Emily* got herself comfortable on our couch after our greetings for our first official session. She had made her health history initial consult appointment a couple weeks prior, tired of having “extra weight” and “super low energy” as well as “feeling down” on herself for too long. She was “ready for change,” and knew that it had to be a different approach than what she had done in the past. She Googled “nutrition” and “healthy lifestyle” and came up with our Nourish Coaches website.
“I am so happy to be here, finally,” she said. “I loved your website and your philosophy. It resonated with me so much!”
I smiled proudly. We love hearing those sentiments.
“So, I made the appointment, and let me tell you, I have been bingeing for the last week, knowing I was coming here today.”
Yup.
“I knew that you’d tell me not to eat bread and sugar, so I indulged myself.”
I smiled. If we only had a dollar for every initial consult conversation like this. “Why do you think that?” I asked.
“Because you are, aren’t you? I know sugar is bad and bread is bad.”
“Bad?” I asked. And so begins our consult.
The thing is, we don’t tell you not to eat bread or sugar or drink wine or whatever else it is you think isn’t “good” for you.
In fact, keep eating all of it, if you want. And keep your appointment with us every other week to talk about how you feel, what habits you have and how they make you look, feel and perform. It’s not our mission to make you give up things you love. In fact, it’s our mission to get you to really love the things you eat and, at the same time, feel great. Really.
Wendy and I eat ice cream.
I also eat bread. We drink wine. I have chocolate almost every day. I also have pizza and chocolate chip cookies. I’m not showing off. I’m not bragging that I can eat all those things and still feel good and keep my figure and all that. In fact, sometimes I don’t feel great and sometimes my pants are tight. And when that happens, I make a little shift and listen to my body to get back to feeling better.
To be totally honest, it’s not that simple.
Especially lately, now that we are middle-aged and our bodies aren’t as forgiving or resilient as they were 10-15 years ago. We have a new landscape to navigate as our bodies approach menopause. We have to relearn things that we learned before, like what works and what doesn’t work to shed a few pounds to make our pants fit again. Or what makes us sleep better, or what makes our digestive systems act up or not.
Deprivation isn’t the tool we use.
Getting to know yourself and how you look, feel and perform is the tool we use. It’s a way of being in tune with yourself that, with practice, allows you the freedom we are all looking for: to be able say yes to the pizza or the wine sometimes and not have guilt, shame and disgust wrapped up in the decision.
We know there is a better way to attend to our wellness goals than to listen to someone else’s rules.
If this resonates with you at all, join us as we introduce all these ideas (and more) in our upcoming workshop starting July 16th.
*Not her real name
