Category Physical

If you feel like you “blew it” with Halloween treats, this video is for you.

I’ll admit I got pretty excited about the chocolate treats while at a party on Saturday.

And boy oh boy did I pay for it on Sunday! I woke up with a massive sugar hangover. Haha.

Was this you too?

Spiral from Halloween to the New Year….

I’m going to be honest. The old perfectionist me would’ve felt super guilty about eating the chocolate which would’ve spiralled into a guilt-ridden junk-food binge that would’ve lasted until January’s NY’s resolutions.

My perfectionist voice would’ve said: “Well you already ‘blew it’ so you might as well keep blowing it for the rest of the week, end of the month, until the new year.

You too?!!

Guilt begets guilt….

Can you see how insidious that is?

We feel guilty from eating Halloween chocolate, which leads to EVEN MORE guilt eating.

It’s a very slippery and depressing slope.

Here’s what to do instead…

Recognise your ‘perfectionist thinking’.

Stop believing the lie that your mind is trolling you with.

The fib that: “eating Halloween chocolate is the end of the world”.

So, you had some chocolate. (Maybe quite a lot of chocolate)

…..big whoop!

You haven’t blown anything. (That’s the old diet mentality kicking in).

No food is off-limits

The way I live is that no foods are off-limits.

Enjoy the delicious chocolate, and enjoy the Halloween fun – that’s a beautiful part of life.

And now that Halloween is over for another year, I encourage you to get back to eating the foods that nourish your body.

Simples.

Stop being so dramatic!!!

It’s not the chocolate at Halloween that prevents weight loss.

It’s the choices you make the next day and the next and the next that makes the difference.

So please, call yourself out on your perfectionist thinking and get back to nourishing your body again today.

I hope you found that helpful and I look forward to seeing you next week with another making peace with food tip.

Love etc, Avril x

PS: Helping women take back their power from that perfectionist voice is one of my superpowers. If you’d like help eliminating that trolling voice in your head so you can feel more in control around food, drop me an email.

Is this you?

How many mornings do you promise “today I’m going to start eating smaller portions!!!!”

But when you sit down at your computer after lunch, you wonder how the waistband of your trousers got so darn tight!

Here’s something I want you to ponder next time you’re tempted to eat a portion size larger than your body requires.

Ponder this…

There’s PLENTY of food.
There is more than ENOUGH food.
There’s an ABUNDANCE of food.

Obviously, there are food shortages in certain countries around the world, and that’s a tragedy.

But if you’re living NZ, Australia, UK, USA Europe – there’s oodles and oodles of food.

So …. all we have to do is remember that truth when we sit down at the table.

When we remember…

Because when you remember that there’s enough food – you’ll eat the perfect amount for your body.

Scarcity and anxiety…

But when we forget there’s enough food, we feel anxious and our scarcity-mindset kicks in, and we eat far more than we our body needs.

We eat to excess to compensate for the feeling of not-enoughness.

So, remember this ….

There is enough food.

And while we’re at it, let’s go a layer deeper….

There’s enough food, AND you too are enough.

Remind yourself of your enoughness before, during and after every single meal.

OK, lovely?

If you struggle remembering there’s enough food, and the truth that you too are enough, you might like to join the 100s of happy women who’ve made peace with food in Lighten Up. Next round starts in July.

Sounds strange – very strange indeed – but it is true.

Negative thinking can limit your weight loss.

Here’s how.

When you think negative thoughts, you influence the biochemistry of your body.

When you think negatively, your body floods with cortisol and adrenaline.

Cortisol and adrenaline = stress hormones

They’re both stress hormones which cause your body to hold onto extra weight.

While I’m not saying negative thinking actually contains calories, it’s clear that what happens in your head directly influences your body.

Now, I’m not suggesting for a minute that you need to remain in a state of “life is wonderful” every second of the day to lose weight.

But what I am suggesting is breaking that insidious habit of perpetually seeing things worse than they are.

Here’s how to do that.

Remind yourself of this truth:

Your mind creates thoughts like the heart creates beats.

Just because we have thoughts in your head, doesn’t mean we need to believe them.

It’s just your mind creating thoughts.

So the next time you’re tempted to go down a negative rabbit hole of worry, anxiety, negative thoughts – remind yourself that the mind creates thoughts like the heart creates beats.

I hope you found that helpful and I look forward to seeing you next week with another making peace with food tip.

If you’re ready to feel more in control and confident around food, the virtual gastric band hypnosis can help.

C’mon over to Lighten Up.

Would you like to know a super simple language mistake that many overweight women make?

Let’s see if you’re making it as well.

So many of the clients I work with talk about my fat thighs, my depression, my enormous appetite, my muffin top.

Now, the problem is this.

Our unconscious mind is very reluctant to let go of anything we prefix with the word ‘my’ or ‘mine’.

Anytime we call something ‘my’ or ‘mine’, we have a very strong sense of ownership over it, and we find it difficult to part with it or let it go.

Can you see how it’s counterproductive to keep calling something you don’t want to keep – mine – while all the time longing to be free of it?

So what I encourage you to do is only prefix something you want to keep and are proud of, with ‘my’ or ‘mine’. Like ‘my determination to my health’ or ‘my commitment to my wellbeing’.

You can take back your power back by depersonalising the way you label the bit extra that you’re carrying.

For example, ‘this’ bit extra or ‘the’ muffin top.

As soon as you talk about ‘the’ muffin top, or ‘this’ extra weight, you’re removing the emotional connection to it, and it makes it much much easier for you to be free of it.

‘This’ and ‘the’ are neutral words.

(Which also explains why we women hate being called ‘the’ wife instead of ‘my’ wife!!! It’s very depersonalised).

So no more talk of ‘my’ big bum, ‘my’ love of chocolate, ‘my’ need for crisps.

Depersonalise anything you want to let go of by using ‘the’ or ‘this’.

Back when I was elbow-deep in my own personal food battle, I was scathingly dismissive of any kind of self-care.

“How incredibly trivial it is!” I thought as I soldiered on, martyring myself.

But, now that I have peace with food, I know self-care is an essential adult life-skill.

And it correlates directly to our health, happiness, and wellbeing.

Many of the women I work with have a history of caring so much for others, for so long, that they’re seething inside and wondering why they keep bingeing on food.

No matter where you are on your making peace with food journey, we women need to remember that.

1. Self-care is life-giving oxygen

When we practice regular self-care, we’re more able to focus on our goals, we’re more engaged and productive, and less drawn to self-sabotaging “escape” behaviours like stress or resentment eating.

2. Self-care creates feelings of relaxation, calm, and peace

When we’re relaxed, our self-repair mechanisms are activated, which is great for digestion and improves our immune functioning.

3. Little eyes notice everything you do

We all know that actions speak louder than words.

The way you respect your own needs is a much more powerful example to the youngsters in your home than any words you say.

We, women, need to walk our talk and show the younger generation that self-care isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity for a happy, healthy life.

So from today, take the time to go for that walk in nature, enjoy that fiction novel that’s been sitting on your bedside table for months, or start that hobby you’ve been contemplating for years.

However you choose to do self-care, know this gorgeous—you are worthy and deserving of self-care, freedom and fun. So take care of you, okay?

And the more you give yourself life-giving oxygen, the more you can be there for loved ones…. but from a place of joy, of peace, of love.