Emotional & Mental Health
Eating your feelings and the power of paradox
I made this quick 4 minute video today, inspired by the lovely clients I get to work with. It’s on Understanding the power of paradox.
Please watch if you have intense cravings, desire more freedom, experience being lonely, tired, sadness or dark moments. (Pretty sure that all of us have these experiences by the way – you are not alone)
I hope you find this short little video helpful and some more inspiration from one of my first clients who was struggling with “eating her feelings”. See below the video for more.
When I began my coaching practice now over 9 years ago, one of my first clients was a woman in her mid to late 70’s. She was struggling with an eating disorder. You don’t need to have an eating disorder to relate to this woman because what she has to teach us is universal.
She had a fear that she would die not living a life that was on her own terms. She spent her entire life doing things expected of her and she never allowed herself to express who she was and do the things she had always wanted to do.
She needed courage to be more herself if she was to overcome her entire life pattern of “eating her feelings”. This beautiful woman had a light inside her that wanted to express. Her deepest feelings wanted to come out and she was scared. So food helped her numb that fear. Old patterns and comforting, familiar yet unhealthy habits consumed her.
I found out that she used to love making art as a child. Our motto became this: “Fight like hell every day to make art”
On our third session together, she asked me… “Renee, why are we focusing on my art instead of my disorder?”
I shared with her that so often we try to fix what is wrong with us instead of tapping into what is RIGHT with us.
I told her, “I can try to change you and make you into the athlete you will never be and you will continue to fear not living the life you have always wanted and dreamed of. Or I can help you develop the courage, and it will take some courage and staring fear in the face, to bring out what has always be inside of you… your art.
Now of course, we did some very important work around her patterns of bingeing and purging food – but I knew that those newer healthy habits would not stick if she didn’t find herself reconnected to that part of her that made her happy inside.
I shared this woman’s story today because I was thinking of her today and how much she inspired me also. I knew when she reached out, that our work together was her last effort to heal her life long eating disorder. She had spent most of her 70+ years with it and we had to do this right.
She could fight like hell to die early or fight like hell to make her art.
She taught me that the fruits of discovering your freedom will be the sweetest thing. That you can and will be free of the need to be anything other than who you are. That you can be free of being attached to food as a means to find yourself.
Cravings and Spiritual Nutrition
Have you ever had a sugar hangover?
I definitely have, more times than I care to admit. These do exist.
I believe we don’t often notice or associate it with the sugar though. I wasn’t until I sufficiently removed sugar from my daily diet and then added some back in, did I really see what this “hangover” was.
Waking up with headaches, aches and pains, tight jaw from clenching teeth while asleep, body soreness, indigestion, stomach gurgles, dehydration and guilt combined with out of control tastebuds searching for what to eat next. Later that day comes bloating, constipation, more dehydration, cravings and hormone spikes. Also, depression, low energy, lack of connection and motivation.
I’m not anti-sugar or anything. It’s normal to crave and desire this sweet sensation.
Personally, my body basically says HECK NO each time I consume more than my share of refined sugar and sometimes even things like Maple Syrup. So I just make other choices.
I share this because I know I’m not the only one.
I’m actually grateful my body rejects it because it has brought me to where I am today.
Through my experiences, I found a connection between my spirituality (aka connection with the present moment) and my choice to change my relationship with things like sugar over the past 8-9 years.
JOY HAWK, Love Yourself Naked: Real Life Story
In this Love Yourself Naked: Real Life Story, I interview Joy Hawk as she explores auto immune disease, her journey of body acceptance, family history of eating disorders, plastic surgery and discovery of breast implant illness and the healing that has come with all of it.
Here are some of the things we talk about:
- auto immune disorders
- eating disorders
- family baggage
- body image
- concerned about weight loss
- obesity
- our judgement of “fat”
- plastic surgery
- “skinny doesn’t always mean healthy”
- breast implant illness
- the emphasis our culture puts on what we “should” look like
- overburdened liver
- MTHFR gene mutation (Methylene-Tetra-Hydro-Folate-Reductase)- makes it hard to detox
- “your mess is your message”
- stopping the trauma cycle in our family
Are you addicted to sugar?
Most people like sugar, but a question about being “addicted” to it still lingers, for some... There is such a big difference between someone who eats sugar once in awhile and can go weeks without it and someone who cannot stop thinking about it and needs it every single day.
In today’s video, I break down the other side of sugar addiction, watch it below.
If you are addicted to sugar, you are not alone. I’m a recovering sugar addict and I have a brief story about it to share with you, I share more of the story in other videos too so make sure you are subscribed to the blog to learn more.
Over 8 years ago, I began this nutrition and life coaching practice to help people and centered it around “loving yourself” because it seemed to be a common denominator between every person I worked with. As I began helping more and more people as a practitioner and coach, I noticed how I was personally still using work, sugar and obsessive eating of certain foods to escape and numb out. I started to see my own addiction to sugar and it was so loud I could no longer ignore it!
I was not just craving sugar here and there, I was in a committed relationship with the stuff and began to see that it was a pattern for most of my life.
The irony of it all is that the root of “addictive behavior” is the avoidance of loving yourself. So there I was, trying to teach others the practice to love themselves and to value themselves and I was being faced with the reality of not loving or valuing myself. Talk about a wake up call and a humbling smack in the face. It was hard to look in that mirror and I cried many tears during that time.
I knew I had no choice but to face my own lack of self love if I was to grow up and help more people.
I thought it was just about the sugar and the “sweet tooth” I had my entire life, but I learned it was about so much more. The lack of love I had for myself impacted how I showed up in all of my relationships, my career and day to day activities, even how I dealt with my finances.
Now, 8 years later, I’m coaching clients privately and within groups through their suffering with food, body, emotional healing, eating patterns, craving, obsessive behaviors, relationships, career goals and purpose.
At the root of it all, is Love of the Self.
This invaluable work really is so much deeper than “sugar addiction”, although this is where some of us must start to peel back the layers to grow and open our hearts.
This summer, I have a handful of openings for private coaching with clients who want to change their life and have the urge to create a new way of being and living. This person wants to own all the parts of themselves, heal the trauma and step into their purpose and serve the greater good. They want to get their health/nutrition, relationships and life into alignment and experience peace of mind and connection to helping others.
If this sounds like you, click here to fill out an application.
I want people to be healthy – mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. I want us to have access to healthy food, attract healthy relationships and have the best resources without it being complicated or difficult.
I want you to know your value.
Looking forward to connecting more with you soon.
Watch the video above if you haven’t checked it out yet.
Thank you,
Renee
PS. Want to work with me? Click here to fill out an application or respond to this message and let me know. We can have a quick phone chat and I can listen to what you have going on to see if we are a good fit for the results you want to achieve with your health and life.
Intuitive Eating: Does it even work?
One of the things I’m a stand for as a holistic practitioner is teaching people how to NOT DIET. It is simply unhealthy to be dieting all the time and one of the things that clients ask me about and share their interest in, is called, “intuitive eating”.
Intuitive eating, unfortunately, seems to cause more trouble for many if not all of these clients.
Watch today’s video to learn about why “intuitive eating” is the new “diet fad” and why chronic dieters may cling to this intuitive eating and why it’s dangerous to practice it in certain situations.
The essence of intuitive eating is incredible – it is about learning a trust and intimacy with your body, food and Self where you know what to eat and what your body may need from moment to moment. Intuitive eating invites in the feelings of peace and freedom and it sounds great, doesn’t it? I mean, eating food really needs to be stress free.
Also, intuitive eating is a learned behavior – we all have access to it.
Here is the problem though: the majority of people who come to me with issues around food are not quite ready for intuitive eating.
If we have obsessive, restrictive, compulsive, addictive and disordered feelings with food, our bodies or exercise and we are still counting calories and weighing ourselves all the time, intuitive eating can be a recipe for disaster for these people.
There is a process to healing and “intuitive eating”, for some people, comes down the line, but not right now.
Nutrition 360 One-On-One Coaching:
Do you need more personalized attention with your nutrition and heath so you can get the outcome you desire with your body, relationships, health, sex life, career and life to love it all?
I have 3 openings for one-on-one coaching right now that I will fill soon.
To apply for this empowering opportunity, click here.
I want people to be healthy and to have access to healthy food, resources and the best of the best without making it complicated and difficult.
I want you to know your value.
Thank you for tuning in,
Renee
My 10 Day Vipassana Meditation Experience
I’ve been getting asked a lot about how the 10-day silent Vipassana meditation retreat was that I completed about a month ago. So I created a spoken word catch-you-up video on the past 35 or so days, including what happened when I stopped speaking for 10 days and sat in meditation for 100 hours!
This video has a lot of teaching nuggets and a personal review of my experience of 10 days sitting in Vipassana meditation. It’s a bit different than a typical video with one topic, let me know your thoughts or questions in the comments below.
Below the video you’ll find the bullets of what I discuss throughout the video. Enjoy and I hope you find value.
- What is Vipassana?
- Why 10 days of silence?
- Why I got fed up with the personal growth industry?
- The need to get more quiet and be more introspective.
- Humans have craving – it’s primal.
- Looking for connection?
- Carrying trauma.
- Repeating patterns.
- Go inward and observe your body without judgement
- We want to look outward because it’s easier.
- Looking inward, makes us see shame, fear, craving.
- Incredibly challenging. Day 4 was tough!
- Losing your mind – it can be a good thing.
- Observations of craving, aversion and ignorance.
- Judging others.
- Forgetting how to breathe.
- Trusting yourself.
- Commitment – a deep level of commitment.
- Meditation practice and moving forward.
To learn more about Vipassana, please visit: http://www.dhamma.org/
I want people to be healthy and to have access to healthy food, resources and the best of the best without making it complicated and difficult.
I want you to know your value.
Thank you,
Renee
PS. I have a couple of private coaching spots available right now. Our My Nutrition 360 Group has started, it’s inspiring to welcome this community. If you want more information or to check our private coaching or our next group, click here to fill out your application. This is so you can have your own Nutrition 360!
Is your belief about time impacting your health?
You know, sometimes I have moments where I wish I could go back in time and be smacked with cold water in my face to wake the heck up and see things differently. If I only knew what I know now, back then… everything would be different…
And then I remember, that living in the past won’t serve anyone. I gotta come back to this moment, right now, and face reality and SO DO YOU.
Watch today’s video below to learn how:
I used to have this belief that I needed to focus almost solely on my career and business and that included ignoring other things that needed my attention. It started in my early 20’s. It meant that I was seeking validation from this “career” and ignoring what I valued more in my life.
“I don’t have enough time to get my work done”
“I don’t have enough time to make healthy foods”
“I don’t have time to focus on my health right now”
“I don’t have time to workout”
One of those, at the time, was cooking and feeding myself. In my early twenties, I used to believe “I didn’t have time to cook”. When I’m really honest, I thought I was too good to do my own cooking and I had an expectation that someone should do it for me. I know, that sounds terrible as I type it out, but it’s true.
I didn’t think there was enough time in the day to get things done and I rarely made “TIME” for my health.
Well, it eventually caught up with me.
Over the years, one of the biggest health lessons I have learned, above all else, was about healing my relationship to TIME.
As I continue to grow my relationship to TIME (and Self), I learn more and more and today I want to share one of the biggest secrets and root causes to ALL OF OUR HEALTH ISSUES.
Click above to watch the video about how your belief about TIME impacts your health
