And when we use food and exercise to cope, to feel better, to numb, we’re not able to actually work through the emotions. We simply mask them, cover them up and hide from them.

Which leads to them coming back with a vengeance.

Here’s the cycle that can result…

Feel—> Food—> Temporary Relief —>Feel —> Food... and on and on.

What’s at the very foundation of healing your relationship with food and your body?

Acceptance.

How long have you grappled with ‘emotional eating?’

Right.

A long time.

You’ve coped with stress, sadness, overwhelm and even celebrated your greatest victories with one common factor: food.

Food is your go to way of coping.

Because you’ve become accustomed to turning to food (it’s your comfort, your friend, your enemy, your secret love), you likely haven’t developed many other effective coping mechanisms.

If you suspect your daughter has an issue with food or her body image, it's important to reflect on the messages she has inadvertently been taught, your own experience with those messages and how they may be showing up in your own life. It's never too late to model a healthy and balanced relationship with food and your body.

Take a minute to think about your bestie. The love you have for him or her, the experiences you've shared, your ability to laugh hysterically at nothing for minutes on end... even that knowing that you should call them when something tells you that something just isn't right in their lives.

Take a minute and imagine if you had that relationship with your body.

Because self-care comes from a place of love. Dieting and improvement comes from a place of loathing.

See how those basic facts can plant seeds of beautiful badassery vs self-loathing?

It happened...

The easter baskets.

The chocolate filled eggs.

Those damn chocolate bunnies!

You binged.

"I feel fat"

A comment so familiar to women teens and young girls.

But, fat is not a feeling.

How many times have you said that phrase in the past week? Month? Probably countless.

What did you really mean in those moments, though?

In order to make shifts in the way we interact with our bodies, we need to remember what it feels like to be in our bodies.

Come home to your body.

Today, I want to give you a simple and quick tool. A mindfulness exercise to help you do just that.

I created a checklist for you and/or your daughter use to evaluate her relationship to, and her behaviors around, food and her body.

Diet-culture and the thin-ideal manage to give us permission forget the woman inside the body and shifts the attention to her success or her failure to maintain or achieve an ‘acceptable’ appearance. It shifts movement and exercise from a form of self-care to a necessary evil to make us smaller.

There’s power in getting super clear about how your mindset can shift from a place of hate, to neutrality, to acceptance, to love.

Today, let’s start doing just that.

It felt a bit warmer out (high temps of 38!) on Saturday morning. It didn’t even cross my mind that there would be ice. We turned the corner, down a slight hill, and just like that, my feet were completely out from under me. I slammed down on the pavement. Yup, straight on my ass. Andddd it hurt.

Insularly focusing on weight and appearance does not lead to healthier bodies, it causes significant damage. Damage that isn’t easily undone. Damage that increases obsession with food and body and decreases attention to true health markers. Damage that causes lowered self-esteem, the rising prevalence of eating disorders and only adds energy to weight stigma and discrimination based on size.

You don’t have to suffer in silence. There is nothing wrong with you. Healing is possible.

You want to stop this train before it derails. You know what it’s like to spend years consumed with and tortured by body loathing. You want your daughter to have a positive body and self image. And, you want to stop any chance of disordered eating before it has the chance to start.

We are passionate people. We love hard and we fight hard. We have strong beliefs and we have spent our entire lives before being in relationship doing things our own way. It is only natural to have disagreements once we find ourselves committing to another person. Fights and conflict are not only healthy signs of a relationship, but can help deepen your understanding of your partner, in turn deepening your commitment to them.

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Hershey’s Kisses.

For as long as I can remember, we’ve had a love affair. At times it’s been a secret love affair (#shame!) and other times I’ve openly shared my passion for the chocolate and peanut buttery goodness.

For most of my adult life I didn’t trust myself near a an open bowl of candy, or anything more than one Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.

A series of articles for single woman looking to become the best versions of themselves as they journey to heal their hearts and find the love they've been searching for.

Food Freedom Series Day 7

Have you tried the exercises we've been talking about for the past week? 

Are you ready to try something new?