Body Image & Confidence

This year I gained about 10 pounds. And you know what? I’m not upset about it, and I’m not making it mean anything more than it does.

But it mean anything more than it does…

Before I decided to share this with you, I did have a pang of fear.

“What would people think of me if I got real about gaining weight?”

“Would they think I still struggle?”

“Would I sound like a fraud?”

But I decided to share it anyway, because, well … this is totally normal and shouldn’t be looked at as a failure.

Plus, I want to normalize the ebbs and flows of the food freedom experience, and what some of the possibilities are on your Food Freedom journey might be.

Now, what happened when I realized I was a bit heavier than I have been for the last 5 years or so, and what did I do about it?

Let’s dive in!

 

 

Recently I got together with a bunch of friends. I was feeling pretty amazing that day (cuz I hadn’t seen anyone in so long). I loved my outfit, I was feeling empowered, and had a great time.

Then later, my phone pinged me, and I saw that I’d been sent the pictures from our night together.

So I looked–and honestly, what I saw kind of surprised me at first!

My body looked different than I’m used to seeing it.

I looked happy. But I couldn’t help but notice I had gained weight. This was the first time in a long time that a picture of myself made me think something like that..

Sure, I didn’t look shockingly heavier. But still, my weight had been stable for about the last 5 or 6 years. For the first time in a long time, I looked like I’d put on a few pounds. What was going on?

Now, here’s the difference between what I would’ve done with something like this before versus now.

Before: Panic, shame, embarrassment, guilt, frenzied action, cutting food groups out, cutting calories, insanely intense gym sessions, obsessively fighting my body, and eventually a binge…repeat.

Now: A little hit of some “what the hell”, a fairly quick flip of that negative self talk without much of an emotional chain reaction, and a simple loving nudge to look into how I’d been treating myself and my body plus check in with her and see how she’s doing.

Aka – I got curious!

So, I took a little self-care inventory of the last few months. Here’s what I discovered…

First, the COVID and quarantine situation had happened. That affected us all in different ways.

In my case, pre-quarantine I had someone doing regular food-prep for me. But when the lockdowns hit, I had to let that go for a while. And I ended up replacing food prep with a lot more take-out than usual.

Then, during that crazy time, I also had a major move to a new home. Moves in themselves bring on a lot of stress and disruption, so it was chaos on top of chaos for me.

But, of the most significant factors of all wasn’t the outer circumstances. It was that with all the chaos and stress, I let my self-care slide. BIG time.

I was pushing myself through stressful work days, and let my daily movement completely slide (basically it got non existent).

Then on top of that, I skimped on food throughout the day and ended up eating big dinners at night out of sheer hunger – oftentimes take out meals.

Eating properly to fuel myself has been a high leverage shift on my journey to food freedom…it’s been the foundation of nearly everything!

So what can I say? Life happens, and it happens to ALL of us. We don’t always meet it with the most supportive responses every time, either.

And sometimes, we meet it in the exact way we need to for where we are at even if it’s with food.

Now, what did I do when I figured out why that extra weight showed up?

I chose to focus on connection, supportive nutrition, and intentional movement. Instead of restrictive diets and brutal workouts, I shifted to self-care.

What has happened so far? I’m happy to say that I’m moving my body back to its happy place weight-wise, and I’m feeling more energized and inspired!

I have a healthier relationship with working out than I’ve ever had!

AND I’m in the process of coming off of my thyroid medicine even more (I’ve lowered the dose the last year!)

What’s really cool is…I’ve accepted that may be influencing my weight, and I’m ok with it.

I TRUST my body to take me where it needs to go with love and care!

Now, here’s the thing. Do I still get those mental triggers that I should do something quick for weight loss? Of course.

That societal conditioning still pops up for us all from time to time.

The difference is that now when the triggers happen, it literally doesn’t phase me. I don’t indulge the idea. I don’t spiral in it emotionally. I let it go, choose care and connection, and move on.

So here’s what I’m saying..

Taking care of your body and yourself are important!

But doing this from a place of fear and control isn’t going to get you anywhere aside from most likely back to binge eating.

Doing it from love and care will get you to where you want to be!

When you’re on the road to food freedom, you might experience twists and turns. Trust me this is very normal.

But your body is brilliant and knows right where you need to be!

You might see some shifts with your weight along the way…

It might tempt you into fear, and make you think about going back to the old ways of restricting your food intake to lose weight.

Next time that old fear about weight gain comes up, try this…

Be kind to yourself.

When you feel afraid, give that part of yourself that is scared a little bit of love.

Reassure yourself that self-care is the way forward.

Remember that your mental and emotional freedom matter as much (or more than) as your physical appearance.

Food freedom isn’t about perfection. It’s the ability to have compassion for your body, and give yourself a little grace. Work with your body rather than fighting against it with strict diets and crazy workouts.

Doing this has been a huge game-changer for me, and it can be for you too.

Now, you might be thinking that 10 pounds to lose doesn’t seem like a big deal. And I can understand that if you personally feel like you have more weight to lose, that 10 pounds could seem insignificant given your personal experience.

Even though I haven’t been but 30 pounds heavier than where I’m at currently and gained and lost the same 50 pounds 10 times or so (accompanied by terrible discomfort through a wide range of health conditions)…I haven’t personally experienced the feelings and emotions that can come along with something like obesity.

So while our struggles might not be the same, I do know that the way we can treat ourselves and the emotions that come up around it can be similar.

In the end, we are all on our own journeys. But we do have enough in common that we can be there for each other, too.

I see you no matter where you’re at.

And know that you’re deserving of your own love and care regardless of the size of your body.

There will always be peaks and valleys on any life-changing pathway. This is part of the process, whether you began your journey today, or you’ve been on the path for decades.

I remember when I first got into the self-development journey. I thought that one day I would get to this blissful place of perfection, with no stress and total happiness.

Not exactly how it turned out!

But here is the good news. Because of the inner work I’ve done, things have shifted for the better.

Now I handle stressful situations with more ease. The ebbs and flows of life don’t overwhelm me like they used to. Sure, I have my tough days, but now I move through the stress a lot faster.

So on this food freedom journey, you might gain weight. You might occasionally still cringe when you see yourself in the mirror. You might even want to pack it all in and go back to dieting.

But those moments don’t have to last any longer than a moment, either!

The key is to go from climbing huge stress mountains to navigating minor speed bumps, right?

When you get to this point, the things that used to take you out of the game turn into minor irritations at best.

Eventually, you get to live a life where food and body triggers pass quickly. It’s a place where even when you crash and burn, you get back to living your best life a lot faster.

This is my wish for you!

Now, how do you start on that path to freedom? We can help!

Click the image below where I’ve got a special gift for you! We call them, “Craving Cards”, and they’re one of our most popular tools!

If you ever feel night time cravings, sugar cravings, the urge to just say “screw it I’m going to start my diet over tomorrow”, or like you need a little body confidence pick me up… 

Just grab a card, go through the prompts, and shift it instantly! 

Click the image above and let me know where to send them!

You’ll also get mini demo video training sessions for each card where I share how to use the cards and some of my best tips for food freedom forever!

With our Craving Cards and Demo Series… 

You’ll learn how to stop cravings in their tracks, feel confident, and get back your power, fast! 

Love,
Brittany

PS: Want the exact freedom and ease with our foods that myself and thousands of our clients get to experience?

In our Beating Binge Eating Blueprint (BBEB), I show you how to make this happen in just 8 weeks!

Many of our students have seen a DRASTIC difference in as little as a few days!

It’s our signature program, and up until recently, it was $3000 or more to join.

For now, you can get it as a part of our Food Freedom Collection for practically free by clicking the image below!

There is no catch…every resource I’ve created for food freedom and body confidence will land straight in your if you just click that image below and let me know where to send it!

Are Weight Loss and Weight Gain Freakouts Ruling Your Life?

Does the word “weight” send shivers down your spine? You’re not alone.

And You’re Not Sure How To Stop The Craziness for good? Read On!

Let’s talk about a 4-letter word: WEIGHT. Yeah OK, fine, that’s a 6-letter word. But weight is definitely a “4-letter word” if you struggle with binge eating, emotional eating, or any kind of triggers with food.

It brings up visions of scary numbers that flashes when you step on the bathroom scale that have the potential to make or break your day.

Listen up beautiful, it doesn’t matter if you’re terrified of gaining weight or that you can’t lose weight. Any situation involving the scale can crank up your emotions and send you into the throes of body image obsession. Which is totally understandable.

The sad truth is that tunnel vision you have about how you look on the outside can make you lose touch with who you are on the inside and drag you down the rabbit hole.

So what happens to this body positivity thing where you’re supposed to follow… “love your body” as is? It seems like a sweet enough idea, right? But even the most well-meaning advice has a not-so-nice flip side to it.

The anti-weight loss message gets steamy at times. Sometimes so much that it unconsciously shames people desiring to change their body! Is this just me or have you experienced something similar too?

Here’s the reality: Falling into an obsessive weight-loss quest is NOT the way to live your life. BUT neither is being shamed by some coach or influencer for wanting to drop a few dress sizes. Both are weight wars that you can’t win.

If you’re tired of the “weightiness” of these extremes, I’m about to give you the real story on weight.

You’ll learn why it’s OK to want to lose weight. But you’ll also find out how making weight loss your sole focus will backfire for sure.

This week’s blog has all the juicy details you need to know about how weight loss fits into breaking free from binge and emotional eating, and how to make them work together like a charm.

Everything you do in your food freedom journey will start to feel purposeful and it’ll become so much easier once you start focusing on what really matters. Keep reading! Let’s talk about all things weight–the good, the bad, and the TRUTH.

 

 

Now, let me tell you one thing straight-up. There’s nothing wrong with desiring to lose weight. It’s especially true if the weight came from years of self-torture (aka dieting and binging and starving on repeat).

You see, weight gain often occurs from treating your body in ways that are out of alignment with the real you.

Take me, for example. I was once 40 pounds heavier than I am now. I had a raging desire to lose weight, which triggered me to an all consuming pattern of binge and starve every day. Trust me, the results were not pretty. (Think inflammation, acid reflux, digestive and hormonal issues, adrenal failure–the whole nine yards!)

That 40 pounds accumulation was because I was desperate to lose weight. See what happened? This led me to behaviors that turned me into someone I couldn’t recognize.

(And believe me, those behaviors and mindsets were solid, no matter what I looked like. Whether I was 40 pounds overweight or shredded like a fitness model, I tortured myself to lose weight. All. The. Time.)

So it’s OK to want to release the weight that came from NOT being true to yourself.

Now, here’s the flip side.

What’s NOT OK is to reject yourself completely during the weight loss journey. It’s not OK to deny yourself love, acceptance, and care until the scale gives you the number you think you need. I’ve been there, done that and felt like a big failure.

Most of all, it’s not OK to let the weight loss focus turn into a full-scale campaign that consumes your entire life. Weight loss fixation can hijack your mental, emotional, spiritual and physical well-being–and usually fails on top of all that!

Read the reasons below to understand why this happens:

Weight loss plans mean DIETS. Am I right or am I right? Dieting means restricting your food. When you control your food, no matter how “healthy” your plan is, your brain hears one thing: food is scarce, and it’s survival time!

Sure, your logical mind knows that cutting a few calories won’t make you starve. But the part of your brain in charge of keeping you alive hits the panic button and triggers you to do one thing–eat. And the results can be disastrous.

Constant food-focused thoughts.
Triggers to overeat. More cravings.
You’re more susceptible to emotional eating.
Uncontrolled autopilot eating starts happening.
All your systems get disrupted.

All these things lead to just one thing and it’s something you don’t want to hear: Weight GAIN–the exact opposite of why you even started the diet in the first place!

Now, think about this. What if you turned that quest for weight loss into a quest for self-love?

If this sounds impossible, stay with me for a sec and I’ll show you how shifting your focus can cause polarizing shifts in your life!

It starts with body acceptance. Accept where your body takes you on its journey to food freedom. That might mean immediate weight loss, it might not. But it WILL mean more balance, peace, and happiness in your life.

Believe it or not, sometimes the way to release the weight is being OK with whether you lose weight or not!

I know, that sounds completely counterintuitive. But let’s use my journey as an example and you’ll see what I mean.

As I already mentioned, when I started my journey, I was about 40 pounds heavier than I am now. But instead of drilling down with a diet and workout plan to melt it away, I did something different.

First, I got my brain and body out of survival mode. That meant breaking the binge eating patterns in my brain. That was step one.

After that, my initial weight loss was pretty fast. But it soon slowed down to a point where my body held a steady weight. For about a year, I remained steady at about 8 or so pounds heavier than I am now.

Still, I stayed consistent with supportive eating habits for about a year. I stopped making weight loss the goal and focused on feeling amazing instead.

This led me to something unexpected (and miraculous!).

My body began to trust me and I fell in love with it. It knew now that I would give it all the nutritional support it needed. It no longer triggered me to binge just so I’d eat.

And lo and behold, my body released even more weight over time! Eventually, I arrived at the weight I’m at today, and I’ve never been happier.

Nowadays, I have an amazing and loving relationship with my body. But does this mean I love everything about my body 24/7? Of course not. I’m not gonna lie. I still have cellulite on my thighs that I wouldn’t mind releasing!

But here’s the kicker about that. I know that I could smooth out those dimples on my thighs with a few diet tweaks and workout upgrades. But am I going to let that bring me down? Hell no because I now know better.

Even if I burned it all off, it wouldn’t stay off for good. That’s because I know what it would take to keep it off for good.

It would mean forcing my body into a restrictive diet and a punishing workout. It would mean facing the food-obsessed thoughts, the cravings, and eating triggers. Again.

Is losing another 5-ish pounds worth all that risk? My answer is hell-freaking-NO.

I’d rather feel free, energized, and happy than obsessing over every bite just to burn off a little extra body fat.

How about you?

Nearly all of our clients have similar stories. Some of them have a little initial weight loss, some a lot, others not at all. But the more we work together, the more our clients all achieve the ultimate goal…

They heal their relationship with their bodies and food. The mental, emotional, and physical triggers disappear. That’s when true freedom (and oftentimes weight release) happens!

Breaking out of survival mode comes first and don’t tell anyone tell you otherwise. Then comes balance and harmony with your body. After that (and even as you go along), comes trust between you and your body.

Here’s the thing. Freedom is as much of an inner game as it is an outer strategy. Any quest to change your external life will be shut down if you’re fighting yourself on the inside.

I’m not saying you have to have your inner game perfect. You don’t need to “love your body” right away. Simply accept where you are now. Accept that your weight might take some time to sort itself out, and give yourself the gift of patience and love.

So the best way to lose weight in the long run? Stop focusing on weight loss! Stop the diet, kick the body image ideas to the curb, and focus on connecting with and honoring your body.

First things first. Focus on the journey to connect with yourself. Make optimal health, happiness, and vitality the goal, not a random number on a scale. That’s the path to Food Freedom Forever!

Now you might be saying this is all easier said than done, and you’d be right! I’m not saying this is always easy, and I can guarantee you that it doesn’t happen overnight.

I also know how scary this can be, especially if you’ve been on the diet roller coaster all your life. It took me literally years to get free. But the good news is that you CAN do it, and it doesn’t need to take you as long as it took me!

If you want to take the first step on your journey today, I’ve got just what you need!

Click the image below where I’ve got a special gift for you! We call them, “Craving Cards”, and they’re one of our most popular tools!

If you ever feel night time cravings, sugar cravings, the urge to just say “screw it I’m going to start my diet over tomorrow”, or like you need a little body confidence pick me up… 

Just grab a card, go through the prompts, and shift it instantly!

Click the image above and let me know where to send them!

You’ll also get mini demo video training sessions for each card where I share how to use the cards and some of my best tips for food freedom forever!

With our Craving Cards and Demo Series… 

You’ll learn how to stop cravings in their tracks, feel confident, and get back your power, fast! 

Love,
Brittany

PS: Want the exact freedom and ease with our foods that myself and thousands of our clients get to experience?

In our Beating Binge Eating Blueprint (BBEB), I show you how to make this happen in just 8 weeks!

Many of our students have seen a DRASTIC difference in as little as a few days!

It’s our signature program, and up until recently, it was $3000 or more to join.

For now, you can get it as a part of our Food Freedom Collection for practically free by clicking the image below!

There is no catch…every resource I’ve created for food freedom and body confidence will land straight in your if you just click that image below and let me know where to send it!