fbpx
Logo

Weight Loss that Lasts

How NOT To Pass Food Struggles Onto Your Children

by Leave a Comment

Most parents have their children’s best interests at heart. But like the rest of us, parents are human beings who do the best they can every day. And we all have our moments.

About 75% of the women we work with at Beating Binge Eating have mothers or grandmothers who struggled with their body and their food.

And/or have fathers or grandfathers who sent messages about their appearances. (Things like dropping hints about losing weight, praising weight loss and being skinny, being “on track,” or getting “healthy” and more…)

Seeing these struggles and taking on these beliefs have plagued them all their lives, too.

They’re messages that have been passed down from generation to generation, wreaking havoc every step of the way.

These messages might have been unintentional. They might have even been well-intentioned. But either way, the impact of those early messages can’t be denied.

The more you see your mother struggling with food, the more you believe that food is an enemy.

The more you hear that your father say that you “need to lose weight,” the more you equate size with worthiness.

Whether those messages are conscious or not, their impact is powerful.

Does that mean that food and body struggles have to “run in the family” forever?

Of course not.

There’s something you can do to stop the food-body family struggles, starting NOW.

If you’re a mama, a mama-to-be, or a future mama, this is for you. Even if you don’t have a family, I bet you have kids in your life who look up to you. So this is for you, too!

Want the generational body-food war to end? Find out how to pass down messages and body love and food freedom instead of endless food struggles in the video below:

 

 

Now, if you’re a parent and you’re reading this, I know that you have your children’s best interests at heart. More than likely, your own parents wanted the best for you, too.

Of course, they might have conveyed some questionable body-food ideas when you were growing up. But that was probably because they were misinformed themselves.

Unfortunately, that misinformation most likely set you up for food struggles. Struggles that have likely stayed with you up until now.

In all fairness, though, it’s not your parents’ fault…

Damaging information and impossible standards are everywhere. From the diet industry to the fashion world to our own families, negative messages run rampant in our lives.

We all absorb these cultural signals, take them to heart, and build a belief system around them. We create belief systems that lead to actions like crazy restrictive dieting and relentless body shaming.

Then, of course, we pass them along to the young ones in our lives. Because we don’t know any other way.

Before you know it, you’re broadcasting your struggles, and children in your life notice. Not only do the kids take them on, they believe that they’re normal.

Most women (and men) who struggle with binging believe that they’re hiding it from their children. But the kids do notice when their parents behave strangely with food.

You might not think that your child sees you body-checking yourself in the mirror. Or dressing to cover up jiggly arms or thighs. But they pick up on the energy of dissatisfaction, and it makes an impression.

Children pick up on energy, feelings, and words. They notice what’s happening around them more than we realize. That means they take what the adults do as examples, and form beliefs around those examples.

If your children see you obsessing over food, binging on the sly. or hating the way you look, they’ll pick up on it.

When I was growing up, my mother did the best she could. She loved me dearly. She supported me. But her struggle with food was real and as she tried to help herself she tried to help me too.

She only meant to show me the methods she knew to break free. We tried diets together, pushed ourselves hard at the gym…

There were many other outside factors, but through this all I developed a pretty dysfunctional relationship with my body and food that lasted for nearly a decade.

Then a few years ago, the most amazing thing happened…

My mom healed her personal struggle through our own Beating Binge Eating program.

Her body released weight without trying. She freed herself from cravings and urges to binge. Now she feels free, happy, and fulfilled in her life, especially with her body and food.

That means she takes pictures with the family without fear of not looking right. We eat together without any food weirdness getting in the way. All those things that used to keep both of us stuck are distant memories now.

She has become a beacon of light in our community. She’s a shining example of everything that Food Freedom Forever stands for, and I couldn’t be more proud of her!

So no matter who you are or how long you’ve struggled, it is NEVER too late to heal your struggle. And when you do, you’ll also make an impact on the ones who come after you.

It’s also never too early to pass down loving and supportive messages and methods to your children.

No matter where you are in your journey, do what you can to instill positive messages in your. Show them examples of well-being, vitality, and happiness rather than shame, struggle, and pain.

That means start with treating yourself with kindness, respect, and love. Then show the children in your life how it’s done!

Now, I’m not saying that you have to be perfect. You don’t have to go from a wounded to healed body image overnight, or “fake it ‘til you make it.”

Just focus on healing yourself first, one step at a time. Then make an example of body and food-positive behaviors from there.

The key is to do things that make you feel good about yourself. Take steps to create an easy relationship with food, and cultivate body love.

Once you’ve started making positive changes in your life, you can be the change for others. That includes your children!

So take the steps. Do what you have to do. Not only will you heal yourself, but you’ll also impart supportive values to your kids.

If you don’t know what those steps are yet, that’s OK. We’re here to help! My free training will show you the way…

This training will show you the steps to create a peaceful relationship with food. Then you’ll be able to share what you’ve learned with the people you love the most!

We can end the generational struggle with food. It starts by making being a shining example for your children. This training will show you how to take that first step.

I know you’re an awesome parent, and you want the best for your children. So start by creating the best for yourself!

The best way to teach something is to live it. So start living a life of freedom with your body and your food, one step at a time.

Trust me, your children will notice–and they’ll create that freedom for themselves, too!

Now, tell me–what kind of example do you want to set for the children in your life? Leave me a comment and let me know. Let’s start making this generational shift happen together!

My Struggle with Binge Eating: How I Found Food Freedom Forever

by Leave a Comment

Over the last few years, I’ve helped more than 2000 women (not counting the 1000’s of others touched in our free communities) end their struggle with their body and their food.

It’s been a privilege and an honor, not just because of the food piece, but because of what women get to do when they are free from the chains of this struggle.

However, it didn’t always look this way for me…

It wasn’t that long ago that my life was a vicious cycle of binging, dieting, and repeating.

I struggled for over a decade. Now I’m proud to say that I’ve been free for over 5+ years, and I’ve never been happier.

But the road to Food Freedom Forever was grueling. I had my struggles. I had my setbacks. Moments where I felt like I’d be stuck forever.

Then, I discovered 3 simple but game-changing truths about food, my physiology, and freedom.

Now, I don’t have cravings anymore. The urges to binge are gone. In fact, I can say with confidence that I will never binge again.

It’s not because I found the ultimate workout. I didn’t learn to push myself harder or up my willpower and stick to the perfect diet, either.

It’s because I rewired myself from the inside out.

Watch the video below where I go deep into my body-food saga. I’ll share how it started, how it played out, and the three main takeaways I learned along the way so you don’t have to struggle like I did.

–

–

It all started around the middle of my high school years. Back then, for various reasons, I put a lot of importance on how I looked.

I remember gaining a little bit of weight in my mid-teens. It wasn’t a ton, but it was enough of a shock to bring on a ton of fear and insecurity.

I started forming all these beliefs about my worth and the size of my body. I don’t believe this now, but at the time, these thoughts crippled me:

I thought that the type of boys I wanted to date wouldn’t be with me if I wasn’t a certain look and size.

I didn’t think I’d get into college and have the school experience I’d want if I was overweight.

I thought that extra pounds would keep me from being a competitive athlete.

I even thought that being the wrong size would keep me from getting my dream job and opportunities in life.

Translation? I believed that being overweight would stop me from receiving the love, connection, and life that I desired.

Sounds crazy, right? But these fears aren’t superficial whims or ego trips.

Love, attention, and connection are core human needs. Needs that I thought I couldn’t meet because of a few extra pounds.

All that self-rejection and insecurity sent me on a decade-long quest to change my body. Let me tell you, it went a lot further and got a lot crazier than I ever intended…

Of course, then weight loss schemes started innocently enough. I went on diets. I took a few diet pills here and there. I had a cheat meal from time to time after weeks of strict dieting.

Then cheat meals turned into cheat days. Cheat days became cheat weekends. Weekends so bad that I’d wake up feeling bloated, swollen, and disgusted with myself on Monday morning.

Then it got to the point where I couldn’t get through a day without binging now matter how good of getting back “on track” my intentions were that morning.

To control these massive overeating spells…

I’d try diets, fasts, and juice cleanses to undo the damage.

I worked out like a maniac to offset binges. I even hired big-name personal trainers and entered fitness competitions to have a goal to stick to thinking that would control me.

I convinced myself that I was doing this out of a passion for fitness and nutrition. Turns out it was just an obsession with getting weight off my body.

Even more damaging was what I believed about weight loss…

I believed that if I could just lose weight, all of my problems would just disappear.

So I tried every diet and followed every fitness guru out there. Then I realized was it didn’t matter who I worked out with or whose diet I stuck followed no matter how incredible they were.

It wasn’t about the food. It wasn’t about the exercise. The harder I tried to control both of those things, the more chaotic my life became.

The scariest part was that through it all, I did some serious damage to my body.

The restrict-binge-repeat cycle and the yo-yo dieting left my thyroid suppressed. My pituitary gland stopped functioning nearly completely. My hormones were out of whack. I was close to Stage 4 adrenal fatigue (Doctors would say that’s bedrest and burnout).

Then, there was the acute kidney failure that put me in the hospital for a week after one of my fitness shows. This one shook me to my core.

I remember being in the hospital bed. My dad had come to see me in the hospital, and things weren’t looking good.

My blood pressure was spiking. I couldn’t catch my breath. Then I looked up and I saw the terrified look in my Dad’s eyes, knowing that he couldn’t help me.

Just like that, I realized that my actions weren’t just hurting me. They were tormenting the people I loved, too.

Now, I wish I could tell you that this was THE moment that I miraculously healed myself. But unfortunately, after that epiphany I tacked on another six years of food-body hell.

But it was a powerful turning point for me.

I decided that I needed a change and I couldn’t keep hurting those around me the way I was.

I set out on a holistic healing quest. I was determined to heal myself, then show the world how to heal, too.

I became a certified health coach. After graduation, an international coaching organization hired me to manage their health division, and I was on my way.

At this company, I worked under many holistic healing professionals. There was a nutritional healer, an Acupuncturist and naturopathic Doctor, and 2 renowned coaches… just to name a few.

Being around all that knowledge seemed like the fast-track to my goals. I’d learn from these holistic professionals. I’d heal myself. Then I’d show the world how to heal, too.

That was my plan. Then there was the reality…

I did focus on learning holistic healing, particularly through nutrition. But that food-focus had some unintended consequences.

The more I concentrated on healing through food, the more I thought about food. And before I knew it…

I was binging again.

Even with my company’s top coaches, doctors, and healers helping me. I still binged.

Now, I wasn’t going through two drive thrus and secretly eating in my car while crying my eyes out anymore.

Instead I was hiding in the Whole Foods parking lot gorging on whatever “health foods” I could get my hands on.

Then that fateful day came, and it all fell apart.

The head of the company asked me to submit a current image of myself for their website. At the time, I’d put on another 20 pounds. Needless to say, that request hit me like a ton of bricks.

I was telling others how to be healthy but I couldn’t get myself that way. I felt like the ultimate fraud.

So I resigned my position and left the health and wellness industry altogether. I promised myself that I was still going to help others get healthy, but I had to start with myself.

That determination sent me on a new journey.

I pursued personal development. I studied modalities like Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), hypnotherapy, and traditional therapy. I researched eating disorders and how they’re treated. I dug deep and learned a lot.

After a couple of years of this self-improvement kick, I began feeling more confident. I upgraded my belief systems and let go of a lot of self-sabotaging behaviors.

But I still thought about food. A lot of the time.

I still had cravings. I still had mini binges or at minimum a feeling of compulsion towards certain things. There was still a lot of emotional eating.

No matter how much healing I’d done, food still had way too much power over me.

Then there was a particularly bad binge experience that sent me over the edge. I remember laying on my floor crying. Feeling broken. Feeling confused. And feeling like something was deeply wrong with me.

At this point in my life I felt like I only had 2 choices:

I would check myself into an inpatient eating disorder center. OR, I would try Overeaters Anonymous.

I chose the latter. It proved to be the proverbial last straw moment, too…

I had a wonderful woman offer to support me, and we chatted for the first time. The conversation we had was one I’d never forget.

She told me that I’d be addicted to food for the rest of my life. She said that I’d have to abstain from carbs and sugar forever. She told me that I’d always have this “monster” addiction, and that I needed prayer and devotion to get through it.

It would take this white-knuckle abstinence from temptations 24/7, and for the rest of my life. THAT was the only way I’d ever be free.

It was so confronting:

Was I a food addict? Would I struggle with this for the rest of my life?

After a debilitating cry session on the floor. I came to my senses.

NO. NO. NO F-ING WAY. NO.

I refused to accept this as my truth.

Then I thought about all the other women who came to these people for help, and were told the same story.

My no grew – it wasn’t just taking a stand for myself, it was taking a stand for all women who’ve ever felt or been told the same.

I was not an addict that would have to struggle forever – I don’t believe anyone is.

I promised myself that I would NOT let anyone brand me or any other human with an “eating disorder” until the end of time.

Sooo, I hit the books AGAIN…

I embarked on a deep-dive study on addiction. I wanted to learn what it was and what it wasn’t once and for all.

From there, I dug deeply into neuroscience. I learned about how neuroplasticity works. I also did my homework on brain and body physiology.

Through all of my prior experiences and my exhaustive research, I discovered three powerful truths. Three crucial truths that set me free.

Truth #1: Weight loss is not about the perfect diet or the ideal workout. If weight loss or binge-control is the goal, diet and exercise alone are not the answers. In fact, obsessing over them makes your body-food battles significantly worse.

Truth #2: The deep emotional work matters, but it’s also not everything. Emotional work is a big deal, and a significant part of the process. Self-love and body positivity counts. But they won’t get you there by themselves.

Typically, there are some physiological things that are going on at a deeper level that drive eating behavior, that literally have nothing to do with who you are as a person.

Truth #3: I was NOT broken (and neither are you). Through all my ups and downs, I learned the most important truth of all. I wasn’t binging because I was broken, flawed, or hopeless.

I didn’t have an addiction that would plague me for life. There were specific brain and body triggers that were driving my urges to binge, and they needed to be addressed.

Turns out that conventional diet and exercise wisdom was pitting me against my body. It was supposed to set me free, but it kept me stuck in a cycle of binging for over a decade.

Now, here’s the bottom line…

Binge eating isn’t about willpower. It’s not about self-control. You don’t need 10 years of talk therapy to heal yourself. And you definitely don’t need to brand yourself with an eating disorder for life.

It took me over a decade to learn all of this, and it made me realize my true mission.

I needed to teach what I’d learned to others so that they wouldn’t suffer as long as I did. That’s how the Binge eating blueprint was born…

First, I coached women privately for a few years with great success. They’d break free from their struggle in 6 months to a year, but I wanted them to have freedom faster.

So, I created that path with our signature system: The Beating Binge Eating Blueprint

It’s an 8-week journey that has helped 720+ women heal their struggles without years of therapy.

You don’t have to be in a crazy 15-year struggle. You can change your life in a lot less time than that, and we’re here to help!

That’s my story, and I hope that it inspires you to learn more about breaking free, too!

If you want to start your personal journey, my FREE training is the way to begin! Click below and get instant access to my Beating Binge Eating Blueprint Video training.

This training will help you embrace the 3 truths about binging and weight loss, and put you on the road to Food Freedom Forever!

Leave a comment below and share what resonated with you the most, and how I can help you find Food Freedom Forever!

Do These 3 Things for Summer Weight Loss (and Body Confidence year round!)

by Leave a Comment

It’s summertime, and the living is supposed to be easy. But the season for sun, fun, and friends often brings stress, pressure, and disappointment instead.

It’s especially hard if you hear “summer” and automatically think bikinis, tank tops, and shorts.

If you hate the way your body looks, summer can give you an unfortunate ultimatum: either lose weight or endure a ton of summertime sadness.

Are you stressing about getting through the dress-down season in your current body? Believe me, you’re not the only one!

Back when I struggled with body confidence, I was living in Florida. Let me tell you, enduring the sunshine state culture and hating how my body looked did NOT mix.

I strived to have the Florida beach girl body, but the mirror never seemed to agree with my vision.

So every summer, I went off on a quest for the ideal rapid weight loss plan so I could look the way I thought I should in time for the summer.

Needless to say, the diet-binge-repeat cycle went to a whole new level from June through August.

I followed crazy restrictive diet plans all week, then turned around and binged at parties and barbecues (or home alone by myself) all weekend. That meant the Monday morning food hangovers were especially miserable.

Not exactly summer fun in the sun, right?

Please don’t do what I did…You deserve better than this summer!

Don’t sacrifice your summer stressing over how you look in a bikini or panicking to find the fastest 24-hour “miracle” weight loss cleanse.

First off, it won’t work in a way that actually lasts.

Secondly, it steals your joy and consumes your focus AND who wants that?!

Watch the video below where I show you 3 supportive ways to release weight, ditch the body stress, and actually enjoy your summer!

–

–

Step #1: Take care of yourself first (yes, that means EAT). Let’s face it. Diets are negative by nature. They focus on what you CAN’T have. It’s all about eliminating sugar, carbs, dairy–you name it, some diet out there cuts it out!

What happens when all you tell yourself is NO?

Eventually, your body and brain start believing that food must be scarce, so you better grab it while you can.

For example, what happens when you tell yourself, “I’m not allowed to eat bread because I’m trying to lose weight”?

Sooner or later, all you can think about is bread. All your body wants is bread. And when you finally give in, it turns into a bread free-for-all, right?

This is what I call “survival mode,” and the more you restrict your food, the more powerful it becomes.

Don’t cut calories to “save up” for summer parties, and don’t restrict your food just to look cute in a sundress. It’ll seriously backfire on all your weight loss plans.

Support your body with nourishing foods all summer long, and take survival mode out of the picture.

Step 2: Take a summer vacation from weight loss. I know, it sounds weird considering how I labeled this post…but I had to get you to read, didn’t I?! 😉

Why would I suggest taking a “vacation” from something you want?

Well, because too much weight loss focus will ultimately make your weight loss plan fall flat.

Think of it this way…

Consider what happens when you start a new diet. You’re bound and determined to succeed. You push yourself to follow the plan to the letter, no excuses.

But most of the time, the harder you push, the more your brain and body push back.

The more rules you force yourself to follow, the harder your brain and body will eventually rebound. It’s like pushing your body into a food rebellion–the more you restrict yourself, the worse the fallout when you do give up.

Like many endeavors in life, the harder you fight to get ahead, the further behind you get.

Your focus determines everything. So this summer, instead of focusing on forcing your body to fit that bikini, focus on something else:

Focus on feeling GOOD.

Eat supportive and refreshing foods that make you come alive.

Have fun with movement and exercise.

Enjoy being outdoors and take advantage of the sunshine. In short, make your summer fun again!

Why is this strategy so crazy effective?

The more you honor your body, the stronger your body connection becomes, AND the more you create a loving relationship with your food, the more weight you eventually release. (And without trying!)

#WINNING!

So this summer, go on a quest to connect with your body instead of a quest to drop 20 pounds.

Step 3: Be real about why you want to lose weight. Everyone talks about wanting to lose weight. But think about it for a second. When it comes to slimming down, what’s your deepest motivation?

Sure, you might think that you just want to cute in a summertime outfit. But in my experience, the mirror or the scale alone is never the whole story.

So ask yourself this, and be totally real with your answer…

How do you really think your life will change when you lose weight? What deeper rewards do you believe will come from dropping a certain number of pounds?

Some people want to lose weight to feel more confident in their body, whether they’re wearing a bathing suit or a business suit.

Others believe that weight loss will bring inner peace to their mind, body, and spirit.

Still others think that dropping a dress size or two will simply make them happier.

Now, here’s my next question…

Do you have to wait to lose weight before you can feel confident, peaceful, or happy?

Sit with that question for a minute, and see what comes up for you!

This question was an eye-opener for me.

Back in the day, I made yo-yo dieting an Olympic level sport. I was all over the map with my weight, to say the least.

I’ve been 40 pounds heavier than I am now. I’ve also been 20 pounds lighter than I am today.
At the time I believed that the latter was my ticket to peace, confidence, and happiness.

But here’s where it gets interesting…

Whether the scale was up or down, I was never happy for very long.

When I was overweight, I fought to take that weight off. When I was at my thinnest, I panicked that the weight would come back.

It wasn’t until I decided to embody peace, confidence and happiness that I began to love my life.

And I decided to embody those feelings without waiting for the scale to hit a certain number.

How did I do it? I decided to feel all the positive feelings that I thought I’d get from weight loss. That meant doing things to make me feel peaceful, confident, and happy–none of which had anything to do with how I looked.

I stopped waiting for weight loss, and started feeling the way I wanted to feel.

Wouldn’t you know it–not only did I feel a million times better right away, but I also started to release weight effortlessly!

Coincidence? Definitely not.

If your happiness comes from outside of yourself, you’ll always be chasing a new external fix. The game will never end, and your joy will never last.

But if you can find confidence, joy, and happiness from within, outside circumstances (like the scale or the mirror) won’t control your life anymore!

So do me a quick favor and try this right now:

Take a deep breath, close your eyes, and ask yourself what you believe losing weight will get you.

Identify the desired feelings that you think will come losing weight.

Then start taking action to embody them NOW, weight loss or not!

For example:

If you want more confidence, do something to boost your confidence that has nothing to do with weight loss.

Maybe that’s wearing your favorite power outfit or jamming out to a song that pumps you up. Whatever it is, use it to lift your confidence without waiting for weight loss!

Cultivate those positive feelings NOW, whether you lose weight or not. Don’t delay your happiness because you haven’t lost weight (yet)!

That’s my summertime challenge to you!

Please don’t let shorts, bikinis, and tank tops trigger you into crazy diets and fitness freakouts.

Instead, eat nourishing foods, honor your body, and focus on feeling good.

Take back your summer this year, and put these three steps to work for you!

I know this might sound challenging. But you deserve to have an amazing summer without any mirror or scale-based stress.

And the first step to summertime freedom is in the link below!

Be sure to click that link and get my free training! It’ll help you break free from cravings, overeating, and self-sabotage–and create a loving relationship with your body and your food!

Stop letting the scale determine your self-worth and happiness. My free training will show you how.

Once you’ve gotten your free training, join me in the comments below!

Leave me a comment and tell me two things…

  1. First, share what feelings do you believe you’ll get from weight loss success.
  2. Then, tell me one thing you’re going to do today to embody those feelings, weight loss or not!

Can’t wait to hear from you!

Weight Loss At A Standstill? How About Having A Little More FUN? (How Feeling Good Sparks Weight Release)

by Leave a Comment

Sometimes weight loss feels like one big battle against your body, your food, and yourself. That’s the way the diet and fitness world wants you to see it, anyway.

People say things like “no pain, no gain,” or “sweat is your fat cells crying.”

The take-home message? If you’re not pushing yourself 24/7, you’ll never win the weight loss war.

In fact, there’s an entire industry built on making weight loss a battle. It’s all about force, restriction, and control, both with diet and exercise.

Makes losing weight feel like punishment instead of self-improvement, doesn’t it?

The crazy part is that weight loss isn’t even about pushing or fighting. Weight loss is actually a release…It’s about letting go.

It’s about laying down the sword and working WITH your body instead of against it.

(Not the message that you get from Instagram influencers or fitness gurus, right?)

But if weight loss is letting go, how do you set yourself up for weight loss success? How do let go instead of clinging to self-defeating strategies that every “expert” sells you?

Here’s a radical idea….

What if you allowed yourself to have more FUN in your life?

Now, you might wonder how having more fun has anything to do with weight loss. Shouldn’t you be pushing harder and getting more serious about change?

Believe it or not, the answer is NO. You’d be amazed by what happens with your mind, spirit, AND body when you trade stress for play!

Sure, that’s the opposite of what the diet world says. But I’m all about keeping it real. And the real path to weight release is simply feeling good.

But seriously, how can having more fun help you lose weight?

Watch the video below and learn how a little more pleasure can lead to a lot more weight release!

–

–

Now first, let’s be clear about what “pleasure” means.

I don’t mean the pleasure of eating a whole pizza in one sitting. That’s not the kind of pleasure that lasts, and it’s not the kind of joy I’m talking about.

I mean knowing how you want to feel, and taking action to feel that way. It’s about doing things that bring you joy, freedom, and excitement at a deeper level.

Why is this such a big deal, especially in our 21st-century world?

Most of us are on nonstop overdrive. We’re in go-go-go mode 24/7. Eventually, your default mode becomes stress instead of peace.

I bet you know what happens next.

Stress triggers emotion-based cravings. It also decreases your digestive efficiency, and you don’t get the nutrients you need from your food. That leads to fatigue, which leads to even more cravings.

All of this creates a nasty emotional cycle that eventually becomes your default mode.

The mundane, day-to-day hustle becomes your routine. It leaves you in a constant ball of nerves, and desperate for fun, joy, and pleasure.

Before you know it, food becomes your quick-fix escape.

Trust me, I get it. For years, food was my go-to when the going got tough.

But what if you could bring back fun without relying exclusively on “comfort food?”

The good news is that there are ways to have genuine fun without going overboard with food.

The even cooler part is that joyful experiences don’t have to be big, expensive, or time-consuming to work!

Simple experiences that spark joy will work wonders to combat stress.

You could step away from the screens and take a walk. Call a friend. Have a quiet meditation moment. Listen to a favorite song or have a dance break.

Make little pleasures an everyday thing, and you’ll eventually stop turning to food to fill the void!

Now, how does this ultimately help you release weight?

Sure, there’s the curbing cravings and eating less food part. But there’s even more added benefits that aren’t quite so obvious…

If you feel alive, centered, and joyful, you’ll want to stay that way. So you’ll start making more choices to support those feelings. That includes choices that align with healthy weight loss, whether you mean them to or not!

Bottom line, more stress means more chaos. But more fun creates more happiness. Happiness creates supportive choices, more internal peace, more letting go…and more weight release!

That’s how having a little bit of fun can get you to the body and life that you’ve always wanted.

Now, here’s my question for you…

What is one thing you can do this week to make your life more FUN?

It doesn’t have to be earth-shattering. Just make it something that you genuinely love!

Maybe it’s a yoga class. A nature walk. A few minutes every day for an all-out dance break, or a playlist of crazy cat videos on YouTube. Whatever lights you up is what you need to do!

So enjoy yourself this week! Choose at least one simple thing that brings you joy, treat yourself to that experience, and watch what happens.

More fun just might translate into more weight release!

What is your fun activity for this week? Leave me a comment and share what you’re going to do to make your day fun again!

P.S. Speaking of fun, how exciting would it be to let go of body-food stress for good? My free training will help you do just that!

Click the link below and grab my free training! It’ll help you discover what has been standing between you and lasting weight loss, and show you the steps to Food Freedom Forever!

All The Feels: How Emotions Make You Hold Onto Weight (The Weight Loss Struggle That NO Diet Can Touch)

by Leave a Comment

Back in the day, I thought that beating weight and binge eating struggles meant straight-up diet and nutrition. So I followed every diet guru and bought everything they were selling.

But sooner or later, every diet just flat-out stopped working.

I figured that it had to be my fault. I couldn’t stick to anyone’s diet. Maybe my mindset was off. Or maybe I just wasn’t motivated enough to succeed.

So I started following mindset and motivation gurus in addition to all the diet and exercise advice I could consume.

But in the end, I always went back to binging.

I was gaining and losing the same 40 pounds over and over again. I was losing the body battle even though I was doing everything “right.”

But then I discovered that there was more to weight loss than diet, exercise, and motivation.

Something was making me cling to weight, and nobody in diet and fitness land was addressing it.

That underlying cause was my emotions.

Believe it or not, trapped emotions play a significant role in weight and food struggles. They’re the one thing that nobody really talks about it. But they’re often the last thing standing between you and the results you want.

Once you understand how emotions work, something amazing happens. You find the power to end the body battle in a way that just working out and eating right never could.

Everyone talks about diet and exercise. Today I’m giving you the missing piece that can heal your relationship with your body and your food forever!

Watch this video (and read on!) and I’ll show you how emotions affect your body-food relationship–and how to work with them to escape the diet-binge-repeat cycle once and for all!

–

–

Now, before we start, keep this in mind…

Like many things in life, emotional healing is a work in progress. That means you don’t have to heal everything before you see results.

I was a binger for over a decade. I bet you can imagine the emotional state I was in when I stopped. Binge recovery wasn’t even the only emotional stress I was experiencing at the time, either.

I was failing as an entrepreneur. I was in a toxic relationship. I was living on a friend’s couch.

Needless to say, my emotional world was far from perfect. But one step at a time, I acknowledged what was going on inside. And every step brought me closer to freedom from binging.

So if your emotional world is feeling a little insane, that’s OK. A perfectly balanced emotional life is not a prerequisite to freedom.

On the flip side, it IS imperative you take the time to acknowledge your emotions. Once you recognize the emotions that steal your joy and the subconscious beliefs that weigh you down, your healing begins.

The more emotionally aware you become, the more you recognize how unresolved feelings show up as weight gain (or lack of weight loss) in your life. From there, Food Freedom Forever is within your reach!

So how do you know that unresolved feelings might be sabotaging your weight loss and triggering binge eating?

Here are the top three signs that your emotions may be linked with your food-body battle:

Sign #1: (Unsupportive) Emotional Eating. Believe it or not, food and emotions sometimes work well together. Other times not so much.

I’m sure you’ve heard of emotional eating, but you might not know that it shows up in both supportive and unsupportive ways.

Sometimes, I choose certain meals and nutrients to make me feel more energized. Other times, a nourishing meal can make me feel grounded, calm, and supported.

That’s what we like to call supportive emotional eating.

Then there’s the other flip-side of emotional eating. The kind that makes you use food to suppress feelings that you don’t want to experience.

If you’re anything like I was, the following scenario will sound familiar.

You get triggered by something, and it leaves you with an emotion that you don’t want. You’re desperate to get rid of the daunting feeling at any cost. What do you do?

In your heightened emotional state, you decide to hit the “escape” button.

Your escape might be procrastination, social media scrolling, drinking–any number of things. But if you’re here, I bet your escape of choice is food. (I know mine was!)

That’s what we call unsupportive emotional eating. You’re numbing feelings with food instead of releasing them in a supportive way.

The most unfortunate part is that when you numb your emotions, they don’t go anywhere. They just keep popping up the harder you try to push them down.

Author Debbie Ford once said it’s like trying to shoving a beach ball underwater. Eventually, it pushes back up and explodes in your face.

It leaves you walking through the world with a ton of new, triggering emotions just waiting to pop.

On top of that, the more you numb your feelings, the more disconnected you become. Eventually, you lose the connection to your intuition, your internal guidance system, and yourself.

That’s what unsupportive emotional eating can do. It’s the most recognizable sign that feelings stand between you and sustainable weight loss.

Sign #2: Your Weight of Eating Behavior Is Keeping You “Safe.” Ever thought that you might be holding onto weight because you’re afraid to let it go?

I know that sounds crazy. But consider this–what if you subconsciously believed that extra weight is protecting you?

Believe it or not, sometimes weight acts as a protective barrier. It keeps you stuck in your comfort zone, free from the fear of change.

What kind of change would you fear so much that you cling for dear life to extra pounds?

Maybe you’ve gone through a traumatic experience, and you don’t feel safe in your body, so extra weight protects you from the world.

Maybe every time you lose weight, you go out into the dating world and end up getting hurt. So you sabotage your weight loss efforts to avoid disappointment.

Maybe you’re a creative or an aspiring entrepreneur who is afraid of sharing her work. So you hoard extra weight to keep from putting yourself out there.

In other words, you’re afraid to step out of your comfort zone. And something about losing weight makes you feel vulnerable, so you cling to the weight like a security blanket.

My fears centered around two things–putting myself out there as an entrepreneur, and looking for love in the dating world.

The more I contemplated making big moves in business or dating, the more I’d freak out, sit at home, and numb out with food.

Sure, I was trapped in a brain-based binge eating pattern. But I was also using food to self-sabotage. I was staying safe in my bubble instead of putting my work (and myself) into the world.

If you don’t feel safe your body and fear-based emotions keep control, food is a quick fix for comfort. And it makes you hold onto weight to protect you from too much vulnerability.

Sign #3: Fear of your own awesomeness. It’s one thing to fear stepping out of your comfort zone. But if you’re not careful, fear of change can morph into fear of success.

You might wonder why anyone would fear receiving their deepest desires. But as Marianne Williamson once said, our biggest fears aren’t about our inadequacy. They’re about our brilliance.

That’s right–fear of success.

Fear of who you might lose if you become your best self. Fear of how your relationships, your surroundings, and your life will change if you fully embrace your power. So to save yourself from your highest self, you hold onto that weight.

Pretty powerful stuff, right?

These are three of the main clues that emotions are keeping you in the body-food battle. And as you can see, they have nothing to do with what you eat or how you work out.

Emotional weight loss struggles are about feeling unsafe in your body. Those fearful emotions then prompt you to hold onto extra weight like a life preserver.

But the good news is that once you work through and transcend these emotional triggers, weight loss and body love will become second nature!

How do you start putting this powerful practice to work for you?

Star by taking a look at your life. Is there any area where you’re staying safe, playing small, and hiding? Now look at those areas, and notice if those emotional situations ever trigger binge eating.

If they do, it’s a sign that there are deeper reasons for out-of-control eating and weight loss fails.

Now, healing your emotions isn’t the absolute cure-all. Your body, brain, and physiology all affect weight loss and binge eating (as we talk about a lot here on the blog).

But for best results, take it one step further. Be aware of the behind-the-scenes role that unresolved emotions might be playing, and respond accordingly.

Now, once again, perfect emotional healing is not necessary for success! All you need is to become aware of your emotions. Then start working with them instead of fighting them.

That means taking the process one step at a time.

Now, this can be confusing if you haven’t gone deep into your emotional world yet. But I promise that you can do it–and I know that we can help!

If you need support uncovering the emotional blocks that keep you stuck, I’ve got your back with this free training I made you…

It’ll help you break out of the struggle, and set you up for a lifetime of freedom and ease with food.

We talk about ALL the factors behind binging and weight gain, including the power of elusive emotions. And we’ll get to the bottom of your weight loss struggles and help you break free for good!

Click the link below, get that training delivered directly to your inbox, and take your first big step toward Food Freedom Forever!

If you’ve tried every diet and workout plan on the planet without success, your emotions might be the last thing standing in your way.

So stop looking for the perfect eating and fitness plan, and start bringing awareness to “all the feels” in your life. Then one step at a time, watch what happens!

Grab that free training above and start letting go of the emotions that keep you stuck!

P.S. I’d love to support you even further on this journey! So once you’ve watched the training, leave me a comment and let me know how it worked for you!

Why Your Diet Isn’t Really “Working,” (Even If You’ve Lost Weight) and What To Do Instead (That WILL Work!)

by Leave a Comment

Since I started working in the world of health coaching, I’ve helped thousands of women break free from food and body struggles. And I’ve seen a lot.

One thing that continually blows my mind, though, is how so many clients come to us believing that their diets are “working” or have worked in the past.

Here’s how it usually goes…

We ask the new client how they’ve been eating, what’s been triggering them to binge, and so on. The stories they tell are so often the same.

Sometimes it’s that they’ve started a new diet, and so far it’s working.

Or that they went on some eating plan, it worked for a while. But then they fell off the wagon, then got back on the said wagon. Then low and behold, the eating plan “worked” again.

One way or another they tell us that they’re diet is “working.” Yet here they are, looking for a solution.

But let’s be honest. If something is really working, why are we on the call in the first place?

I’m not saying this to call anyone out, nor do I mean to be harsh. All I’m doing here is pointing an undeniable truth…

Diets don’t work.

Diets can give you fast and encouraging results. They trick you into thinking that they’re working, but they inevitably let you down.

(Sometimes they even leave you worse off than you were to start!)

Bottom line, if you’re looking for long-term happiness and freedom with your food, traditional diets are NOT the answer.

But the good news is that there IS something that works over the long haul. That’s what I’ll be sharing with you today!

You deserve better than short-term, here today-gone tomorrow weight loss. I’m going to show you how to get there without plotting, planning, tracking, or worrying about whether or not your diet is “working.”

The goal is Food Freedom Forever. Believe it or not, food itself has a LOT less to do with that than you might think.

Watch the video below to learn why you might believe your diet is working, why it won’t work long-term, and what WILL work to bring you Food Freedom Forever!

–

–

Now, let’s start with a question: when you say that a diet is working, what does “working” mean to you?

Here’s how I define it:

An eating plan “works” if it makes you feel free. You don’t battle cravings. You don’t worry about what you can or can’t eat. You go through the day feeling ease in your body and peace with your food.

There are no rules to follow. Weight comes off without fighting. You don’t gain weight if you go “off script” with the plan for a day or two.

Most importantly, you don’t think about food 24/7. You’re free to focus on the things you love, not what’s on your plate or what the scale says.

That is what we call a plan that “works.”

Now, think about what happens on your average weight loss diet plan…

You follow a strict eating plan. You lose weight quickly. But there’s a high price for rapid results.

The cravings are endless. Urges to binge hit you hard. Emotional eating starts creeping in.

One bite of an “off-limits” food and it’s all over.

Even worse, all you think about is food.

You’re prepping your food. Counting calories. Tracking your macronutrients. And losing your mind along the way.

Sure, you might’ve dropped a few pounds and gotten encouraging results. But you had to give in to massive time and energy vampire (i.e. dieting) to get those results.

If you’re giving up massive amounts of your energy to stay “on track,” eventually, that energy will run out.

Because let’s be real. Is white-knuckling your way through the day just to stick to a diet the way you want to live your life?

Even if some diet has helped you stop cravings or curb your binging, it takes a lot of energy to keep those positive results going. Eventually, even a diet that “works” will become too much to sustain.

So take an honest and no-judgment look at your diet. Is it really working for you?

From my struggle for over a decade with binge and emotional eating to helping thousands of women beat binge eating, I can say with 100% confidence that diets do NOT work.

Diets trigger cravings, which ultimately leads to weight gain. They don’t make you feel more peaceful and empowered–just a lot more crazy!

Worst of all, diets are so well ingrained in our minds as the only solution that it’s scary to let them go.

I relied on diets for years. I believed that they were the only way I could stay sane and in control. Just thinking about stopping my diet felt like letting go of a life preserver in the middle of the ocean.

That’s why nobody talks about alternatives to dieting. The very idea is, quite frankly, terrifying. It’s a step into the unknown, and there’s nothing scarier than that.

But what if you could take that step knowing that you’ve got the support to get through the fear–and finally achieve lasting results?

Going from strict diets to total food freedom overnight isn’t the answer, either. It’s too much change too quickly, and can be just as unsustainable as a diet.

But there is a step-by-step way to go from diet-hopping to freedom with food. It’s a method that does more stop binge eating. It helps you ditch the urges to binge in the first place.

It’s a method that gives you the freedom to live and LOVE your life again, without constant food thoughts taking all your time and energy.

You get to play with your kids, pursue your passions, be with your family and friends–and without enduring a food hangover or constant anxiety about how your body looks.

Most of all, it’s the freedom to never worry about whether or not your eating plan is working–because you know that it genuinely IS.

That’s the kind of freedom you deserve, and that’s what I want you to have. I promise that it’s possible for you, too!

It doesn’t matter how long you’ve struggled, how many diets you’ve tried, or how many times diets have failed you. They fail not because you’re weak, but because diets simply don’t work.

What DOES work?

The answer is creating a deep and embodied change in your relationship with your body and your food.

Sound impossible? You CAN do it. I know because I did it, and I’ve helped thousands of other women do the same for themselves.

If you want a step-by-step plan to embody that beautiful relationship with your body and your food, I have a special gift for you!

It’s a free training that’ll put you on the path to lasting, loving, embodied change.

It’ll help make your food-body relationship easy. It’ll free you up to focus on what you love in life instead of what’s on your plate!

Stop worrying about whether or not your next diet is going to work. It’s time to uplevel from constant dieting to Food Freedom Forever!

Ready to let that happen? It’s just one click away! Grab your free training at the link below!

I have to be honest–all that I’m sharing here is more than just saying what has worked for me.

It comes from the heart–and from over a decade of experience.

These steps have helped me transcend my struggle, and how I’ve helped thousands of others break free, too. It’s our signature system, and we’ve made it into a free training that you can apply starting TODAY!

Click that link, get immediate access in your inbox!

And I can’t wait to hear how it worked for you, so leave me a comment and let me know!

Ready to feel in control of food and feel good about your body?

(Get the EXACT system myself and thousands of my client have used to successfully live a life fueled by freedom instead of living as a slave to diets, weight, and food obsession.)

Almost there! Please enter your best email address below for instant access.

Let me know where I should send your free video training to beat binge and emotional eating below!