This picture was taken in 2007 on a hike in Garibladi Park, very close to Whistler, BC.
I was at my lowest weight ever. How did I know? I weighed myself everyday, sometimes several times a day. It was a high. It felt good.
Buy I also lived in fear. Fear of doing anything where I couldn’t 100% control my food and exercise. My 2 week trip to Paris and England the summer before was spent worrying about how much weight I’d gain instead of enjoying a baguette and wine by the Eiffel Tower and hot dates with Keith (my wonderful and sexy husband… I’m sure he doesn’t mind me saying that!)
Here’s the thing: my relationship with food presented itself in the form of restricting and controlling. To some, it presents in overeating, extreme cravings, stress eating, eating out of boredom, eating when you’re happy.
And sometimes you can cycle between being ‘too good’ and letting things go altogether (aka the all-or-nothing-mentality).
It wasn’t until my early 30s that I really realized I had wasted so much of my life not truly LIVING because I was stuck with food and body.
And that’s why now I’m relentlessly focused on helping others live vibrantly in a body they love. To help others find that peaceful, balanced relationship with food and body so they can start saying YES to life.
I’m sick and tired of the on-again-off-again diet and exercise roller coaster ride.
So does that mean you can ‘eat whatever you want?’ and ‘give up the gym?’
It’s not about eating a bag full or potato chips and not caring- because that’s not saying yes to life either. That’s numbing yourself with a processed-food induced coma.
Ditto with the chocolate, wine, cookies, loaf of fluffy white bread (not saying you can’t have it… but if you need the whole box/ bottle/ loaf then perhaps you’re missing something else in life).
It’s about eating so that you can start saying yes to life… and that means choosing foods that give you energy, and mental clarity, and make you feel good physically and emotionally. It’s about enjoying your food and enjoying life.
And moving your body is about being strong and energetic for life. So that you can go on hikes and explore the outdoors. So that you can play with your kids or grandkids and keep up. So you can add life to your years.
There is a way to have it all: to focus on life and to eat foods that you love. It’s not a quick fix of ‘eat this not that’ and it may not be as sexy as the promise to drop 10 pounds this month.
But it’s worth it. And I think you’re worth it.