Weight Loss for Goddesses

Part of the philosophy behind Weight Loss for Goddesses is using the tools of pleasure, self-love and connection to our bodies to counter all of the programming and negative habits we have around weight loss, eating and body image.

One really practical and fun way to do this is to using aromatherapy.

As a Certified Clinical Aromatherapy Practitioner I know how powerful aromatherapy is. Utilizing it to help with positive and pleasurable weight loss is a no brainer. Scent is a powerful and mysterious avenue for decreasing stress and increasing connection to the present moment and our bodies.

You can use essential oils and many different ways but today I am focusing on using a roll-on to help yourself get centered, and mindful before eating or when you’re having a craving.

There are many essential oils that help give yourself the opportunity to pause, take a breath and actually feel your body. Some of the best are those that I’ve included in a roll on I made specific for Weight Loss for Goddesses.

Peppermint has been proven to curb hunger cravings and increase feelings of satiety (the feeling of fullness when eating).

French Lavender is deeply relaxing while not being sedating.

Frankincense is a potent essential oil that can help us access the deeper spiritual connection.

Grapefruit is uplifting and invigorating.

What a perfect combination! It smells great.

Building a deep and sacred connection to your body allows you to actually LOVE your body into weight loss and health.

Any small little habits that help us remember that our body loves to feel pleasure and joy. That she is a sacred animal and that taking deep breaths and smelling delicious things is a gift to her.

Giving that gift of remembering, stopping, uncapping the roll-on, inhaling the fragrance, rolling the cool oil on your skin and breathing deeply into your body – we remember our important job of caring for our body; our vessel that helps us live our lives on this earth. 

So, take a moment, even if it is to smell your coffee grounds as you place them into your coffee maker, really sniff your orange peel as a peel your Clementine or stop and enjoy the gorgeous scents coming from the apple blossoms and soon the lilacs!

Pausing is important, smell is important and taking these moments can feed us in ways that food cannot.

If you would like a roll-on made for this purpose that people have found helpful here is a link to my Etsy page.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/CrowLadyHerbals

 

Hello loves, It has been a long time since I have reached out to you. In some ways it feels like a lifetime has gone by.   I hope you are doing OK and managing this extremely challenging time as best you can. The theme of the week that I was going to share many months ago was Just Begin Again. (But, I was sidetracked by the pandemic, working in a hospital, having kids and husband home from school, finding my eating and self-care habits under great stress and begin to feel trivial as the dual pandemics of covid and racism caused (and continues to cause) so much suffering in this world. It can be challenging to be present and do self care when you are fearing for the lives and future of yourself, your  children and the world. And add to that that so many of our black and brown brothers and sisters have been feeling that fear all along. UGGGHHH!)   It can start to sound privileged and useless to talk about things like:   Self care. Weight loss. Eating healthy. Being present.   Because: People are dying and suffering! No one knows what is going to happen! We may never get back to normal! Normal was never fair or safe for many!   But, while this is true and life for many of us is more chaotic and filled with uncertainty than EVER before-it turns out we still have to live in our bodies and we still can do tremendous good- even in a burning world.   It is actually a privilege and honor to care for ourselves so we can do the work we need to do to tend to our dreams, others around us and the whole world.   Each of us is so needed and we must be at our best- even though sometimes that might not be so great! Taking care of our bodies and souls is necessary and sacred work. And it turns out-Just  Begin Again- is always the perfect message because we, as humans, need the reminder.   It is one of the first teachings in meditation. Your thoughts will scatter and you will be distracted. Just begin again. No tantrum. No judgement. No conclusion about your worthiness. Just begin again. And Again. And again. It is not a failure to come off track. It is the practice to begin again and return to yourself. If you have been away for years, months or moments. Just Begin Again.   I am beginning again as well. I will be reaching out to you weekly, sharing and looking for feedback on what you need. Next week I will review what we had covered in learning the 8 Principles to Losing Weight like a Goddess and we can continue. Together we can figure out how to take care of our bodies and souls – our dreams and the world around us during this very very challenging time.   Sending love and strength.

We’ll continue with the internal focus as we begin moving our bodies in a way that our body actually enjoys. 

This, like Eating to Feel Good, is revolutionary. 

We are so used to moving our bodies in ways that we don’t like, pushing our bodies and ignoring our body’s cues.

Many of us were even trained to use exercise as a way to punish our beautiful bodies. 

No more of that. 

You are now going to move your body how your body likes. 

This, again, requires that you listen to your actual body. 

And what a joy that is! 

It is time to reassure your body you will no longer be punishing it for eating or being hungry. 

Instead you will strive to treat your body with the same kindness you would treat a child or a pet.

You are going to discover how your body wants to move.

Like with food, your body has a deep awareness of what is best for it. 

Our bodies are amazing. 

Your body is amazing.

If you are one of the lucky people on this planet who can walk; I recommend you begin with that. 

Walk OUTSIDE as much as you can.

I know there is nasty weather, ice and cars, but it is best if you find somewhere that you can walk outside. 

Being in nature is profoundly healing and calming for our bodies. 

We are, actually, animals. 

And we are animals that have evolved to live outside until very very recently. 

Our bodies love to feel the wind on our faces, smell the smells of damp dirt or sunbaked grass and hear the sounds of birds singing. 

Our bodies were made for being outside.

In coming weeks we will talk about what our bodies are truly hungry for and how we may have gotten confused about soul hunger versus hunger for food.  

For now, I will tell you that almost certainly one of the things your body is hungry for is more time outside in nature. Study after study shows that nature is healing to our immune system, our physical bodies and our souls.

So, the first form of exercise you’ll be doing will be getting outside and walking while appreciating the world around you.

Once you’ve begun walking then you can start to look at other ways of moving your body. Pick something that calls to you. 

Get a catalog from the local community college, check out the newspaper for yoga studios and investigate classes at the YMCA and see what feels appealing to you. 

Maybe a nice quiet restorative yoga class, maybe some kind of team sport?

Maybe something you’ve been wanting to do forever. Belly dancing? Cross country skiing? Swimming?

If the weather is really bad it is still good to get out but you can also dance around in your house while listening to music that you love. 

Your goal is activating a joyful celebratory experience in your body. You will be allowing your body to feel pleasure in movement. This all might sound really different than what you’ve been doing, but I’m sure you can see how doing something you love is much much much easier to maintain and to get back to after interruptions like injury, travel  or sickness. And moving your body this way decreases cortisol and allows your body to relax, heal itself and release weight that is hanging on because of constant stress and overwhelm in our daily lives.

Later in the week in the Facebook group I’ll do a tapping exercise to clear some of the trauma around exercise you may have forced yourself to do throughout your life. I did so many things my body really didn’t like – swimming at 6 AM in a cold pool in college, getting up at 5 AM to go spinning in the dark while my baby slept for a stunningly brief period of time,  and lifting weights in a dark gym with lots of men grunting around me. Uggh. Tapping is very helpful in clearing our history of suffering and setting us free to start again.

What is it your body would like to do? 

Ask your body what it is drawn to and then journal your body‘s response. 

You are making  friends with your body.

Getting your body to trust you. 

Thais is how you tap in to the incredible power and wisdom of the magnificent instrument you’ve been blessed to live in!

And ultimately that another powerful step to losing weight like a goddess.

This week I’m going to focus on the second principle to help you lose weight like a goddess which is: 

EAT to feel GOOD. 

This is revolutionary. 

Instead of focusing your attention externally on rules, you will focus your attention internally on what your body wants and feels.

You actually get to be a private detective and figure out what foods work for you. Of course we know no diet works for everyone, but the diet industry and the media make it seem like you just haven’t found the perfect combination of foods and timing, yet.

In fact, each person is different, and as their life changes – so do the foods that work best for them. I will admit it can seem sort of annoying or like hard work to have to pay such close attention, but the benefits are astonishing.

It is totally worth it.

It feels so good to feel good and energized after you eat.

It feels so good to know how to eat to maximize your health and happiness.

So, paying attention to your body is what you get to do now.

That means noticing how your body feels when you are eating and after you eat. It means deciding that you actually deserve to feel amazing most of the time. One way to think of it is as Anne Lamott writes, “it may help to remember this great line of Geneen Roth’s: that awareness is learning to keep yourself company. And then learn to be more compassionate company, as if you were somebody you are fond of and wish to encourage.”

Keep yourself company. Check in with yourself. “How are you doing?” How are you feeling now?”

It doesn’t have to be difficult.

It can be easy. It makes sense to “keep yourself company” and if you settle into it then you can notice how food affects you and how you physically feel in your body when you eat it.

We will be dealing with the tricky issue of food addictions later this month, but for now, just notice where you are stuck on certain foods.

A great way to find out what foods work for you is by doing an elimination diet. The Whole30 is a marvelous one that I have done and many of my clients have done with really great success. Whole30 has you cut out all foods that are known to increase inflammation for 30 days and then slowly add them back in. Weight loss is often a side effect of this way of eating, but it is not a long-term weight loss solution. Instead, it is a way to clear out all the foods that you are so accustomed to eating that you don’t even notice that they make you feel like crap!

I love the paleo diet, and I eat meat, veggies, fruits and nuts and I feel great. For 10 years in my 20’s I was a vegetarian and I felt terrible! I was sick all the time, but I didn’t know why-I thought I was eating well! Lots of whole grains, beans, dairy and breads really irritate my system, but I didn’t know that was why I was sick, itchy and groggy! I was so grateful when I finally did a Whole30 and realized how much energy and joy I could feel.  For some people my vegetarian diet might have been fine.

Start with noticing how you feel as you begin eating, as you eat and after- directly after and then a few hours after. 

Focusing on increasing your input of veggies, so they fill up half your plate at each meal is another great place to start. Eating whole foods, not processed foods, is much easier on your body and leads to increased health, weight loss and more sustainable energy.

You get to figure out what works for you and your body!

Let me know how it goes.

I want to continue with the number 1 principle at Weight Loss for Goddesses which is:

Clearing your Blocks.

I start with that principle because it is so so powerful.

Your blocks are individual and often complicated, but they CAN be cleared.

This program teaches you simple powerful tools to shift your energy and deep underlying beliefs. You can finally change how you lose weight and feel good- even if you have tried and failed so many times before!

There are a few ways to clear your blocks.

One is journaling-

A great exercise to start figuring out your blocks is to sit down, close your eyes and visualize yourself at your perfect weight, wearing your dream outfit. You feel so good. Let yourself feel how amazing and healthy you feel….

Then imagine yourself going up to people in your life. Beaming with joy and health. How do they respond? Are they happy for you? Jealous? Hurt? Frightened you are now too good for them? Critical? Talking behind your back?

Try approaching your friends, workmates, parents, spouse. Everybody. Notice where you feel like people will be judgmental or unhappy and write it down.

Write it all down free form.

Let yourself discover what you are you scared of if you lose the weight? 

Then take any negative stressful response and write on it for a while. Let yourself dig deep and really explore with your journaling where that negative feeling comes from and how it impacts you. Journaling is amazing and can really clear things out of your system.

Another tool for clearing is to take what you learned journaling and begin to tap on it following along with the video I included below .

In the video I begin sharing the amazing tool of tapping/EFT to clear blocks that are holding you back from creating the life of your dreams. Check out this video and let me know how it goes.

Another way to clear the blocks is a healing practice that I do with private clients called EmoTrance or Emotional Transformation which helps you move and clear stuck energy from the body really quickly It is amazing.

Having the tools to change your life is profoundly rewarding. It allows you to move forward in new ways because you can just clear the obstacles as they come up! This creates

SO MUCH FREEDOM. 

I hope you start to uncover and clear your blocks with the journaling and tapping! They are simple, free and powerful. Take advantage of them and set yourself free!

Happy New Year!  I hope your year is going well so far. I wanted to check in and get started helping you to feel better in 2020! After working with many women and digging deep into how to lose weight and get healthy; I am dedicating 2020 to helping as many women as possible to be free of hating their bodies and feeling stuck, unable to lose weight but also unable to  give up the goal of losing weight.   Weight loss and diet are one of the most charged, confusing and conflicted areas of self care and believe me!I wanted to avoid it as a career focus! I really did. But, I truly believe that everyone is beautiful and valuable and I HATE that amazing powerful women are wasting time and energy hating their bodies, trying to change, failing and then starting again. Uggggh!   There is a better way. A way to not only lose weight and feel better in your body, but to discover and learn tools to help you listen to your body, give your body what it needs and get in touch with and create an amazing life from your deep needs and desires. YES! So let’s get started. The first principal of losing weight like a Goddess is: Clearing Your Blocks:There are many reasons why weight loss is challenging and why we often gain the weight back when we lose it, but one of the most prevalent is underlying beliefs of what it will mean if we lose the weight or if we don’t.  These beliefs are very individual, but most of them fall into these categories: What if I fail? Everyone will see me fail again. What will they think? I can’t do that to myself. Again. What must people think of me? What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I get this right? And/orWhat if I succeed?These fears are deep.And they are often focused on the rejection that part of you feels will come if you are successful. If you lose the weight. If you feel great.These look like:Will I be loved if I lose the weight? Will I be too different? Who will I leave behind?Will I be rejected by my tribe?Will it be disloyal? (To  my family (often mother)/friends/workmates)Will I be safe? (So much attention/can’t hide behind false story that weight is what keeps you from the life you want.)These deep fears are triggered by weight loss because you can’t hide behind false story that weight is what keeps you from the life you want.These tangled fears are illogical and contradictory and they can wreak havoc on a wellness plan or finally dropping a few pounds. The frightened unconscious part of us gets triggered or anxious and suddenly we find ourselves oversleeping again and again or eating drive through Mcdonalds hoping nobody sees. The great thing about these deep fears and irrational beliefs it that they CAN be cleared and released.You can stop sabotaging yourself!In the coming weeks I will be showing you four simple techniques to help you unearth and release these beliefs.  Come over to the Weight Loss for Goddesses facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/1039344852820922/ for live interactive videos in the coming weeks.I am inspired to help you clear your blocks, learn to take great care of your body and live the life of your dreams.

Hope you had a happy Thanksgiving last week if you live in United States.  It is a marvelous practice to be thankful. The more time you spend in gratitude – the more you can cultivate feelings of deep joy

Hello there  

I hope you are doing well.

I hope you are surviving and thriving even though things are challenging in our world right now.

I hope you are taking good care of your body and your soul.

I have a little story to tell.

I am a weight loss coach who isn’t particularly skinny and I certainly don’t have flat abs.

I am a weight loss coach who thinks women’s bodies are magnificent.

Remember, I watch women give birth every week as a labor and delivery nurse.

So much of my motivation and healing power actually comes from my profound KNOWING that women’s bodies are absolutely powerful and amazing-capable of the greatest magic there is.

And I am quite confident in my own changing and aging human body-partly because I am blessed to be steeped in a world where women’s bodies are performing great feats while not looking like women’s idealized impossible bodies in the media.

I have the incredible gift of the constant reminder of what real beauty is.

What real women actually look like. This has been one of the honors of being a nurse and I am deeply aware of the constant shower of fake negative images we are all dealing with every day. But I thought I was immune. I was so connected and loving to my actual body.

And I am a powerful healer that can transform really challenging situations.

I was a bit smug, actually.

But.

Then I wobbled and I got lost.

I had a few too many people say that it must be difficult to have the pressure to be skinny as a weight loss coach.

I had a few comments about how it must be so hard not to be ABLE to gain weight and stay in alignment with my message.

And I had a coach who I love say something benign that got twisted. She said, “Weight loss is a visual niche. People need to see you and your results.”

Hmm. But my results and my clients results are in their SOUL. And of course, their eating and their self love and their bodies- yes. But in their very being and love for their fragile beautiful flawed bodies.

But.

I figured I wanted to reach more women so I should just get a flat belly and stop going on about souls.

How hard could it be?

I know what food is healthy for me. I know what feels good.

I can figure this out.

You can imagine what ensued next. I kept trying. I wanted it done fast. I wanted it done efficiently. It was an external imposed goal. So I rebelled against it while also implementing it.

So foolish.

Instead of using the beautiful tenants of Weight Loss for Goddesses that I knew worked. That I created after trying everything else! Instead I decided to do the things like making charts, and weighing myself, and feeling bad about myself and grabbing my stomach whenever I woke up in the morning to see if my stomach had disappeared, yet. And getting angry with my body for not being more cooperative.

Finally a friend- OK my therapist- said, “Is this really what you want to be doing?” And then it hit me. I started laughing hysterically! I had fallen under the spell again. (Just coming off a week of watching Harry Potter movies in the theater.)

But it is a spell. A spell of unworthiness. A spell of invisibility. Every. Single. Day. We are inundated with a powerful images and stories that say the truly beautiful real people around you are not enough. And that you must be different than what you are to be valuable and accepted.

Such Bullshit.

But it is so powerful that I fell for it.

I fell for the false idea that I wasn’t good enough to help women feel better and lose weight in a healthy balanced loving fun way.

That I had to look a certain way.

That I had to be tan and hairless and have a muscular stomach. (that was never happening!)

Even though I don’t know any living soul who actually looks like that!

And even though my amazing clients don’t even have that as a vision!

So I have gone back to the tenets of Weight Loss for Goddesses and broken the spell. Again.

I have come back to my beautiful body.

I have apologized and asked her for forgiveness.

I am back.

And I am feeling very very righteous.

I am straddling the two worlds of weight loss for health AND profound body love.

If we truly go at our eating and body issues from an angle of self-love and self nurturing-actual devotion to our bodies and our bodies needs -then we feel so amazing.

We eat better.

We move our bodies.

We clear the barriers to our power and our fear of being seen.

We end up losing weight- yes – if there is excess weight to be lost.

And we love our bodies all the while.

So, I declare that I am a weight loss coach who does not have 6 pack abs.

Weight Loss for Goddesses is about so much more.

And it takes into account the wobbles because wobbles happen.

The process of body love and acceptance is actually a spiral, moving closer and closer to a place of peace and vibrancy while taking into account our changing lives and the challenging world we live in. Weight Loss for Goddesses isn’t a step by step program it is a spiral.  It is a spiral that takes into account our changing bodies, our changing hormones, having babies nursing babies, getting older having surgery – all of that those things aren’t mistakes or blocks or things to overcome. No- they are part of the delicious marvelous life of a woman. So let us get going.

Let’s love our bodies into health and remind each other how very beautiful we are.

xoxo

Let Me know if you have any similar experiences to share!

Also, I am going to be doing a class on breaking a caffeine addiction. Do you have any other ideas or thoughts about what other issues you would like me to address?