Archives 2020

How often do you lament “I’m far too busy with the kids, or work, or changing the world, I don’t have time to get to the gym!!!!”

It’s ok; I have some juicy justifications of my own that I role out from time to time!!!

We all know telling ourselves why we couldn’t do the thing we said we’d do — prevents us from shifting the weight.

We know that.

We’ve all seen the bumper sticker — you can have results, or you can have excuses.

The deeper tragedy

Having worked with hundreds of women, I’ve discovered when we let ourselves off the hook with justifications, rationalisations and excuses— there’s a much deeper tragedy playing out here.

You know the pain of betrayal you feel when someone you love lies to you? Horrible, isn’t it.

We lose trust in them. It’s human nature.

When we justify, rationalise, and come up with BS excuses as to why we did or didn’t do a thing, guess what happens?

We do it to ourselves…

We quietly break our own heart, and we stop trusting our own word.

And we damage that fragile connection. We’re betraying ourselves.

If you really must make stuff up, channel it into fanciful bedtime stories for your kids!!!

But stop bs-ing yourself.

Because your relationship, your connection – with yourself – is far too precious.

How to re-build trust again

And you can start re-building that fragile connection with yourself by being honest — surgically honest— with yourself.

Instead of blaming something or someone else for why you didn’t go for a walk, be honest enough to recognise you chose not to go.

Because it IS a choice.

Justification, rationalisation and BS excuses are a habit, and habits can be changed.

If you’d like help to re-build your relationship with yourself – so you trust yourself to do what you said you’d do – Lighten Up might be for you.

As a child, were you taught to eat everything on your plate?

If yes, today’s blog is for you.

The soundtrack to many of our childhoods was our mum or dad’s voice saying “you’re not leaving the table until your plate is clean, Missy.”

Growing up with this mealtime rule means many women – adult women – are stepping away from their dining tables feeling extremely bloated.

So if you’re saying “I can’t lose weight because my mum made me eat everything on my plate” then…lovely…

It’s truth time.

I’m declaring a statute of limitations on how long we can blame our parents for how they raised us!!!

You’re not a child anymore.

I get it.

Punished…

Maybe you were punished if you didn’t clean your plate. Hundreds of women have shared memories about how there was:

-no telly

-no ice-cream

-no toys

…. until the plate was clean.

Who’s the boss?

Here’s the thing…

when you were six, your mum was the boss of you!

But who’s the boss of you now?

Anytime you overeat into that place of “omg my waistband is too tight”, that’s YOU punishing YOU.

You’re an adult now.

You have choices you didn’t have as a child.

When are you going to hand in your resignation to your parents’ Clean Plate Club? It’s well overdue!!!

Eating everything on your plate is a habit, and habits can be changed.

And I promise, your mum will be totally fine with it!

If you’d like help removing your mum’s voice from your head – so you can be the boss of you and how much your eat- then Lighten Up might be for you.

Are you telling yourself ” blimey my jeans are tight, “I’ll start watching my weight after lockdown!”?

You’re in good company! Lots of women are.

The problem with promises of “I’ll eat better at some future date” is that those dates are completely meaningless.

If we’re honest, surgically honest with ourselves, what we’re saying is:

Right now, I won’t commit to myself.

And we know that future date n.e.v.e.r. e.v.e.r arrives.

Because when lockdown finally lifts, we’ll move the goalposts and delay our start date again and again and again

And here’s the real kicker…

In the meantime, we use the “I’ll start being healthier when lockdown’s over” to justify mindlessly eating rubbish today.

We know what that means:

We lose our confidence.

And our jeans get even tighter.

Because we’ve fallen for our own lie.

So what can you do instead, gorgeous?

Always start now.

In this breath.

In this moment.

START NOW

Being your happy shape and size is all about nourishing your body now.

Not at some future made-up-date that’ll never arrive.

Stop tricking yourself, stop delaying, and start making more nourishing choices today.

If you’d like to dive deeper into the habits that prevent you from being your happy shape and size, why not join my free community – Peace With Food – so you can live the joyful life you truly crave?

Are you snacking and nibbling more than you usually would as a way of dealing with the lockdown cabin fever?

I hear you.

Many women have shared how boredom eating has become their way of dealing with the monotony of quarantine fatigue.

‘Automatic pilot’

Often we boredom eat on ‘automatic pilot’ because it’s an old habit that’s been magnified by the uncertainty of lockdown.

The problem is we’re elbow deep in a packet of crisps or a bar of chocolate before we even realise what we’re doing.

Breaking the food trance

There are plenty of things to do to break the boredom – that we could do – that doesn’t involve opening the fridge or biscuit tin.

But at that moment, we forget there are other options.

So today, what I encourage you to do is pop a post-it on your fridge or your desk drawer or the biscuit tin.

This note needs to read:

“Are you really hungry? Or are you bored?”

What this note does is give you the space to be able to see the possibility of doing something else.

It breaks that trance we can fall into when we’re stuck in old unhelpful habits.

Seeing the post-it on the pantry door can be enough to remind us to do something else.

You’re bored.

You’re NOT hungry.

So please, know that you can stop eating when you’re bored.

Prepare for your afternoon zoom meeting, weed the garden, or call your mum.

Eating because you’re bored is a habit.

And like any habit, you can change it.

If you’d like to dive deeper into the habits that prevent you from being your happy shape and size, why not join my free community – Peace With Food – so you can live the joyful life you truly crave?

Are you sabotaging your weight loss by competing with your partner?

Here’s what I mean by that.

You see, I’m a fairly competitive person.

I have to really watch myself; otherwise, everything I do turns into a race or a competition — because that feels fun to me.

Weight loss stumbling block

But it has a major downside when it comes to weight loss.

For example,  when I’m serving up dinner, my competitive side, wants my portions to be as big as my man’s.

Like I win a gold medal if I eat as much as him?!

But, my husband and lockdown partner, is 6 foot something, while I’m 5 foot something.

That’s a big difference!

I get it. We women have been fighting for equal rights for years — but our dinner plates, our serving sizes, is one area that doesn’t serve us to compete.

Being your happy shape and size is all about COLLABORATING with your own body NOT about competing with your partner.

Please start collaborating with your body — and listen to her needs — rather than competing with your partner (or your teenage boys!)

So, lovely, collaboration with your body, not a competition with other people.

If you’d like help to get into a more collaborative relationship with your body, I encourage you to come on over to my Facebook group – Peace With Food.