Growing Gains & Father’s Day Quotes

Changing your perspective doesn’t have to be painful. Some of our most challenging experiences, conversations, unexpected outcomes can be the best things that ever happen to us. The feeling of pain is real whether physical or emotional. Hopefully we can feel the love that is gained after the pain is felt and explored.

My newest client can not believe how “painless this weight loss journey” has been for her. Her past diets consisted of deprivation, critical analysis, and overwhelming accountability. The new approach of shifting her judgement and fear around food and her health to consciousness has been easier than she believed it could be.

Most people set themselves up for becoming perfect on a Monday, or next month, or New Years. That’s it, they are ready to take the bull by its horns and force it. That is exact opposite of consciousness.

con·scious·ness

ˈkän(t)SHəsnəs/noun

• Feel your feelings instead of eating them, pushing them down, or believing it is weak to feel emotions. The strongest people I know are capable of processing their emotions by staying present in their body and not allowing past conditioning to keep them in fear mode. Before you grab that chocolate (this one may be intended for me:), take a breath, are you really hungry? Or do you need water, rest, food, sunlight, or a hug? Get those sorted and then you can feel the chocolate craving with more awareness.
• Ease in. Focus on which behavior is not supporting you and start there. For example, if you are never hungry in the morning so you skip breakfast and notice you have lower energy and sugar cravings later in the day, skipping breakfast may not be supporting you. Instead, try experimenting with a few new morning routines. Try lemon with warm water upon waking and then note how long it takes for you to hear your stomach growl. I bet within a week, your length of time will shorten and you will find more balance throughout your day.
• GET CURIOUS! If you are stuck in a routine, tired of what you are eating, and feeling bloated after meals, something you are doing daily is NOT working. I recommend to try skipping a meal or changing one of your meals to just a vegetable meal. A vegetable meal would be a healthy fat combined with veggies, such as Shredded carrot salad with sesame oil, sea salt and pepper or Veggie Stir-fry with coconut milk curry. Give your body a break from a protein and starch so you can find balance.

“Always look at how far you came, never look at how far you have to go.”–Radko Jansky. This quote is from a dear friend’s father. When it comes to your progress with your relationship with food and your body, this could be the best quote ever. If you switched to eating more vegetables, celebrate yourself, pretend like you took the gold medal home. If you wake up everyday anxious of where you are not at yet, this anxiety will create more stress in your body and hold back your progress.

“It is not about the food, it is about the ‘tude”–Draza (Daughter) Jansky. My dear friend sent this and it so resonates to me. When you are celebrating life with people you love, food is not the focus, but more of an added bonus with their company. If you are with people who are not supporting you and then you eat to feel support, that is something to observe.

“A bit of loneliness is better than being miserable.”–my Dad. He dropped this one on me recently. How many people are eating their feelings. A hint of loneliness isn’t something to run from, but feeling miserable in your mind and body is something to develop more self compassion around.

“Some things are so much important than others. With all there is to do, taking care of myself was more important than making sawdust. So I came home to do more recovery stuff.”–Tom Ewen (Molly’s Dad & Furniture maker). Taking care of ourselves isn’t something we were all taught. Instead, it may have been, get over it and get back to work. That is not true anymore for any of us anymore.

Happy Father’s Day, Dad!

Celebrate the father’s and men in your lives,

Heather Fleming, C.C.N

P.S. Thank you to Illuminati for the photo. Here is a quote from his picture, “It’s time to decide who you really are, what you’re truly here for – and why.”

P.S.S. My blogs may slow down this summer as I give myself space to invest in a few other personal projects. However, please email if you need anything.