Trust Your Body, Trust the Process, Trust Life

01/28/21 • 46 min

If you’re struggling with binge eating, you’ve thought at least once that recovery is not possible. You fall short of your goals, and you think that’s it. You can’t possibly reach the other side anymore because of this one slip-up.

But sometimes, your body has a mind of its own and may not act in a way that aligns with your goals. But once you free yourself of this obsessive thinking, you’ll discover that the hard days are part of the healing process and you need to trust it.

In this episode, I discuss how a lack of trust is one of the biggest blocks to success. I share tips on how to appreciate your food habits and restore your trust in your body and the recovery process.

Tune in to this episode if you want to learn how to challenge your thinking and live a happier, more hopeful life.

I am now offering a virtual 10-week CLASS!

The transformative class will include pre-recorded videos, audio recordings, handouts, membership in a Facebook community. It is packed with content. You can’t take this class and not begin to understand the roots of your eating habits that you might be frustrated with. I am so confident that it will help you that I offer a money back guarantee!

If you would prefer more individualized help, contact me so we can schedule a private virtual session.

To sign up for the class or to get private help, you can send me an email at [email protected] or visit my website.

Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full podcast episode:

Discover how to listen to your body and commit to the journey of intuitive eating.
Learn how to stay in the present tense and be mindful.
Find out how to challenge fear-based thoughts.

Episode Highlights The Biggest Block

Most people tend to be self-critical, mistakenly believing it’s the only way to achieve their goals. However, countless behavioral studies show that negative self-talk makes people less likely to meet their goals.

Learn to relax your “should haves” around eating – be it your list of safe and unsafe foods, a designated time to eat, or all the rules you think you should follow. Entertain the possibility that you might be wrong and calm down long enough to listen closely to your body.

Trust Your Food Habits

When we talk about relaxing, it means trusting yourself around food and trying out some in your unsafe category in small quantities.

The trick is to be self-aware and stay present while eating. Give that cookie your full and undivided attention. Savor the flavors and the textures. Don’t go too far off into the future or use the cookie to disassociate from your body. Direct your thoughts to the present moment and the current experience of eating.

Once you’re done, slow down and appreciate the food. Over time, you can learn to trust yourself enough to sit around “scary” foods and eat normal-sized portions with no guilt.

Correcting False Beliefs

One or two cookies aren’t enough to tip the scales, nor are there any magic foods that will make you fat or thin. When you obsessively follow the rules down to the tiniest detail, you’ll only end up being frustrated.

Sometimes, your body may not give you the outcome you expected due to various physiological factors at play. It’s impossible to know for sure how your body is going to react. Don’t spend too much time worrying about that number on the scale that you’re not available for all the other good things in life.

Understand that some things are outside your control. To demand certainty and not get it in return, can be quite stressful. Don’t give power to those numbers on the scale — embrace the uncertainty and don’t forget to relax into the process of life.

Remember the Basics

Sometimes, the problem is not the food itself but the fear of it. So, eat only when you’re physically hungry. Eat what your body is craving and stop once you’re satisfied. Remember: you can always have more later since eating is not a one-time thing.

If you’re not hungry, don’t eat your feelings. Allow yourself to feel the entire spectrum of emotions. No amount of numbing through food will satisfy your body when you repress what is supposed to be felt.

Trust the Process

When you embark on this journey, know that it’s not instantaneous. It’s not as easy as snapping your fingers and being done with it.

Every once in a while, you may fall back into your bad habits. As long as you're going in the right direction, that's fine. There’s no need to punish yourself for that small, temporary weight gain. Along the process, you’re sure to gain more knowledge and freedom about yourself that can last a lifetime.

Why Values Weigh More

When you look at the peop...

Tune in to this episode if you want to learn how to challenge your thinking and live a happier, more hopeful life.

I am now offering a virtual 10-week CLASS!

If you would prefer more individualized help, contact me so we can schedule a private virtual session.

To sign up for the class or to get private help, you can send me an email at [email protected] or visit my website.

Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full podcast episode:

Discover how to listen to your body and commit to the journey of intuitive eating.
Learn how to stay in the present tense and be mindful.
Find out how to challenge fear-based thoughts.

Episode Highlights The Biggest Block

Trust Your Food Habits

When we talk about relaxing, it means trusting yourself around food and trying out some in your unsafe category in small quantities.

Once you’re done, slow down and appreciate the food. Over time, you can learn to trust yourself enough to sit around “scary” foods and eat normal-sized portions with no guilt.

Correcting False Beliefs

Remember the Basics

Trust the Process

When you embark on this journey, know that it’s not instantaneous. It’s not as easy as snapping your fingers and being done with it.

Why Values Weigh More

When you look at the peop...

Previous Episode

How to Stop Making Excuses and Take Charge of Your Health Goals

Who doesn’t make excuses? From skipping the gym to overeating when we’re full, we can eke out any and all excuses about why we can’t stick to our health goals.

Most of the time, we do this subconsciously. In fact, the excuses come from little parts inside of us that have a need. They seem like excuses but in fact when we come up with an excuse it means a part of us is scared or trying to protect us in some way.

It takes conscious effort to break our habit of making excuses. We need to listen to the excuses with curiosity and compassion so we can get the excuses to change perhaps.

In this episode, I discuss why we become prone to making excuses. I also talk about getting rid of triggers that cause us to stray away from our diets. Lastly, I share a terrific tool that can help you reign in your tendency to make excuses and sabotage yourself from achieving your goals.

Before you tune in to the full episode, I want you to know about my class!

Join my virtual 10-week Class!

I love this class. It has SO much information and will give you exactly what you need to change your sabotaging or puzzling patterns. This transformative and in-depth class will include pre-recorded videos, audio recordings, handouts, and membership in a Facebook community. I am so confident that it will help you that I offer a money-back guarantee!

If you would prefer more individualized help, the link to my website and email is right here: [email protected] or visit my website.

This podcast episode will help you with these three things:

Understand more clearly why you might make excuses and self-sabotage.
Learn how to be compassionate with yourself.
Discover a tool that can bring you a step closer to your healthy eating goals.

Episode Highlights Why We Make Excuses and Self-Sabotage

We are all prone to making excuses and conceding to behaviors that we later regret. This vulnerability is what makes us human.

For example, we often convince ourselves that being “good all week” gives us a pass to stop caring and just eat. The stress and tension generated because you had to be good all week often creates a need to have a break.

With so much effort towards being good, your inner world will instinctively attempt to balance things out. You will have a thought, “just tonight, just one bite, etc.” There’s nothing wrong with eating. The problem is when eating is out of alignment with the needs of your body, when it’s not a choice but a compulsion, or when it becomes overeating. By becoming aware of our excuse patterns with curiosity we can often stop and decide differently.

Avoiding Triggers

Everyone has different triggers and trigger foods that might take over or that might make you feel tense or overwhelmed. Triggers can create an internal tug of war. “Should I eat it or not? If I don’t eat it, will I just obsess about it all day?” In this episode, Betsy talks about various trigger examples and how to handle them.

The Voice of Resistance

Steven Pressfield, the author of The War of Art, said this:

“Most of us have two lives: the life we live and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands resistance.”

The voice of resistance becomes louder the closer you get to your goals. Betsy explains how this might apply to the eating and dieting world.

Self-Compassion and the Present Tense

When you have a goal in mind, you may be prone to overthinking what you did in the past and what you could have done differently.

It’s easy to want to beat yourself up for not doing what you “should” have done. It’s easy to get in a mental cycle of criticism when you overeat or eat too many desserts. The inner critic is always trying to help us, but it’s not helpful. What is helpful is courageously flooding your mind with compassionate thoughts and going to forgiveness. We ALWAYS do what makes sense at the moment, and sometimes that’s eating. We are innocent. When we overeat or make mistakes there’s always a good reason.

It’s incredibly helpful yet incredibly difficult to remember to take a deep breath and focus on the present moment. One foot in front of the other. One moment at a time.

Resisting the Voice of Resistance

While resistance can lead you to self-sabotage, it has no strength of its own. You can wield it as a tool to help navigate yourself. In this case, resistance can also be about aligning with your higher self and using it as a learning opportunity. When you find yourself making excuses, you should pay more attention because these excuses are, in itself, your call to action.

Getting Outside Help

Taking time with you...

Next Episode

Is Being Thin Really That Important?

Our society values thinness very highly. We see it in the media, major industries, and in our culture. Thus, we internalize the need to be thin and work towards achieving that throughout our lives. But how far will you sacrifice your happiness to be thin? We tend to forget that we are more than how we think our body looks because of these false stereotypes.

In this episode, I discuss the core of the belief systems that drive binge eating and chronic dieting issues and debunk the concept that thinness brings happiness. Make sure to tune in to the full episode to keep your perspective in check about wanting to be thin. My discussion will help you take the first step in taking back your power to create balance in your mind.

I am now offering a 10-week virtual class

Give yourself a gift by enrolling in this transformative 10-week class. It will include pre-recorded videos, audio recordings, handouts, and membership in a Facebook community. It is packed with content and comes with a money back guarantee! You can’t take this class and not begin to understand the roots of your eating habits that you might be frustrated with.

If you would prefer more individualized help, I am also available for this.

To sign up for the class or to get private help, you can send me an email at [email protected] or visit my website.

Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode:

Recognize the importance of our early childhood experiences on our present day value system. Where and when does the “importance” of being thin start?
Discover how you can shift your focus from wanting to be thin to seeking happiness.
Consider the connection between our spiritual being and our physical body.

Episode Highlights The “Importance” of Being Thin

Society values thinness very highly. It’s in our standards of beauty, our culture, and our media. However, we have taken it out of balance to the point that we're hanging our life purpose to this one thread of thought. This thread can destroy the bigger picture of having a wonderful life and tapping into our gifts and real purpose.

Where It Starts

Wanting to be thin starts with the message we get as young children. Well-meaning parents present messages to children about body weight and food, either subtly or blatantly. They feel that they are fixing a problem, rooting from their personal fears, by doing this. Often parents see their children as extensions of themselves.

If you encounter these messages daily, you start to internalize the idea that there's something wrong with you if you don't have a particular body. Consider whether you might have misinterpreted these messages relating to being thin. Consider the idea that these conclusions might have been just confused thoughts with no basis in real truth. You’re innocent. There was never anything wrong with you.

Remember, you don’t need fixing if you are not thin; you are still enough.

Change Your Focus

Taking back your power and changing your focus does not mean you should stop caring about how you look. It also does not mean that you should ignore those times when your eating habits and in disarray. Taking back your power involves examining your belief system and recognizing that your attachment to being thin might have gotten out of hand. Part of freedom from body anxiety lies in the ability to find balance.

Joni Edelman’s Story

There is no truth in the stereotype that being thin equates to being happy. This is what Joni Edelman shared in her article, How Do I Learn To Love My Body After Losing Weight? Her focus on thinness had her doing things she didn’t like — from eating food she didn’t enjoy to obsessing over every detail of her body.

Betsy talks about her article in the podcast. Joni reminds us that our happiness or sadness doesn't depend on how thin or fat our body is. Sometimes letting go of some things related to your weight can open doors to what matters regarding your happiness.

The world wants you to be thin and preys on your insecurities. Thin doesn’t mean happy. Fat doesn’t equate to unhappiness. If you want to really blow people’s minds, be fat, healthy, and happy.

Creating Balance in Your Mindset

There’s nothing wrong with losing weight. If you feel uncomfortable in your body, if you have medical issues, or if your body aches, it’s okay to do things like exercise and change your diet. But you also have to hold the truth that you don’t need to be thin to be happy.

If you hold tight to the belief that “I must be thin to be happy,” or “I must be thin to have value,” you will be out of balance in life. That belief will be a block for you...