This is for you if you can't stop thinking about food

II used to think about food 99.99% of my day.⁣
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I was so hungry that I couldn’t concentrate at all. I couldn’t even watch a film to the end without thinking about food.⁣
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All I wanted to do was eat – and once I started, I couldn’t stop.⁣
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I didn’t know this then, but now I understand that it was dieting that was making me hungry and obsessed with food all the time. And the longer I dieted, the hungrier and more obsessed I became.⁣
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If you feel like you can’t stop thinking about food, and if you feel completely out of control around food when you start eating, this is a signal from your body that you are not eating enough.⁣
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Eating enough food is a basic part of self-care. If we don’t feed our bodies properly, it can lead to overeating, bingeing, and a constant obsession with food. ⁣

It can be challenging to eat enough, not only have we been suppressing our hunger signals through dieting, but we have also been fed messages on ‘X” amount to eat.
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I know how tough this is. I have been there, and it is a lot easier said than done.But as soon as I started to honour my hunger and eat enough food, I stopped thinking about food 99.99% of my day, my hunger signals regulated, and my constant drive to eat disappeared.⁣

So just how do you go about honouring your hunger? The first step is to identify what hunger feels like for you and to eat as soon as you feel it!

Tune in and listen to your body. What does hungry feel like for you? Does your stomach feel physically empty? Are you tired? Cranky? Do you get a headache? We are all unique in how we feel hunger. Some of us get a clear signal in our stomach whereas others might feel it in our throat. Other signs of hunger may be shakiness, a heightened sense of smell, or even just thinking about food.

When you start to listen to the first signs of hunger and feed your body before you get too hungry, you will be able to eat in tune with your body’s needs.

⁣Not only is honouring your hunger a key part of self-care, but it is also a key part of healing your relationship with food.

If you would like more support with this, my book will help you. Click on the link below if you would like to learn more.



How to build a positive relationship with exercise

I never took rest days.

I would force myself to exercise when I was sick, hadn’t slept, and even when I was in physical pain.

I felt so guilty, and I didn’t feel like I deserved to eat or do anything else until I had exercised.

These were some of my darkest days. I had insomnia, my hunger was out of control and my moods were all over the place.
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If this is something you struggle with, I know how you feel. I hear you and I see you, but I want you to know it is possible to have a positive relationship with exercise, instead of a punishing one.⁣ Here are 3 tips to help you get started.
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1. Exercise for wellbeing instead of weight loss⁣
⁣When we focus on the aesthetics of exercise such as weight loss, or calorie burning, it takes us away from how exercise makes us feel. It also gives us a negative relationship with it from the get-go, which makes it harder for us to engage in it. ⁣
⁣Exercising for wellbeing means we are more likely to enjoy it and stick with it. We can do this by focusing on all the incredible wellbeing benefits of exercise such as decreasing stress, increasing relaxation, boosting our energy levels, helping us sleep, and making us feel good.
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2. Exercise for fun
⁣There is a misconception that exercise must be intense and hard work, but this is simply not true. Exercise can be anything you want it to be! And any type of regular movement has health benefits, even more so if it is something you enjoy doing.⁣
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What are your favourite ways to move your body? Write a list!⁣
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2. Exercise for self-care⁣
⁣Moving your body for self-care will help you reconnect to your body’s wisdom rather than relying on external rules and cues. It will also help you cultivate a joyful and peaceful relationship with movement.⁣

So how do you approach exercise as self-care?⁣

- Know it is ok to take a rest day or to not exercise at all if you don't feel like it.⁣
- Not exercising to “burn calories” or “earn food”.⁣
- Not exercising through guilt, shame, exhaustion, or pain.⁣
- Asking yourself before you exercise, what feels good for me today?.⁣
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Diet culture has ravaged our relationship with exercise for long enough and it’s time for us to take it back again.

P.S Be You, Be Free is out now! This book will not only help you find food freedom, body peace, and joyful exercise, but it will also assist you in creating your own version of wellbeing so that you can take care of yourself in the best way that works for you. It will help you feel alive, it will help you feel connected, but mostly, it will help you uncover the person that you were meant to be before the world and diet culture told you who you had to be.



Self-care Necessities

Self-care isn’t only bubble baths and manicures (even though these do play a role!)

Self-care is ensuring that your needs are being met. It is about listening to your intuition, respecting, and caring for yourself, being true to who you are, developing wisdom and trust, and doing what is right for you. It is also about practising self-respect, self-kindness and self-awareness, having compassion for yourself at all times and recognising how important you are.

Self-care is:

✨ Saying no to the things you don’t want to do, so that you can protect your time and put it into other resources.

✨ Choosing kindness and compassion and know that you are doing the best that you can, in order to heal, grow, and move forward.

✨ Nourishing yourself with food, rest, and gentle movement so that you have more energy to focus on the things that are most important to you.

 ✨ Taking time out for yourself every day to prevent burnout, so that you can care for yourself and others in the best way possible.

 ✨ Honouring all your needs as they arise so you can connect to your body and listen to what it is truly needing.

 ✨ Being who you want to be, not who you think you should be, so that you can create the life you want to live.

 I know when life gets busy, our self-care is one of the first things to go, as we feel it is selfish, or think that there are more important things to focus on.

But I promise you it’s not.

Not prioritising self-care, especially during times of stress may make things worse.

When we are in the throes of deadlines, overworking, and running around like a headless chicken, our body’s biological fight on- or flight survival kicks in. This means the basic functions of our body switch off which makes it hard to hear what our body is truly needing.

The only way to prevent this is to put our self-care first, we need to make looking after ourselves a priority before anything else.

Watch the video for 3 tips on how you can prioritise your self-care!

P.S My book Be You Be Free is out now! It is a book and workbook chock full of activities and tips that covers everything from intuitive eating, diet culture, health at every size, body image, joyful movement, self-care, mindfulness, emotional wellbeing, life purpose, relationships, work-home-life balance and so so much more over a 12 step by step guide to help you find a way of taking care of yourself that works for you.

Little Ways to Fall in Love with Life

What are the moments and experiences that light up your spirit and fulfil your soul?  The moments that embrace and captivate every part of you, bringing you such complete joy that you lose all track of time?

1.       Watching the sunrise at the beach.

2.       Hugging my family after being apart for a long time.

3.       Seeing whales or dolphins jump out of the water.

4.       Being immersed in the music at a gig or festival.

5.       Nature walks.

These moments and experiences have such an impact on our wellbeing. They make us feel alive, and they connect us to our truest and most peaceful self. Experiencing them regularly help us fall in love with life again.

What affects you deeply?

What makes you come alive?

What do you love doing so much that you lose track of time? Is it dancing to your favourite music? Swimming in the ocean? Watching the sunrise or sunset, or a hug or a smile from someone that you love?

Make a list and take the time to engage in as many of these activities as possible – not only this week, but always! The more you explore, experience and feel all the moments that you light your sprit and fulfil your soul - the more you will fall in love with life again.

P.S My book Be You Be Free is out now! It is a book and workbook chock full of activities and tips that covers everything from intuitive eating, diet culture, health at every size, body image, joyful movement, self-care, mindfulness, emotional wellbeing, life purpose, relationships, work-home-life balance and so so much more over a 12 step by step guide to help you find a way of taking care of yourself that works for you.

How to Take Care of Your Emotional Wellbeing

Just as we need to look after our physical selves, we need to look after our emotional wellbeing, too.

That means taking care of who we are on the inside; getting to know ourselves and our needs.

Not looking after our emotional wellbeing affects our physical health too as it makes us more susceptible to illness.

Our emotions are powerful guides as to what we need in any given moment and when we develop our emotional wellbeing, we can connect to ourselves on a deeper level and honour what it is that we truly need.

One of the ways you can develop your emotional wellbeing is by checking in with yourself regularly. It is a valuable tool that helps you figure out exactly what each emotion is telling you that you need in any given moment.

With each emotion that comes up for you, take a step back and check in with yourself by asking the following questions:

What am I feeling now?

What is this feeling trying to tell me?

What do I need to do to support this feeling?

Here are some examples.

•  What am I feeling now? I am feeling overwhelmed.

• What is this feeling trying to tell me?  That I need to take some time out.

• What do I need to do to support this feeling?  I need to take a nap/get out into nature/catch up with a friend.

• What am I feeling now? I am feeling sad.

• What is this feeling trying to tell me?  That I need comfort and care.

• What do I need to do to support this feeling?  I need to reach out to loved ones for some support.

When we embrace and honour all of our emotions, even on the days when it feels too much, we find the parts of ourselves that hold our greatest strengths.

P.S My book Be You Be Free is out now! It is a book and workbook chock full of activities and tips that covers everything from intuitive eating, diet culture, health at every size, body image, joyful movement, self-care, mindfulness, emotional wellbeing, life purpose, relationships, work-home-life balance and so so much more over a 12 step by step guide to help you find a way of taking care of yourself that works for you.

How to practice self-compassion for better body image

Self-compassion means letting go of the judgements you hold about yourself and your body, acknowledging all of your feelings, and being caring towards yourself no matter what. By practicing self-compassion, you can experience less body shame, monitoring, and comparison, and it can also help you detach your body image from your self-worth.

Extending compassion to yourself can be difficult. One of the ways you can get started is to start speaking to yourself with the same kindness and compassion that you offer your loved ones.

For example, when you have mean thoughts about your body- ask yourself: “Would I say this to a loved one?” Or, “If a loved one was saying mean things about their own body to you, what would you say to them?”

Talk to yourself in exactly the same way you would a friend or loved one – and say it out loud.

The kind words of encouragement you would offer are exactly the words you should be saying to yourself.

Never forget that all bodies are worthy of care and compassion, including your own.

P.S This activity is one of the many that are featured in my book Be You, Be Free that will help you heal your relationship to food, exercise, and your body once and for all

How to feel at peace with your body

One of the ways you can feel more at peace with your body is to practice body image affirmations. Body image affirmations are statements that affirm a positive strength, quality, or value about your body.

You may have heard about affirmations before and you might be thinking that they’re not for you (I thought this at first, too) but the more I practiced, the more peace I was able to feel with my own body.

To help get you started, we are going to an affirmations activity today.

Grab a piece of paper and a pen and write down 5-10 affirmations about your body. It is important to choose ones that are realistic to you and that you truly believe.

Once you have written them down, read and repeat them to yourself as often as you can

That’s how the body peace journey begins.

Here are some of mine to help get you started.

“My body deserves kindness and respect.”

“My body doesn’t define my self-worth.”

“I am good enough just the way I am.”

“I am so much more than my body.”

“I am thankful for everything my body does for me.”

“I accept my body as it is in this moment.”

P.S Be You Be Free will help you find food freedom, body peace, and joyful exercise and will also assist you in creating your own version of wellbeing so that you can take care of yourself in the best way that works for you. It will help you feel alive, it will help you feel connected, but mostly, it will help you uncover the person that you were meant to be before the world and diet culture told you who you had to be.

Fun Exercise Ideas

What is the first thing you think of when it comes to exercise?

Push ups? Burpees? Hard work? Boring? Pain? Weight? Calorie burning?

I hear you!

That’s what I used to think for a long time too.

We have grown up with the message, “no pain no gain”, so it is no surprise that we think exercise has to be hard work, boring or punishable. ⁣

But the truth is, boring, painful, and punishable workouts are not going to motivate us to exercise, in fact, they do the exact opposite.

When we choose to move our body in ways that we enjoy, not only are we more likely to stick with it long term, but we will also actually want to do it, rather than seeing it as a chore.

I want you to know that it is possible to have fun with exercise, and there are so many fun ways to move your body!

And exercise can be anything you want it to be! All movement has health benefits, it doesn’t matter what it is!

And that includes cleaning, shopping, stretching, gardening, playing with your kids and dogs, and dancing around your house.

Here are some ideas to help get you started.

• Go for a nature walk.

•  Put on your favourite music at home and dance.

•  Go for a bike ride.

•  Go shopping.

•  Take a walking tour of your local city.

•  Go out dancing.

• Try something new, such as hula hooping, horse riding, indoor rock climbing, trapeze, a yoga class or rollerblading.

•  Go scuba diving, snorkelling, kayaking or paddle boarding.

•  Have a fun active date with friends or family, such as going bowling or hitting a trampoline park.

• Organise an old-school sports day with friends – think sack races, egg and spoon races, relay races and more.

•  Buy something from your childhood, like a hula hoop, a grip-ball set or Skip-O-Hops and give it a go as an adult!

Let’s make exercise fun again!

P.S Be You Be Free will help you find food freedom, body peace and joyful exercise and will also assist you in creating your own version of wellbeing so that you can take care of yourself in the best way that works for you. It will help you feel alive, it will help you feel connected, but mostly, it will help you uncover the person that you were meant to be before the world and diet culture told you who you had to be.

Easy Ways To Practice Mindfulness

I used to think mindfulness was a little “out there”, but when I learnt more about it and started practicing it, I found that it had a significant impact on my wellbeing.

Mindfulness simply means paying attention to the present moment.

Practicing mindfulness enables you to look objectively at your thoughts and feelings., it brings your focus back into your body to how you feel on the inside so that you can begin to recognise and respond to what you truly need in the moment.

There has been lots of research on mindfulness and its benefits. When you practice mindfulness, you experience higher life satisfaction, self-esteem, and vitality.  It can also improve your wellbeing and can even physically change your brain! 

Mindfulness is a skill that takes a bit of practice and time to master – but the more you engage in mindfulness practices, the more you will be able to train your brain.

The good news is you can practice mindfulness in any activity that you are doing, from brushing your teeth, being out on a walk, eating, doing the washing up, focusing on your breath, or simply just being still and present.

Easy Ways To Practice Mindfulness

·       Try something new, such as driving a different way to work, eating something for dinner that you haven’t had before, or doing a new movement activity that you have been wanting to test out, like boxing, trapeze, or a yoga class. Start experimenting with ways to mix up your usual routine.

·       Use your non-dominant hand for writing, brushing your hair, brushing your teeth, and eating. This will help you stay focused and present.

·       Practise mindfulness while doing everyday tasks such as washing up, cleaning, or preparing dinner.

·       Spend one minute paying attention to your breath.  Take some time out to be still, or lay down. Focus on your breathing and watch your belly rise and fall with each breath, when your mind wanders (which it will do) just keep bringing your attention back to your breath.

·       Download a free meditation app (I like Calm and Headspace) and try one of their mindfulness meditations.

P.S My book, Be You, Be Free is chock full of tips and activities to help you find your version of wellbeing that works for you.

3 Tips to food freedom

Food freedom is waking up in the morning and choosing a breakfast that you enjoy; one that makes you feel good and that will satisfy you. It is going over to your friend’s house for a meal and not worrying about what they are serving you, how many calories are in the dish, or how they are cooking it, so you can be present and connect with them.⁣

It is about feeling confident in your food choices, being flexible and eating a variety of foods for nourishment, pleasure and self-care. It’s knowing that all foods are neutral – cake is nothing more or less than cake, a carrot is just a carrot – and you now enjoy all foods that you like. No foods are off-limits. It is about being more in tune with your hunger and fullness signals and knowing which foods support you and feel good in your body.⁣

Food freedom is fun nights out with your mates without worrying about the calories, it’s not thinking about food 99.99% of your day anymore so you have the brain space to pursue your true passions, and it’s about ordering the burger and chips you really wanted without the guilt, rather than the salad with the dressing on the side.⁣

I never thought I would be able to achieve food freedom, and you might be feeling like that right now, too. I know how it feels and I hear you. But I want you to know that it is possible and that you can achieve food freedom.

Here are 3 tips to help you get you started.

Tip number 1- Stop dieting.
I know how challenging it is to break free from the diet mentality and you might still not be ready yet – and that’s okay. But when we are restricting food, following food plans and rules on what, when and how much to eat, we can’t achieve food freedom.

Stopping dieting is not easy, what worked for me was taking small steps, such as not counting calories for one of my meals, eating before I went to sleep at night rather than going to bed starving, and challenging myself to slowly eat all foods that I restricted.

Can you take one small step today?

Tip number 2- Honour your hunger
If we don’t feed our bodies when we are hungry or if we consistently undereat, we can’t achieve food freedom. Once we start honouring our hunger, our bodies begin to trust us, and we can start building a healthy relationship with food and ourselves. Keeping your body adequately fed and listening and responding to your hunger signals will lead to food freedom- because the more fed you are- the less you will think about food, I promise.

Tip 3- Make peace with food.
To achieve food freedom, you have to make peace with all foods- one of the ways to do this is to give yourself unconditional permission to eat all foods.

I know how scary this sounds. I was scared too.

Giving yourself unconditional permission to eat all foods is certainly not easy. It is a hard step to take, so starting small is the best way forward.

- Start by making a list of all your “banned” or “forbidden” foods.
- Choose the food that you feel the most comfortable starting with and allow yourself to eat that food freely, whenever you want, wherever you want. As you feel ready, keep introducing more foods, crossing them off your list as you go.

You might think that you won’t be able to stop eating these foods once you start – I thought this too. And at first, you might find that you do overconsume them for a while – that is a normal response to restriction. But after some time, the food will lose its intense appeal. It’s called habituation: once we habituate, or get used to, eating the food over and over, we lose the desire to eat it.

It is only once you have taken the first steps to break free from dieting, reconnect with your hunger and make peace with all foods, that you will be able to start your journey to food freedom.

P.S My book, Be You, Be Free will not only help you find complete food freedom, but it will also help you find body peace, joyful movement and will assist you in creating your version of wellbeing on your terms so that you can take care of yourself in the best way that works for you.