Reflections of Joy: Learning to Love the Woman You See While Becoming the One You're Meant to Be

"I can't eat that!" 

If I had a nickel for every time I heard that phrase as a coach, I'd be wealthy beyond my wildest dreams! 

I've seen and heard (and tried) it all: no carb, low carb, low fat, and low calorie. I've counted calories, weighed every morsel, and choked down more shakes than I'd care to think about. Every plan worked for a while until I burned out on veggies and egg whites and starved myself through my workouts. 

Chances are, if you're a woman in the twenty-first century, you've also experienced this. 

I'm thrilled to share that I've reached a point in my life when I've started to regain the pleasure of eating. No, this doesn't mean I've resigned to being overweight. It means I've had to think about how I view food. 

For as long as I can remember, food has had a label that comes with either acceptance or guilt: 

Good-Bad, Fast-Slow, Whole-Manufactured, Healthy- Unhealthy. Clean- Dirty.

I've worked with hundreds of people who prided themselves that they hadn't eaten bacon or bread in years. They've learned to control their cravings by hiding the chocolate chips in the freezer (in a corner, under the chicken, behind the broccoli). They spent years avoiding food groups and feeling guilty when they allowed a forbidden morsel to cross their lips. This deprivation lifestyle has caused so many healthy people to not only "fall off the wagon" but to nose dive down the deep, dark cavern of guilt.