2020 cracked many cultural veneers, including our culture’s “all-or-nothing”, go big or go home myths. We were forced to get creative in our lives – for better, worse and TBD.
We’re all in a “muddle” period, as we call it in Truce with Food. It’s when the old is breaking down and the new isn’t yet chosen. Discerning what is what in this messy, creative middle is critical to smart transformational change instead of going through all this for same old, same old.
This is an important bridge to the same “life-changing” “worth a million dollars” and “priceless” lessons described by Truce with Food alumni. Many Truce with Food clients previously believed they were all-or-nothing. Once they can see that they aren’t “all-or-nothing” and able to break down these binary thinking patterns, they realize their food and body story are patterns and symptoms, not a food addiction, an inherent personality trait and they sure as hell aren’t broken.
What we are trained to think is necessary for success — that you must be “good” or “perfect”— isn’t just unsustainable, but completely unnecessary. Conventional ideas of “good” and “perfect” also create blindspots that sabotage success (this is why unfortunately, we have so much disordered eating, poor health and feel chronically stressed).
When you discover that you can still eat dairy and heal, you can take days off from exercising and still lose weight or you can still have sugar and not lose control, step-by-step, you realize moderation is safe and gets radical results because of the consistency you’re able to create. And, discovering your Option C with food, exercise and by owning your story, you become a more creative, strategic, rebellious leader of your life (and it’s why about 80% of my clients have a career shift after our work together).
To further develop and make smart, life-changing choices from 2020 and your battle with food, I’m offering a Truce with Food holiday special. This package saves you $500 on the FSA/HSA eligible Truce with Food group experience and includes access to a self-study program, the Insatiable community, and a private session with me. Valued at over $5,000, this special holiday price of $3500 is available through December 31. Special details here.
Schedule a no pressure, Q&A call to see if it’s right for you.
Join me on Instagram this month as I teach about breaking out of all or nothing eating and exercising. Here are some examples of what you discover beyond the matrix of symptom management, strict protocols and general all-or-nothing thinking around food and weight.
“Healthy” and “Unhealthy” Weights. Sometimes you are in a bigger body because you’re inflamed from health issues or bingeing. And sometimes your bigger body is just a bigger body. While health-care and wellness experts assume being obese is unhealthy, turns out the root cause might be fat bias, not fatness that’s the issue. Looking at outcomes instead of lab numbers, obese people faired better than their lean counter parts when sent to intensive care for the same ailments.
Caffeine or No Caffeine? Lots of my clients love their coffee or tea and assume they need to give it up. The reality is there are ways to have caffeine healthfully. In this study, participants who drank coffee before eating experienced substantial increases in blood sugar compared with those who ate something first. As I said (five years ago), drinking coffee with breakfast will prevent cravings and crashing. And if coffee is interfering with your health goals, you can taper off gently and sustainably (because much of the root cause of an energy dip is from the withdrawal of caffeine, not you being so tired).
I’m a good or bad sleeper. Tried chamomile tea, melatonin or shutting off your device an hour before bed to get sleep? These are often symptom management for eating that deregulates sleep via blood sugar control and/or gut health. Researchers are now discovering how our gut bacteria are an important “middleman” for sleep. Still more research questions whether a solid eight hours is the only kind of “good sleep” explaining that the concept of “insomnia” emerged as the not uncommon “two sleep night” (separated by about two hours of awake time) disappeared.
Because Insatiable is on hiatus, I have time to listen to other podcasts.
Here are three episodes I loved around breaking down binary thinking.
This Species Moment, On Being. In the biology field, experts recognize that “survival of the fittest” isn’t the whole story. Nature needs cooperation as much as competition – and they can serve each other. In this wonderfully expansive episode, Augustin Fuentes shows how we need the AND, not either/or.
I also love how his understanding of body adaptation and complexity can help remove the “healthy” or “unhealthy” labels that limit our body approaches and self-identity. And I needed his reminder that yes, humans are capable of horrific acts and they are pretty damn inspiring too.
Racism in Wellness Culture, Conspirituality. Five years into my anti-racism work and I’m still surprised how most of our issues come back to the literal black and whiteness of racism. Historian Dr. Natalia Petrza, shares her latest book on the history of the fitness industry and its racist links, helping us further deconstruct what we think of as “in shape” and “out of shape” bodies.
Peace Love Yoga on Yogaland. Can “high vibes” be toxic? And does this healthy practice become unhealthy for politics? This interview with Dr. Andrea Jain helps us recognize that wellness consumerism, even when it’s more eco-friendly, doesn’t do much for the real, radical social justice change we need. I also love her nuance of the imaginary “East” vs “West” vibe and how capitalism leads to all sorts of misappropriation, not limited to white people.
Be well,
P.S. Remember, about two weeks left on my Truce with Food 2021 holiday special, where you can save $500 in cash on my FSA/HSA eligible Truce with Food group experience and receive over $5,000 in value for $3,500. Available through December 31.
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