Tag Archive for: enjoyment

How Do You Handle Food-Related Stress?

Food is supposed to be enjoyed. Yet, when speaking with so many clients, and potential clients, they tell me that food is stressful. All aspects of food, whether its deciding what to eat, shopping and preparing food for meals, or even the thought of going out to eat food.

 

Stress, stress, stress!

 

Do you feel the same way?

 

If you have had a difficult relationship with food for some time now, then you can probably relate.

 

I know you probably want food to be a non-issue in your life. And you know what? It can be.

 

Let’s first start with 3 strategies that you can put into place immediately to help you minimize the stress around food.

 

Strategy #1: Set up your environment for success.

While I’m all about teaching you how to be intuitive in your eating (of course…I teach intuitive eating!), I am also very practical. It is important to be mindful of your eating and one way to do that is to reduce your external eating cues. That means put all food away after you’ve eaten and don’t leave food on the counters or table. If food is left out, it can very easily lead to mindless munching which then leads to feelings of guilt and frustration for eating when you weren’t hungry.

 

Strategy #2: Seek assistance from your family members.

Food shopping and meal prep doesn’t have to just be your responsibility. Get everyone involved in the menu planning. Even better, assign everyone a night to prepare the dinner. This way the whole family is involved, the kids will more likely eat what they help to prepare, and you get quality family time too.

 

Strategy #3. Start to use meditation and visualization. Meditation can be a powerful tool to help keep your mind clear and stress-free. You can use meditation as a way to visualize yourself being stress-free around food and, by visualizing that, you can start to believe it will happen too.

 

These strategies are a good place to get started and you can use them as a way to figure out what works best for you.

 

But I have more!

 

Come join my 3-Day Challenge – Managing Food-Related Stress.

 

It starts TODAY, August 30th and runs through Friday September 1 and is happening in my Private Facebook Group.

 

Download your free e-Book “How to Manage Food-Related Stress” (which we are using throughout the challenge) as a tool to teach you ways to manage your stress around food.

 

Head over to our Private Facebook Group to see what Day One of the challenge entails!

 

See you there!

 

Revealing My ‘Word’ of 2017

We are 5 days into the New Year….how are you doing with your New Year’s Intentions?

 

Remember from last week’s post, I am not a believer in resolutions! I like to think instead of “Intentions for the New Year”

 

There’s a lot of talk online about picking a word or theme for the year. This is a word or theme that will define how you want to feel and act in the New Year. I’ve never been one to actually pick a word or theme, but this year was different.

 

It just happened. I felt it in my bones. It was intuitive. And all of a sudden I was posting in my business support group my intentions for the New Year and my word for 2017 came alive.

 

Ready for it?? Here it comes………….

 

FUN!

 

I have decided that I want to add more fun to my life on both a personal level and a professional level. Now, I’m sure you can figure out how I’ll add fun to my personal level. Think date nights with hubby, fun activities with my kids, and giggles with my grandsons.

 

But how will I infuse fun into my professional life?

 

Well, it happened organically at our New Year’s party Facebook Live! I put on my New Year’s hat, 2017 funky glasses and had my party horn, with music playing and was dancing live in our private FB group. The members of my group joined in…posting selfies in their New Year’s getup and dancing wherever they were (home, in a hotel, in their car – as a passenger!).

 

In between all the fun, we settled down and got down to business, learning about the mental blocks that keep you spinning in the diet-deprivation vicious cycle.

 

It was amazing! I got positive feedback and made some great connections (seems my 2nd word for the year is becoming ‘connection’). And from this experience, my 2017 word was born…FUN. We can have fun and overcome our deepest struggles at the same time.

 

Are you ready to have fun AND leave your food and body struggles behind?

 

If so, I have an opportunity for you! And, here it is:

 

Freedom to Eat Forever™ is a LIVE group program where I take you through my 5 step system to breaking free of dieting to become an intuitive eater. The program is opening for enrollment in February. But don’t wait until then.

 

Register in January to receive 2 amazing bonuses:

 

  1. 36 Ready-to-Go Nourishing Meals and Bonus Recipes

 

  1. 60 minute Private Coaching Call with me

 

 

Email me at Bonnie@DietFreeRadiantMe.com to set up a complementary time to speak with me to learn more about the program and to see if it is a right fit for you. No pressure! If it’s not a fit, I will tell you!

 

These January bonuses disappear on January 20th and will NOT be offered to those who enroll in February!

 

Freedom to Eat Forever™ is your opportunity to make peace with food, enjoy guilt-free eating a life free of dieting and a body you love.  

I’m waiting here for your email. Or, just call me direct at 516-486-4569.

 

P.S. What’s YOUR word of 2017? Tell me in the comments below!

 

How to Treat Yourself without Food

You’ve had a long day. Heck, it’s been a long week. You need a treat. You head to the _______ and get yourself some ______________.

 

How would you fill in these blanks?

 

When I pose this question to the women who reach out to me for help with their weight, they fill in the blanks with the words ‘kitchen” and ‘ice cream’. Or, ‘store’ and ‘chocolate’. Or ‘freezer’ and ‘cake’.

 

Sound familiar?

 

The first thought that most likely pops into your mind when you are looking for a treat is food! Why is that? Why do you associate a treat with food?

 

An emotional connection with food is created from the moment we are born and placed on our mom’s chest to bond. And then, as you get older and need comfort, you are given some milk and cookies. Of, if you fall down and hurt yourself, you are consoled with a lollypop. There are numerous examples of how the emotional connection to food continues to be reinforced around you.

 

But how has this served you now into adulthood? Not very well I’m guessing. It has led to your struggle with emotional eating and your never-ending ride on the yo-yo diet roller coaster.

 

It’s time to treat yourself with something other than food. It’s time to treat yourself like a queen and to take good care of yourself so you don’t need to find comfort in food.

 

Let me share a story with you.

 

The last few months have been very busy and well, quite stressful. So yesterday I decided to treat myself like a queen. One of my dreams has always been to have a personal shopper come into my home and go through my clothes closet with me. Toss what is no good, keep what is, and create new outfits with what I have. Then head to the store with my personal shopper in tow and buy some new clothes.

 

Well, I didn’t exactly get that full dream….no, a personal shopper did not come to my house. But I did make an appointment with a personal shopper at Lord and Taylor and meet with her yesterday. This is a complementary service for shoppers…I never knew that! She set me up in her exclusive office fitting room and brought me clothes to try on based on what I told her I was looking for.

 

Wow, what an experience. I felt like a celebrity. This was the best experience ever! I bought some really great new clothes and felt really amazing.

 

I treated myself like a queen. I felt the stress lift off my shoulders, just like that. Doing something for yourself really feels good! You don’t need food to comfort or console yourself. Taking care of your needs on all levels and nurturing yourself will help you cope with your feelings without turning to food.

 

Try it…and let me know how it works out for you. If you want to talk, just contact me here!

 

How to Prevent Rebound Eating

Woman contemplating fruit or cakeHow many times have you done this: You want to look good for an event on the weekend so you spend the next week or 2 restricting your food and calories thinking you’ll shed 10 pounds by the weekend? And when that event is over you make up for lost time by indulging in all the foods that you were deprived of on that “diet” you were on? This is called rebound or binge eating. It is a vicious cycle that can lead to disordered eating patterns.

 

Depriving your body of the foods it wants over time can really take a toll on your body and mind. It can lead to cravings so bad that when you do finally allow yourself to eat what you want you could spiral out of control and end up bingeing on it. Then to compensate you might go back to restricting or trying to “work it off” at the gym which will only continue the cycle.

 

By incorporating intuitive eating into your life, you can break this cycle. Eat the foods you want when you want. But be mindful. If you want chocolate cake, have some cake. Don’t have the whole cake but have enough until you are satisfied. Eating a slice of cake won’t set you back on your weight or health goals, but depriving yourself until that cake is all you can think of just might.

 

Before deciding what to eat ask yourself these questions:

 

What do I really want?

 

  • You tell yourself you should get the salad when you’re out to dinner because it’s a healthy option, but you really want your favorite pasta dish. What should you do? You could get the salad and not be satisfied while watching your family enjoy their pasta. Or you can honor your preference and order the pasta. Consider asking for an appetizer portion or have the waiter bring half the portion and pack the other half to go. This way you can enjoy the pasta without the worry of overeating from the extra large portions restaurants usually give you.

 

Am I choosing the food because it’s what I should eat?

 

  •  Who’s to say what you should or should not eat? Only you are the owner of your body and your food choices! Don’t fall prey to the “good food” “bad food” list diets give you. Own your choices!

 

Am I emotionally eating or am I really hungry?

 

  • If you’re craving a certain comfort food but you’re not actually hungry, this could be because you are feeding your emotions. Try to make yourself feel better by getting to the root of your emotions and find ways to fix them without food. Read more about this here.

 

Eating shouldn’t be an all or nothing sort of thing. If you give into your cravings once in a while you are not a failure. Extremes are easy, but finding balance within yourself and your eating is the hard part.

 

I know this isn’t easy.  If you need help feel free to reach out to me here.