Authenticity. Inner guidance. Freedom. That’s what’s available to you, when you embrace a body-centered, inspired approach to eating. The ultimate goal: a deeply personal, authentic and intuitive way of living that goes way beyond how you view food. Read more about what embodied eating really means in the articles below. And if you struggle with eating, dieting or loving yourself exactly as you are: schedule a free consultation, and learn how to transform your relationship with food—and life.
All Worked Up: our obsession with food. For the most part, we Americans are just impossibly worked up about food. We’re seduced by its flavor and aroma, dazzled by its health-giving properties and wistfully smitten by its rumored ability to make us wrinkle-free, toned and lean, 10 pounds lighter by Labor Day and possibly immortal. It can “blast fat” and protect us from cancer, and a cheesecake is worth dying for. We are alternately tormented with food porn and then chastised for eating it. But is our obsession part of the problem, or part of the solution?… Read more
Afraid To Eat. Last week, I read six articles on the good-versus-bad-food theme. Good food? Bad food? We attribute moral properties to what is, essentially, a glob of compounds and chemicals (natural or not) in a tasty package. The primary purpose of eating is to provide the body with nourishment and sustenance. But in our diet-obsessed culture, we have attributed to food a sometimes-sinister quality, and lost our intuitive connection to eating.…Read more
What We Want From Food. I spent last Thanksgiving in the Santa Fe State Penitentiary. It’s not what you may think; I left after a couple of hours, having gone there as an invited speaker to lead a talk. Our topic: what makes us feel nourished. And though I expected the answers to be vastly different, they were heart-warmingly similar. Family. Love. Rest. Nature. And, not surprisingly, food…. Read more
What Your Cravings Are Trying To Tell You. Marion Woodman, the famed Jungian analyst, says “The longing for sweets is really a yearning for love or sweetness.” If cravings really are that transparent, why are we so frequently at their mercy? Usually because we just don’t take the time to listen to where the craving is coming from. What part of our Selves is doing the craving—the body or the mind? Are we intuitive in our eating choices? We don’t pay much attention from the neck down (unless or until something goes really wrong). But the body is brilliant at expressing its needs and desires. It’s just not as shrill or strident as the mind, and we don’t get still and quiet often enough to hear it — or we do hear it, but allow the mind’s whims to subjugate the body’s needs….Read more
On A Diet, All The Time: who’s the you that wants to lose weight? You’ve been on a diet since, like, tenth grade. But what would happen if you investigated your motives for weight loss, the story behind your diet? If you ate from intuition? The first question to ask: who is it that wants to lose weight? Who is the “you” that’s dieting? Another way to ask this is, who are you, inside your body? The bottom line is, your body is a place for your soul to live. That’s it. Should it be comfortable, healthy, happy? Absolutely. But losing 10 pounds is not the call of your soul. It’s the call of your ego.… Read more
The Pleasure Of Eating. What brings you pleasure? Real pleasure, so rich and deep that even thinking about it creates a visceral response? Right now, see if you can list a dozen things that bring you shivers of excitement or delight, elicit little mmmmms of satisfaction or make your lights burn a little brighter. More likely than not, food is somewhere on your list. Nothing wrong with that… until there is…. Read more
What Are You Really Telling Your Body? Every time you deny your physical needs—you stay up just a little longer when you need to sleep, or work right through the flu, or “hold it” when you really have to pee–you send the message to your body that it’s not important. We do this all day long with food; we shovel down breakfast on the way to take our kids to school, or we rush through lunch so we can get those last few emails sent, or we skip dinner because we’re dieting. Then we expect the body to perform for us, like a dog doing tricks. You must make yourself be a priority, if for no other reason than your desire to eat better and/or lose weight….Read more
Stop Beating Yourself Up (like, right now). How many times have you criticized yourself in the last 24 hours? Stop for a minute and really think about it. If you’re having any doubts that you’ve been anything but complimentary, think back to when you got dressed this morning. What exactly did you say to the image in the mirror? “Look at that stomach! Your thighs are enormous! You’ll never fit into those pants you got last month. You need to lose 20 pounds. You look terrible!” Most of us wouldn’t dream of speaking to another human being like that. But we have no problem routinely addressing ourselves in a disrespectful, even demeaning, way—and beating yourself up never, ever inspires transformation… Read more
Out of Your Mind: be there when you eat. Think about your last meal. Were you actually there, tasting your food, smelling its aroma, feeling its texture as you chewed and swallowed? Or were you in your mind, mentally lining up the next thing on your to-do list, fretting over an argument with your spouse, or counting calories and grams of fat? Sometimes, being in the body just isn’t as interesting as being in the mind. It’s quieter and intuitive in the body. There’s less noise, no drama. The mind, however, is much more flashy; it’s cunning, clever and persuasive, and tells a fabulous tale.But you can learn specific practices that will take you out of your mind….Read more
Holiday Binging: what’s actually eating you? The holidays are emotional. We’re pressed for time, short on money, and either overburdened with family responsibilities or feeling the pang of loneliness. Certain dishes bring back happy memories of past holidays. And all those high-carb, sugar-rich holiday treats temporarily boost levels of serotonin, the brain’s feel-good neurotransmitter—which makes us crave more…. Read more
Intuitive Cooking: get in touch with your inner chef. We love cookbooks. We love recipes in magazines, and articles on how to choose and prepare the healthiest food. At some point, though, it’s inspiring to rely on an internal compass rather than external directions. Cooking and food preparation is the most natural, instinctive activity in the world, right up there with nest-building and baby-making.… Read more