the journey.
I started showing up for my workouts excited and FUELING my body.
I had motivation to stop turning to food when I was feeling down because I had so many women supporting and encouraging me.
So when I had the thought that food would be comforting, I was reminded of the community of women on the other side of my screen, encouraging me to choose otherwise.
IT WAS POWERFUL. And it still is.
Relationships are shown by research to be one of the biggest indicators of happiness.
Seeing other women on their self-love journey gave me the push I needed to be more consistent and see real changes.
“The most powerful force on the planet is that we become consistent and congruent with the expectations of our peers.”
Think about that for a minute.
Growing up we were told what to do. Whether by our parents, teachers, or peers.
We had expectations. One of the hardest things about growing up is we no longer have those expectations. And because of that we no longer have a push to grow.
We get pressured to succeed at work, to pay the bills, to have the perfect life.
But are we pressured to be our happiest selves??
No.
What if you had a community of women that were all committed to the same goals you are?
What if you could be in an environment that finally encouraged you to show up??
Maybe you don’t suck, maybe your environment sucks.
You can’t plant a flower on your driveway, right?
This tells me that the environment you’re planted in is the single most important ingredient in your growth process.
That’s why I’m so passionate about the community of women I’ve developed for the past couple years.
What if I had a group for the busiest women that need focus and accountability so they can get the most self-love growth for their time without sacrificing responsibilities or family??
It combines the accountability you need with the support you crave, and the steps that will get you to the place where you love your body!!!
That’s why I created The Beloved Bodies Project.
You are here for a reason.
Things can change. And they will if you are ready to put in the work and invest in yourself.
You don’t have to stay where you are.
You CAN feel good and happy in your skin. You can be confident.
You CAN ditch the emotional eating and use food to fuel your body.
Are you ready?
Get more information on the group here and start changing your life today!
