Home Archive by category 'Dieting'

Dieting

  • Anxiety, Dieting, Emotional Eating, Intuitive Eating, Recovery

    The Number One Thing Stopping You From Quitting Emotional Eating For Good

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    I tried to diet so many times.

    I must have started and stopped hundreds, perhaps even thousands of times. Often multiple times in one day. My mind would go from little miss iron will power to f*ck all of this, imma just quit life starting with this diet within seconds.

    Cue emotional eating, bingeing, cripplingly low moods and a feeling that things would simply NEVER EVER get better.

    Let me tell you right now. Things do get better. MUCH BETTER. But in quitting dieting and emotional eating there is a big, some might say monstrous, feeling that awaits when attempting to move through this.

    It’s the reason most of us get lulled back into the cycle and the reason that destructive emotional eating remains our key coping mechanism/best friend.

    In fact, I used to justify my “mini daily binges” as healthy intuitive eating because of this very thing.

    A little thing known as ‘overwhelm’.

    Overwhelm is that feeling where anything becomes ‘too much’. Your to-do list is perpetually too long, you will never have enough time, there are too many things and everything is a priority.

    Battling on in this way is living in a state of crisis.

    That is not an exaggeration. We put our bodies into crisis mode when we live like this. Where the mountain of things we need to do, should do or would like to do is so massive that anything we have accomplished feels pointless or worthless in comparison.

    Feeling overwhelmed often leads us back to emotional eating. If we are eating as a way to escape the feeling of overwhelm then something is not right.

    Overwhelm shouldn’t be our default setting.

    The problem is that most of us don’t even realise we are living in a state of overwhelm because of our reliance on dieting, bingeing, overexercise to get us through.

    So when we try to stop these behaviours, what happens?

    The overwhelm sets in ten times stronger than ever before because we have pulled the rug out from under our own feet.

    Our destructive relationship with food was acting as a support system, a barrier between us and the things we really didn’t want to deal with. If we simply try and stop with no other helpful support system in between we get left with complete and utter overwhelm.

    And guess what?

    We slip back into our old coping mechanisms. For me it started with one chocolate bar in an afternoon when I was feeling tired but also knew that I had ‘too much’ to do to warrant taking a break. It was a ‘treat’ to help me get through. Of course, the overwhelm dissipated. I felt competent again.

    But my old patterns around food very slowly started seeping back in. Before I knew it I was avoiding my to-do list and just heading to the shop every afternoon. Life was unravelling. Again.

    The only way out of this pattern is to recognise the overwhelm for what it is and give ourselves a break.

    Rather than moving from overwhelm to coping mechanism we need to stop and take a look at why the overwhelm has appeared in our lives and whether there are things we can change about our overall lifestyle to reduce it.

    Removing the coping mechanism, i.e. the food/exercise problems, only reveals the underlying problem. We need to be prepared to face what is underneath if we are going to truly change the way we feel about food.

    This takes courage, time and patience. A lot of it. It also takes support and persistence. If you are feeling constantly overwhelmed and using food to cope know that it doesn’t always need to feel this way.

    My email is always open – let me know now – what is the one thing in your life that is causing you the most overwhelm right now? Tell me right here and let’s see if we can change that.

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  • Body Image, Dieting, Emotional Eating, Recovery, Restriction

    “Come As You Are” – But I Am Not Sick Enough To Need Help? #NEDA

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    Let’s cut to the chase – you don’t need to look a certain way in order to ask for help relating to your relationship with food or body image.

    You don’t need to be “fat” to have a problem with your body image. You don’t need to be skeletal thin to have a serious obsessive problem with dieting.

    There is a common misperception around our emotional and mental health that we need to be diagnosed with a clinical condition in order to be ‘sick enough’ to get help.

    This is certainly the case with eating disorders. We believe we need to look a certain way in order to consider ourselves a candidate to get help.

    This is definitely NOT TRUE.

    When we are struggling and we hide it, if we pretend we are ok when we are living in a mental hell we are denying our own humanness. As humans we live in community, we share stories and we support each other. We share joy and we also share the hard times. This is how we get by. This is how we create society. This is how we heal.

    Helping each other and standing side by side is a crucial part of being human.

    You don’t need to look a certain way, display certain diagnostic criteria or be any type of way in order to qualify for asking for help. All you need to know is that you are finding it difficult to cope and you want to change because you know there is more to life.

    If you feel that you are struggling with dieting, bingeing, any facet of your relationship with food or your body image then send me a message now. Don’t wait. It is unlikely to ‘just get better’. We can change how you’re feeling in a matter of weeks, your life can completely change within months and in years…? well all your dreams can come true.

    Don’t delay the start of living the life you truly deserve.

    Message me here or comment below.

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  • Binge Eating, Body Image, Dieting, Emotional Eating, Recovery, Self Confidence, Self Love

    How Life Has Changed Since Stopping Emotional Eating

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    This morning I woke up naturally, no buzzing sound of alarm calling me to ‘get my ass to the gym’, I rolled over and lay there for a while, took a few breaths and smiled to myself.

    This sounds like the start of a cheesy film…perhaps it is. And I am grateful for that. Because never in a million years did I ever think this could be my life.

    If you’ve been following along this blog for a while and have read ‘my story’ (find it here) then you will know I put myself through absolute hell with my diet and my body. And today all I feel is gratitude for this amazing life I have. This amazing life that I fought for myself to have.

    I was once that girl who appeared to ‘have it all’ – the job, the apartment, the relationship, the money, the clothes, the bags, the holidays…..the body.

    Everything looked amazing on the outside. But what I remember about being that girl wasn’t any of that. What I remember about being that girl were the endless nights I was doubled over in pain after eating a huge takeaway meal, family sized bag of crisps, a packet of biscuits, half a chocolate cake, a tub of ice cream, sharing bags of sweets and taking laxatives on top of that to try and ‘flush’ it out so I didn’t ingest the calories.

    I remember waking up the next day after 2 hours of sleep feeling like I’d been hit by a truck then putting on my gym clothes and my running watch and heading out for an hour long slog down the Thames, dragging my feet along, willing my legs to carry me. I remember wishing away the hours during the day at work or with friends so that I could be at home on my own and eat.

    The only thing I remember enjoying was shopping for my binges. My greatest joy in life was getting to go to the supermarket after work and spending inordinate amounts of money on snacks and treats. I would tell myself that I would only eat half when packets of cakes were on buy one get one free offers. That it was more cost effective for me to buy the biggest packets of crisps because I would eat them at some point anyway…knowing full well I could never stop mid-packet. I would play games with myself that because I had exercised and hadn’t eaten all day it was ok for me to devour 4000 calories worth of chocolate fudge brownie cake and ice cream.

    My emotion-fuelled binges consumed my whole life. The sadness and helplessness that enveloped my entire life was suffocating. I look back and all I remember were hazy moments of peace found mid-binge when the sugar had started to hit and I knew I still had so much more to eat. The rest of my life was covered by a huge black cloud.

    To say my life has changed is the world’s biggest understatement.

    It couldn’t be more different.

    Here’s a few of the ways my life has transformed –

    🌟I eat whatever food whenever I want and NEVER feel guilty

    🌟I enjoy ALL foods – yes, including veggies!

    🌟I exercise because I enjoy it

    🌟I love my body unconditionally

    🌟I am WAY more fun to be around

    🌟I have time to do things I enjoy

    🌟I am the happiest I have ever been

    🌟I LOVE my life

    Tell me you don’t want more of all that for yourself?

    Hand on heart, what do you want for yourself? If you had a fairy godmother who could give you one wish right now what would it be? Tell me honestly that you wouldn’t want to feel happier in your life?

    You don’t need a fairy godmother – you can be your own fairy godmother and grant yourself that wish right now. All you need to do is take one step forward and say ‘I need support to move through this transition, to quit the crazy eating behaviours’. Raise your hand and say ‘I know I can do this, I know what I need to do and I know with someone by my side I will do it’.

    I’ve got your back. I am asking for your permission to be there for you. I can and I will support you through this. All you need to do is say yes…

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  • Binge Eating, Dieting, Emotional Eating, Intuitive Eating, Recovery, Self Love

    Emotional Eating As Punishment

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    Have you ever felt like you just ‘need’ to eat that piece of cake?

    You KNOW it’s emotional, you KNOW it has something to do with things other than your hunger but it doesn’t matter, you just ‘need’ it anyway?

    If you’re reading this then I guess you have been there. A. Lot.

    You have felt that urge to ‘treat yourself’ and you are damn well going to go ahead and do just that.

    What is really happening here?

    I have written extensively on how we use food to hide from our feelings, see these blog posts here and here for more. But what is this use of food actually signalling?

    It is not just that we want to hide from our feelings. it can be something a little more sinister and confusing and therefore a little harder to overcome on our own.

    Much of the time our emotional eating stems from the fact that we do not feel worthy or lovable and we seek comfort in food. We also have beliefs that thin people are more worthy, loved and therefore happier than us.

    So when we emotionally eat we actually hitting ourselves with a double dose of self-hatred. We are eating in such a way that we are punishing ourselves for 1) having feelings of unworthiness and 2) not being thin.

    Let’s dive in to this a little deeper.

    First, we are saying to ourselves that we are unworthy and unlovable and that that pain is too much to bear. We do not want to feel these feelings therefore we will eat instead.

    Second, eating more is a surefire way of moving away from the ‘thinness’ we desperately desire therefore relegating us to a place where we will be ‘fat’ and therefore objectively and resolutely not worthy or lovable…

    What…?!!

    What kind of Jedi mind tricks are we playing on ourselves here…

    There is literally so much warped psychology around our eating patterns that it is not only unhealthy but frankly disturbing.

    When we emotionally eat under any circumstance, no matter how it makes us feel, even if we find it ‘comforting’ what we are really doing is eating to punish ourselves for having feelings. We are also eating as a way of keeping ourselves stuck in a scenario we don’t want to be in.

    Eating as punishment frequently trips us up because we aren’t even tuned in to the fact we are doing it. We think we are being kind to ourselves by ‘indulging’ but unless we have truly freed ourselves from all our diet and food related demons then all we are doing is perpetuating a negative cycle.

    If this sounds confusing….trust me I know. Most importantly, does this sound like a minefield you would like to get yourself out of?

    If yes then comment below or send me an email at sasha@sashafardell.com and let’s chat.

    If you haven’t already check out my FREE TRAINING on how to stop Emotional Eating TODAY – just click here

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  • Body Image, Dieting, Emotional Eating, Recovery, Self Confidence, Self Love

    Your Body Is Not A Commodity

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    In order to sell something that thing has to be useful to someone, it has to have some value, it has to look a certain way, perform a certain way or have certain functions that make it attractive to a particular person.

    We understand this and therefore we set our own expectations and judgements around things, we set parameters around what we like and don’t like and what we value or need. Therefore when it comes to buying things or choosing things for our life we know what we are looking for and we can simply pick them out and away we go.

    The thing about ‘things’ is that they have no feelings, thoughts or emotions. They just exist as they are. They don’t care if you pick them or not. They are not reacting to your judgements and expectations. They are just there and they just are.

    Bodies are not like that. And guess why…

    Because bodies are not ‘things’ bodies are HUMANS. Real life human people.

    When we try to make our bodies a certain way in order to ‘sell’ ourselves to the world we are DEHUMANISING ourselves.

    When we mess with our food through excessive dieting, bingeing or over-exercising we are treating our body as a commodity.

    We are saying to ourselves that our body is an object that must be changed to look or function in a certain way in order for it to be ‘sellable’, i.e. acceptable, to the world.

    This is not necessarily our fault. We have been trained to think about our bodies in this way by a lot of mass market media. We are shown that legs should look long, slim, white and tanned, that waists should be slim and trim and breasts perky and perfectly round. We are told we need to make our bodies look like that in order for people to buy into us as women.

    This is disturbing for many reasons and something that might not change in the media for a while. But something we can change is the way we react to this.

    Ladies, we can say no. We can stand up and say I am a woman and my body is my home. My body is perfect exactly the way it looks naturally. I refuse to cause myself harm through unhealthy behaviours to try and make my body look a specific way.

    This is about reasserting ourselves as whole people. Your body is not something to be judged and scrutinised or compared with an unrealistic ideal. Your body is a living, breathing, moving, sentient being, the home of all your hopes, dreams, wishes and future plans. It is not something to be destroyed, trashed, terrorised all in the name of someone else’s beauty ideal.

    We have a right to live freely and happily in our bodies, exactly as they are. Our bodies are not a commodity.

    TW: For another post on our bodies as home related to sexual trauma check out my post here

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  • Binge Eating, Dieting, Emotional Eating, Recovery, Self Confidence, Self Love

    Emotional Eating is keeping you Invisible

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    For most of my life I was the quiet one. I preferred to observe what was happening rather than let myself join in. My self-criticism was so overwhelming it was debilitating. I didn’t realise that for much of my life I was trying to make myself invisible.

    My relationship with food was my big secret. My personal dieting quests, supermarket binge-food hauls and hours of obsessing over calories were my safe space. These private behaviours were what gave me the confidence to show up in the world. I used them to hide myself so that what I presented was only a very small portion of who I was and how I felt. They helped me create a facade of the person I wanted to be – thin and happy.

    Does any of this feel familiar? Hiding the ‘real’ you behind your eating patterns?

    When we use unhealthy behaviours, when we try to control through obsession and strict adherence to rules it is because we are trying to cope with something. Something in the world has made us feel unsafe – physically, emotionally or mentally – and we are grabbing on to something tangible to bring some semblance of normality to our lives.

    The thing that has made us feel unsafe doesn’t necessarily need to be a massive trauma. But it is something that has shaken us, specifically made us question who we really are and why we are here. Maybe it was a bully in school who told us we were ugly or our parents ignoring us when we asked for help. The result of these experiences though makes us feel like there is something inherently wrong with us. We believe that as a result of who we are we are flawed. This makes us want to be small…for me it made me want to disappear completely. I perfected becoming invisible. I could be in a group with everyone talking for hours and people would not even notice I was standing there. It was exactly what I wanted to achieve but also perpetuated this feeling that I was invisible. I truly believed I wasn’t worthy of taking up space.

    Emotional eating was my refuge, my way of staying visible to one person in the world, myself. Being able to control food and my body was the one way I stayed present in this world.

    Our emotional eating often becomes our sanctuary. This can make it difficult to try and move away from. We know it is hurting us and we know that we are not coping but the alternative feels so scary. Why is this? Because the alternative is living our truth, showing up for ourselves and speaking up for ourselves in our lives. It doesn’t sound terrifying but have you tried it recently? Have you tried really speaking your mind? Have you tried uncovering your deepest darkest secrets to someone? Have you revealed to anyone how you feel so unlovable and so unworthy of friendship or community of any kind? Have you done this with someone who is trustworthy, loving and will listen?

    The only way to stop emotional eating is to accept the fact that we will need to make ourselves visible in this world. Stopping emotional eating means stopping hiding from the world. It means taking a step forward to becoming the person we want to be. The person we truly are…which, please note, is not a depressed, hopeless waste of space. I had this belief for an incredibly long time…that the real me was a waste of space. I couldn’t accept that I had a place here on earth my self-worth was so low. BUT I’m telling you right now this is NOT TRUE.

    I am so grateful everyday that I realised that I could only work on my self-worth and follow my dreams once I stopped using my controlling, obsession with food as a comfort blanket. A different life is possible for you once you step out from behind the shadow of your crazy relationship with food and stop being afraid of being seen.

    But I couldn’t have done it without support. If you know you need to make a change I might be the one to support you through this. I know exactly what you need and when you need it to transition on this journey. Get in touch through the comments below or email me sasha@sashafardell.com

    If you haven’t already check out my FREE Audio Masterclass on Emotional Eating – Why You Do It And How To Stop Today here

    Lots of love and bye for now xx

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  • Binge Eating, Blogvember, Dieting, Intuitive Eating, Restriction

    26 – Appetite, depression, bingeing – what’s the common thread

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    Did you know that when we feel depressed we are more likely to lose our appetite than to want to binge?

    Surprised? I was too.

    I always believed that feeling unhappy and depressed was what made me binge eat. I thought I binged because I felt down, hated my life and hated my body.

    Biologically speaking bingeing actually has little to do with feeling low, sad or depressed.

    The reason we believe that we want to eat when we are depressed is, paradoxically, because we diet. So many of us chronically under eat (a lot of the time on purpose) on a day to day basis using our will-power, hiding behind our busy schedules or over-exercising. Many of us don’t even believe we are under eating because we are so desperate to be slimmer and completely consumed with our mission to eat less.

    Then when the emotional shit hits the fan and something happens in our lives that really throws us off, that sinks us into depression, our mind is suddenly not able to use all of its normal control tactics to keep us eating less. All bets are off and our body begins screaming for food.

    Suddenly we are ravenous and all we want to do is eat high calorie snacks and comfort food. Our mind has moved into a different mode – into the ‘IDGAF, couldn’t care less about anything, about who I am, I don’t ever want to get out of bed’ zone. Suddenly the normally oppressive controlling voice of our minds has been switched off and cravings are allowed back in.

    When your mind shuts down your body actually starts waking up. This allows it to start self-regulating again after you have spent days, weeks, months trying to force it to survive on less than it requires for optimal functioning. Your mind’s depressed state and inability to maintain control any longer frees your body and you binge, or you find yourself eating way more than you do on a ‘normal’ day.

    The most important point here is that it is NOT the low mood or depression that causes bingeing, it is the restriction beforehand.

    What does it look like then for someone who is feeling down but who doesn’t normally control their food?

    When we eat normally, following our intuition, cravings and natural appetite fluctuations we are feeding our body exactly what it needs. When something difficult happens in our lives and we find ourselves in a low mood or in a depressed state, we become disconnected from our bodies. Very simply put depression is a form of disconnection. When feel low, sad, depressed we feel disconnected from life. Our mind becomes disconnected from our body and the normal messages that go back and forth telling us when and what to eat are no longer being received clearly. We lose interest in life and we lose interest in eating. Think of this example – what do you give to people when a loved one has died? You go round with food, right. You take them food because more often than not they are so overwhelmed with grief they forget to eat.

    If you are chronically under eating then trust me you will not be forgetting to eat any time soon.

    As I often like to say this blog is more personal and practical rather than scientific but there is a whole heap of research around this topic, so go ahead and do a deep dive online.

    But when we think about it logically from an emotional standpoint doesn’t it make so much more sense that if you are in a place where you are less interested in life and feeling disconnected then you would also be less interested in food and eating?

    So next time you feel down and you reach for the biscuit tin and then feel even worse…why not ask yourself whether you have really been nourishing your body adequately recently. Ask yourself whether this could be your natural hunger showing up after having been repressed for so long?

    Any time we feel the need to over-eat or binge there is something else going on for us. The only time humans really binge is when we have been restricting our food. So if you really want to stop bingeing when you feel down then you need to start eating when you’re up…

    Sending you lots of love xxx

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  • Binge Eating, Blogvember, Dieting, Emotional Eating, Recovery, Self Confidence, Self Love

    25 – How to feel what you feel when eating when you’re NOT eating

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    I hope this title was cryptic enough…

    The reason so many of us turn to food is because it gives us pleasure, it gives us satisfaction, soothes us, comforts us or otherwise makes us feel a certain way. We use food to bring up a particular sensation. We want food to heal us, to take away our pain, to stop us feeling something or to get us to feel anything. We binge and we restrict all to change how we are feeling.

    Whatever method we choose what we are really searching for is that ‘ahhh’ moment when all of our worries and stresses slip away. When we feel that calm, peaceful wave move through our body. Where time seems to stop and we are not here any more. We are enveloped in that warm, comfortable place where nothing can touch us or hurt us. We feel safe, we feel supported. We feel secure and for that tiny fleeting moment we feel loved and accepted.

    This is the feeling we go searching for when we sit down to binge, or when we embark on a new punishingly restrictive diet. That feeling of undeniable acceptance. That moment where we are ok. We spend our days feeling like we are not good enough, not acceptable, too much of this or not enough of that. We crave some peace, so we go looking for it in food or in punishing ourselves through food.

    What if you could feel that peace, that safety, that security all the time? What if in every moment of every day, whatever you were doing, wherever you were going, you were able to feel secure, accepted, supported, comforted? What if you were able to have all that without manipulating your food or exercise? What if you were able to have all that while eating exactly what you wanted whenever you wanted?

    I’m here to tell you that you absolutely can.

    In fact the only thing that is stopping you from having that inner peace is the battle you are currently in with food and your body.

    The very thing that stops us from having peace is ourselves. We are the masters of torturing ourselves. We criticise, chastise and compare ourselves negatively to those around us, those online (more on how to stop that here). We are just straight unkind to ourselves. We starve ourselves or stuff ourselves to make us feel like somehow we fit into this imaginary box some ‘society’ out there has created.

    This does not need to be the case. The reality is there is no-one out there putting you in a box apart from you. Every single person is totally unique and different. There really is no ‘box’ that we need to get in. There simply can’t be because what the hell would that box look like?

    The only person you need to be like is yourself. And guess what, you already are that.

    We don’t need to ‘try’, we don’t need to force or battle or change to be more ourselves. We simply are. As soon as we realise that we instantly get that ‘ahh’ moment. Suddenly we relax when we realise that all we need to be and all we are is who we are right now. You do not need to change for anybody, for any rules, for any reason. Who you are deep inside is absolutely perfect.

    The hard part is getting to believe that though, right?…well here is the only tip you need.

    The only way to see that is for us to open ourselves to the possibility of not trying to be someone different.

    Stop searching for that ‘ahh’ moment in food or in punishment and instead let go and relax in the gloriousness that is you exactly as you are.

    If this speaks to you and you are right there with me that this is the answer and you just need a little help to get there then book in a completely free clarity session with me where we discuss where you’re at right now and give you a strategy to get to work on right away. Just drop me an email now – what are you waiting for?

    Lots of love xx

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  • Blogvember, Body Image, Dieting, Emotional Eating, Intuitive Eating, Recovery, Restriction

    24 – Find Flexibility – Find Food Freedom

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    A huge shift has taken place in the diet/health industry. People have woken up to the fact that being skinny does not necessarily equate to being happy and healthy, that fat loss is not the be all and end all. Size zero is definitely not as ‘in’ as it once was.

    However this has given rise to a new obsession with finding what ‘healthy’ really is. In comes the race to find the most super superfood, the ‘best’ balance of macro and micronutrients, the best time to eat. It’s not just about counting calories anymore. The diet industry is morphing into a health and wellness industry focused on ‘healthy’ eating and with that a growing number of us falling into orthorexic tendencies.

    As you know I like to keep this blog pretty practical and personal rather than going into the factual minutiae but for background orthorexia has been defined by NEDA as “an obsession with proper or ‘healthful’ eating”. It is not clinically diagnosable at the time of this blog but it feels like it’s only a matter of time.

    Not only is there a general push towards finding the ‘healthiest’ diet people have also become more conscious of the environmental implications of the food industry. This has led to a shift towards more people choosing veganism and claiming that it is the healthiest way to eat not only for your body but for the planet as well.

    As a coach supporting absolute food freedom for all I don’t actively support any particular way of eating or trends in the wellness industry. I remain neutral not because I don’t have an opinion but because we are all totally unique and different and therefore what looks and feels like food freedom for me will be different to what looks and feels like food freedom to you.

    I also focus on the emotional basis of our crazy eating habits, binges and fad diets because if we don’t dig deep and look at the real reasons WHY we get so obsessed with particular dogma around food we won’t be able to heal it and find a healthy food freedom that will last a lifetime.

    With this move towards healthy eating now being equated with clean eating, i.e. eating in the most nutrient efficient, unprocessed way, and people getting confused with the all too nebulous term ‘balance’ I want to broaden your minds as to what ‘healthy’ could mean in reality for you.

    Health and balance when it comes to food and your body is not just about what you eat and what you look like, it’s not even just about what you feel like. Having a healthy and balanced relationship with food and your body means eating in a way that not only feels good to you and your body but that also slots into your life with the proper priority level.

    Eating well and caring for our bodies is super important. I am a huge advocate of taking care of ourselves in every way we can so that we can show up in the world and give our true and best selves. However sometimes this doesn’t look like waking up naturally at 7am sipping on a lemon water and eating overnight oats then eating our carefully planned, prepped meals every 2-3 hours.

    Sometimes this means getting up super early in the morning to go and pick our family up from the airport, grabbing a coffee and croissant there even though we know that’s not the best for our energy levels, spending the day running around doing chores to get ready for a work event, having an impromptu pizza lunch date, then collapsing onto the sofa with random leftovers we have put together from our fridge.

    Even though that day didn’t look like a perfect ‘healthy eating’ day, we still fuelled ourselves, we were able to get on with what we wanted to do that day and we showed up in our lives without letting the food options available stop us.

    The magic thing is that after a few days like this, if you are truly seeking health and balance and are able to listen to your body, it will naturally start craving more variety, more fresh foods, different proteins and vegetables. You will find yourself reaching for different foods if your follow your body’s intuition. You don’t need to reverse engineer or restrict your daily activities thinking that you need to eat in a certain perfect way to be healthy. Your body is constantly working on the subconscious level to keep you alive and healthy. When you start allowing your mind to dictate everything you are actually fighting against your body. When you are trying to second-guess what your body needs all the time you are trying to predict the future.

    The only way to find food freedom and be healthy is to listen to your body in the moment. To be aware and use your knowledge to support the choices you are making but not to be bound by this knowledge if your day does not go exactly to plan.

    I encourage you before you say no to things because of the food options available to remember that your body is an incredible, amazing thing that is able to self-regulate and is always looking to bring you back to balance. Knowing what is healthiest for your own body doesn’t mean you have to be dogmatic about sticking to those exact things.

    Life is really just about how well we can adapt to constant change, you’ve heard it before and I will say it again, the only thing we can be certain of in this life is uncertainty!

    Be careful when you are saying no to things because of food choices that you are not actually saying no to life.

    If this resonated check out this blog on how to cope with body change; this one on change in our daily food requirements;
    and this one on finding freedom outside of control

    Lots of love xxx

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  • Blogvember, Dieting, Emotional Eating, Intuitive Eating

    21 – Find your optimal way of eating – three simple steps

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    What is your optimal way of eating?

    This is one of my favourite most frequently asked questions, but also one of the toughest to answer.

    This is because there really is no answer.

    The honest truth is that there is no single optimal way of eating that will suit everybody. Each person is an individual, completely unique and therefore the way of eating that is optimal for them is going to be totally unique and individual to them. Not only that but for each of us our optimal way of eating is going to change depending on what our life situation is, for example how our general health is, what type of work we are doing, our stress levels etc.

    This makes this question tough to answer.
    However there are some things we can do to help us discover what our personal optimal way of eating is.

    1. Listen to your body

    This is absolutely key for all areas of our lives but in particular when it comes to how we eat. Really take time to sit with yourself and your body and take notice of how it feels when you eat certain things at certain times and in certain ways. Your body is amazing, it will give you signals over and over again about what it likes and what it needs. It will also tell you when it doesn’t like something, for example if you have a minor intolerance you might get itchy eyes or a swollen mouth. If you can do this off the bat you will have a great chance of finding your optimal way of eating.

    2. Experiment – try new things

    If you are not sure how to read the messages from your body then start experimenting. Eat different mixes of foods for breakfast and see how your energy changes through the day, eat at different times and different quantities. Try raw food and cooked food, meat and meat-free. Mix and match as much as you can but stay consistent over the course of at least a week before changing to see how your body responds. Your energy levels and feelings of vitality should respond to how you are eating. You know when you have spent the weekend eating a tonne of junk food and drinking heavily, you feel crappy and lethargic right? You can easily see the effect this food and drink has had on you. This is what we are trying to see through experimentation, what foods make us feel great and what foods don’t feel good to us.

    3. Just do you – don’t get sucked into someone else’s way of eating

    Now this is a bit of a trick one – what I’m saying is don’t fall for fad diets or dogma. Don’t fall for quick fixes or superfood diets. Yes there are more nutrient dense foods out there and less nutritionally valuable foods BUT finding your optimal way of eating doesn’t necessarily mean how many superfoods can you pack into a smoothie, or never eating anything with sugar again. Don’t be fooled by dogma. There is no right or wrong when it comes to your way of eating. Your optimal way of eating for your health, vitality and life is yours and yours alone so don’t let anyone tell you how you should or shouldn’t eat.

    There really is no right or wrong, your body will tell you how it feels best. If you are not sure what feeling good in your body is or feels like then please get in touch. This is one of the key struggles my clients face when trying to stop emotional eating and find their optimal way of eating. Drop me a comment below or send me an email sasha@sashafardell.com

    The optimal way of eating for you is the way you feel happiest, healthiest and most full of life, and that is something only you can truly know.

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