Category Archive for ‘Lifestyle’

Have you ever found yourself stuck in the rut of eating the same uninspiring foods over and over again while at the same time feeling helpless about how you are going to breack the cycle? If so, I hear you. I call it food mood and I’ve been there.

This depressing condition is characterized by a lack of creativity, enthusiasm and appreciation about food and eating in general that causes you to :

• Skip meals and then feel ravenous and binge on whatever cross your path
• Avoid cooking and heavily rely on processed, pre packaged foods
• Order or take away less than ideal meals more and more often
• Feeling depressed, drained and guilty because all of the above resulting in MORE of the above

You’ve got the picture, feeling trapped there really sucks.

More often than not, food boredom is the body’s attempt to stand in the way of all the unfavorable stuff  overflowing it. Take it as a cry for renewal : deep down you crave live, clean and nutritious food.

Beyond nutritional needs, food boredom is also often a good indicator that you find your life,well… boring. Maybe it is time to do a reality check and take a good look at all the other areas of your life : work, social, intimacy, creativity, movement and exercising, spirituality, play. Generaly speaking food mood will show its ugly head when we got caught up in our daily crazy pace and lost the fun along the way.
When is the last time that you have done something just for the joy of it? You laughed at a silly joke? You went away for the weekend to see new things? Figure it out and do it! You’ll be glad you did

There are several things you can do to get out of the junk zone and rekindle your joy for food and life:

•  Try to start your day with a juice or smoothie first thing : tell yourself you can still have your latte with 2 doughnuts afterwards, but I bet you won’t feel that excited about it. Even if you still must have one, it is one less in your system, call it a victory.
• After a week of that, try a whole detox day : more juices and smoothies, fresh salads and lean protein ( don’t restrcit yourself, your aim is not to lose weight but cleanse your system and palate)
• Go to your local bookshop and browse cookbooks. Let yourself be inspired by the pictures and the way ingredients are creatively mixed together
• Ask several of your friends to share one of their favourite recipes and cook every single one : if you ask 7 friends, that’s a whole meal plan for the week
• Seek out company : Have friends over for dinner, get invited, go out for lunch with colleagues
• Take a cooking class 
• Go shopping at your nearest health food shop and buy something you’ve never tried before
• Visit the local market in search of a new fruit or veggie
• Saturate your mind with raw food and/or cooking videos on YouTube
• The upcoming weekend, go to an organic café for a brunch with your girlfriends

You may discover a new way to use some very familiar ingredients, find a taste for a food you’d never tried before and gain your creative mojo back in the process !

Imagine than within days you will have forgotten the old, exhausted, lifeless, toxic you ! ( and you’ll be like : Who, me?)

This year, why  not use Valentine’s day as an opportunity to prioritize your own needs? Let go of the fear to come across as selfish or highly self-absorbed . If you don’t take care of yourself first, you won’t  be able to assist others for very long before you burn out. Learn how to nurture yourself so that you can spread around more of the good stuff.

Practice (inner) love talk

Take some time to sit down and reflect on the way you think of yourself. Is your inner talk of a supportive, positive, cheerful and uplifting kind or do you blame, criticize, belittle all day long? Nice thoughts and sweet words are not only for the man or the woman of your life, you deserve them too.

Design your future

Whether you have a partner or not, you probably have some personal goals that you would like to achieve as part as your life design. Many will have set some of those goals as part of their  New year’s eve resolutions. It is the ideal timing to check whether you are staying on course. Remember than when we get off track, correction is made more easily in the early stages. Checking on one’s goals every month or so actually is a great habit to have all year around.

Pamper yourself

The secret here is to choose quality over quantity. Even if you treat yourself to only one thing, make it exceptional. A few suggestions:

• Take your time to cook mindfully, fresh, exotic, organic ingredients and create a beautiful dinner that you will  share with your family or some of your closest friends
• Buy yourself a couple of the best chocolates you can buy and savour them in a way that brings you joy and pleasure. Leave your guilt at the door.
• Treat yourself to a massage in a wellness centre or a Spa treatment at home
• Get the new haircut you have been too busy to schedule, or a nice new outfit that makes you feel great and feminine

Don’t take yourself for granted

As in any relationship, when it comes to everyday life, too many habits, boredom can ruin everything slowly but surely. In the same way that creating surprise, tackling challenges and overcoming difficulties is a healthy way to strenghten bonds in a couple, if you want to experience real personal growth and ever-growing passion for life you will need to stretch yourself. Spice  up your relationship with yourself. Get out of your comfort zone. Pick something new you never took the time or  had the courage to try . Sign up for that dance class, start planning this trip, attend this lecture about career change.

Have fun with your life!

I know I should exercise but I hate it so I can’t get myself to do it.. Does this sound like a familiar thought? Although you love the feeling you get every time you work out so much that you even ask yourself afterwards “why I don’t do it more often? ”, most of the time, you still have to literally drag yourself to the gym and can’t make that habit stick. I have good news. You don’t need to exercise. Actually it is not a good idea at all and you should stop it.

Most of us hold negative feelings about “exercise”. This aversion can be easily spotted by the lexical field we use when it comes to exercising: should, hate, make myself, have to, no motivation, willpower etc… Past negative sport-related experiences ( never get picked for basketball back in your school days, boring and repetitive exercise routines at the gym, injury due to lack of body awareness or unsuited training intensity, etc) are the root of these deeply ingrained thoughts and feelings.

So if that sounds like you, what most likely happens when you use the term “exercising” is that you reactivate all those old unpleasant memories that in turn trigger this strong reaction of aversion within you. Don’t be surprised then if to you working out means excrutiating experience.

The solution ? Stay away from exercise. You would be better off changing completely your approach to working out. Instead, I suggest you practise movement or corporal expression , play, or be active, any other piece of vocabulary that appeals to you.

Sounds over simplistic? Don’t underestimate the power of words, they are very potent agents to our conscious and subconscious minds. It is no coincidence that repetitive words and sentences are heavily used in many mind reprogramming techniques. Words really have an effect on our minds therefore on our actions ( or lack of it for that matter).

The bottom line is this : don’t talk yourself out of physical activity simply by using uninspiring vocabulary.

So get up, let’s go and play !

Which words really get you moving with joy and enthusiasm?

Although I have never really been overweight in a clinical sense, I am very familiar with weight issues. By that I mean that my weight and shape used to be a major concern in my life. It even turned into an obsession at one point. Now I feel detached about it.

Of course things did not change overnight but with time, I came to realise that really all this is at best a waste of time, at worse a severe obstruction to happiness. My message here is that there really is hope, you can change your relationship to your body, no matter where you are now. Here is my top tip to start loving your body now :

 See your body as “action”, not “object”.

This one was a real eye opener for me.

Be grateful of what you have. Maybe your legs would not be chosen for a stocking commercial but they take you to places. You arms may not be as toned as they used to be but they allow you to hug, play the guitar, and cook. Instead of obsessing about how we look, wouldn’t be much more interesting to be busy enjoying life? It is so short, and will be over before we know it, so what are we waiting for? Don’t waste time and go have fun having the experience you’ve always put off because you were too busy worrying about what was “wrong” with you.

Since when carrying a few inches more at the waist line (compared to  the ideal number according to who knows ) prevent you to enjoy the beautiful view, the great laugh with your friends or the exquisite piece of music?

Plus,  the body is a beautiful casket  for our emotions and feelings. Emotions and feelings are bursts of energy that constantly travel within the body.  So be grateful to have your body, it makes you feel alive.

It is NOT easier said than done, only you are the master of your mind. Just decide to change your approach now : be in the moment, focus on the essence of the now rather than on your thoughts about how you look while living that moment.

You don’t want to miss out on your life, do you?

As a new year begins, it’s an ideal time to let go of whatever is not serving you and open space in your life for that which will truly nourish your heart, body, and soul. For many people, the heaviest burden they want to release is emotional pain. This includes guilt and regrets from the past, anger and unresolved conflicts, memories of abuse or neglect, and any other emotional upset that prevents you from fully enjoying life in the present moment.

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As much an art as a science, holistic nutrition enables us to determine what diet and lifestyle best suit us to reach our full health potential. It is a comprehensive approach to wellbeing based on the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of an individual.

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I know I am going to say something that may sound easier said that done, but please please please, try to stop making jokes based on your looks and don’t allow anyone to do it either.
It may sound as if I have no sense of humor, or worse, that I am trying to claim the moral high ground ( not really : I still catch myself doing it sometimes) but seriously, don’t do it.
We often hear not to take ourselves to seriously – and by the way, I am a great fan of this – but there is a huge difference between laughing with candor about something silly we just have done and comparing one part of our body to one of an animal.

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