She walked into my office one day (a little flustered I might add) with her bathroom scale in her hand. "Take it!" she exclaimed. "If I have to look at this scale one more time, I may literally go crazy."
Tears of sadness began to stream down her cheeks. I noticed frustration competing for a close second, as she clenched her jaw.
"I have realized that my happiness is co-dependant on this stupid scale!"
...I kept that scale in my office for close to a year.
The New Year is still fresh – a clean slate, a fresh blanket of snow, a new leaf, a new beginning, a reset, a restart.
Hope, optimism, dreams, plans, and goal setting happen with new beginnings.
Many of us are in the process of contemplating what we want our year to look and feel like.
Research shows that the most common aspects of ourselves that we choose for our New Year's resolutions, goals, and intentions are:
- Weight loss
- Healthier eating
- More exercise
- Stress management
- Better overall health
(i.e. It's my busiest month, and the gym was packed today).
If you have ever made your day dependent on the number on the scale ....
If you have ever walked by the shop window and glanced over to look at your reflection - mortified...
If you have ever pulled out your skinny jeans, tried them on knowing they were going to be too tight, changed into your baggy sweat pants, canceled your plans and binge watched Netflix...
If you have ever examined your naked body in the mirror – looking for love handles, muffin tops, or cellulite...
If you have ever turned down sex because of ANY or ALL of the above...
Then today's Solstice Session is especially for you. Grab your warm cup of tea, get cozy (it's super snowy here in Colorado) and let's chat...
In Today's Solstice Session you will learn:
- The truth about feelings
- Why adding(+) is better that subtracting (-)
- AAANNDD... little winter FARE to pamper your palate
First of all, you are not alone. “Feeling FAT” is a common thing to say, experience, and hear.
Something I have noticed: It doesn’t matter how big or small a person is, they still may very well experience “Feeling FAT”.
How often does a phrase like this run through your mind?
This “feeling” can leave us overwhelmed and stuck with icky, unlovable, worthless, depressed, unmotivated, thoughts about ourselves.
One big breakthrough I have witnessed is when we realize that “FAT” is not a feeling. If you experience “feeling FAT” then see if you can dig deeper into what is really going on…
What are you really feeling?
- Scared
- Anxious
- Lonely
- Hopeless
- Angry
- Guilty
- Shameful
- Frustrated
When we “feel FAT” we are almost always covering up a true emotion that is more complicated, overwhelming, or uncomfortable.
What can you do?
- What you are REALLY feeling? Name the feeling. Give yourself space to feel it.
- Trace the feeling back to the original trigger, incident, or event that may have started the feeling.
- Work with your thoughts and judgments around experiencing the feeling.
- Be gentle with yourself. You are a “feeling” being. There is no escaping it. You will continue to experience a wide range of feelings in your life, no matter what. The more comfortable and aware you become with these feelings, the better.
- Trust that you are stronger than you think, and that with a little practice, you can handle feeling feelings you have.
How does adding and subtracting relate to feeling FAT?
I know this may seem like a strange metaphor, but it is one that I have used for years for my own life as well as in my work.
Think about it for a minute…
Most often when we think of changing something, making an improvement, getting healthier, loving our bodies more, or creating transformation in our lives, we think of what we are doing wrong.
It is easy to bring our critical eye to the moment, compare ourselves to others, and wish we were just more perfect.
Most of us tell ourselves to STOP doing a certain behavior: to STOP eating so much candy, to STOP worrying about things so much, to STOP over eating, over spending, over giving, over extending, and even over judging.
Many years ago, I sat with one of my mentors on a cold and snowy winter day just like today.
She was in her mid-seventies, and steeped with a lifetime of self-study. I was thrilled to hear some of her wisdom.
She spoke this one particular message that has stuck with me for years – and has become integral in my personal and professional work:
“We don’t need to take things away, but rather add the right things and what we don’t need will naturally fall away.”
When we take things away, we naturally feel deprived. We need immense will power (which oscillates from one day to the next) to keep this up.
This could be food, money, a certain behavior, or even a person.
Have you ever tried this?
In my personal experience, and in what I have witnessed in my clients for the past 15 years is that our will power tends to run out, our old patterns creep back in, the pendulum swings from deprivation to indulgence, and we end up right back where we started.
When we add the right things into our lives consistently, they start to become automatic – we start to feel good – and our tired old patterns become more and more illuminated.
The good stuff begins to out weigh the rest, and we are less inclined to regress.
Take it up a notch. What if you added a lot of really good stuff?
Let’s say you are trying to quit eating so much white sugar this year – a very popular New Years resolution.
You start by adding in whole foods, adding in natural and yummy deserts full of the sweet flavor but also full of nutrients, self-love and balance, you add in some green juice here and there, you add in regularly moving your body daily, and also add in more adventures, more connection and more restoration…
Eventually that white sugar starts too taste waaaayyy to sweet.
Your palate becomes more sensitive and those sugary binges start to taste and feel bad to your body. You find yourself more satisfied with a natural sweet flavor, and the sweetness of life you have created all around you.
You may dabble in a bite of sugar here and there, but all the good stuff you are doing minimizes your old desire for so much sugar and YOU tap into a personal power that you thought was almost impossible to cultivate.
What are you going to ADD into 2017?
On that note here is one of my favorite naturally sweet recipes for you today. I hope you enjoy it!
What are the Solstice Sessions?
For the next few weeks, I will be sharing with you therich and heartwarming Solstice Sessions. These are my little whispers of winter’s wisdom, some guidance as we embrace the darkest nights of the year, and some appetizers from my most complete body of work, THE YOGA OF EATING 2017that begins this January. (registration is open). I hope you enjoy some of this content, as much as I love creating it for you.
Check out the details below. THE YOGA OF EATING 2017: 6-month course and community to heal your relationship to food and your body. Webegin in January 30th, 2017.
THE YOGA OF EATING 2017
THE YOGA OF EATING 2017: the most in-depth and detailed body of work I offer and a way to work with me personally while feeling the support of others on a similar path to transform your relationship to food and your body.
Many of you have daydreamed of a life filled with positive thoughts and habits that support your health and your happiness. If that is the case, THE YOGA OF EATING is just right for you.
This 6-month online course and community is full of incredible resources, potent international guest teachers, deep and reflective monthly content, guided yoga and meditation practices to enhance your inner journey, a beautiful circle of women from many corners of the world, and age-old practices that guide us to deep healing from the inside out.
Click here to learn all about The Yoga of Eating 2017
Make this year the year you can become your own VIP in all things health and happiness.
Lululemon + Boulder Nutrition 2017
Want to join me LIVE?
For the whole month of January, Boulder Nutrition will be partnering with Lululemon (we are both Canadian!) to bring you 5 FREE community classes.
Sunday mornings 9:30 am-10:30am Lululemon Store 29th St. Mall
Boulder CO
This is a great opportunity to explore your practice in a new way, to check out little tasters from THE YOGA OF EATING
6- month program beginning January 30th, and to deepen into your 2017 dreams and intentions.
AND…
During January all 5 classes we will be hosting a food drive for Harvest of Hope! Bring non perishable food items to class as a donation.
About Sue Van Raes…
I’m a Nutritional therapist, food psychology expert and Lifestyle Coach.
My mission is to help heal the feminine through food, mind-body connection and pleasure. Learn more here.
In our work together, we will dive into deep healing for the body and soul, while I offer you practical, potent teachings that will open your heart to trust, your mind to possibility and your body to its organic wisdom.
I am chock full of resources for you, including INSPIRING content and a wide range of support to help you find your way in all things food and body.
Feel free to read more about me and how I can help you HERE