The Juicy Woman

Waiting For Weight Loss: Are You Willing To Give Up the Promise of Quick Fix Diets?

Summer’s here and the trend is warmer weather and coats off. That means baring those arms and legs. For years, this time of year struck the fear of God in me. It meant that I had to face another swimsuit season as a fat woman.

Today for once I see myself differently. For over 33 years I battled an eating addiction and my life was miserable because of it. I tried to get it under control with diets and exercise but it always seemed to win out over me. When I learned about Intuitive Eating, I discovered a door to freedom. However it came with a hefty price. To test out the process of Intuitive Eating, for about 5 months, I ate like there was no tomorrow and decided to toss out my energy coaching tools and NLP coach know how and just eat every single time I got hungry. Pretty soon I noticed that I was hungry about every hour on the hour. That's when I knew that this process worked best by integrating energy coaching tools to coddle the feelings that show up as a physical desire to eat. That's the benefit that I bring to my clients.

The Transformation From An Ugly Duckling Self Image To A Beautiful Swan

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve been blogging. I apologize. I’ve been a bit under the weather. Now I'm rested and revived. ready to get back and play a bigger game. I’ve contacted a few of my colleagues and we’re going to be writing a book and creating a course on how to makeover a fat and ugly self image. If you're a gal who feels like an ugly duckling and you yearn to see yourself as a swan, then keep your eyes peeled for more details.

The Power Of Thinking Pretty: The Mirror Has Two Faces

This evening I got a chance to enjoy a movie that I’ve never seen before. “The Mirror Has Two Faces” stars Barbra Streisand and Jeff Bridges as two college professors who meet and decide to enter into a platonic marriage.

Taking many twists and turns, the movie shows Barbra’s character, Rose as being a woman who has lived the majority of her life with an internal self image that she is not pretty. Always comparing herself to her beautiful and popular sister and mother, Rose comes up short, feeling like the ‘ugly duckling’ by comparison. She reasons that because she is not ‘pretty’ she must settle for a relationship with Jeff Bridges that does not fully satisfy her.

Desserts: Is More Actually Better?

According to Connirae Andreas, Creator of the "Naturally Slender Eating Strategy" and co Author of the book, "Heart of the Mind ", she believes that a little bit of something sweet  is much more desirable and enjoyable than having a lot or too much of it.

For example, she says, that she’s come to realize over time that when she takes a taste of a favorite dessert and focuses on that taste experience, she is able to truly savor every aspect of the confection, its taste, texture, aroma, color, etc.

Take a moment and remember the last time that you enjoyed that first bite or two of a delectable goodie. Do you recall a time when the quality of that experience and the enjoyment of that food began to change and degrade? As you ate more of it, did it taste better or worse?

Mentally Rehearse Your Day

When an actor prepares for a role or a speaker gets ready for a presentation, they spend time rehearsing and practicing before the actual event. You can use this same method to create your average day.

To pre-pave your day, try this simple exercise:

When you wake up in the morning, spend a few minutes sitting quietly with your eyes closed, visualize how you want the day to go. See yourself smiling as you float throughout your day, meeting and greeting people, learning new things and feeling good about yourself as you step along in your day. Get as specific as you like. You may want to see yourself eating the foods you love with a different appreciation, savoring each bite and eating smaller portions without trying.

Closet Eating: Putting the Secret Shame To Rest

Are you a woman who lives with a secret shame called Closet Eating? I did for many years. I used to be very strategic and clever in thinking up so many wonderful hiding places for food. I had stashes of cookies in my coat pockets, candy bars under the bed, wrapped snack cakes behind the toilet.

For years I put on a show for everyone that I was doing my best to diet and lose weight. Yet, the moment that I was left alone, I would desperately reach for the food that gave my life comfort and joy. I felt caught in a cycle of self abuse for decades until I reclaimed control over food.

I felt like Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. I would do my best to eat like everyone else but as soon as I was alone, I felt compelled to eat. It felt good and awful at the same time. Can you relate?

Portion Challenge Chips Away At Procrastination

Here’s a challenge you may like to try.

We all have spots in our day when it is particularly difficult not to fall back into the habit of emotional eating.

Pick a time during your day when you tend to want to eat for comfort. Most people who have lived as chronic dieters, have refined certain habits that have been acquired over years of dieting. Some of these habits work and some of them don’t serve quite as well.

Everyone has things that they want to do that take just a few minutes but with our busy lives, it's easy to forget about them until we are face to face with the irritation that results from their incompletion status in our lives. Do you have a couple of those things that you’ve been wanting to do? Maybe sew on a button, or toss out that old jar of salsa at the back of the refrigerator, you get the idea.

Pent Up Emotions Pack On the Pounds

In our society, when a child cries, a pacifier is stuffed in their mouth. It’s not nice but it is quick, easy and simple. It promises a quick solution for the child, no more pain for the exhausted parent, and it would seem that everyone is happy.

Perhaps when you were a child, you remember times when you fell down and skinned your knee, mom would offer you a cookie or perhaps you came home from a bad day at school, she would greet you with a pan of warm brownies or cookies straight from the oven. Despite how you grew up, regardless of whether mom was a whiz in the kitchen or couldn’t boil water, you ended up loving food. Didn’t you? Me too.

Connirae Andreas' Naturally Slender Eating Strategy Guideline #1 "Choosing Foods That Kiss Your Being"

Connirae Andreas is the creator of the "Naturally Slender Eating Strategy." She is also one of the original co-developers in the field of Neuro Linguistic Programming. As a therapist, she has helped thousands of people to overcome fears, phobias and various other experiences in their lives that have blocked their lives. To get more information and read the strategy in its entirety, read the book that she co-authored with her husband, Steve Andreas, called, “Heart of the Mind."

This post and several others like it will take excerpts from the interview that I enjoyed with Connirae last week. This post will describe the importance of choosing foods that 'kiss your being.' I encourage you to visualize your food choice as the loving mother depicted in the photo and you as the infant child seeking nourishment.