If you’ve been to a BIRTHFIT Seminar or have seen one of BIRTHFIT’s Mind Body Nourishment webinars (here, here, and here), you may be familiar with setting down the what-to-eat side of nutrition and investigating who-we-are-as-eaters. This paradigm shift is based on the work of Marc David from the Institute for the Psychology of Eating. Recently, I’ve been asked how to bring these principles into the family environment. How do we raise children with positive relationships to food and body? Feeding Your Family without Stress Similar to my personal, imperfect relationship with food and body, I also imperfectly apply the following principles with my children/family. I, too, am trying to rewrite old patterns and it’s messy. Sometimes I bribe my kids with dessert. Sometimes I cut my kids off when I want to throw up for how much they’ve eaten. So be gentle with yourself. We’re in this together. Approach this from a place of playfulness and curiosity. After all, we know this promotes … [Read more...]
Make Glorious, Amazing Mistakes – 2017 Intention
At yoga yesterday, I went to my mat with the intention of entering 2017 more grounded. If I'm being totally honest, my 2017 calendar is daunting. Between the active duty military opportunities, BIRTHFIT classes and workshops, and family events, I felt a little dizzy looking into next year. It's not just the time demands that frighten me, it's how I'm being called to show up at each engagement. I don't feel ready or qualified to lead in the way I want to lead. I have an abundance of positive intention but make mistakes despite it. The sweet yoga instructor seemed to see into my soul and shared this phenomenal quote from one of my all-time favorite authors, Neil Gaiman: "And for this year, my wish for each of us is small and very simple. And it's this. I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing … [Read more...]
Possibility after Tragic Loss
On Tuesday night, I completed the Landmark Forum in Atlanta. It was by far the most transformational course I’ve ever taken in my life and I wanted to share the new possibilities that opened up for me. Upon registering for the Forum, participants are asked to consider an important area of their life they would like to focus on. My first reaction was “how do I choose just one!?” I was reassured that the focus area would be more of a doorway into the concepts/ assignments and that the overall experience of the course would likely affect many other important areas too. With that, I chose the grief and suffering from this intense year of loss. To be perfectly honest, I wanted to break free from the prison cell of grief for both my family and myself in the wake of Mark’s suicide. About halfway through the first day and in a very public share-turned-coaching session, I suddenly realized I didn’t actually want that freedom because my story around such freedom would mean that I abandoned … [Read more...]
