Chronic Dieting: What Does Healing Look Like?

Today I have a quick (?) update for you about my path forward so you can decide if this newsletter is still a valuable resource for you.

If you'd rather get to the point and skip all the reading, click here to learn what food peace transformation looks like. Does this appeal to you?

If this newsletter serves you in some capacity, I'd love it if you would share it and my work with others who might benefit as well.

If you have any questions or comments, please reach out. I'd love to hear from you.

Where I Have Been
As you know, I spent 30 years of my life using dieting to control both my weight and my emotional life.

Having the structure of plans was actually calming to me and it always felt good to think I was doing something "right".

It also eroded my mental health and left me feeling out of control and continually frustrated.

I approached my food from a very outside looking in perspective. I worried about what I looked like and judged myself often.

I judged myself for everything, not just food and appearance. I also judged my parenting, my relationships, and my career. And let's not forget other people. I judged other people all the time. It kind of goes with the territory.

If you are not able to accept yourself, you won't accept others either.

Anyway, it took me quite a long time, but I finally started to wake up in 2012 and realized that I was causing myself quite a bit of unnecessary suffering.

So I quit dieting.

This opened up a whole new world of discovery and growth for me. Too much happened to reflect on all of it here, but let's just say that I evolved in all areas of life.

My relationships improved, my parenting experience improved, my finances improved, my spiritual connections improved, my emotional intelligence grew and I developed into a calmer, more peaceful, and more compassionate version of myself.

I learned about body acceptance and turned towards intuitive eating. I took great joy in my newfound freedom and wondered why it had taken so long to get here.

I thought I had found nirvana and reached the mountain peak, only to realize there was another peak ahead. The road didn't end, there was more to discover. (Spoiler alert: It never ends.)

For one thing, I noticed that my health improved in some areas and declined in others in the new paradigm that I was adopting.

I tolerated the decline for several years, while also remaining curious.

And then it started to occur to me that there was no permanent reason for the physical decline. There must be something I was missing.

I also started to recognize that there was a negative side to body acceptance that was getting louder and clearer.

I was trying so hard to accept, that I wasn't listening when my body said it wasn't happy. I thought that was part of what I had to accept.

But listening to and accepting yourself also means acknowledging when the body needs your help.

I was trying so hard to fit into a new paradigm even though I knew there were parts I disagreed with. Because of my lack of trust in myself, I pushed down my doubts and assumed I must be wrong.

I went from a world of dieting and took a 180-degree turn into non-dieting. But in looking back, I actually find that parts of both paradigms can be useful. I didn't have to fully reject one in order to adopt another.

I realized later that I was also looking for belonging and thought I needed to adopt all parts of the new paradigm in order to belong.

And then I learned that accepting MYSELF was more important than belonging to any tribe. That meant accepting, honoring, and even celebrating the ways that I looked at life even if they were different from what others believed.

It also meant learning to hear and honor my own inner wisdom, (I'm still working on this one!) even if it means being potentially rejected by the tribe.

I can only see this in hindsight, it was very murky and cloudy along the way. If I had more trust in my own wisdom, it might not have taken me so long to navigate through the sea of conflicting beliefs.

That's why I'm coming back to support others on the journey, in case I can save you some time and frustration.

Where I Am Going
My next move is to incorporate even more self-love into my routines. This self-love includes spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical practices that will support and nurture my well-being.

What I love is that all of these practices overlap and complement each other. It feels like I am on the most harmonious track for me, and in response, my daily life experience only continues to improve.

Going forward I am going to focus on understanding and sharing how the energetic and spiritual body interacts with the physical.

Many people who work in the physical realm; nutritionists, health coaches, fitness professionals, and medical professionals, often forget to include the mind-body-spirit connection. They are focused on metrics and "results" and following prescriptive plans.

They don't realize how important being aligned with your choices is and choosing actions from love and not fear. They operate from urgency, hustle, "working hard" and forcing actions. A lot of "shoulds" exist in this realm.

And people who work in the spiritual and energetic realm can sometimes forget to emphasize the ways we can take care of the physical body in tangible ways.

Yes, it's important to explore your chakras and the meridians of energy that flow through your body. It's important to release past trauma - both from this life and others.

It's important to explore your relationship with death and explore your fears and limiting beliefs.

But we also may need to experiment with different supplements or food combinations. We may need to use specific therapeutic eating protocols for healing illness.

We may also need to shift how, when and what we eat if our current behaviors are not giving us the physical health that we would prefer.

My aim is to move forward in supporting both my health and my client's health while taking all of these factors into consideration.

And at the same time, I aim to operate from a foundation of compassion, knowing that everyone is whole and perfect exactly as they are. Nothing has to change and it can if you want it to.

We are learning new things about science and spirituality every day. It's an exciting time to be on this planet and living in these miraculous bodies.

We are clearing old stories of lack and limitation and moving past feeling like victims of our experiences.

We are learning to clear past traumas and re-wire our brains to release old patterns.

We are claiming our sovereignty and empowering ourselves to make sustainable choices that give us the energy to create lives that we love.

This has always been what my work is about.

I'm continually inspired and delighted by the possibility that surrounds us, even when the future appears bleak and frightening based on what we see happening around us.

My aim is to navigate a path through the sweet middle ground - balancing possibility with practicality, doing what needs to be done for the highest good of humanity while also aligning with universal energies so the path forward is pulling me along with ease.

I've already experienced this and I am continually inspired and humbled by the teachings I receive every day by simply living in this world. (Check out this list that shows where I have been and where I am going in more detail.)

Care to Join Me?
If you have read this far, thank you! That was not at all as quick as I thought it was going to be!

You are definitely in the right place if you are looking for a space that will continue to challenge and question the status quo in order to discover new ways of being.

This is the right place if you want to understand and experience flow in mind, body, and spirit.

This is the right place if you are interested in the BOTH/AND more than the EITHER/OR.

This is the right place if you are more interested in exploring human potential than arguing for your own limitations.

This is the right place if you want to give up rigid and restrictive diet plans and embrace inner wisdom and guidance.

This is the right place if you are curious about how your energy supports your lifestyle.

This is the right place if you wish to release negative habits and patterns and behaviors and replace them with radical self-care and nurturing choices.

This is the right place if you value freedom, have an open mind, and want to feel more connected to something bigger than you.

This is the right place if you want to feel more peace, calmness, and joy in your life or uplevel your work, relationships, or health.

The same energy that affects one thing, affects all things. How you do food is how you do life.

I look forward to stepping more fully into this role for myself going forward and I'm here to cheer you on as you step more fully into your life!

Live Free,
Elizabeth